So, on February 18th, I went to a reading. By Neil Gaiman. I have been waiting for this for months, since I found out that he was coming to the University of Alabama. He read some stories (which were awesome) and some poems (which were awesome) and answered some questions (which was really cool). The way they did the questions was that they (the theater people) handed out index cards and little pencils and had you write your question down and then they came by and picked it up and handed them to Neil Gaiman backstage.
He came out with a three inch stack of note cards. He just kind of looked at us, looked at the stack, and said that he normally got about this many (pulls out about 20) at a reading when he did this. If he had an enthusiastic crowd, he'd get maybe twice that. He didn’t get to all of the questions (we’d probably still be there if he had) but it was really cool that he was willing to answer questions like he did.
He was Twittering while he was backstage and after the reading was over, one of the ushers came back out and asked if the woman who had been Tweeting about getting a book signed for her six-year-old would come backstage so the book could be signed. I would have never thought that Twitter could give someone that opportunity.
After it was over, I stopped to talk with some of my friends and I had collected a couple of books that I was going to take to the reading the next day (Friday the 19th) to see if I could get them signed. They headed out because we were meeting at IHOP and the others went home. I stopped again to talk to an old teacher for a few minutes, and then started for my car.
The side door of the theater opens, and Neil Gaiman walks out.
The guy in front of me asks for him to sign the book he has, so I decide to wait. I got the books signed (I hadn't brought one for myself because I didn't think he'd be signing, they had told us he wouldn't), and then called my friend to tell her the good news.
I'm pretty sure I made her year. She almost ran off the road when I told her.
Friday morning, he did a Q&A session for MFA students and creative writing minors. I managed to get a ticket, even though I am neither, and it was, again, amazing. I managed to get my copy of the first volume of Sandman signed, along with a couple of other books for friends. He read a bit from The Graveyard Book (won the Newberry last year) and answered a lot of questions and was very interesting and now I want to go write things even though I have entirely too much school work to do to be goofing off and I MET NEIL GAIMAN. TWICE. He's a very nice person and made time to talk a bit with everyone.
(Photo credit to Morgan Higgins)
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