So, some of you knew that I was going to attend the interview and signing by Neil Gaiman, the prince of haunting, gothic, beautiful tales. (American Gods, Neverwhere, Stardust, and Coraline, not to mention the Sandman comics.)
The Great Hall of FIT was packed. The fans were more than excited and happy to see Neil, though tired from touring the world to promote his newest story collection, Fragile Things, deftly respond to, with a huge dose of humor and insight, all the curve ball questions thrown by the moderator, John Hodgman (The Daily Show).
When Hodgman asked whether Neil is born with this tremendous storyteller’s talent or did he cultivate it in some way, Neil answered that “as long as you leave a saucer of milk outside the door every night for the elves [guardians of storytellers], then you are safe.”
His answer to whether he spots stories everywhere or does he ever look at a tie and think to himself, simply, “Hmm.. that tie will go well with this shirt?” is: “I won’t think that. But I will think that, hmm… this shirt looks a comforting shade of black.” This garnered a huge laugh from the audience, since Neil’s never seen anywhere in public but in black teeshirts and his famed black leather jacket.
He talked and read a bit from Fragile Things (my next reading book) and he gave a couple of pieces of information: His next children’s horror book will be called Graveyard Book and it sounds really chilling! Stardust is being made into a movie, and he is also involved, has been involved, with the upcoming movie Beowolf.
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