A gentleman and a scholar

I hear a lot of bagging of the twopointopian movement, but I have to say while I share some of the concerns about it being no more than the latest library fad. If not for having gone through it and set up RSS feeds I wouldn't have recieved notification through read Alert of Neil Gaiman speaking at the State Library Today. Yes you read that right. NEIL GAIMAN. Well it was a no brainer the chance to go and listen to and meet one of my favourite living authors. The Library where I work was gracious enough to allow me to take the day off, so I was booked and ready. Did it live up to my expectations? Hell yes!

I got a seat 3rd row from the front, just right of the podium. And apart from a delayed start apparently due to a taxi driver who seemed to think the Library had moved closer to Flinder's St, all went swimmingly. For the first 20 min. Neil after giving a quick preamble on the genesis and setting of his upcoming book; The Graveyard Book. Read from ch.3. Which when announced garnered a cheer from a bunch of hardcore fans up the back. (btw it was standing room only.) Neil has got a great reading voice, which if you've heard him read the audiobook for his picture book; The day I swapped my Dad for 2 goldfish, you'd already know. He obviously enjoyed it (as did we all) and commented wryly afterwards that reading something aloud that you've wriiten, for the first time is revealing of akward sentences which looked good on paper. (sounded Ok to me), the reading was punctuated by frequent laughter from the audience. Then for the next half an hour it was a Q & A session. Questions ranged from; When's The Graveyard Book coming out? Oct probably just in time for Halloween. Past works, and their influences, the craft and practice of writing itself, He commented that his past career as a journalist was great training for being able to sit down anywhere and write. What's it like working with Terry Pratchett and Gene Wolfe? Terry Pratchet was fun and it was at a time when they were both just starting out. Neil regards Gene Wolfe as one of the greatest living Sci-Fi writers, and he says it kept him on his toes. And a great question was asked as to whether him youngest daughter Maddie would be following in his footsteps as a writer. Neil's answer was that she is the only one of his children who has expressed a desire to write, although he felt she would be a different writer from him as she herself likes writing about different things to him. Neil, obviously a proud Dad, told how she had won a statewide writing competition, and he brought the house down when he relayed that when Maddie was to go to the presentation, she decided to take him, so that he might get to meet some real writers. Half an hour of Q&A's might have sounded a lot, but it went really fast. Finally there was the book signing where row by row we were able to go up and meet Neil and he would sign our books. Given the volume of people there was an embargo on photogtaphs with Neil, although this did not prevent anyone taking shots of him on stage as he spoke and signed. Most of us were so engrosed in listening to him speak we forgot we even had cameras phone or otherwise. I know I did. It was obvious that Neil was pleased to meet his fans and took the time to speak and chat with each one. Some had made him little gifts, and others were obviously frequent attendees. Again due to the lage number of people there was a limit of 3 items per person. For myself I took my copy of Sandman vol 1,and after telling Neil what a great pleasure it was to have been there I did ask him one question. What does he have against beetroot? (see ch. 3 of the Graveyard Book when its out) Now they say there are no stupid questions only stupid answers and his answer was both proof that it wasn't a stupid question and it also disprooved it in that it wasn't a stupid answer.

P.S. Lastly I also have to say the Library Staff there did a fantastic job of handling the logistics of the event, and were obviously enjoying it as well. It was a life moment I'll not soon forget.

P.P.S. Check out

http://www.insideadog.com.au/downloads/gaiman.html

where on his last visit to the State Library Neil talks about Anansi Boys. Hopefully they'll have this talk up in due course too

P.P.P.S. Check out Neil Gaiman's own site and really popular blogs at

http://www.neilgaiman.com/