On meeting NeilHimself

There is much afoot in my world these days. The most anticipated  is that I finally, for the first and probably last time, get to meet NEIL GAIMAN, oh my god! And thanks to being observant for once in my life, I managed to get "A" signing tickets!

I have been a huge fan since reading "Good Omens" a million years ago. I had been a Pratchett fangirl before that, but man, that book is so freaking good, it sent me into the arms of Gaiman.

And man oh man, has it been an adventure. I loved him before I loved Doctor Who, and then I loved Doctor Who, and he created one of the most beautiful creatures ever.

  

I will probably not have anything interesting, clever, memorable or all that intelligent to say to him. I will probably squeak a little. He will be kind and generous and will not at all act as though there are 1,300 people behind me that he also needs to be kind and generous to before he can call it a night.  He will say something interesting, clever, memorable and very intelligent to me. He will compliment my kids. He will, wearily I imagine, sign my books, but he will do it with a smile on his face.

Oh yeah, I'm bringing the kids. This pretty much guarantees that my few seconds of NeilHimself will be spent trying to corral Thing #2, or wake up Thing #1. But here's my secret: I don't mind one little bit. We will be in the presence of greatness, and I will make sure they remember. They love him for Blueberry Girl, Crazy Hair, Chu's Day - I can't wait to introduce them to The Graveyard Book, Ood and the Frost Giants, Coraline, Good Omens... They will read these books having met The Author, and, I think, that will make those books so much MORE for them.

And making things MORE for my children- I guess that's what it's all about.

There is really no reason for this photo, just that The Author looks so dreamy.

He won't remember the times I Twitter bombed him. I will always remember the few times that one of my tweets got his attention - one for Ada Lovelace day, one for a cake version of a Coraline character, and I think there was one other, so I guess I can't say I will ALWAYS, but anyway. It's hugely exciting to get an email that says "Neil Gaiman has retweeted one of your tweets" - because DUDE, the man must get thousands of mentions a day, so how cool that one or two or probably three of mine were interesting enough for him to share with his 1,866,500 followers.

I will be honest. I have not read every Gaiman book. That is not due to lack of interest. It is due to wanting it to last. To always have at least one Gaiman book to still read. I have done the same with Terry Pratchett and John Irving, because I can't imagine not having one of their books to look forward to. Life is weird, strange things happen. So I keep their books, unread, nearby as a bit of a comfort that there will always be a bit of them that I haven't discovered.

Some day I will finish the collected works. But this week, I get a few seconds of NeilHimself to myself, and it will be glorious. And I won't blink.