Oh god sdfkjh brb vomiting up everything??
I always end up feeling sick when I stay up late and don't get much sleep, so I'm not really surprised. Last night
nakaleteme and I drove up to Santa Barbara to see Neil Gaiman speak at UCSB, which is a 2-hour drive. We left around 4:45 yesterday afternoon, fully prepared to just zoom on up and go-which is basically what we did. We arrived at UCSB around 7:30, and the talk started at 8:00, so after meeting up with Natalee's friend Jen (who bought the tickets for us), we headed over to the auditorium to get our seats.
Let me say this: Sitting in seats 9, 11, and 13, row D, for a talk by one of your favorite authors? Priceless.
And of course, no one should be surprised by my saying that he was absolutely incredible. I don't think I've ever met another person as charismatic and charming as Neil Gaiman is; he honestly and truly has a way of connecting with the audience, even when there are 800 of us sitting in the auditorium.
He read aloud for us, two short(ish) stories, one of which he described as "Not quite a poem, but not quite prose-maybe something that's a little poemy around the edges", and one of which had never been read aloud before, except apparently to Amanda Palmer when she was sick with the flu one time. "My Last Landlady" was the first one he read, and it was so deliciously spooky and amazing *__*. The next one was "The Thing About Cassandra", which I vaguely remember him Twittering about at some point, and it was honestly amazing (though apparently about twice as long as he remembered it being, which cut into a bit of the speech time).
I just love the way he has with words, really. There was a bit of a Q&A at the end, where people wrote questions on cards and he read a few of them-my favorite was about how a previous author got shit for winning a Newbury Award for a book that had the word "scrotum" on the first page, and if he got any shit for winning a Newbury Award for a book with vicious murders on the first page. Basically what he had to say in response to that was: "I never actually used the words death, or killing, or dead. Blood is never mentioned. If there are vicious murders on the first page of The Graveyard Book... You did them."
Ajashdfkjhlf.
Afterward he did a book signing, which was absolutely incredible considering that it was somewhat impromptu. And honestly the man has the patience of a saint, because he sat at that table signing for possibly upwards of three hours. Natalee, Jen, Jen's friend Jaclyn and I waited in line for two hours before we got to the table, and by the time we got up there he just looked exhausted. I mean, you could tell he'd had a long day and whatnot, and yet somehow still managed to joke and laugh and be generally charming.
I got American Gods signed for myself, and Anansi Boys signed for
zapthatmonster. When I mentioned that I was Emily and my friend Molly was up in Portland, he looked up and smiled and was like, "Hello, Emily. I like your hat." I about died on the spot, to be honest. I can't remember what I said but I think it was something extremely stupid, but he didn't seem bothered by it. Jen and Natalee and I kind of joked with him for a bit (being toward the end of the line and all), about trying to think of witty things to say and how we'd forgotten everything by the time we got up here, and he commented on feeling sorry for people who actually do come up with something witty to say, and then when they say it, he's too tired to do anything but ask them how to spell their names.
We got a picture, which Natalee should be getting from Kyle (? was his name Kyle?) via Facebook or email or something, and which I'll post as soon as I get it. I'm just seriously still in a Neil Gaiman daze right now-despite being ill, roflcopter.
Alright. Now I'll go back to bed. Suffice to say that Gaiman = awesome.