"All stories are Anansi stories. Even this one."

Ladies and gentlemen, Neil Gaiman shook [SHOOK] my hand. I think I'm still dying from glee.

So, having still not had a ticket, I trooped out to Harvard Square in order to convince Neil that he needed to sign my book. Somehow, by the grace of luck, I managed to get an extra ticket, and found myself sitting in the hottest church known to men [and Crowley], and listening to Neil read from his book, Anansi Boys.

He talked a little bit, mostly about the book, little about himself, and he read. He answered questions. About his writing habits, in general, about the upcoming movie MirrorMask[--which opens the same day as Serenity, though a somewhat more limited release--], and Good Omens. So, what are Arizaphale and Crowley doing in the South Downs? Sharing a cottage, my friends, Sharing a cottage. The little fangirl in me nearly fell over from doing somersaults.

Favorite quote of the evening [slightly paraphrased as I didn't have the good sense to write these down ahead of time]: "...an American idea of a family-friendly movie is one you can sit a four-year-old down in front of for a couple of hours, leave him/her, and come abck, and he/she hasn't got any ideas."

Neil also told a story of how back when he and Terry Pratchett were first discussing the Good Omens sequel, they had been staying in the same hotel for a con [--the same room even(!) to save money, which gives you a good idea of how long this was--], and they had been down in the hotel bar drinking, and Terry came up first, and when Neil went up after, he was moving around trying to be quiet, and Terry, who apparently was not asleep at all, said soemthing about how did Neil have any idea what time it was and did his parents know he was out this late. It was then they proceeded to have one of those half-awake conversations of what such a sequel would entail, and came up with a idea of the Second Coming, with Jesus coming down in a silver airplane with angelic Secret Service agents, and getting lost in Times Squre. Of course, seeing, as how the world has changed quite a bit since 1990, Neil admitted that idea might not work too well anymore. It was then he made the cottage comment.

Waited for an hour to have him sign his books, and told him he was one of the main reasons I like fantasy as myuch as I do. He shook my hand, said he was glad I read fantasy; was glad I read his books; was glad I enjoyed fantasy so much. Upon which I said obsessed might be a better word. He told me that was quite fine too. :)