On the Dreaming

Neil Gaiman in Singapore!

Yes, the Dream King himself is in town for three days. Eager for a glimpse of the 'rock star' of the literary world, I took the day off for his book signing at Kinokuniya. Alas, I had seriously underestimated his local fanbase as despite arriving almost an hour before the actual event, I was already two hundred fans too late. Still, without a clear look at the queue, there was hope. 2 hrs later, I knew I would never get my turn. Gaiman was painstakingly signing off everything for his fans, including this lucky guy who got a drawing of Morpheus on his Mac. He was literally jumping up and down with joy and swearing not to use the laptop forever.

Sadly, I could only look. And take pictures with my friend's camera. And console myself that at least I got a place at his talk later. Which turned out to be great. Starting with some stuff that had been in his blog, how Singapore is ranked 5 in terms of visitors to his blog despite our small population, how that intrigued him enough to want to stop by and how the fans here seem to be wild mostly about his Sandman comics.

Then, we all got a reading of his latest book, The Anasi Boys, due in Sept. He was quite good at it, lively and animated. Everyone just loved the jokes and there were lots of laughs. Finally, came the much awaited Q&A.

Ranging from a question on tips for publishing (Keep it short. Preferably 100k words. Also quoted Heinlein's 5 Rules to Publishing Success.) to his ideal actress for Death in his upcoming movie (He couldn't really answer that due to the sensitivity of this, as the casting has not been confirmed. However, the young Audrey Hepburn was his choice if nothing is impossible. ;)) to whether he believed in evil (Yes, but his idea is the evil is banal, not romantic, e.g. Holocaust evil perpetrated by normal people vs the Hannibal Lector kind of evil.) to whether there will be a sequel to 1602 (There will be a project for Marvel but not a sequel.) to the experience of working with Terry Prachett on Good Omens ("We live in the same world mostly, but in my part of it, the street lights are not working.")

In short, Gaiman is damn funny and witty. Even the answers were peppered with interesting ancedotes that rarely failed to draw laughter from an appreciative crowd. All too soon, it was time's up and with thunderous applause, he left to continue signing books for his fans....poor fellow.

Anyway, I didnt managed to get my books signed, though hopefully I will get that done in tomorrow's session at Borders. Stay tuned. Pictures to follow... once I get them.