Meeting Neil Gaiman

Edinburgh was beautiful. If I hadn't lost my camera's cable and battery charger, I would have taken pictures. I went with my boyfriend, who doesn't know a lot of Neil Gaiman's work. We decided he should come along kind of at the last minute, so he didn't see the talk. We arrived at the festival barely in time for Neil Gaiman's presentation. Signing afterward took a long time, then we barely made the train home after eating quickly. This all means I will certainly be going back one of these weekends with the boyfriend to see the sights. I did get a glimpse of Edinburgh Castle, from Princes Street. A valley that looks like a sheer cliff face in the middle of a city? Man, that's impressive.

Seeing Neil Gaiman in person was fantastic. I only got about ten seconds to talk to him, and that's after an hour and a half of waiting in line to get my book signed, but it was definitely worth it. I told him his work was inspiring, and that I was a writer, and that reading his stuff helps. A bit lame, but he's not going to remember it anyway. He thanked me and wished me luck with the writing. And kudos to him for signing so many books. The guy in front of me thanked him for that, but Gaiman thanked him back for waiting so long in line, though I think his job is probably more tiring.

His hour-long talk was great as well. He has kind of a big goofy smile, and crazy hair, and is both funny and eloquent. Similes and metaphors (decent ones, mind you) seem to just be inherent in his speech. A guy from the festival did the interviewing, but it was mostly Gaiman going on about his different works, and some of his thought processes behind writing and his different books/comics/scripts. He even gave a sneak peek of some writing he's working on, and to my delight, said there's a sequel--or two--of American Gods to be written...

Tomorrow marks the last day of my internship. After that, a full month free to do whatever I want, and then classes start. My last year as an undergraduate, and possibly my last year at university. Gulp.