Dream Dangerously
Posted by Ray @ 11:07 pmNeil Gaiman is in Singapore for a few days, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to meet with him in person.
For those of you not in the know - shame on you! - he’s the author of some of my favourite books, including Stardust, Coraline, and the monumental Sandman series. He blogs regularly and actually answers his reader’s e-mails. At book signings, like the one I went to, he makes an effort to make every fan’s signing different, or unique, in some way. Yesterday, at Comix Connection at Orchard Cineleisure, I heard he stayed until midnight so that all the people who came to get stuff signed would leave… with their stuff signed.
This, despite being jet-lagged and brain-dead from what must have been an exhausting flight from wherever it was he was coming.
So I brought along my copy of Endless Nights (along with Zeng’s), and queued up in Kinokuniya Orchard to meet one of the few people I truly admire and respect.
Met some interesting people in the line (A & C, I’m talking ’bout you!), all of them Gaiman fans. One other person produced a personal notebook of his own poems, and he was going to get the cover page of that notebook signed.
That got me thinking… what personal item of mine could I get Mr. Gaiman to sign?
My iBook, of course!
In concert with the “ooh!”s and “aah!”s of the crowd, Mr. Gaiman sat down to draw none other than Dream of the Endless… on my iBook!
[Right click here and select “Save as” for a 1600×1200 wallpaper]
I was so excited I was at a loss for words. You see, while in the queue I was thinking to myself: what should I say to this man? What can a humble fan like me say to a man who’s work and work ethic I admire so much? After much deliberation, I had it down to “Thank you for writing, Mr. Gaiman.”
But in the heat of the moment, all I could stammer out was: “I’m never washing that laptop again!”
Which prompted the bemused (or bewildered) author to respond, “Well, how often does anyone wash their laptops, anyway?”
And that would’ve been fine, except that I had to blurt-mumble out that the iBook is white, and actually does require me to keep it clean with alcohol and soft erasers, so that I never lose that pristine white shine… mumble… mumble.
So for the record, I’d like to say to Mr. Gaiman: thank you for writing. Never stop, for then the rest of us will have nothing to dream about.
And then… and then… he took out a silver pen, and on my copy of Endless Nights, he wrote the nicest thing that anyone’s ever written to me. So maybe he pulled it out of his ass bum, maybe he wrote the same thing for thousands of other fans, maybe his mind was so blank that that was all he could think of… but I liked it lots.
He wrote:
Ray,
Dream Dangerously
-Neil Gaiman
12 Comments »
The URI to TrackBack this entry is: http://www.squarebrain.net/2005-07/dream-dangerously/trackback/
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
Hey man!!! Nice pic there!!! I’m the guy who produced that notebook of poems!! Wahahaha…Great day huh? hehe…
Comment by Lecter — Tuesday, July 5 2005 @ 11:40 pm
argh I want to be there.. : ( …. *work work * T_______________T
Comment by Zeng — Wednesday, July 6 2005 @ 12:05 am
T__________________________________________T
Comment by Zeng — Wednesday, July 6 2005 @ 12:20 am
Not that I’m displeased with what I got, but damn, I wish he wrote that for me.
…Uh, I was the one who took a photo of you & the ibook. The girl who had you confused for a moment. =)
Comment by myoclonic jerk — Wednesday, July 6 2005 @ 12:30 am
lecter - Indeed it was. I didn’t get a photo of the cosplaying endless! Grrrr.
mj - I was confused because you just looked so pretty, outside of NUS & all. ^_^
Gimme the photo! Uh, please?
Comment by Ray — Wednesday, July 6 2005 @ 1:25 am
Wow, Neil Gaiman seems like a really decent guy - it’s nice that he took the trouble with all his fans. *respect*
Comment by tscd — Wednesday, July 6 2005 @ 3:10 am
awwwwww :) Now that bit was enough; you got your picture, no other favours required in return.
Comment by myoclonic jerk — Wednesday, July 6 2005 @ 4:05 am
Dude…it was great meeting and getting to know you today. Those 3 hours in line flew by before I realised it! And I still made it to my performance on time!! (40 mins late for call time, but the director understood, and was thrilled to see my loot even, cuz he reads Gaiman too.)
Too bad you’re leaving next week…I always seem to meet the coolest people right before they go away for, like, ever. Sigh.
Keep in touch, ya. And go read Sluggy Freelance.
Comment by Metadragon — Wednesday, July 6 2005 @ 4:10 am
tscd - yeah. Read his blog! He stayed ’till 10.40 to sign everyone’s stuff (the Kinokuniya announcer said only until 9pm).
mj - danke. I look like a pirate, as usual =)
Metadragon - Thank you. That’s great. Will do. And will do.
Comment by Ray — Wednesday, July 6 2005 @ 10:36 am
Freakin cool! All I could mentioned was the fact that we shared the same birthday, twenty years apart!
Comment by dagger — Thursday, July 7 2005 @ 4:31 pm
hi, i got your blog’s url from your friend, because i got my powerbook signed a few days after, at the borders signing, and he thought i’d want to check yours out, which i did, of course - he drew death for me, and it’s gorgeous! :D unfortunately, it’s also fading. does yours fade too?
anyway a smallish picture of my powerbook can be seen if you click on my name. :)
Comment by tzeyin — Sunday, August 7 2005 @ 12:57 am
tzeyin: No, the Dream that Gaiman drew on my iBook isn’t fading. I bought one of those clear sticky plastic bookwraps, and stuck it over the whole thing. If you’re planning to do the same, here’s a tip: don’t fiddle with the air bubbles that appear. The air will gradually leak out over the course of a few weeks, leaving a bubble-free surface.
Secondary school science at work! =)
Comment by Ray — Wednesday, August 10 2005 @ 12:38 pm