…Or an amen.’
- ‘Locks’ by Neil Gaiman from ‘Fragile Things’
I’ve always considered smart men to be a turn on (i.e. hot, hottie, hotness or whatever terminology you want to use) be they literary heroes or the writers themselves. At 5 I had a crush on the Hardy Boys – yes, both (cutely sharp). At 7 I had a crush on young sleuth Encyclopedia Brown (funny smart). At 8 I had a crush on Motorcycle Boy from S. E. Hinton’s Rumble Fish (still waters sharp). At 9 I had a crush on Hercule Poirot (quirkily sharp) and Raistlin Majere (dangerously smart) from Weiss & Hickman’s Dragonlance stories. At 10 I had a crush on Gilbert Blythe (cute AND smart). At 11…you get the idea. In my mind, these characters all had one thing in common: they were wickedly clever. It should come as no surprise at 34, then, to find that I heart Neil Gaiman. A lot. It’s hard not to! The man is highly articulate, writes across a variety of genre and has won numerous awards. So many the mind goes into meltdown trying to name them all. So the chance to hear him speak, live, was a once in a lifetime opportunity. One I was far too human to let pass me by. The beautiful day was surely a good sign.

I’m not quite sure what I was expecting so I think any thing at all would have more than lived up to my expectations. What I got was So. Much. More. Kate de Goldi (winner of Readers Choice Award – New Zealand Montana Book Awards 2009) came onstage with Neil and gave a very detailed bio and then let the audience know that the format would be 3 readings provided by Neil, a question and answer session with she and Neil, and then a chance for the audience to pose their own burning questions. When Gaiman stood at the podium he was greeted by mad applause and then, when he began to speak, there was total silence. I know for me it was equal parts admiration, focus and awe. Truly, the Gaiman cometh. There is something unbearably intimate about hearing a writer read you their own words. You think you know a piece – you know how to read it, you know it word for word, you know how it makes you feel. But to hear the author is to add another layer of intimacy again, simply by adding an inflection here, pausing there, placing emphasis in a certain way, stopping to look at the audience as if to invite comment or assent, reading quickly, slowing down, enunciating clearly, reading in a wry manner, injecting a sense of humour, cadence – it was all there. And done is such a clever way as to make me want to re-read Locks and American Gods again, just to get out of it what he put into it in that particular moment in time.

In his chat – and that really is the word for what was a very laidback and low key talk – with de Goldi, Gaiman talked about his time at boarding school, his discovery of Shakespeare’s works, a busy schedule and early influences in his writing. The audience questions allowed Gaiman to open up a bit more and talk about working with Pratchett, his idea behind the Sandman graphic novels, working with illustrator Dave McKean, DC Comics, writing for young adults, differences in writing prose fiction and graphic novels and his travelling commitments. My favourite question of all was from a young boy who asked: What are you reading right now? That just warmed the cockles of my librarian heart   For those who care, Neil was reading ‘Journey to the West’ which, if I remember rightly, was turned into the tv series ‘Monkey.’  Gaiman came across as witty, charming, very humble and extremely self-contained.  It seemed as if he did not talk for the sake of talking – each word or sentence was weighed quite carefully before being voiced.  Not at any time was his talk a case of ‘Me, me, me…I, I, I…’  How can a body contain so much talent??!!  Now tell me you don’t agree that smart is a turn on

If I have one niggle it’s not about the man so much as it was about the organisation of the event: it would have been nice to be able to take pics during the talk, not just at the (3 and a half hr) signing. Like those terrible t-shirts that grandmas buy when they’re overseas (you know the ones) well, my souvenir is a tad bit like that: ‘I saw the Gaiman and all I got was this crap pic of a building with chicken pox.’ C’est tout.

This lovely guest post about Neil Gaiman at the Wellington Writers and Readers Festival was written by Tosca Waerea from the confessions of a southside catatonic chataholic blog. A huge thanks to Tosca for this fantastic guest post and pictures.