mercredi, juillet 06, 2005 Bewitched, fully, utterly, completely, charmed out of my pants Although I am utterly charmed and very, very, very glad that I did this today, I will NEVER do what I did today again. No matter how fabulous the author is. Neil Gaiman: the only author on EARTH who has had the pleasure of my company as he autographs my books. What was I thinking?!? And how come there are SUDDENLY so many Gaiman fans? The whole of Singapore, JB and KL who weren't working must have turned up at the book signing today at Kinokuniya!I did not expect to be anywhere near the first in line, since I turned up at 3pm for the 4-630pm signing, but I did not expect to be parsecs away from the signing table! So much that I did not get to the table by 630pm - and had to wait till 830pm when he got back to continue the signing. I guess I would have gotten there a lot sooner except that there were quite a number of queue-jumpers. Oh well. You win some, you lose some. His schedule: 1600-1830hrs - Kinokuniya book signing 1830-1930hrs - Dinner (I guess...) 1930-2030hrs - Talk at Library@Orchard 2030-????hrs - Continue the Kinokuniya signing (probably till Kino closed) The last thing on the list was a testament to how popular he is, and how accommodating he is (or how he doesn't want to lose fans by being mean and just leaving us hanging high and dry.) He wasn't supposed to return for the signing - he was supposed to end the talk in the library, and that was it for him - but there were still approximately a hundred people left in the queue (including me!), so he decided to come back and finish everyone who had queued up. The Kino staff closed the queue, of course, or it would have been a neverending story. My schedule: 1500-1830hrs - Wait. Get disappointed as he leaves apologetically for dinner. 1830-1930hrs - Dinner at Mos Burger with a new friend, Joyce, who came all the way from KL! She was standing before me in the queue. Another girl, Deepa (from the Philippines, queueing for her boyfriend, also Filipino) was holding our places in the queue for us. We were 4,5 and 6th in line for the 2030hrs signing! The guy who was the "cutoff point" at 1830hrs was a little ticked off and left - thank God that I wasn't the one at the cutoff point; I think I would have been beside myself with chagrin. Many, many people left the queue at that point. I would have, except that I figured that I probably had invested too much time into this endeavour to leave without at least SOMETHING to show for it. 2030hrs - FINALLY! We stand up awaiting The Sandman. 2035hrs - Eh? No show. 2040hrs - Increasing number of people coming from the library. 2045hrs - He's here! Mad scramble for books and pens. Some people agonise over the three books to be autographed, having bought more during the time waiting. 2050hrs - Woot! I get my books autographed by Mr. Neil! Preludes and Nocturnes gets a generic author's scribble, Neverwhere gets a "Mind the Gap!" and signature, and Death: The High Cost of Living - my (first) birthday present to myself - is a "Dear ..., Happy 25th Birthday! Don't die! Neil Gaiman." The most amazing thing is that while he didn't pose for photographs (not very much anyway, and not personal shots), he made a sinister face for one of my photos while autographing something, and he actually talked to us (me and my new friends.) Joyce gave him some eerie voodoo doll-ish keychain, while I presented him a short list of junk food he should try before high-tailing it off our island. (They were: Taka's octopus balls since they were nearby, popiah at Sembawang Hills Estate hawker centre, and Fong Seng's 24 hour prata shop. Yes, I think these are good. I'm not makansutra.) He actually STOPPED signing and READ the hand-written piece of paper, STOOD UP, shook my hand and THANKED ME for the information, used my name and thanked me AGAIN for coming down. If I wasn't a fan before, I am now. *swoon*  Death: The High Cost of Living I have pictures of the event and scans of the autographs themselves, but I've exceeded my flickr upload limit this month. [Bewitched, fully, utterly, completely, charmed out of my pants] |
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