Advice from a Nobody: Meeting Neil Gaiman…
Posted by themasonYou may have read that I met Neil Gaiman recently. What you don’t know is that I did so by being a ninja.
Neil Gaiman was recently here in the good ol’ Chicago attending the Printers Row Lit Fest and being (get this) honored by the Chicago Tribune as a children’s author. You can bet your sweet grandmother’s medication money that I was there, in the front row… watching Dave Eggers. It was Dave Eggers, how could I not go see Dave Eggers? He’s the man. Besides, Neil Gaiman’s “honoring” was immediately after Dave Eggers and in the same auditorium. As I sat and watched Dave Eggers up on stage doing his nicest guy in the world routine (which he is) an idea occurred to me… I should give Neil Gaiman my comics (left in my bag from S.P.A.C.E.). But how?
Neil Gaiman was no doubt back stage somewhere in a comfortable room where beautiful women fed him fruit and I was determined to find that room. After Dave Eggers’ panel ended I put the black hood of my zip-up sweater over my head and ran past security through the door that took me backstage. I crept the hallways next to the stage like a ninja… a sexy ninja (because I’m sexy and a ninja). I hid in the shadows, clung to walls, and round house kicked imaginary enemies with Chuck Norris-like grace…
Then security found me…
