A Few Words on Neil Gaiman

Okay, this is going to be more than a few words. Sue me.

Don't actually sue me, I'm broke as hell.

So this is Neil Gaiman:

From journal.neilgaiman.com

I want to be an author because of him. There have been a few other writers that have inspired me over the years, and I'll probably talk about them eventually, but it really started with this guy.

I first encountered him through my friend Garrett who, on a summer afternoon trip to the library in high school, handed me a copy of Seasons of Mist and told me I'd love it. It was the fourth volume in Gaiman's The Sandman comics, about a character named Dream who was the embodiment of all dreams and dreaming. It makes sense if you read it, I promise.

This is me and Garrett, if anyone was wondering:

Garrett and I have a lot in common in terms of novel interest, so I took his word for it. I read a bit of it, then realized I wanted to read all of it. I got the first three volumes and read them, then returned for the next ones and read them, and so on and so on. They didn't leave my hands until they were finished. I remember reading them in the basement during a particularly bad thunderstorm that week because I couldn't stop. To say I consumed them would be underselling it.

The first book of his I read was The Graveyard Book, which was good, and then I read American Gods, which was amazing. Since then I've read a lot of his works, and I haven't been disappointed by any of them.

Last year I got to see him speak in Pittsburgh, which was one of the greatest things I've ever been able to do (shout out to my Aunt Kathy for funding that trip). It was for An Evening of Stardust, where he talked about his book Stardust (duh). He was soft-spoken, very British, very funny, and very genuine. I admired him even more afterward.

I guess what inspires me the most about Gaiman is how he's able to tell a story that people didn't know they wanted to hear until they're hearing it. His work isn't low-brow, but it's not inaccessible to the masses. He's the kind of writer I want to be. I want to write new things, or old things in newer ways, and make a career out of telling stories. I owe this to my friend Garrett's suggestion nearly seven years ago, and to Neil Gaiman's influence.

Here's a quote from The Sandman that I think perfectly sums up what it is about Neil Gaiman I like.

Everybody has a secret world inside of them. All of the people of the world, I mean everybody. No matter how dull and boring they are on the outside, inside them they've all got unimaginable, magnificent, wonderful, stupid, amazing worlds. Not just one world. Hundreds of them. Thousands maybe.

I'll let this post end with Neil Gaiman reading a poem he wrote called "The Day the Saucers Came" because I really like it.

Stay cool. Be beautiful. And always geek out.