Yesterday evening, I walked over to the local Border's bookstore to attend a book signing. The author was Neil Gaiman, a popular comic book writer as well as author of several novels and short stories. A large part of his cult following came from his work on _Sandman_, a comic book series from DC Comic's mature readers imprint. A smaller portion discovered his work through the Terry Pratchett collaboration _Good Omens_. An even smaller segment discovered his work through the Douglas Adams biography _Don't Panic_.

There were basically two types of people in line with me. (Three, if you count the people who didn't know who the heck Neil Gaiman was and were there with someone else who did.) There were the Goths. There were the Geeks.

Goths, to generalize, are people who wear black clothing and an anhk necklace. They have many tattoos and have probably dyed their black hair bright red in one area or blue, which makes it hard to tell if their black hair has been colored. They are adorned with many metal bits that they've willingly stuck in their epidermis.

Geeks, generalizing once again, are people who dress poorly, obsess over minutiae in any science-fiction or fantasy book, television show, or movie, and have very little social skills. They're the type of people who would go to a message forum and write about a book signing.

I don't like to be thought of as one of the Geeks, but out of the two types of fans in line, that's the one that's closest to me. The big problem is I don't want to talk to these people.

I don't want to talk to these people because they're going to go on and on about the _Sandman_ comic book or other comic books or movies like _Tomb Raider_ or science-fiction television shows and they'll do it with such passion as if they CAN'T talk about it anywhere else and FINALLY there is a group of like minded people and they KNOW that this is the only opportunity to discuss the final episode of "Star Trek: Voyager" in detail will it will NEVER COME AGAIN at least until the next comic book/role-playing/anime/science fiction convention. They remind me that "fan" comes from "fanatic".

It's odd seeing all these introverted people suddenly trying to be extroverts. For some reason it makes me wary. (I often feel uneasy when initially meeting people. Just a note for the upcoming RinkUnion.)

However, we did have a good time in line.

Heck, I thought I was bringing a slice of obscuria in the form of _Angels & Visitations_, Neil Gaiman's first short story collection with a low print run. Was I ever the commoner. The guy in front of me had a hologram "Dream" trading card and a small-press book I've only seen once. (The author said, "Wow" when he saw it.) The gal in front of him had a small hard-bound book that you could only get when buying a limited run of bookends. Really obscure items. Unfortunately, I didn't have my copy of _Don't Panic_ with me. I might have won with that.

The other thing that puzzled me was the whole autograph thing. I don't really need to get my books signed by a famous person. I wouldn't dream of running up to, oh, Mel Gibson and having him sign his name on a sheet of paper for me. I know I've seen or met the famous person. I don't need proof.

(Also, I think it would be rude to go up to a total stranger and interrupt whatever he or she is doing just because they decided to act or write or drive a race car for a living. But as this was a book signing where an author was there solely to write his name on things, what the hey.)

The event was to start at six. He was to read a bit from his new book, talk about the new book, answer a few questions, then sign his name five hundred times. I arrived at six and got in the book signing line. There was no way to get anywhere near the book reading section of the store. All we could hear in line from that area were a few bursts of laughter and the occasional applause. Suddenly, a mass of people who were near the reading area rushed over to the end of the line and there we all stood.

Almost four hours later, he signed our books. Really nice guy, that Neil Gaiman. Even as tired as he was, he made sure to thank everyone for staying so late. He had a smile for all of us and made certain that everyone would get everything signed. He even posed for pictures with fans. Heck, he even drew an angel doodle in my short story collection.

I really didn't talk to him at all when we got up to him. What can one say in the two or so minutes you're there with an author? What comments to treasure forever can one squeeze out? "I really like your work"? You can't really start up a whole conversation with him. That and I'm sure he just wants to go back to the hotel and sleep. Man, he looked beat. This was just Day One of a six week publicity tour.

Despite not actually speaking to him, completely missing dinner, not really needing to get my book signed, and being surrounded by Goths and Geeks (and Gothy Geeks) for almost four hours, it was a blast.

This Friday, Bruce Campbell will be at Border's, signing his book.

-Faux "tired, but enjoyed it" Pas