Chronicles of Kelly

On Wednesday I went to Manchester and met kraken_wakes. There was shopping, and going to Revo and spectacularly not finding our hotel.

Then there was a very scary taxi ride. In which our driver didn't like that we didn't know where we were going (that's why we got a taxi!) and then did a three point turn in the middle of Oxford Road in the middle of rush hour, in front of a bus. We got him to let us out in front of the uni in order for us to try and find out where we were going. So we ran up and down Oxford Road and managed to arrive at Whitworth Hall just as Neil Gaiman was starting to speak.

He introduced Paul and Storm and then Jonathan Coulton who both played a song each. Both were brilliant, Skullcrusher mountain by Jonathan Coulton especially so.

He then read half of chapter three from The Graveyard Book and after that took questions. It was really interesting to hear him speak and he was somehow exactly as I imagined. Which is to say as lovely and interesting as he is on his blog.

Then he signed. We managed to get pretty near the front of the line, which was good, as it was a BIG line. Now being me when we got to meet him I completely failed to say the things that you want to say to one of your favourite authors. I didn't tell him how much enjoyment his work has given me. Or how there's times he's managed to perfectly express something I'd been thinking about but didn't quite know how to express (and this was just as an almost throwaway line, not as any kind of plot point). Or how I can loose myself in his words, and that can make me feel better or safer about life.

That kind of stuff is hard to say though. So I did something else. A while ago I'd decided I'd buy him a present, a book of Manx fairytales, 'cause that seemed like the kind of thing he'd been interested in. And then, being me, I started doubting myself. I worried that it was all a bit sad and pathetic, and he'd be all 'meh'. In the end I bought it though, and was all a bit nervous about it on wednesday.

I didn't need to be. He liked it, said he'd never read any Manx fairytales (he had a look in it and everything), and then he gave me a hug! *SQUEEE*

And he was lovely, and it was great and I'm so glad I went! *SQUEEE SOME MORE*

(Yes, I'm still a bit giddy)

And then the next day I got the new Firefly comic. :)

Also, YAY LEWIS! Nailbiter doesn't quite express it.