Why I Love Neil Gaiman

I haven’t read everything he’s ever written. In fact, I’ve probably read more of his blog than his books, having really only read his children’s books (Coraline is one of my favorite books of all time) and the novel he wrote with Terry Pratchett (Good Omens, a good read). I don’t think I’ve even seen one of the many movies he’s written, except Mirror Mask which, again, is based on one of his children’s books.

I confess he is something of an idol of mine nonetheless. I hope to meet him this summer at BEA where he’ll be speaking at the Children’s Book Author Breakfast which I hope to attend, but in the meantime, here’s an excerpt from his blog.

It’s a snippet of dialogue between him and his daughter. He recently cut his nose when he was “hit in the face by a pipe propelled by 80lbs of leaping dog”:

I drove Maddy to school this morning. She has an extremely cool crescent-shaped scar next to her eye, from when, as a small child, she ran into the corner of a table. She said,

"Will you get a scar?"

"Maybe."

"I like my scar. You know, I get people I've known since kindergarten asking me about it, these days, as if they've just noticed it."

"Really? What do you tell them."

"What you told me to tell people who asked."

I racked my brains. Nothing. "What was that?"

"I tell them I got it in a swordfight."

"Oh. Good."