Or everything you've ever wanted to know about Neil Gaiman but was afraid to ask.

It seems some people who read my journal aren't terribly familiar with Neil Gaiman. His webpage alone should give you lots of insight into who he is and what he does. Note the audio and video links on the main page.

There's The Sandman, to start with. A wonderful comic, now all collected into graphic novels. He wrote several other graphic novels, but those are the most notable. There was Neverwhere, which is both lovely as a series and a novel; and Stardust, which is a delightful fairytale for adults (no, not that kind of adult literature -- I'd let my mother read it); American Gods, which really introduced a huge number of people to his work (it's a great novel); Anansi Boys, which is incredibly fun and hilarious; and there's the fantastic Good Omens which he wrote with Terry Pratchett. (Incidentally, some friends gave Rice and I a beautiful hardcover edition of Good Omens back in '99 for our wedding. It was quite an ordeal for him to find it at this time; it was probably the coolest present we got.)

I could go on and on and on -- Mr. Gaiman is incredibly prolific. If you haven't seen any of the movies he has worked on, you most probably will very soon. He has written books for children, and been nominated and won several awards, like The Nebula, The Hugo, and The Stoker.

He gives a fine reading.

And now he has his own line of perfumes.

Also (and I know for a fact I am not alone in this opinion), it amazes me that his wife ever lets him out of the house. Though I suffer through the same thing everytime my incredibly hot husband leaves the house, too. But someone has to make a living.

Some on-line stories, though mostly old stuff. "A Study in Emerald" is not, and won the 2004 Hugo for best short story, I believe.

A fabulous audio production of his "Snow, Glass, Apples. Lots of fun.

Anyway, there you are. That's who Neil Gaiman is, in a nutshell.

I think Stardust is a good place to start. It's fun, funny, yet also creepy in some parts. And it's a beautiful story.

Of course, if you really want to know, you should ask someone like Jason, who has a piece apprearing in The Neil Gaiman Reader.

I was going to fold laundry before I logged in.