NEW YORK IS BOOK COUNTRY

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

Well, THAT was exciting.

Everything happens at the same time. First thing we did yesterday was go to the Broadway Flea Market and pick up such goodies as a Rydell High T-shirt for Ariel and other neat stuff at the annual Shubert Alley festivities. Then we headed down to NYIBC, where Matt Adler steered us over to Neil Gaiman’s signing (catching Neil just on the way out; they appear to be working him non-stop on this promo tour.) Then we rushed off to lunch with John Ordover, came back to the Midtown Comics/Marvel booth where I did my signing.

And, my God, it was like having my life passing before my eyes (except without the inconvenience of imminent death.) Showing up at one time or another were: My daughter Gwen and her boyfriend, Ripley; various denizens of this board (and the guy who runs it– signed, the guy who runs it); Milton Griepp, formerly of Capital City, now with ICV2.com; Sandy, my assistant from back in my Marvel direct sales days; co-workers from when I was in the wholesale books division of Playboy Paperbacks; and–believe it or not–my high school prom date.

During the brief time that I had to wander, I discovered TV movie critic Joel Siegel appearing to promote his new book. I talked movies with him for a few minutes, which was tremendous fun, and bought a copy of his book which talks about his being sixty years old and the father of a five year old (as the 46 year old father of a 9 month old, I can relate. If I have to deal with people looking at Caroline and saying, “Is she your first grandchild?” I’m sure the silver-haired Siegel gets it even more.)

Didn’t get to see most of the folks I would have liked to, including Joel Gray and John Lithgow, but, ah well.

PAD

21 comments on “NEW YORK IS BOOK COUNTRY”

  1. catching Neil just on the way out; they appear to be working him non-stop on this promo tour

    No kidding, although I’m not sure it isn’t him working himself to death.

    We were at his reading/signing on Saturday, and he agreed to sign books for every person who bought tickets to the event. I had ticket 221 (starting from 1) and waited 4 and a half HOURS for an autograph, and there were easily 150 people still in line behind me. I felt sorry for the guy and his hand.

    He was terribly gracious once we got up there, though, even going so far as to offer us cookies, and did little sketches of Morpheus in people’s books along with the autograph.

    I can’t imagine his publicist would make him sit there for what had to be six or seven hours, especially when the space could have been used for someone else. My understanding was that it was his choice. Class act, that guy, along with a certain other writer who was equally gracious when he signed my stuff at Philly.

    (Although, PAD, you weren’t offering cookies.)

    I’d definitely place him in my Top 3 “Best Creators to Meet at a Signing.”

    JLK

  2. Note: PAD will only be the 46 year old father of a 9 month old for a few more hours. Tomorrow he’ll be the 47 year old father of a 9 month old.

  3. Sorry I didn’t get to come up and say hello, but there was a rather long line at your signing table. I’m glad it turned out well- it’s not often that one can revisit their entire adult life over the course of a signing!

    It was an interesting day; you never knew who you were going to bump into in terms of writers who happened to be signing, whether you were there for kid’s books, SF, mysteries, whatever. Plus the weather couldn’t be better. I hope New York area people who haven’t gone to one of these Book Country street fairs before will make an effort in the future.

    I was at the Neil Gaiman talk on Saturday as well. Mostly enjoyable, although surreal in places. A number of people, myself included had to pick up our tickets at the box office, so I showed up an hour early only to discover that A) there was no box office, B) nobody seemed to know what was going on, and C) the line was already forming. Basically everybody was put on the same line, and about 45 minutes later, the organizers came around, checked off all of us from a master list, and gave us numbered wrist bands to guarantee our places in the autograph line. In the meantime, there were lots of incredibly nice people to talk to while waiting for the doors to open. I generally find that people who show up for Gaiman events are very well-read and love to chat about books and the genre, which makes for a pleasant atmosphere. Unfortunately, after Neil’s talk, they called the first 100 people on to the autograph line, which meant that those of us with low numbers (I was #23) who were in the front of the auditorium got back into the lobby last. To my utter amazement, the organizers actually had people walking around putting people into numerical order, which was actually a lot less complicated than I would have thought. I do feel sorry for the previous poster who got stuck with #221, because we could see how slowly things were moving and knew that those on the end of the line were going to be there for a loooonng time. Incidentally, Steve Martin was doing a talk in the same auditorium a short time later, which meant that you couldn’t get back into that area to use the restrooms. A small gripe, but I suspect people with numbers above 100 were probably quite uncomfortable by the time they reached the front of the line.

    As I said, a small gripe, but a very enjoyable weekend. Now that I know what it’s like, I’ll certainly try to see more of it next time. BTW, does anybody know how the Star Trek book panel that was supposed to be held on the Friday night went? It sounded like that might have been interesting too.

  4. BTW, does anybody know how the Star Trek book panel that was supposed to be held on the Friday night went? It sounded like that might have been interesting too.

    Kathleen was there and said about a dozen people were in the audience. Keith swears there were more.

    PAD

  5. The best signing I want to was Bruce Cambell’s. He had a wonderful talk, with lots of interaction with the fans. Then he lined us up, and there was a huge space between the line and the person signing, so it was personal conversation… nobody else could hear it.

    I told him Briscoe Country Jr. was the only TV show me and my father could watch (me for the fun and sci fi, Dad for the western stuff), so he grabbed my cell phone and called my dad!

    He talked about it for a week, I think.

  6. A while back, I was at a Neil signing in Berkeley. Long line, taking forever, etc. So I took it upon myself to go the midway and back part of the line and explain to those folk that Neil was evil; he was actually chatting for a moment or two with everyone in line, not just “And that’s John with an ‘h’?, Thank you, move along”.

    I think he may have set a new record in Toronto this month; it started at 1 p.m., and apparently he barely made it to the start of the Hugos at 8 p.m. that night, with the signing only a few blocks from the ceremony.

    So, Peter, when was the last time you saw your prom date? Did she just happen to notice your name or happen by, or was this more planned on her part?

  7. While Marvel who along with Midtown Comics was sponsoring the table and pushing The Captain Marvel line, at least that’s what I think it was. Peter was gracious enough to sign anything that people brought up to him.

    Along with the comics Peter had the new Apropos & One Knight Only books available on the table. Which I dutifully purchased and he signed. (Yes it’s still Sal.)

    I tried to find a hardcover copy of the Woad to Wuin at the show and a nearby book store, so that I could rush back and get it signed, but was unable to find a copy. (While signing Peter informed me that I should really read them in order. Which I still intend to do.)

    As usual Peter was gracious and funny and took time to speak to everyone.

    The weather was perfect, if not a little hot in the sun as the day went on, and I can easily say a good time was had by all… Well by me and my wife at the very least.

    I just wanted to say thank you to PAD for being there, Marvel & Midtown Comics for having the booths, and the NY is Book Country organization for increasing the number of comics related booths & guests.

    Thank you,

    SPB

  8. I was also one of the lucky ones to see Neil speak on Saturday morning. What a warm and nice man he was. Another perk was as we were sitting right in the front row, my friend turned to me and said, “Isn’t that Peter Straub?”. I am not 100% sure it was, as I have no idea what he looks like, but my friend was convinced it was him. Wish I could have attended Sunday’s event. Went last year and had a blast. Was disappoiunted I wasn’t able to see you and Neil again. Maybe next year!

  10. you try living in new zealand! although we did have our annual fantasy thing this weekend it was more geared at the young pokemon yu-gi-oh, wrestling crowd. ah and there was the fella who played ensign kim from voyager, with the dude who played darth vader (the body not the voice). and a spidey artist i think… yeah i didn’t go.

    oh man bruce campbell. yus yus i know he was in nz for xena, hercules and jack of all trades but it was the other end of the country. oh well maybe i’ll catch bubba ho-tep while i’m in LA on 9 october for 8 hours. i’ve found an online roadmap and located a route to the theatre it will be at. now just gotta cross me fingers it’ll be screening when i can get out and see it. why couldn’t it open in texas earlier than its supposed to? i’ll be gone again just days before it opens there

  13. The best signing I want to was Bruce Cambell’s.

    Yeah, I went to Bruce’s signing for his autobiography when he was here in Denver a couple of years ago.

    You don’t often try and think of people being the same in life as they are on the screen (or atleast *I* try not to :), but the man is just downright hilarious in person.

    The signing started at 7pm. And I swear, there must have been well over 250 people there. It wasn’t until about 11:30pm when I finally got my copy of his book signed and he was still chugging away and having laughs with people.

    So, PAD, when are you coming to Denver? 🙂

  14. Thinking back, Kathleen’s and my varied recollections of the number of attendees of the Star Trek Books panel Friday night is probably related to the fact that the number changed throughout the two hours we spoke. Some people wandered in late, some left early, some came in and out.

    Anyhow, it went well, we told many entertaining stories from snow in Tennessee to whether or not Superman is real to the joys of trying to do novels based on a TV show where the status quo changes on a nigh-weekly basis (“Whaddaya mean Bashir was genetically enhanced?????”)

    —KRAD

  15. Bruce Campbell is one of my other Top 3 People To Meet At A Signing… he was here in Philly last year signing his book, and when a friend of mine got up there and mentioned that his girlfriend wanted to be there but couldn’t, he did the same thing – grabbed his cell phone and left a loooong message on her answering machine. Very cool.

    Gotta love the ones who go the extra mile for their fans.

    JLK

  19. New York is book country. Translation: anyone who can, books it out of there and goes to a marvelous new place called the United States.

    Translation of your translation: I’m an obnoxious jerk.

    Jeebus, I don’t know what the problem is of people like this who only seem to derive joy by insulting others.

    I don’t know about that jagoff, but I LOVE New York. I’m up there something on the order of a couple times a month now, and I have an absolute ball.

    Now if you want to talk about urban flight, Philly here would have been far more accurate a choice. It’s a serious problem here, as it well should be. I’ve never liked living here, and now that I’m spending more and more time in New York I like Philadelphia even less.

    Bottom line: if you can’t find a good time in New York you’re just not trying, not at all. If you can’t find a good time in Philly, well, that isn’t terribly surprising.

    JLK

  20. Hey! I live about two sneezes out of Philly and I gotta tell ya…um, wait a minute, yeah, yer right. SOMEONE GET ME OUTTA HERE!

    I’LL GIVE YOU A CHEESESTEAK!

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