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This a (cleaned-up, clearer) pic of me kneeling before the Dream King. (Thanks, Gerry!)

I didn't even realize it until Andre texted me: "Did you just kneel down in front of Gaiman?!" And Cecille took this picture as proof.

I don't know why I did it. It just felt the right thing to do. Felt like the repectful thing to do rather than just talk to the top of his head.

Four days after our last encounter with Mr. Gaiman, people are still in that dream-like state. Fully Booked's "Neil Gaiman in Manila" mailing list has been very active with people's complaints and thanks. Blogs and phlogs and Flickr albums and LJs all curently detail people's meeting with the Maker of Morpheus.

So, did anyone get to record / remember the Gaiman Q&A at The Gathering?

I remember that Jordan Pinzon from the mailing list got to ask him this question: "Some people say that in order to gain something, you must sacrifice something in return. What did you sacrifice then, for you to be in the position where you are now today?"

"What a funny question," Gaiman replied. He said that it's not like he got a knock on his door one night and J.R.R. Toklien, J.K.Rowling, Stephen King, and Clive Barker arrive in robes and tell him, `WE WILL NOW TELL YOU THE SECRET OF BECOMING A GREAT WRITER!` And it will involve bringing a cat to his basement.

As he answered that question, it felt like he doesn't feel like he lost anything to get where he is now. I had thought he'd mention something about not being able to spend more time with his kids and wife, but it turns out, he has no problem with that. He's living his dream, he said.

He said that when he was 19 or 20, there was that one night he couldn't sleep. And it was because he was bothered by the thought that one day he'd find himself an 80-year old man and wishing he became a writer-- or that he was a writer and nobody really knew it, because he didn'tget his works published.

When his early works got rejected, that's when he decided to become a journalist and get to learn aboutthe publishing world. As a journalist, he made it apoint to interview writers and artists and publishersand get to know more about the workings of thatbusiness. And that's how he met Alan Moore and the editors of DC Comics. It's like he planned it, but didn't plan it. He wanted to become a comic bookwriter, so he worked his way around it and got there.

All of that got me thinking about what I've being doing ... and I realize that I'm at a pitstop; that I'm not really where I'm supposed to be.

I know that the practical thing to do would be to stay and keep getting my monthly pay; and somehow work my way around to becoming a published comic bookwriter. The crazy thing to do would be to quit, go into hiding, write the great Filipino graphic novel, and come down from the mountains with my stone tablets.

I'm actually writing again-- writing comic book scripts, not copy for cellphone ads. I've already written one script and I'm half way through the second one. And it really felt good to type THE END at the bottom of that first script.

Thank you, Mr. Gaiman.

"We have the right, and the obligation, to tell old stories in our own ways, because they are our stories." --Neil Gaiman

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