Neil Gaiman

The one who wrote Coraline, and co-wrote the book of Good Omens and made the TV show, also the Sandman comics writer and co-creator who made the Sandman TV show. Quite nice really.

Archive You can ask things here. Sometimes I answer. It is possible that I have already answered your question.

July 2nd, 2023 at 6:27PM

wolvesandcomputers asked:

Dear Mr. Gaiman,

I wanted to tell you about the first time I encountered a copy of “The Graveyard Book” and the events that immediately followed. It was 2012 and I was in the children’s section on the second floor of the library of the teacher’s college I was attending. It had rather a good children’s section and I was pleased to find a copy of “The Graveyard Book”. Being a fan of both your writing and graveyards, I decided to check it out. I tucked it in the waist belt of my backpack and continued browsing.

Rather than heading down to the checkout desk by my usual route, I decided to do a bit of exploring since I had some time before my next class. I’d been frequenting the library for several years at that point, so I was pleasantly surprised to find a staircase I had previously overlooked. I took it down to the first floor, but noticed that it continued farther down. The fact that the library had a basement was news to me as well.

At the bottom of the stairs was a door with a sign stating, “This door should remained locked at all times”. Now I’m not the sort of person who believes everything they read, so I checked it myself, and found the door unlocked. I thereby gained access to the basement of the library. It was silent, and shadowy, (yes, I had seen that episode of Dr. Who, that only made it better) full of stacked furniture and old books. I had a grand time exploring it before I had to go back upstairs, check out my book, and get to class. The next day I went back with a camera.

I may have returned one more time, it’s been long enough I don’t know if I made 2 visits or 3. Life got busy, I finished reading “The Graveyard Book” and returned it, and it was over a week before I tried the door again. It was locked. As it has been every time I’ve checked it in the intervening years.

I know it was likely a human error that led to the door being unlocked, not me having “The Graveyard Book” in my possession. But it’s more fun to believe that it was. So thank you, for opening doors.