The Stalker-Maker

McVie and the Mad Hatter

While waiting for Neil, I heard someone call my name. It was Karen Kunawicz, and she was near the front of the line.

Karen and I were both copywriters in the same advertising agency for, gosh, five or six years? Before that I would regularly see her in the late Club Dredd. She wasn’t difficult to spot—the thin, wispy girl mostly in black. But when I got to know her better in the agency, she wasn’t as black and dreary as her looks implied. Yes, she has her fair share of dark moods and thoughts, but don’t we all? The adjective I prefer to describe her would be “sweet”. Yes, underneath the goth-goth-an aura is actually a very sweet girl.

Anyway she went up to me, shook my hand and said, “I have to thank you. You introduced me to Neil Gaiman.”

I was taken aback: “I did?” I’m really getting old.

“Yes you did,” she said. “You lent me your Neil Gaiman comics.”

Oh wow.

My brother and sister were reminiscing about how they got hooked on Neil. They remembered me bringing home a borrowed copy of the first Sandman collection, “Preludes and Nocturnes” and lending it to them after I finished reading it. They remembered me buying our very first Sandman issue, “Orpheus” (the very one Neil signed). They remembered everything. Me? I had forgotten already, sheesh.

Later on I found out in her blog that Karen went to all of the Gaiman events scheduled over the three days. My brother went to the Sunday and Monday book signings; he would have gone to the Monday press conference had he gotten the extra ticket earlier.

It’s a funny feeling to know I had a hand in creating Neil Gaiman stalkers.