My stomach’s hurting. Writing this on my carefully balanced laptop, I am lying in bed feeling ill and very sorry for myself – wondering why I have such problems with my insides. My daughter would say, “There’s nothing wrong with your insides except what you do to yourself. Stop eating silly things and exercise.” All right, I admit it; I am my own worst enemy.

Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to go to Neil Gaiman’s literary dinner last night. Spurred on by the discovery there were available seats at the dinner and it was too late to book in for his free talk at the State library, I decided to drag my husband out for a literary night. But when I booked, it would have helped if they had told me that the 7.45 pm start on Neil’s web journal was wrong. The dinner actually started at 6.45 pm, which meant we ended up having a very rushed meal. Maybe that’s why my stomach kept me (and my poor husband) awake last night and is still giving me grief today.

I am a Neil Gaiman fan – and have been since going to a fantasy conference three years ago. I was there at the suggestion of my friend Gillian Polack, who was taking part in the August Author Festival, a children/ youth online literary festival I coordinated for Melbourne University. Gillian thought the conference was a good opportunity for me to network with other authors and see if I could add a few fantasy authors to my group. With panels on a range of fantasy topics, I thought it sounded a fun way to spend the weekend.

Second day, I ended up in the audience listening to "the Neil Gaiman enriched" panel talking about folk lore, myth and legend. I thought, this man really knows his stuff; it would be absolutely wonderful if he agreed to take part in the festival. Poor man. He finished the panel, got off the stage, and then found me hounding him. It was only afterwards I discovered that Neil Gaiman was a literary star. Strange thing about Neil, his fame seems one the world’s best kept secrets. Most of the time, life keeps me so busy I forget I am one of his many fans, too. Yet I have read with great enjoyment and admiration most of his books.

Star dusted with success, Neil is the complete author package – articulate, witty, multi-talented, and the list goes on and on. I will never be the complete author package. What I enjoyed most about last night was listening to my husband laugh beside me, laughing as I laughed, knowing he was as just as caught up in Neil’s storytelling as I was. Remembering how my son’s eyes lit up at the mention of Neil Gaiman, I patiently stood for about hour, waiting my turn to have our three books signed. Amazingly, my husband stayed patient, too.

Neil’s readings last night really brought home to me that comedy artfully weaved into tragedy is the perfect meal for reader and audience satisfaction. D’oh – no wonder Shakespeare is as popular now as it was when whoever first wrote it.

Note to self – be funny and write funny; might help my stomach, too.