A rarity: Gaiman signs books for sold-out Club audience

Award-winning author Neil Gaiman drew more than 500 people to a National Press Club Book Rap June 23. After Gaiman spoke, he signed copies of his recently released “American Gods Tenth Anniversary Edition.”

Gaiman normally does not personalize books, so the book signing at the Club event, organized by Emily Whitten of the Book and Author and Young Members Committees, was a rare opportunity for the enthusiastic crowd.

“American Gods” was originally published in 2001. Gaiman’s first event promoting the book was at the Borders in the World Trade Center in New York City, he said.

He returned home from his book tour on Sept. 8, 2001. Two days later, the Borders was destroyed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The inspiration for “American Gods” came from Gaiman’s experience moving to the United States from England in 1992, he said.

“What nobody had prepared me for was how mind-boggling weird this country is,” Gaiman said. For example, he said he wasn’t prepared for how cold the winters are in Minnesota and “the tendency of the locals to drive a car onto the ice in the middle of winter and then take bets on when the ice will melt. I just thought that was odd.”

Gaiman confirmed that Home Box Office has optioned “American Gods.” HBO is working with Tom Hanks’ production company on a TV series, he said.

“The idea is that essentially the first season would be the book and after that the series would continue. With any luck we won’t get to the second season by 2014, by which time I might have written “American Gods II,” Gaiman said.

Gaiman’s next book is a children’s book, “Chu’s Day,” he said. Chu is a baby panda that sneezes “and when Chu sneezes, bad things happen.”

“Chu’s Day” is designed for two-year olds. “I thought I am really going to write a book that kids, tiny kids, can force their parents to read to them over and over again,” he said.

The book is also aimed at the Chinese market. None of his children’s books are published in China because the Chinese believe they contain a message of disrespect for authority, Gaiman said.

"My task now is to write a book that inculcates disrespect for authority aimed at two-year olds that the Chinese will have to publish,” Gaiman said.