Drawing: Neil Gaiman in Saratoga

neil gaiman and ocean cover

Drawing's closed! Winner's been emailed!

Award-winning author Neil Gaiman will be at the Saratoga City Center Thursday to read from, and talk about, his soon-to-be-released book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane (as mentioned). We have a pair of tickets to the event and we're giving them away -- maybe to you.

To enter the drawing, please answer this question in the comments:

Gaiman works in the genres of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. So, what's something fantastical about this area?

It could be anything. The way the shadows fall on your street, a dream about the buildings at the ESP being robots, anything.

Gaiman's appearance has been arranged by the soon-to-open-in-Saratoga Northshire Bookstore and WAMC -- he'll be talking with Joe Donahue for the public radio station's aptly named Book Show. The event starts at 6 pm. Tickets are $35 (one seat and one book) and $45 (two seats and one book).

Speaking of Northshire... We hear the Saratoga location will be opening in early August.

Important: All comments must be submitted by 11 pm on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 to be entered in the drawing. You must answer the question to be part of the drawing. (Normal commenting guidelines apply.) One entry per person, please. You must enter a valid email address (that you check regularly) with your comment. The winner will be notified via email by midnight on Wednesday and must respond by 10 am on Thursday, June 20.

Gaiman photo: Allan Amato

Comments

Well, for one thing, we pretty much pioneered the Socialist Electrical/Mathematical Genius Dwarf Canoeist genre. (Talkin' about Steinmetz -- seriously, has there been anyone more fantastical around these parts?)

Last night I was biking home along Madison, leaving the flashy lights & people of Lark Street behind. During the summer nights the trees in Washington Park are thick with leaves, the lighting is very low, & the birds are making such a ruckus. It kind of reminds me of a zoo. Sometimes, there's an oasis of light where people are skating, or doing bmx tricks. It feels like a tiny moment of Real City. (& people are just blowing by it at 40mph, missing the magic of it.)

When I sit on the park bench in the children's playground in my neighborhood, and the moon is so large and bright, it feels like some creatures will just step off of it and onto the grass.

But of course the most fantastical thing about this area is that we have our very own most Eggcellent flying saucer smack in the middle of our capital complex!

Two words: The Egg

The bridge across the pond in Washington Park with the sun glistening off the water

The Shadow Creatures that lurk in the old h.istorical areas of the Capital District. Each city/town has it's own breed.

The Headless Horseman of Washington Irving fame!

It is fantastical that there is a giant dog sitting on top of a building - NIPPER!

The Saratoga National Historical is quite magical with its gorgeous views

Gaiman works in the genres of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. So, what's something fantastical about this area?

It is the ability to let us think of the what if possibilities that can occur. In other words, to dream and ask why not. To explore and as in Mr. Gaiman’s writing, to see the twisty dark and light sides of situations. Absolutely wonderful

Thank you.

THE EGG!

Two things come to mind: First, the way those black birds (crows?) swarm in droves around SUNY and elsewhere at certain times of the year. They turn the sky black and the ground white wherever they go. It's like Hitchcock. Second, we lived in our apartment for 18months unable to open this one door to what we figured was a closet. We tried everything shy of breaking it to get it open - tools and force. One day, about 6 months ago, I came home and it was ajar. A beautiful closet is inside.

How we, as communities and a greater region, strive to be better. That is truly fantastical.

Isn't there a ghost that lives in the Capitol building?

The Egg. It's just so...weird! And fantastical! I also think the state bldgs on the ESP look like flash drives.

The Egg is actually a Zombie-proof shelter.

On the surface, science fiction appears to be about technology. But science fiction is really about people — people living under different assumptions with different values and expectations for themselves and those around them.

Something fantastical? The idea that despite the media and our fellow citizenry trying to convince us that tomorrow will be worse than today, we will adapt and thrive.

I read Neverwhere a few years ago and it opened my mind to the wonders that lay beneath a city. Even if we don't have a sewer or Underground like London, there are so many back streets and little doors on the sides of building and you wonder what kind of terrible/amazing place do those lead to? What do the homeless people really see in a life on the streets? There is so much that we don't know about or can't understand without a different view point!

Seeing the 50 foot sand dunes in the Pine Bush is like stepping into another world.

In my opinion fantasy and magic is found most often in nature - and so it is all around us, don't limit your view by trying to distinguish between the real and the fantastic !

Sometimes I think the RCA dog overlooking Broadway comes to life at night when no one is paying attention and chaces the crows o Ed the river to Troy. If not, it would make a fantastic story.

I am always amazed by how many things are nearby Albany. Travel a short while and BOOM! Hiking, Climbing, Lake George, Fingerlake Wine Country, not to mention so many different neighborhoods and areas to explore (Troy, Albany, Saratoga, Schenectady, etc). Anywhere else you would have to teleport to get the variety you have here. That is Magical.

Whenever I see an abandoned building, I like to imagine what this city would have been like on a day where they were all occupied. Then I marvel at the infinite number of alternate realities the human mind can conjure.

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