NEIL Gaiman sits not three feet across from me, his signature black leather jacket disappearing into the black leather of the easy chair he occupies. His piercing, intensely blue-green** eyes peek out from beneath an unruly fringe of dark, wavy hair. This is a man who takes eye contact very seriously --- it�s only when my eyes begin to sting that I realize I haven�t blinked for a long, long time.

It�s true, what his friends and collaborators say: Neil speaks in perfect prose. His rich baritone still retains a British accent despite years of living in Minnesota. It softens the edges around every word he says. I lean forward, spellbound by the images he conjures up: the master storyteller as a little kid with a book hidden under his shirt, seeking sanctuary under the dinner table at parties, hungry for the tiniest morsel of written word --- whether from �The Lord of the Rings,� �The Chronicles of Narnia� or the nearest convenient cereal box (�cornflake packages,� he calls them).

But out of the corner of my eye, I glimpse a minor commotion that jolts me out of my reverie. It�s Sir Alfred, my producer for Inquirer TV, gesturing frantically at his ears.

Neil Gaiman --- creator of groundbreaking comic �The Sandman,� bestselling novelist and children�s book author, and acclaimed screenwriter � has been talking for five, maybe even up to eight minutes. And he doesn�t have his microphone on.

How not to interview Neil Gaiman

The next few minutes have �complete and utter embarrassment� written all over them. Mortified, I apologize about a dozen times to Neil while he gets his lapel microphone clipped on and tested.

�I�m sorry,� I wail. �They told me to start talking to you the moment you sat down so we wouldn�t lose any time, and I did! I completely forgot about the sound.�

I want to cry. Small talk had easily segued into the interview proper, and things had been going so well up until that point. Did I just I flush down the proverbial toilet my once-in-a-lifetime chance to interview the man behind, among other things, the first graphic novel on the New York Times� bestseller list? A chance that I had been completely convinced I�d never have, barely 24 hours before the InqTV crew entered his Manila Peninsula hotel suite?

�It�s all right,� he chuckles good-naturedly. �No problem. Let�s do it over. I promise to give you a different answer. All of a sudden I thought, �Gosh, how are they getting this?��

And if there�s one thing Neil Gaiman is, aside from brilliant, it�s gracious to a fault. The next few days would find him dashing from one commitment to another, granting interviews, signing thousands of books/comics/articles of clothing/SLR cameras/Delirium dolls for a total of 21 hours from July 9 to 11, and taking lucky contest winners out for dinner. The idea of a Brit currently living near the United States-Canada border being subjected to all of the above in the sweltering heat of sunny Philippines (mabuhey!) is inhumane, to say the least. But fans, media and organizers alike will attest that Neil was the eye of the storm: never once losing his composure, his cool, his trademark sense of humor. He may as well add the Mr. Congeniality title to all the other awards he�s won --- and as far as the fantasy genre�s concerned, he�s won them all.

The cameras are rolling. Sir Alfred gives me the thumbs-up, and I turn back to the bemused genius in black for Take Two. Aside from minor interruptions (whispering crew members and doors creaking open), Neil�s prose flows freely. We bask in his elegant insight and quick wit until the interview ends 30 minutes later, with Iya de los Santos of Fully Booked telling us that an ANC reporter is waiting outside for his turn to hang out with the Dream King.

While the equipment is being packed away, I linger for a little longer, hovering by Neil�s side as he signs my books. �Oh, I got a message from her a few days ago,� Neil replies when I ask him if he�s heard from Tori Amos lately. The place he mentions registers in my head as �Bogonia,� but on hindsight I suppose he could�ve meant Bologna, Italy.

What it feels like for a (fan)girl

Iya ushers us out of the room, giving us last-minute instructions for getting past Rockwell security for Neil�s first book signing of the tour. I nod dumbly, barely aware of the carpet beneath my feet. I don�t even remember to swipe the kiwi tart I�d been coveting from Neil�s buffet spread. Two things take center stage in my head: �Holy dancing Anansies, I�ve been talking to Neil Gaiman� and �I forgot to take pictures --- my friends are going to kill me!�

At the Rockwell Tent, I touch base with my other interviewees --- Prof. Emil Flores, who teaches a comic book writing course at the University of the Philippines, and several of Neil�s fans --- but the feeling of weightlessness, of floating around in the ether is still there. It would stay with me for the entire day, keeping me going from one venue and interview to another, keeping me from dropping off to sleep at 2:00 the next morning despite sheer exhaustion.

The feeling you get after a conversation with Neil Gaiman is the feeling of surfacing from your best dreams --- still deliciously wrapped in its shimmering tapestries, but making futile attempts to grasp at the threads that have come unraveled.

More than a month later, I am still under the spell.

* Apologies to the Dave Matthews Band for shamelessly ripping off a song title. Coverage of Neil Gaiman�s Manila tour aired on Inquirer TV on Thursday, 25 August 2005, at 10 p.m. on ABC 5. His latest novel, Anansi Boys, is due for release in October.

** Neil says his eyes are hazel and tend to change colours; they certainly looked blue-green to me that day!

Click here for the interview transcript.