If you don't have time to answer this (say by Saturday?), I'll just buy the books beforehand. (Saturday should give me two weeks to find them, which is why I picked that date. Not to put pressure on you, or anything.)
According to the Talking Volumes producer, Heather, "Yes, we have a local bookstore set up in the lobby, and they try to bring as big a selection as possible." I think you can be sure that there will be copies of CORALINE there, but no idea what else they'll have, so if there's something special you want to get signed, I'd suggest making sure you have it when you come.
And as far as I know, yes, I'll be signing stuff afterwards. How many things each person can have signed will probably depend on the number of people who want something signed and how much time we have there.
There's an article on Coraline and me done especially for the Talking Volumes event, by Eric Hanson, at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: http://www.startribune.com/stories/1437/4331125.html
(You have to sign up I'm afraid.)
My favourite bit is from the very wise Daniel Handler, who articulates something that has always irritated me about journalists who ask about how "children" respond to something, as if all children are one huge amorphous jelly creature with one opinion, one set of likes and dislikes, one set of fears...
"I find his books more frightening than mine. But I don't necessarily find them inappropriately scary," Daniel Handler said. Under the pen-name Lemony Snicket, Handler is the author of the gothic and moody "A Series of Unfortunate Events" books. "One thing that always annoys me is when children are talked about in one large, broad category; it's like the last allowed bigotry in society. Clearly, Mr. Gaiman's books would be too scary for some readers and not scary enough for some readers. I would be hard-pressed to think of a story that didn't have at least some threat of something in it. And Neil Gaiman takes that threat very seriously, as do I."
Also, as you will observe from the Talking Volumes website, we seem to have accumulated a support band who are currently going "erk" at the idea of playing live for 60,000 MPR listeners.
Hey Neil,
Just wanted to let you and your readers know that if they are going to the Talking Volumes event in St. Paul and are not members of MPR or the Loft and are out of the area of St.Paul they will be better off just going to www.ticketmaster.com, or calling ticketmaster for tickets. That's where I ended up ordering my tickets.
Also, while I have your attention, can you just verify one more time that there will indeed be a signing at said event? Thanks for your time.
Troy
Which is dead helpful; although you can become a member of Talking Volumes for free at the Star Tribune Talking Volumes Website - http://www.startribune.com/talkingvolumes/, and get the ticket discounts and so forth that way.