As soon as I saw that Neil Gaiman was the Author of the Month here at Blogcritics, I knew that I wanted to get my two or four or six cents in on the topic. After all, I loved Sandman and American Gods and Death and Anansi Boys and the Books of Magic, and I am even more crazy about The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish. I read the man's blog, even when I am neglecting all the other feeds in my Bloglines. I am, simply put, a fan.

There's more to it than that, though. To me, Neil Gaiman isn't just a good writer. The connection feels deeper somehow. After all, there are plenty of authors that I love who don't garner the same kind of fierce loyalty from me. What's different about Gaiman is his immense generosity with his fans.

When I saw Neil Gaiman read in Toronto as part of his Anansi Boys tour, he answered questions and told funny stories and signed for hours after he spoke. He was engaging, entertaining, and as geekily cool looking in his trademark leather jacket as any fangirl could fantasize. But none of those things are the things I took away that night. The image that stuck with me was that of his interaction with the family ahead of me in the signing line.

The mother asked for the book to be signed "to an aspiring author" and Gaiman asked the little boy if he was interested in writing. When the boy nodded, Gaiman offered his advice. "The most important thing, if you want to be a writer, is to finish. Anyone can start, but if you want to be a writer, you must finish." The little boy looked both thrilled and solemn, as he tucked this advice away.

I tucked the advice away, too, because I know that I am exactly the kind of writer who forgets that stories need to having endings to count. Every writing afternoon spent surfing the web, every really good opening line sitting on my hard drive, every dreamy thought of agents and editors brings that piece of advice back to me. It is the best writing advice I could ever have heard. (I also always think of another Gaiman-ism, on those days when I don't wanna write: There are days that the writing comes easy and days when it comes hard, but, says Gaiman, when it's all done, "I can't tell the difference." It's that advice that keeps me writing on those days when it seems hard and unfun.)