Me and Gaiman (Or should that be Gaiman and I?)

So a few weeks ago, I was contacted by some people who are organizing a fantasy conference up at the University of Minnesota. They had just read my book and were wondering if I’d be interested in being a guest.

They were very flattering and said something along the lines of, “We’re just getting started, so we can’t pay you or anything, but if you check out our home page, you can see that if you come, you’ll be getting not-paid with the best.”

So I hopped over to their webpage, and what do I see? Neil Gaiman and Jack Zipes.

Zipes is one of the few scholars whose name I happen to know off the top of my head, and perhaps the only one whose name doesn’t fill me with the urge to curse wildly and wreck up the place. You see, he’s a folklorist. A faerie-tale theorist. I actually enjoyed reading his stuff when I was in grad school. The man is brilliant.

And Gaiman…. Well… if you need me to explain who Neil Gaiman is, then first I’d have to find out how you’ve managed to get internet access while living under that heavy, heavy rock.

Needless to say, I got back to the lovely ladies who were organizing the conference and told them that I’d love nothing better than to show up free of charge. That, in fact, I would be happy to do just about anything in order to hang around breathing the same air as those two.

Fast forward to today when I was checking the date for the conference so I could put it up on my tour schedule, when I saw that they had updated the home page.

Here’s what I saw.

Not only am I mentioned in the same paragraph as Gaiman and Zipes, but did you see what was down toward the bottom?

Fantasy Matters is pleased to announce that Patrick Rothfuss will be a featured conference reader! The submission deadline for all papers, panels, and author submissions has been extended to June 15, 2007 to accommodate all participants, but in particular those interested in the fantasy themes and topics raised in Patrick’s work.

Apparently, I have themes. And topics.

Damn. I’m all tingly. I need to go walk this off.

Later,

pat

*Addendum*

For those of you in southern Wisconsin, I’m going to be attending Wiscon this weekend in Madison. I’ll be doing a reading, a signing, and talking on some panels. If you want more details, feel free to check out their homepage.