Neil Gaiman is in Austin.

Tonight (7 p.m., Sept. 26), he'll be at Book People in Austin, for a reading and signing for his recent novel Anansi Boys.

Gaiman is one of my favorite writers -- from creating Sandman, to putting the poetry into the English script for Princess Mononoke, to the amazing novel American Gods, to a host of other works garnering a bunch of international recognition.

I won't be there -- I've got a family commitment tonight that (for me) takes precedence over seeing even one of my favorite authors.

Oh, and Gaiman's most recent film, MirrorMask (in collaboration with Jim Henson Company), opens in Austin this week ...