Photo Courtesy of Neil Gaiman’s website

It’s no secret that Decatur has lusted after fantasy/sci-fi rockstar writer Neil Gaiman for a good, long while.

This past year, the Decatur Book Festival went out of its way to get Gaiman’s attention, urging festival-goers to sign an online petition to get Gaiman as a keynote speaker.  Unfortunately, the process was “cumbersome” – according to Daren Wang – and it wasn’t enough to get Gaiman inside the city limits.

But while Decatur Gaiman-ites were disappointed, they certainly were not defeated.

Only a few weeks ago, Little Shop of Stories heard Gaiman’s challenge to bookstores: throw the best damn Halloween party in the country, and he would reward them with a visit.

And so in true Henry V style, Little Shop picked up the DBF’s fallen banner and declared to the world…

We tried our darnest to get Neil Gaiman to come to the AJC Decatur Book Festival this year. There was an e-mail campaign. We contacted people we knew at Harper Collins. We begged. We failed.

…So we’re doing it. Friday night. October 30th. On the Eve of All Hallows Eve. 7pm

There are some 35 other bookstores in North America also competing for Neil’s affections. (You can click here to look at the entire list on this map.) But ours will be best because, after all, this is Decatur.

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.

OK, maybe I added that last line, but you get the idea.

And throw a Halloween party they did.

Well hell if that “little” bookstore didn’t just go and win the whole damn contest!

To get the info straight from the horse’s mouth, jump over to The Little Shop blog.  Details like date and time will be announced later this week!

UPDATE: Daren Wang reports that Gaiman will be at Little Shop on December 14th.

Adults and kids alike are invited to attend the DeKalb History Center’s Haunted Courthouse Party on Thursday, Oct. 25th from 5:30p-9:30p at the old DeKalb Courthouse on the square in Decatur.

The $30 admission for adults and $10 for kids includes dinner, a costume contest and live music from The Rainmen. Children’s activities will take place from 5:30p-7p and include Ghost Storytelling (or in other words “Ghost Stories”), Witch Storytelling (storytelling by a witch?) , a puppet show, a magician, face painting, balloon animals and goody bags.

For tickets or more information call 404-373-1088

Go DeKalb