Sunday, March 20, 2011

Meeting Eoin

Of all the times I have said 'tee hee', meeting Eoin Colfer (pronounced as 'Owen', by the way) would probably be the most 'tee hee'-ing time of all :)

Eoin was in Dubai for the Emirates Literary Festival and on March 11th, he gave a talk on Celebrating 10 years of Artemis Fowl. Describing the event as a 'talk' would be a gross understatement. It was more like a stand-up comedy set. Eoin is as witty and funny in person as he is in his books, or even more so. (Now I wonder if Terry Pratchett is the same way).

He started by explaining that he got the idea for Artemis Fowl from his 3 younger brothers, especially Donald (?) which is like a diminutive James Bond and could get his way out of anything. His other brothers were more like goblins, which he gladly killed off in awful ways in his book (like getting their heads blown off by an exploding fart in The Lost Colony). And one in particular (Neil?) was actually the inspiration for Mulch, due to his expertise in farting.

Someone asked him whether there's ever going to be an Artemis Fowl - The Movie, and he said that 'they' have been discussing it for years, so excuse him if he's a bit bitter about it. He said it'll probably come out in 3 weeks. After he's dead.

He really kept the audience in stitches. I had to fish out tissue paper from my purse because I was laughing so hard that all manner of bodily fluids were threatening to gush out.

After the talk, almost everyone lined up for a book signing. He smiled welcomingly at Anis and Anis gave him a blank look, so I had to own up that I was really the fan, not my daughter. He laughed at that. Anis took a picture of Eoin and I together, and if he's reading this, I would like to apologize for smelling like curry, coz we just came from lunch at an Indian restaurant. (It was really good lunch, if it makes a difference)



I think he looks a bit like Mike Myers, don't you?