Neil: I had this idea about a baby swap, kind of like The Omen, but it all goes wrong and it becomes a nice kid. So I wrote 5,000 words of this thing, and I sent it to a few friends to look at, and then Sandman and Books of Magic took over my life and my time and didn’t really think about it. I knew it was a thing, I knew that I’d get to it one day, and then I got a phone call from Terry.
Tim Ferriss:How much later was this?
Neil:Maybe eight months, nine months. He says, “That thing you sent me. Are you doing anything with it?” I said, “Well, no, I’m doing Sandman. I’m doing Books of Magic.” He said, “Well, I know what happens next. So either sell me the idea of what you’ve written so far, or we can write it together.”
Now, as far as I was concerned, that was a lot like Michelangelo ringing you up and saying, “Do you want to paint a ceiling together this weekend?”
