The same day Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean At the End of the Lane hit No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list the author’s book tour made a stop at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, Ca., where he was joined onstage by Entertainment Weekly’s Geoff Boucher for a lively 80-minute conversation about the spooky art of writing.

Gaiman did a reading from the slender new release and (in a surprise) also from Fortunately, the Milk, an endearingly daft children’s book due in September.