"“I had a really strange year,” the author said in a faraway voice. “I was leading up to the writing..."

“I had a really strange year,” the author said in a faraway voice. “I was leading up to the writing of an ‘Anansi Boys’ screenplay [based on my 2005 novel], which begins with an incredibly funny sequence where the protagonist’s father keels over from a surprise heart attack. And as I was doing that my father keeled over and died of a surprise heart attack. It’s not terribly funny though, is it?”

The death of David Gaiman during a business meeting in March left his son searching for words. As the weeks passed, though, the writer was met with blank screens, blank pages and a blank stare in the mirror. The author of “Coraline,” “American Gods,” “Stardust” and the comic-book epic “The Sandman” was suddenly unable to conjure up those apparitions of imagination that had made him a signature figure in fantasy circles.

“It left me just completely stilled for about nine months,” Gaiman said. “It was very weird…. I’ve never really had much time or patience with writer’s block. I think sometimes you need a period of just healing and distance before you can say, ‘Yeah, I’m ready to do that now.’ ”