An evening with Gayle Forman in Denver

On Tuesday night I attended the Tattered Cover bookstore for an evening they were hosting with Gayle Forman. This was my first event since moving to the US and so I was a little nervous. I got there early, got my copy of the book and waited for Gayle to arrive.

I've been to a Gayle Forman event before-see my previous post on this- and so I knew that she was an awesome speaker. She began by reading a little from her new adult novel, Leave Me, I've just started this and it seems like a really interesting story, it involves a 44 year old woman who has a heart attack and has to cope with how to run her family and take care of herself at the same time. It was interesting to hear that, although this isn't normally the type of novel that Gayle writes, she still had a lot of fun writing it and found it easy to take on the voice of an adult rather than a young person. It was also interesting that she chose to write this book in the third person rather than the first like she does with her YA novels. 

There were lots of interesting questions from the audience, including what her reaction was to the If I Stay movie. I didn't realise that If I stay was based on this authors personal experience and it was fascinating to hear how she reacted the second time she saw the movie because of that. She also told us that the guy playing Mia's dad in the movie, is wearing the leather jacket belonging to her freind who sadly dies in similar circumstances and you can actually see that jacket in all the movie posters and the movie edition of the book! 

Interestingly, this newest novel is also based on personal experience even though Gayle herself thinks that the character she is most like is Adam from where she went! It was funny for me because she was talking about how the year she spent studying abroad in England was the year that she felt she found herself and found her direction in life. She recounted anecdote about how she returned with an English accent and this was due to the fact that had to change the way she said certain things, including ordering a cheese and tomato sandwich just to get by! We had a whole conversation about this when she signed my book because I am finding a similar thing but the other way around! 

It was really great to hear her talking about the writing process and how she juggles work and family at home and lovely to chat to her when she singed my book. 

I think Tattered Cover hosted a great event and it seemed very fitting as my first event since moving here and I hope that there will be many more to come!