sponge-ing: the ever lovely emily giffin

i have said this before, but i am so proud of my city. nashville's salon@615 is unbelievable. they have brought pat conroy, sue monk kidd, amy tan, robin roberts, soon to have david baldacci...just to name a few.
and this is all through the library, one of my favorite places. and did i mention nashville? this is music city, y'all...or the health care capital...or vanderbilt even! we're not exactly known for our literary-ness! (i mean, we can read but you know what i mean).

so a few weeks ago, one of my all-time favorite authors, a woman i try and try to write more like came to town. emily giffin. she's everything i want to be. she's a writer (check), wife (check), and a mother (hold up).  she's not holed up in a shack alone. she lives. she laughs. she loves. and she writes about it.

my ticket!

so, i bought tickets for the event. way early...as in the day they came on sale. granted, they were $2.50...but i wasn't about to be sitting in the back. but then, literally every fellow e.g. fan i knew was unavailable for that particular date...it was crazy. but i was going to go even if it meant alone. and then, out of the blue, my sweet husband volunteered to go alone with me. :)

i was elated but a little nervous that he would be bored. or that it would be a little too "chick-litty" for him. but i was wrong. so wrong. HE LOVED IT and her.

so,  a little about what she said:

-even though she always dreamed of being an author, she went to law school. she disliked it but had to hang in there until she paid off all her student loans. during that time, she started writing her first novel (unpublished) i started writing my first novel when i was unhappy, too. 

-she moved to london to write full time and gave herself a twelve-month deadline to write something borrowed. she wrote it in fourteen.

-she didn't plan on writing the sequel (something blue). i'm writing a sequel right now, too. and it was previously unplanned. 

-she's not into horror, but one of her favorite books on writing is on writing by stephen king. and her favorite quote had to do with staying true to your characters and writing with the door closed. at that moment in her speech, she looked at my beautiful husband and me on the third row and asked "why did you look at him?" i looked at him because i literally told mason the same thing after i read the book. down to the quote and the fact that i wasn't a horror fan. she asked mase "did you read it?" he shook his head. but that was 1 of 3 times during her presentation she would single out my husband. the second time she asked him if he had read her books. he was honest and said no, "i read 'business books'"-using bunny ears. emily then said "well, i think you should read 'my books'"- also in bunny ears.  the third time she stopped mid-sentence and said "sorry, i keep looking at you. i just really want you to read my books." it was awesome. 


-she doesn't know the outcome of her books. she has a general sense, but most of the time, it changes.

-she likes to capture the shades of grey in situations and people

-my question (during q & a): if it took you fourteen months to write something borrowed, how has the process changed? or has it? her answer: it gets harder each book. she doesn't want to be that writer people talk about and say they like her later stuff, but that her early stuff was the best. so she started to take a 1 1/2 between each book to make sure to get it right. i used to be so mad-more like disappointed- i had to wait that long for new book, but now i get it! 

-she makes a decision on POV based on what feels right

-concerning real vs. fake details: the details shouldn't be distracting to the story, so make your decisions based on the effect it has on your story.

-she loves writing fiction because she gets to make the rules.

-she is a perfectionist. the first chapter is the hardest to write and takes the longest to write.

-she ended with a quote from elinor lipman- "i don't believe readers should be left unsatisfied, with characters staring into the abyss, for the sake of literary coolness." preach on, sister friend.

needless to say, i loved this night. mason loved that she knew sports (she was a manager at wake forest basketball just like he was at louisville). and so we waited in line to meet her. only i didn't get to say one word to her. mason was so excited he told her about his also being a manager. and that was all she needed to talk to him the.whole.time. she even requested a picture with him alone. my one chance to talk to my favorite author and my husband was geeking out. :)

at first i was at a loss...but then i realized that he loved that night as much as i did. and that made me happy. i love my cute little husband with his pink shirt. i love that he supports me and my dreams. and i love that he and emily giffin have basketball in common. one day, i'll get to tell her i'm a writer. i hope.  see some pictures below!

that moment he first said "so...the year you were a manager, pitino (louisville coach) beat y'all in the championship" she said "oh, no those are fighting words". and the rest was history

she  looked at my left hand and said "oh wait, y'all are married? guys, look at these two." and at this exact moment in time, i notice that in this picture, we kind of look alike. weird.

do you see how happy my husband is?