Welcome to the third installment of the continuing event wrap-up series!
We’ve had a lot of great feedback here at the SLTMOEWU desk and I’d like to take some space here at the beginning to respond to a few frequently asked questions.
Q. In the first wrap-up your name was redacted, who the heck are you?
A. I will not reveal my identity on this blog. Astute readers, however, could find hidden clues in the past two articles. Dan Brown would’ve figured it out by now.
Q. It doesn’t seem like your time management skills are quite up to snuff. When will each new blog appear?
A. The SLTMOEWU blog will be uploaded for your reading pleasure 1-2 days after each event barring acts of God, sickness, more important deadlines, or really interesting YouTube videos about cats.
Q. Golly you’re a good blog writer, what made you decide to start this?
A. I decided to write this blog mainly because it sounded fun! Now I gaze into the gaping maw of emptiness that is the Microsoft Word blank page template and find my own soul staring back out at me contemptuously…
…OK, the FAQ seems to be taking a turn. Let’s move on to the event!
A Special Evening of Conversation with Anna Quindlen
Hosted by Connie Schultz
Despite an overly warm theater and some unfortunate folks who had to move their cars after the talk started I think this was my favorite event so far. To be fair, it does help that I got to see most of this one, but Anna and Connie were an absolute joy to watch and judging from the audience reaction afterw
ards, I’m not alone in thinking that. I think both of their years of experience in journalism had a lot to do with that as the questions and answers were really interesting and insightful.
In light of her background, I’m surprised how much of an instinctual write Anna is. I imagined her previous jobs would inspire a mountain of research before starting a book but that isn’t really the case. She spoke much more about finding the emotional core of her characters and living in their skin while writing about them. She also has a large amount of the book worked out in her head before ever writing anything down, and reads her words aloud when finished writing to make sure they sound like something a person would really say.
Anna and Connie are longtime friends and they had a great rapport on stage. It was especially fun once they got talking about their children and husbands. Anna told a funny story about her husband getting upset at the novel Black and Blue (which is about a battered woman), because everyone always assumes novels have some autobiographical elements to them and he was afraid of the backlash.
Those of you who were there know that there were many, many other funny, intriguing and inspiring moments in the evening and unfortunately I cannot share them all here. We have another great author next week, though, so get your tickets before it’s too late and maybe we’ll see you there!
