Gayle Forman's Blog, page 14

Sarah Palin had a cheat sheet on her palm.

Here's mine:

I've always felt a little bit sheepish for the poetic license I took in If I Stay regarding Mia's Juilliard audition. While the pieces she plays are definitely by the book, I doubt that the Juilliard judges would ever do something like clap after an audition or tell the prospective student anything that might hint at her acceptance. But, well, you know, I had to do something that suggested strongly that Mia's acceptance was likely without her actually having been accepted.

Juilliard occupies m...

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS FOR SHIVER AND IF I STAY.

So, I finally got around to reading Maggie Stiefvater's wonderful, amazing book Shiver. What the hell took me so long? Maybe it was all the haters saying it was like Twilight, only with werewolves, when it was so nothing like Twilight, which, btw, has werewolves, and which, btw, I was as addicted to as the rest of you, so don't get mad at me for what I'm about to write.

Anyhow, the books are crazy different. Allow me to count ...

It was 18 degrees when I left the house this morning. I didn't even bother to look at what the wind chill was. Too damn cold. I'm a California girl when it comes to climactic butchiness, i.e. a wuss.

And on Saturdays this cold, it means I'm cooped up with the girls. Thank god for music classes and birthday parties otherwise, well, I don't want to contemplate it.

Days like this are made for cooking. Belgian waffles with sauteed apples for breakfast. Yum. A less successful lunch of gnocchi with t...

So, Betsy Bird, the super-cool, super-nice, super-influential NYC librarian over at Fuse # 8 has decided in her spare time (ha)  to hold a poll to determine the top 100 middle-grade chapter books of all time. And she's invited peoples—any peoples, not just librarians or other various experts—to email in their top 10 middle-grade chapter books. Middle-grade is defined as a chapter book that's not a baby book, but not young-adult either. The rules are here. Ranking matters a lot because the...

What a wild few days it's been around Chez Forman. We've had a series of glamorous parties, book salons, discussing serious world events. Nonstop action and entertainment. Lots of important people.

Oh, wait. That's  in alternate reality universe. I have been firmly planted in Mom-land. And puke-land. And Teeth-ville.  Willa and Denbele both had the stomach bug, Denbele a mild form, Willa a puking-all-over-the-bed-must-wash-everything-including-the-down-comforter form. It is a certain...

It's been one of those weeks that serves to remind me that I am but a wee human, one without superhuman or congressional or corporate powers. Or, alas, superpowers. So, there is so very little within my control, as the universe reminded me with headline after headline last week. So, I figured I'd make a list of the kinds of things I can and cannot control. A sort of Zen exercise disguised as blog post.

The things I cannot control.

Congress—though I can say clever snarky things about them and...

Today is the day I officially fell out of love with Obama.

This could go two ways. It could be like a Hollywood movie, the boy loses girl part in the second act. He could come back all strong, grow a pair or show his pair and save the day (and put those wussy Democrats in Congress in their place, not to mention the Repubs). In which case, I'll fall back in love, more than ever. Happy ending.

Or it could be an indie foreign film. The world ends. We all die. Without health insurance. Meet...

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Lacey asks:

Would you post us the query that got you your fabulous agent?

I would if I could. Except it didn't quite work that way. But bear with me, folks. And I will post two query letters and in the process Tell A Story with a Moral.

First, we have to go back in time to my first book. A nonfiction travel memoir, which, at the time I was querying it, was called Hobbits On The Silk Road: Dispatches From A Shrinking World. This is the...

The ALA awards were just announced about an hour ago, and I've already received a few phonecalls and emails asking if I'm okay for not being recognized for a Printz (the big YA award). Which is sweet, and flattering. I won't pretend that I didn't harbor secret sticker hopes, especially after seeing If I Stay show up on mock Printz lists. But hello! Two years ago, nobody knew who the hell I was so even being on mock lists is a pretty big accomplishment.

The thing is, this morning, after...