Gayle Forman's Blog, page 17

in good company

So, just a minute ago, I was googling myself to try to figure out why people are emailing me entries to an If I Stay giveaway contest that I'm not holding—clearly someone else is, but why are they sending people to my email address?—when I came across this, the Publishers Weekly Best Children's Books of 2009!

Not only am I beyond thrilled to have If I Stay included, but, oh the company. It includes two of my favorite books of the year. This one:

And this one:

And also books I'm dying to read...

so uncool

My friend Marjorie has written a really great review and blog post about Where The Wild Things Are, Spike Jonze and Dave Egger's new film adaption of Maurice Sendak's children's classic.

I haven't seen this movie. Everyone I know raves about it. (Except Marjorie.) Or, I should say, raved about it from the trailer. But even the trailer made me itchy. Unlike Marjorie, who had (or I should say has, this woman is obsessed with kids' books, one of 87, 567 reasons I love her) a passion for the book ...

on coolness

My friend Marjorie has written a really great review and blog post about Where The Wild Things Are, Spike Jonze and Dave Egger's new film adaption of Maurice Sendak's children's classic.

I haven't seen this movie. Everyone I know raves about it. (Except Marjorie.) Or, I should say, raved about it from the trailer. But even the trailer made me itchy. Unlike Marjorie, who had (or I should say has, this woman is obsessed with kids' books, one of 87, 567 reasons I love her) a passion for the book ...

just a little note

To say that

#1 I finished a big draft of The Manuscript yesterday.

#2 I will not be talking about what said Manuscript is until my editor signs off on it. Last time I blabbed all over about a book that wound up in the bin. I learned my lesson.

#3 I have more time now so I will Stop Sucking at blogging.

#4 Starting tomorrow.

thank god, the rain has stopped and it's teen read week

Rain gone. Teen Read Week here. Both of these things make me want to throw a party!

It has been a dreary and cold couple of days here in the Northeast (after a dreary and cold non-summer; don't get me started. I want to sue the weather gods!). But the sun is out and the sky is blue and the birds are singing and on top of that, it's YALSA's Teen Read Week, which is a week in which we celebrate the awesomeness of teen literature and of teens reading in general.

So, can we just all raise a glass o...

what right do i have?

To ask anything of you, fair readers, when I have certainly earned the Olympic Medal for Shittiest YA Blogger. Thank you, I trained hard for it, having the two kids has really helped with the training and all, but it was worth it to take the title.

But even being the slacky little bloggista that I am, I'm still asking favors, namely this.

If you live in the Flemington, NJ area, come on out on Saturday, October 17th at 2 p.m. EST to the reading/Webcast Chatapalooza. It's at the local Borders

so that's what's happening with the movie!

People often ask me what's happening with the If I Stay movie and I always tell them I don't know. I'm not being coy. I really don't. I'm in the dark. In part because Hollywood moves at its  own mysterious pace, and also because I'm trying to be hands off and Zen over a process over which I have ZERO control. Also, I keep reading about how Catherine Hardwicke is attached to yet another movie (Hamlet, some modern take on Little Red Riding Hood, Maximum Ride) and I get a sinking feeling. So, I ...

on second chances and free books!

So a couple days ago was the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, a holiday that never fails to confuse non-Jews who know it's a holiday but seem to get it's not a happy one. As in, you don't say "Happy Yom Kippur!" Yom Kippur is a day of atonement. It's a day you contemplate all the bad stuff you did the year before and say sorry for it and wipe the slate clean for the next year. Then you can start screwing up all over again. Also, you don't eat all day. Fun!

Yom Kippur is the day you get to sort...

high school—it doesn't just never end; it never stops beginning!

So, last week was a Very Big Week for all three of us girls in the Forman household.

Willa had her first real week of kindergarten. Denbele started daycare. And I went back to work, doing a first read through of the draft of the thing that I'd been working on when I stopped working in June.

First, the good news. Denbele seems to love daycare. She kisses me goodbye and then toddles off to play with her buddies in the play yard and does not cry or scream like Willa did when I unsuccessfully...

excuse me, but my vagina is getting in the way of my writing

So, last night, as part of the Brooklyn Book Festival, which I hope you'll all go to today if you're in the area, I went to a Literary Event and got a little hot under the collar. Or, should I say, under the corset.

Before I start, I should say that part of the event was meant to honor a female writer, one of color, no less, who's an amazing writer (okay, I'll stop being coy: Edwidge Danticat, who is from Haiti originally and who is awesome). The second part of the event was the awarding of a ...