Sunday, January 18, 2009

Book Club Trio Meets Famous Author

Shauna, Heidi, and Christie met Nancy Turner, author of These Is My Words, at the Provo City Library Saturday. She was funny and the artichoke dip was yummy!

Shauna's favorite quote from Turner's keynote address was something her fiction writing teacher had told her. "There is truth in fiction that is truer than facts."

It turns out that Turner didn't even take a college class until her own children were enrolled. She graduated with a triple major (music, art, and creative writing) without ever taking the required algebra or entrance exams!

Her first writing assignment in college ended up being the first chapter of These Is My Words. She never met her great grandma, Sarah Prine, but when her grandma read her book, she said it was as if Turner had known her.

She told the story of getting her book published. Editor: It's good, but too long. Publisher: It's good, but you need to explain things more. Second Editor: It good, but it's too long... After shortening it and lengthening it several times, she ended up printing pretty much her original novel.

When asked if she's sold the rights for a movie, she said she sent a copy of her book to Robert Redford, but he hadn't gotten back to her yet, so if we see him, we should ask him about it. She said Mel Gibson was going to do it, but then the next day he went into rehab.

Heidi will be posting the photo taken after Turner's book signing. Note Christie sporting her official Book Club sweater.

3 comments:

Heidi said...

I had such a great time and I laughed sooooo hard at the sweater comment!

Britney said...

Oooohhhh,...I would love to see that as a movie!


(Funny, Funny, Funny about the bookclub sweater!!!)

Shauna said...

You girls are a riot! You are so good Christie.