- Luc Robitaille -- aka the reason I love hockey -- who I interviewed in a locker room full of slightly undressed other hockey players, as his then-8-year-old stepson Steven (who is now a regular on The Vampire Diaries) threatened to throw pizza at me.
- Brendan Fraser, who I interviewed for George of the Jungle and was first introduced to on set. You might remember his costume in that movie was a loin cloth and less than 4% bodyfat. Yep.
- George Clooney, who I interviewed for Batman & Robin. Did I mention he's George Clooney? Enough said.
Well, yesterday at the LA Times Festival of Books, I met the reason why I was inspired to put words to paper and eventually, through hard work, great connections and luck, found myself in the role of an entertainment writer and was able to act like a blubbering fool in front of those three hot guys -- the amazing Ms. Judy Blume! And, true to form, I acted like a blubbering fool in front of her too (although I wasn't as giddy as I was with Clooney... ). 
Standing in line waiting to reach the signing table, it hit me that I was about to meet my writing idol -- who, through her books, taught me about bras and periods (Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.), bullying (Blubber), sex (Forever), death (Tiger Eyes) and annoying little brothers who eat turtles (Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing)... which was kind of monumentally important when I read it because I had both a little brother and pet turtles at the time ;)
Judy Blume made me love reading! And I remember as a young teen wanting to write amazing books like hers...to be able to tell such true-to-life, yet throughly engrossing stories. So, as I stood there on a grassy lawn at USC, I tried really hard to think of something intelligent to say, that would somehow let her know how much she and her stories have meant me.
I think what I eventually spit out as I found myself standing in front of her was something to the effect of "I read every one of you books as a kid and you inspired me to be a writer."
"You're a writer now?" the amazing Judy Blume asked me.
Umm... "Well, I went into Journalism and now I work on websites," I blubbered out, all of the sudden ashamed that I haven't written my own version of Superfudge yet.
"That can be very fulfilling," the amazing Judy Blume replied, trying to reassure me in her lovely way that it was okay I hadn't even written a Kim-version of her 47-page Freckle Juice yet.
And with that, she was done signing the copy of Summer Sisters I'd pulled from my bookshelf that morning, and the new hard copy of Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great I'd just purchased so I could have her sign something I'd read during my childhood, and I was shuttled along out of the line.
Argh.
This all just goes to show that there is a reason why I love to write: I suck at speaking.
But it doesn't really matter. I MET JUDY BLUME!!! And she was just like I'd hoped she'd be ... kind, funny, encouraging, a truly lovely human being.
PS: The journalistic side of me would like to offer this synopsis of the Q&A that preceeded the signing encounter above. It was truly inspiring to hear her speak of writing and reading and the creative process. Who knows... maybe I will get around to that Kim-version of Freckle Juice one of these days after all ;)
Ms. Blume participated in an author's Q&A at Bovard Auditorium on the USC Campus, where, ironically, I almost went to college on a partial journalism scholarship. She spoke of her early writing days, as a mother of two young sons who needed an outlet. She talked about sending her early picture books to publishers and getting rejected over and over ("I'm not an artist," she wryly noted).
Argh.
This all just goes to show that there is a reason why I love to write: I suck at speaking.
But it doesn't really matter. I MET JUDY BLUME!!! And she was just like I'd hoped she'd be ... kind, funny, encouraging, a truly lovely human being.
PS: The journalistic side of me would like to offer this synopsis of the Q&A that preceeded the signing encounter above. It was truly inspiring to hear her speak of writing and reading and the creative process. Who knows... maybe I will get around to that Kim-version of Freckle Juice one of these days after all ;)
Ms. Blume participated in an author's Q&A at Bovard Auditorium on the USC Campus, where, ironically, I almost went to college on a partial journalism scholarship. She spoke of her early writing days, as a mother of two young sons who needed an outlet. She talked about sending her early picture books to publishers and getting rejected over and over ("I'm not an artist," she wryly noted).
She was inspiring in her words, talking about how the only way to learn to write is to read, and mentioned how we should encourage kids to just read... doesn't matter what they read or whether it is above or below their reading comprehension level. Don't discourage. In fact, showing her true wisdom about the tween demographic, she told the audience that the best way to get kids to read books is to leave them around the house and then tell them NOT to read them... tell them they aren't old enough for "those" books yet. Ha! She also said it's best to give them recently published copies of her books, with the new cover art. Not the old versions from the '70s... like these that I dug out of my parents' garage today :)
As a repressed writer who really only writes here these days, it was also inspiring to hear the Judy Blume talk about how hard writing can be sometimes. She spoke about hating first drafts and how she now jokes with her husband that if she were to pass away in the middle of a first draft, no one would ever be able to figure out what she was trying to do with a story because her first drafts are so all over the place. (Interesting fact: Summer Sisters, the last of her books I've read, went through 23 drafts.) She said she usually spends years with characters in her head before she starts to write them on paper. That was encouraging. I've got lots of characters in my head that I'm still trying to make sense of :)
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