Meeting Bret Easton Ellis for the first time...

[TheChilly]

I personally thought that that day alone (5/19/2011) is already the highlight of my year... and driving home crying tears of joy having met my literary hero and inspiration for the first time will still stay in my memories forever (along with my copy of "Imperial Bedrooms", signed by Bret himself).

That moment was where I fell in love with writing all over again.

[qimissung]

This has the makings of a great story, Chilly. Do you think you'll want to tell us about it, sometime?

[TheChilly]

The signing was at Skylight Books in L.A., and started at around 7:30. The store was small, but filled up with people as the time got close. Met a friend from out of state who was really into Ellis, and we even cracked a couple of jokes about the first line from "Less Than Zero" (People are afraid to merge on freeways in Los Angeles), and even bragged about our common dislike for later Palahniuk novels.

Ellis began with "Less Than Zero", instead of "Imperial Bedrooms" because he explained the work as something that really affected him for 3 years of his life (I recall it was during the struggles he was facing during shooting of "The Informers"). Also explained each of the body of his works being his own memoir (which is why he would never see himself writing a memoir, despite "Lunar Park" coming a teeny-bit close) because they represented a place in his life that he was in at that time (for example, "American Psycho" representing a stage in his life where he was isolated from society, as well as Bateman being based on his father). He also did a cool Q&A session, as well as being surprised that "The Rules of Attraction" was the only work on Amazon to get four stars ("American Psycho" and "Glamorama" received 3 and a half stars), followed by his views on "The Hills" over "Jersey Shore" and the meaning of "Post-Empire".

The highlight of the night was getting my copy of "Imperial Bedrooms" signed by Ellis himself, along with explaining that "Glamorama" took a lot of effort, sweat, and tears from his end and he may not be sure if he will ever go that distance again in his fiction (then again, his twitter had said something about it being the "last bookstore appearance of 'Bret Easton Ellis').

Overall, an awesome night and a great opportunity to finally meet my literary hero.

[qimissung]

I'm glad it was a great experience and not a disappointment. I've only read "Less than Zero" many years ago, but I remember that I liked it very much.

I did once write a poem inspired by a scene in the movie "American Psycho."

[David Strugnell]

I also link the film to a DVD I won- the star Christian Bale features in The Machinist. My winning letter actually debated Spiderman.

:banana::banana::banana: