At Wednesday's meeting, local author Nikolas Butler talked about his journey as a writer. Nikolas has written 5 books, his first being Shotgun Lovesongs which has been translated into 12 languages! His newest book, The Forty Year Kiss was inspired by a brief interaction he witnessed in a tavern in Chippewa Falls. It follows the story of two people who were in a relationship and for various reasons parted, only to be reunited 40 years later. It was interesting to hear that the book is being reviewed in Hollywood for a possible movie! Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, and Steven Spielberg's "people" loved it. Pretty awesome acclaim for a member our community!
During Nikolas's talk, he also mentioned that others were reviewing it for a screenplay, namely the writers of a tv series called Somebody Somewhere on HBO. He highly suggested the series, as the writers are from the Midwest, and pretty accurately represent the culture and community in our area. Since Nikolas's books are all set in the Midwest, he has hopes that maybe one of the writers would be interested in his work.
Thank you to Pat French, for inviting Nikolas to speak to our club! It was very interesting to hear about the behind the scenes world of publishing.