Meeting Carrie Hope Fletcher ❤

As some of you who are reading this will know, I consider

Carrie Hope Fletcher to be one of my inspirations and I was lucky enough to see her at her Manchester book event for 'All I Know Now' in May last year where she talked about her latest book, did a Q&A with the audience, performed two songs on a acoustic guitar (her original song, 'Boys In Books' and a cover of Taylor Swift's 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together') and did a book signing and met fans afterwards. I had an amazing time and I wondered if I would ever meet Carrie again.

When Carrie announced she was doing a book tour with her latest book 'On The Other Side', I wondered if she would visit Manchester. Unfortunately, she was only doing signings in places where she was performing in 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' and since it's not in Manchester until the end of the year and because Carrie finishes touring with CCBB on October 2nd, she wasn't visiting Manchester. However, I noticed that she was coming to Birmingham and doing a book event similar to the one I attended last year. I bought myself a ticket to the events and booked train tickets to Birmingham. I was so happy I was seeing Carrie at last. 

The event was taking place at the 'Glee Club' which is a small venue where many famous comedians, such as Lee Evans,  Michael McIntyre, Alan Carr ect, have all performed. It has a small stage where the main event takes place and hundreds of seats surrounding the stage. I arrived at the Glee Club at the queuing time of 5pm and I was surprised to discover only a small amount of people were waiting because I thought that there would be a huge queue. However, by 5:30pm, a very long queue had formed. At about 6pm, the doors opened and I walked upstairs to grab a seat. I was very happy with where I was sat as I was on the second row and had a great view of the stage. Since the book event was due to start at 7pm, I waited patiently and, at about 6:55pm, I spotted Carrie walking behind a curtain towards the stage and, at 7pm, she appeared on the stage looking beautiful with a smile on her face as she filmed her audience.

When Carrie sat down, she started off by saying that she was nervous but excited to be at the Glee Club. She then began to talk about 'On The Other Side' which is her first fiction book. Without spoiling it for the people in the audience who hadn't read it, she talked about the plot and the main characters. She said that the main character, Evie Snow, is based on herself in both appearance and personality. She said that the story came to her in a dream but forgot about it until a week later when the thought returned to her mind. She then proceeded to make notes of this idea of not being able to get through to heaven as their soul is too heavy and filled with secrets which is this book's main plot. When asked which part of the book was her favourite to write she answered that it was the part of the book where (*SPOILER ALERT*) Vincent Winter's friend, Sonny, turns up at a school concert drunk and gets into a fight with one of the teachers (*END OF SPOILER*). Carrie said that this was her favourite part to write as she thought it was one of the funniest parts of the book. She also said that Sonny is her favourite character in 'On The Other Side'. 

Carrie also talked about her inspirations and said that the only role model she looked up to was her brother, Tom, who, when she was a child growing up, was 1/4 of the boyband McFly. She stated that she couldn't think of anyone that she was passionately inspired by in the media when she was a teenager. After talking with the presenter for about twenty minutes, Carrie answered questions from the audience.

One of the first questions Carrie was asked was about the writing process behind both of her books, 'All I Know Now' and 'On The Other Side' and if the ideas came in to her mind instantly or if it was a long time. Carrie said that it differs and that the main story for her fiction novel came to her in a dream and she just wrote story as she went along. There were certain parts of the story that she struggled with and parts that she wasn't sure would work in the book but, a few months later, she re-read her notes and decided that it would actually work. However, Carrie said that 'All I Know Now', which is a lifestyle guide created to help others, was difficult to write as it included anecdotes and personal events in her life when she was growing up but she knew she needed to write about those things in order for the book to be complete.

When asked which part in 'On The Other Side' was hardest to write, Carrie answered that it was the part of the book where (*SPOILER ALERT*) Evie's drawings shatter because it was a pivotal part of the book and captured all of Evie's emotions. She said that Evie feeling heartbroken wasn't enough so used magic realism to show her being heartbroken by having her drawings shatter like glass as the drawings meant so much to Evie and having the drawings shatter was very similar to having her heartbroken (*SPOILER OVER*). Carrie also explained why she chose to write the story in third person rather than first person from Evie's perspective and she replied saying it was so readers could see things from other character's point of view instead of sharing the thoughts of just one character. After being asked, if 'On The Other Side' was to be made into a film, who would she like to see perform as Vincent, she replied saying Colin O'Donoghue, who is best known for playing Hook in the current TV series 'Once Upon A Time'.

Carrie wasn't just asked about 'On The Other Side'. An audience member, knowing about Carrie's love of Doctor Who, asked her which Doctor she would like to be a companion of and she said that she loved Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor because he was very much the mad man in a box but she said she would love to be, the current Doctor, Peter Capaldi's companion as she was fortunate enough to visit the set in Cardiff and watch Peter filming and even got to meet him afterwards. 

Carrie is also well known for being a huge fan of Harry Potter so when she was asked which spell from the Wizarding World she would use, she answered with 'Alohomora' which opens locked objects because there have been a lot of times when she has forgotten her key to her 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' dressing room.

Carrie also gave tips to anyone trying to make it as an actress and, one of them included making sure you have a CV, a cover letter and a headshot which doesn't have to be professional because Carrie said that her earlier headshots as a child were taken by her mother. She also explained that just because a director or filmmaker isn't interested now, they'll keep your details and, maybe in a few months, they'll come back to you. 

After someone asked Carrie what her favourite musical was, she jokingly replied saying that it was like having to 'pick one of my favourite children', however, she decided on Les Miserables as it was the very first show she watched when she was three years old and a few years later she got the part as Young Eponine which lead to her having a very successful career in musicals. She also stated that being a part of the 30th anniversary of the musical was her career highlight as she got to perform on stage with the original Jean Valjean, Colm Wilkinson, and admits she couldn't finish the final high note as she was taken aback by his presence and said that she cried when he told her that she was excellent.

After the Q&A with the audience, the time finally came for Carrie to do her book signing. I loved meeting Carrie, she asked me if I was having a great day and I said that I was and I was looking forward to today and she was like 'aw that's very sweet of you!'. We then got a picture together on my phone but, unfortunately, I left the flash on and it caught both of our eyes and isn't a very good picture. However, I was very happy to have met Carrie and hugged her twice and, overall, had an amazing day that I'll never forget.

Read my review of 'On The Other Side' here.

Thank you for reading my blogpost, I hope you enjoyed it.

❤