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"&amp;amp;#8220;To Nora Jr., I look forward to seeing your name in print one day too . . .&amp;amp;#8221; Those words have stuck with me since the day my 11th grade AP English teacher, Mrs. Kjos, wrote them in my yearbook. The Nora is of course Nora Ephron and holding the nickname Nora, Jr. is the biggest honor I have ever received. It&amp;#x27;s held great weight with me --paving the way for my career and setting the bar for myself as a writer high. And so my heart is so heavy right now as I just learned with the rest of the world that Nora Ephron died tonight.I&amp;amp;#8217;ve never lost an idol before, someone I can say I was truly inspired by and aspired to follow in their footsteps. The words to express what this loss means to me and the rest of the literary and pop culture world are not coming out as easily as I hoped. I am stunned, devastated, and shocked that she&amp;#x27;ll never make another movie or write a new essay. I was one of the lucky ones who knew from the age of two that there was nothing more I wanted to do when I &amp;amp;#8220;grew up&amp;amp;#8221; but become a writer. Figuring out what kind of writer, however, was always the tricky part. And then Mrs. Kjos had us read essays out of Nora Ephron books like Wallflower at the Orgy and Crazy Salad. If you haven&amp;amp;#8217;t read them or heard or them&amp;amp;#8212;please do yourself a favor and buy them now. I loved that Nora wasn&amp;amp;#8217;t afraid to be self-deprecating without sounding insecure. I laughed out loud as she talked about the little things in life that she thought would make her so happy&amp;amp;#8212;like getting made over by a magazine&amp;amp;#8212;that just baffled her instead. And I was in awe that this same essayist, feminist rule breaker and all around bad-ass wordsmith went on to write&amp;amp;#8212;and direct&amp;amp;#8212;movies. The first Nora Ephron discussion we had in class, I blew Mrs. Kjos&amp;amp;#8217; mind when I spoke of how I loved that Nora Ephron also made her characters and stories visual by writing movies like When Harry Met Sally and writing/directing Sleepless in Seattle. This was before the internet and I spent hours at the library researching Nora after that first assignment. They&amp;#x27;re big shoes to fill but I did then and do now ask myself with all my big writing jobs&amp;amp;#8212;what would Nora Ephron say? She helped me see that what I wrote about really didn&amp;#x27;t matter as long as I had a voice, a point of view and willingness to take a risk. About eight years ago, I went to see Nora speak. I cried when she came on stage. After her Q&amp;amp;A session was over, many aspiring screenwriters handed over to Nora their latest works in the hopes that she might find time to read them&amp;amp;#8212;I only had one two things to say to her. One--thank you for being my mentor from afar. And two--the story of being dubbed Nora, Jr. by Mrs. Kjos. I explained to Nora that the nickname had a profound effect on my life and made me feel connected to her. She took my hand and sincerely told me she was touched and honored and would look out for my work&amp;amp;#8212;all with a big smile on her face. I floated back home. Tonight, I dug out a file that I created in high school&amp;amp;#8212;it&amp;#x27;s come with me to college and the many apartments I&amp;amp;#8217;ve lived in in New York City&amp;amp;#8212;that I chose to title &amp;amp;#8220;Nora Ephron Uncut.&amp;amp;#8221; It&amp;amp;#8217;s filled with essays, articles she wrote and articles about her that I&amp;#x27;ve collected over the years, including the ones I proudly pulled back in high school. One of my favorites was the Vanity Fair &amp;quot;Proust Questionnaire&amp;quot; that she answered in the mid &amp;amp;#8216;90s. I have to share just a few of her answers . . . When and where were you the happiest? Almost always Las Vegas. And East Hampton in the summer of 1993. Which talent would you like to have? If only I could sing. What do you value most in your friends? Discretion and the fact that none of them ever calls me after 11 at night. Who are your favorite writers? Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. Wilkie Collins is not my favorite writer, but he wrote one of my favorite books, The Woman in White. How would you like to die? In my sleep, at age 84, after dinner at L&amp;amp;#8217;Ami Louis. Sadly, she was 13 years too early but I know she was with those same friends and family too this evening. And there is no doubt in my mind that Jane Austen and Mrs. Kjos (we sadly lost her to cancer many years ago too) welcomed Nora to heaven with open arms. Maybe it&amp;#x27;s movie night? And if it is, I hope this is what they&amp;#x27;re watching in her honor: What did Nora Ephron and her work mean to you? Share your own anecdotes, stories and condolences below . . . Photo and Video: Amazon and YouTube"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/entertainment/blogs/obsessed/2012/06/goodbye-to-my-idol-nora-ephron>