After Sarah J Maas moved back to the east coast {yeah, I know that sounds stalkerish}, I wasn’t sure if she would be coming back to the west coast for Heir of Fire. When I saw the date for the Glendale store, it was a sure thing.
Our friend from London was here on the same day. He’s a merch guy and he’s currently working for the Disney band R5. We agreed to help work the show, so we started the day at the LA county fair grounds.
We headed over to the bookstore at 12:30 and got there around 1:15. I had pre-ordered the copies I needed, so went straight to the register. Hubs went upstairs to see how the event area was looking. There was an employee up there and they told him that the line up was going to be outside, staring at 2. We ran into Nicole and I lined up with her in the “unofficial” line.
One of the BN employees came outside and told us that he appreciated our fandom and that we were all lined up nicely, but the official line was where he placed the sign at 2pm. Then someone else came out and said if we insisted on lining up already, we could line up on the other side of the store, in the street. So we all moved. But it still wasn’t going to be considered the official line.
Just before 2pm, security came out with the ropes and started putting them around where we were standing. The sign was brought out and we were told that out line was now the official line. We were going to be taken inside {it was over 100 degrees out} and so we all walked single file through the store to the second level. Nicole and I were able to get second row, next to the wall. Which is what I wanted.
As we were waiting, the employees told us that Sarah was only going to be able to personalize one book per person. She would sign everyone’s books, but had to catch a flight.
Sarah, Nina and Robin got there right at 3. There was a moderator who is a blogger, but I didn’t catch her name. Hubs said there was an introduction, but I didn’t hear it. I think I was taking photos? I don’t know. I will admit that this post will be a huge hot mess. I didn’t get the full answer for almost every question…
Pitch your book.
R: Alias meets Gossip Girl
N: Mad Men plus James Bond
S: I’m really bad at the elevator pitch. Throne of Glass was pitched at “Hunger Games meets Game of Thrones.” Heir of Fire has Manon and I like to think of it as How to Train Your Dragon meets crystal meth. Sorry kids.
What’s your favorite part of writing?
R: For all of the books, I’ve had a day or a night where all of the words come and they’re perfect. That rush where the characters take over is enough to keep me going.
N: Everything that Robin said. Plus meeting fans who really love the books.
S: I love seeing the series grow and mean stuff to people. I did an event in San Francisco last night. The first time I was there, there were about 6 people there and I thought it was awesome. Last night there was something like 130.
I’m a bit of a method writer. I act out a lot of the scenes. I listened to one Kanye song over and over again and then I was in Celaena’s head. Then the words came and it’s a bit of a rush.
What would your Harry Potter house be?
R: Hufflepuff. Just because I want to be able to say I’m a Hufflepuffer
N: I want to say Gryffindor, but probably Ravenclaw.
S: On a good day, I would say Gryffindor, but probably Slytherin. Maybe they’ll have mixed house when I get there. {There was an entire conversation about Sarah still waiting for her Hogwarts letter and how she’s hoping that there’s a grad school option for adults.}
What made you want to write YA?
R: There’s no other age group with high emotions. You don’t say “remember our 40s?”
N: I think my age got stuck there. There’s something exciting about it. Nothing is as important as it is to a 16 year old.
S: I think I’m a 12 year old who is obsessed with boys. I’m currently obsessed with Outlander and every night I’m like “oh Jaime I love you.” We recently went to Scotland and I found a cycle of stones and I touched every single one of them just in case. {Insert hilarious story about her husband asking about why she was doing touching all of the stones and their discussion about who would survive living in the 1700s.}
I started Throne of Glass when I was really young, so it was by default.
What were the books you read when you were young?
R: My parents didn’t censor the things I read, so that meant I was reading the Suzanne Somers autobiography in the 6th grade. Something I really remembered was The Babysitters Club.
N: Probably the most important were the Narnia books. {To Sarah:} You touched stones, I opened every closet door looking for That Door.
S: I was growing up and felt that there were two sides of me. Back then nerds weren’t embraced. I pretended that I didn’t read at all. In 7th grade a teacher noticed and called my parents in. My parents took me to BN and I walked out with The Hero and the Crown and Sabriel and it was the first time I read where the girl saved the world.
Who is your ultimate book boyfriend?
R: Étienne St. Clair. I just finished a working on a book called Emmy and Oliver and I put Oliver through the ringer. I’ve been working on it for a while now, so I’m just getting over my crush on him.
N: I’m team Chaol for sure.
S: Obviously Jaime. Akiva from DoSaB. Dorian and Chaol are sort of on the young side. I’m really into Rowan because he’s like A Man. It’s the first time I’ve had a crush on my own character.
How difficult was it to get into everyone’s head for HoF?
S: It wasn’t that difficult. I will only write a point of view if I hear their voice. With Manon, she was super easy to write. Celaena’s point of view was so dark. To do it properly, I had to think of Sooz not existing.
Which character was the most fun to write?
N: For me a character named November. She’s a rat shifter and doesn’t care about what the goody goody main characters are doing.
R: Roux. {But I missed why.}
S: Celaena. Obvs. {so much more than this answer.}
Which characters from the first draft made it to Throne of Glass?
S: I shared everything on Fiction Press. Celaena changed a lot. I started writing when I was 16 and it’s not a coincidence that Celaena was in prison. I was in high school and it’s sort of the same thing.
What comes first: the name or the character?
R: For me, they come up to me and introduce themselves like a person would. They’re just like people, except they’re in my head.
N: Normally I come up with the character first. One time, I had some people ask if I was pregnant because I had so many baby books.
S: I like to plow through the words and I’ll just call them XX with an asterisk. I know I’ll end up on a Wikipedia page reading about the history of temple prostitution if I start researching names and what they mean.
There was only one other question after this, but I didn’t get it. I was fumbling around with my books and trying to get ready for the signing. Finally, they told us that the line up would be row by row and they reminded us again that only one book would be personalized.
Before everyone lined up, Sarah thanked everyone for coming. She said that it really meant a lot that so many people showed up and she wished that she could spend 10 minutes with everyone and get to know them as a person, but she had to leave to go home. She also explained how she wanted everyone to sign her copy of Throne of Glass. The book has been around the world with her and it’s like a yearbook. She’s been waiting to see someone write “Have a good summer, keep in touch”.
I was planning on only getting Christina’s book because I promised her a specific inscription and was supposed to get it when I saw Sarah at Festival of Books. I had another book that was really important to get personalized and since Meredith got me an arc personalized, I was going to skip getting my hardcover copy personalized.
We got up to Sarah quickly and when she saw me, she stood up and hugged me, saying that it was so great to see me. As she signed, the BN employee was opening each book and pulling out the post its before handing them to Sarah. When we got to the last book, Sarah asked if I was getting one for myself. I told her that I had my arc personalized, that it was more important to get the two that I did. Sarah looked at the BN employee and told her that I had been a supporter of the series for so long that I deserved to have my copy personalized. So she put my post its back into the book.
Sarah double checked what I had written on the post it and I said yes. That the scene in HoF where everyone is telling Celaena to get up was one of my favorites and I desperately wanted it in my book. And so, I got the inscription I really wanted. Plus, she signed my bag.
I thanked her profusely, said goodbye to Nicole and went off to the book table to sign ToG for the 3rd or 4th time. You can guess what I put in it. Do I even need to tell you to read Sarah’s books? I didn’t think so.
Leave a Reply