Gavin Hetherington Meets Sarah J. Maas
I attended the book signing at Waterstone's in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne where there was a pretty awesome queue going on. I attended the event with my friend Bert who got me obsessed with book signings ever since Joe Abercrombie a couple of months ago. When I heard Sarah J. Maas was coming to Newcastle, I knew I had to go. I was so excited for the event I even tweeted the author one day before. She replied (because she's awesome like that!).
So in the queue were two girls in front of my friend and me who engaged in conversation with us. We didn't know who they were, but they make the wait to see Sarah all the more pleasant. We talked about so many different things as we moved up the line that it felt like we had known each other years. I had never been to a book signing where the other fans waiting were so interactive and nice. I've only been to three so far though - Joe Abercrombie, Darren Shan, and now Sarah J. Maas (in the space of two and a half months). The queue was photographed and you can just see my head in the far distance.
Then I get to the front of the queue and Sarah beams at me with her inviting smile and I waddle over with my unnecessarily-big book bag. As I place two books for her to sign (I left Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight at home thinking the third would be hardback and I would have wanted them to match, so I beat myself up very hard when I saw Heir of Glass was paperback, which I prefer anyway), she lets me sign her book. The book was filled with fan signatures, it actually looked amazing and it was such a cool thing for her to let us do. I remember I signed Page 212. I was going to sign Page 7 as that's my lucky number but that was full so I picked a page at random. It was blank (woohoo, not very many blank pages were left).
Fortunately Sarah remembered that I tweeted her the day before (not that I thought her memory was rubbish) but it made it feel all the more special that she was actually making an effort to engage with her fans. To engage with me. Man, I couldn't stop smiling. I made her laugh a couple of times though I can't exactly remember why - I was nervous and I talk too much when I'm nervous. I remember I said I wanted to be just like her (which is true, I owe a lot of my passion for writing and trying my best to make it in the world to her), and she was happy about that. I'm glad I made her happy, like she made me happy with her wonderful words she shared through her books.
I shyly asked if I could take a photograph with her and, of course, she was up for it like she was for everyone else. I walked around the table, praying I wouldn't knock over the books with my bag (my friend Bert did though haha she's so silly) and we took a great photo together. I absolutely love the photo, obviously Sarah was stunning! Then I asked if I could have a hug, and she was so sweet and gave me one. I'm a hugger so that meant a lot to me. And it was a really nice hug too, she was great. Sarah also commented on my Walking Dead iPhone case - she loves Daryl like I do. We can fight over him any day, but obviously I'm Team Garyl.
She also revealed she was going to do six books in the series, so book #3 is just half-way through. I was ecstatic when she told us that, like seriously I'm just happy the series isn't over yet (I'll cross that bridge when I get to it). Overall, it was the best day of my life (just narrowly beats the birth of my niece haha I can't actually tell if I'm joking, sorry Niamh if you ever read this in ten years time), it was the best book signing I had ever been to so far and I cannot wait to meet Sarah J. Maas again (hopefully she will remember me).
Thank you so much Sarah for a wonderful day, I honestly don't know how I could ever repay you for being so damn awesome!! Hopefully we will meet again one day and I promise I'll bring my first two books. Still not over that :( Anyway, Sarah is amazing so if any of you guys haven't read the 'Throne of Glass' series yet, do it. You won't regret it!
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