An Evening with Sarah J Maas & Leigh Bardugo

A bit of a different kind of post from me today!

Yesterday I drove 2 hours to Waterstones in Liverpool to attend a signing and Q & A session with authors Leigh Bardugo (author of The Grisha Trilogy) and Sarah J Maas (author of the Throne of Glass series).

I absolutely LOVE every book of theirs, and when I booked the tickets a month or so ago I went to my sister and said "I've booked two tickets, you're coming with me, READ THESE." Within days she had read the books and she was getting emotional over all the characters with me and demanded to know if anyone died before she finished them.

We were so excited on the drive there and going into Waterstones, especially because I had called earlier that morning and was told that yes, there would be copies of Heir of Fire available to buy. As soon as I had hung up I was pretty much like this all day:

I feel like I've been waiting for SO LONG for Heir of Fire, especially after THAT ending in Crown of Midnight! I've seen so many people getting early copies and I've been begging some of them to tell me how they got it! So I was beside myself with excitement by the time we got to Waterstones Liverpool yesterday evening. I was originally going to go to the Sarah J Maas singing in Leeds, since it's closer to me, but when I saw that she was doing a talk with Leigh Bardugo, too, I couldn't believe it. It's a fangirls dream.

Anyway, onto the actual event. Both Leigh and Sarah are hilarious, and together they're so entertaining, the audience were laughing for most of the talk as they discussed everything from writing advice to their writing process, and then did quick fire questions of things like chocolate or cheese and dogs or cats. A lot of fandom references were involved, including Sarah mentioning Henry Cavill's abs. So yeah, it was amazing. It was also then that we realised we had been pronouncing 'Chaol' completely wrong, we were saying something like "chay-ol" when in fact it is more like "kay-ol"! 

I was mad with myself for not making notes at the time of what they said because they were so inspiring. On the way home I wrote down what I could remember in my phone notes, so it's not word for word but as close to what I can remember!

A favourite writing quote from each of them:

Leigh Bardugo – "The most important thing to remember is that if you have a story to tell, someone will always want to listen, because people love stories."

Sarah J Maas – "At some stage, people will tell you that you can't do it. People will tell you to be realistic about your expectations, but you shouldn't listen to them."

Sarah also talked about blocking out the inner critic, which she described as the demon on her shoulder, and there were a lot of nodding heads, including mine. Their advice was a lot better than the generic "read a lot of books" advice that a lot of authors give, and it was honestly so helpful. 

Their discussion about female characters was also a real highlight. They both gave their insights into how female characters are torn apart for having traits that male characters are worshipped for – like arrogance and vanity and being self-assured. Yet if they're weak or timid, they're torn apart for not being tough or self-assured enough. But, as Leigh pointed out, the moment people deem a female character to be "too perfect" and good at everything they do, they're called a Mary-Sue, and people will say they need flaws. It's a ridiculous, impossible expectation to meet. 

They have both created such amazing, flawed, dynamic female characters with Celaena Sardothien (Throne of Glass) and Alina Starkov (Shadow and Bone). Both characters have real fears and wants. Celaena can be arrogant and deadly but she loves pretty dresses, and Alina can be timid and scared, but she finds her voice to stand up for herself as her journey progresses. So because of their 'flaws', they're wonderful heroines to read about. As Leigh said, "People say about female characters, like 'WHY CAN'T SHE JUST GET OVER IT? SHE'S SO WHINY' when her whole family has just been killed!"

Once the talk was over, it was time to join the queue for the signing (which, thankfully wasn't too long or tedious, in fact it was more organised than any other singing I've been to!)

I loved that both Sarah and Leigh made such an effort to talk to every single person and ask questions to prompt us when we suddenly lost our voice, even though we had a million things to say! (I had a few favourite quotes I wanted to say I loved from both series but I only remembered as I walked away, both times!) 

I managed to get my hands on a Ruin & Rising tote bag which I absolutely love, and another badge which says 'Amplify' (I got the 'Steel is Earned' one from YALC earlier this year!) I was hugging Heir of Fire to my chest for most of the evening, amazed that I had it in my hands, yay!

Ruin and Rising tote, Grisha badges & Heir of Fire!

Another amazing thing they both did was that they signed the books with a quote relating to each book and I thought that was such a nice touch instead of just my name and then a signature, I'll cherish my copies even more. We told Leigh we are total Mal girls and that we had liked the Darkling briefly to start with not in the last two books. She just laughed and said, "All ships are welcome in this harbour!" Then my sister said a loud spoiler by accident, oops. I also told her I cried for like an hour after finishing Ruin & Rising and she was pretty happy with that! Here are the ones that Leigh  signed (my absolute favourite is 'Make yourself a reckoning'):

                                          

                     'Steel is earned'                   'Impossible. Improbable'           'Make yourself a reckoning.'

And the books signed by Sarah J Maas! We showed her a hilarious Henry Cavill page on my sisters phone that we follow and she nearly choked in surprise (sorry about that) and we decided Henry Cavill can play everyone, ever. Sarah said the films can be like Orphan Black but with Henry Cavill! playing everyone. I'd be so down for that! Haha! She said Henry could totally play a new character called Rowan in Heir of Fire with some make-up and costume, so I'm excited to meet him, as well as the other new characters! 

She also told me she liked my Deathly Hallows necklace and I signed her book, which is such a cool idea. Everyone she meets writes a little note in a hardback copy of Throne of Glass on the pages! I think I was shaking, I was nervous, so I can only make a good guess about what I actually wrote, and it's probably really messy. Anyway, the books!

              

                      'Rattle the stars'                      'Henry Cavill 4eva!' (yes!)            'Light up the darkness'

I just want to thank Leigh and Sarah so much for the effort they both put in with their fans, it made such a great change from some other signings I've been to in the past where authors glance up for a second after you've queued for four+ hours! My sister and I were going on and on about it on the way home and annoying the hell out of our parents. It was definitely the best author event and signing I've ever been to, so thank you as well to Liverpool Waterstones for the organisation involved. The queuing didn't take too long and it was just beyond words to meet two of my favourite authors in one night.

I also bought Isla & The Happily Ever After, another book I've been dying to read and I've already started Heir of Fire and it is amazing so far (of course!) If you haven't read Leigh and Sarah's books I could not recommend them more and if you're thinking of going to a signing of theirs, definitely do!

Isla and the Happily Ever After & Heir of Fire