Event Recap: Holly Black and Cassandra Clare Signing

 

On September 14, 2015 I crossed one item off my non-existent bucket list. Cassandra Clare and Holly Black came to Vancouver as part of their The Copper Gauntlet Book Tour! I was pretty thrilled when I found out 2 weeks before the event. Cassandra Clare is my all-time favourite author. Her books got me back into reading and I've really enjoyed Holly Black's writing so I had to go to the event.

 

It was a first come first serve signing as long as you had either a copy of The Iron Trials or The Copper Gauntlet. We were also encouraged to bring any backlist titles since there was a high chance of them signing everything. Naturally I did that (see top right corner in the picture above). I stuffed every CC and HB book I owned into a small suitcase and a tote bag. I was so ready.

When the 14th rolled around, I got to Chapters at 4pm. The event was set to start at 7pm but I wanted to make sure I got a good spot so I went straight after work. The staff told me that there wouldn't be a line up until 5pm so I hung around the store lugging around my little luggage. It was weird but I was too excited to care lol. When 5pm came around, everyone who was there for the signing was herded into a corner where a staff member explained we would be sorted into groups after we formed a line up. This part wasn't very organized and I just have to vent a little. Because they wouldn't let us line up early (like according to the time we got there) people who arrived later than me ended up in front of me. :( The girl beside me told me she had been waiting since 1pm and we were at the end of the line. Granted our position wasn't really the end of the line since there was still two more hours to go and we were pretty sure there would be plenty of late-comers but it still felt a little unfair. Anyways so we all sat waiting. Two girls sitting close to me talked to me and asked my age. They were 16 and 14 and boy were they surprised to find out I was at least a decade older than them. I felt like a grandma haha... It was also really fascinating to see how much energy they had. They were practically chattering nonstop while I was just rubbing my eyes and yawning. Two notebooks came circulating and we all got to write messages for Cassie and Holly so that was fun. When 7pm came around, we got to enter the main event area. I didn't get a seat but I got a nice spot standing near the front ;)

 

They're so cute.

 

Besides talking a little bit about The Copper Gauntlet, Cassie and Holly talked about their friendship, what it's like writing together and gave writing tips. One girl said they inspired her to write. It was so touching. Authors change lives guys. The Q and A was really fun. CC and HB are so natural at making people laugh. Some interesting things I remember them talking about:

1. There will be a wedding in TDA but we don't know who the couple will be but we will get to see Clary, Jace and the gang!

2. When Holly was writing The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, she got too excited with writing the scenes inside Coldtown and she ended up writing a lot of vampires partying it up. She had to cut most of it out but maybe we'll get a novella titled Party in Coldtown?

3. They talked about what they love about being an author - Holly said it's meeting other authors, it's so weird but so great. Cassie said it's not having to get up in the morning ;)

4. Raphael was a character that turned out differently than Cassie first imagined.

5. Hazel from The Darkest Part of the Forest had a secret but Holly didn't know what so she went around asking her friends what it was.

6. Cassandra Jean is working on the TMI graphic novels alongside Cassie. They've been given a lot of creative rights as to what goes into the novel.

7. Like The Bane Chronicles, The Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy e-novellas will be released in physical print next year! I'm super excited for this since this was the exact reason I held off reading the novellas. YAY~

Also as an Indigo exclusive, they shared the title of the third Magisterium book which will be called:

 

The Bronze Key!!
 

Now onto the actual signing. I was really nervous to talk face to face with them so I might have ended up blabbering nonstop oops. The event specified only The Copper Gauntlet will be personalized but both Cassie and Holly ended up personalizing everything. Woohoo! It was too bad Cassie only signed one book from each of her series. (I wanted to stay till the end to maybe get all my books signed but decided against it since I didn't want to seem pushy. Then I heard a few days later that someone did stay and she got every single one of her books signed. Now I'm beating myself up over why I didn't do it...). Oh well, next time! YEP! There will be a next time because Cassie herself told me so! When I thanked her for coming to Vancouver she told me she requested to come back to Vancouver next year for her TDA Tour! I was like hells ya and I told her I'd totally be there ;)

That's me in plaid with two bags XD

There's me being a huge fangirl :P

I'm not sure what I said but she was probably scared
because I was fangirling hard XD

Sorry for the excessive pictures but Cassie had so many different facial expressions I just had to share them all! I don't remember much of what we talked and I most likely didn't even make sense but it was so much fun getting to meet and talk to them!

A quick shoutout to Michelle who is the one I've been tweeting with on Twitter regarding the event. I got to meet her after the event and she's super nice. Thank you for tweeting with me! I also saw Olivia, who I met a few days before at the Raincoast TeensRead event. She introduced Cassie and Holly at the beginning of the event (see picture below). The two of them run the Chapters Metrotown YA Book Club so definitely go join if you're interested :D

 

Overall I had a wonderful time! The staff at Chapters Metrotown were patient and understanding. Thank you so much for hosting the event and taking the photos for me :D