Let me ask you a question. What would a normal person usually do at 3 AM on a Sunday? Sleeping, right? Or at least not on his/her way to what he/she knows will be a long period of time waiting in line outside a mall. But not for this guy! Last Sunday I went to another book signing and this time I can confidently say that everything went better than expected and that this is one of the best book signing experiences I've had (which in retrospect is actually not that big of a deal, because I've only attended four of these things so far).
As usual, I arrived before the sun did and I was thrilled when I saw that the line hadn't become as long as my last book signing. I'm apparently getting better and better at this line thing (a valid theory, considering all the experiences I've had with past book signings). And as usual, campers were present, probably for the much-coveted Six of Crows ARC that Leigh announced she was going to give to the first couple of people in line. The only thing that boggled my mind was that the line was made up mostly of not people, but bags. So apparently this is a thing, letting a bag save your spot in line. I might try it sometime. Haha. But this isn't the only new thing I've learned at this signing.
Speaking of new, some people still had that old habit of allowing their bagong ligo (Tagalog: freshly showered/bathed) friend who arrived not-so-early to cut in line (and yes, I'm throwing all the shade I could muster hahaha). Of course, I let my friend Katherine (the prime reason I have all these pics to put in this blog post, thanks again Kathy!) cut in line too, but that was just because I had someone else with me to act as a placeholder while she wasn't there yet, so technically what I did was legal. Hahaha. If you have read my past book signing recaps, you may recall that I have a love-hate relationship with signings like this mainly because I always end up sitting on cold hard floor for hours. This time though, when we were finally allowed to enter National Book Store and register, people were entering (semi-illegally haha) the chair area and were already saving seats even before they got registered! And then I thought: "Let me in on that bandwagon!" and I ran to the chair area and practically trespassed the perimeter thingy (metal cylinders with strips of cloth attached to it, I forgot what it's called). It was practically the Hunger Games, minus the killing-each-other part of course... and voila! For the first time in ages, I was finally able to sit on a real chair! I still consider it a personal achievement, if you ask me. And nobody stopped us or told us it wasn't okay to do, so it's also technically legal HAHAHA.
Then as usual, it was time for the customary stage pictorial.
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| My new book signing bud, Kathy. We met at the James Frey book signing event. |
While waiting, Kathy and I couldn't help but notice the people who were in cosplay. They all did a really good job! There were two sets of people in costume which I liked to categorize as the Protagonists group and the Grisha group. Plus, all of them were on the running for a Six of Crows ARC! Three ARCs were raffled out among the cosplayers.
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| The Protagonists group; people cosplayed as Genya, Zoya, Mal, and Alina. |
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| The Grisha group. Photo taken from National Book Store's official Facebook page. |
When it was almost time for the program, we left our seats and positioned ourselves in front of the stage for that amazing video footage we wanted, and for the exclusive photo with Leigh haha. You'll see later.
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| We missed you, Trixie! ;) |
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| Photobomb #1 |
Guys, I recorded the whole interview haha. But then I decided to transcribe it so that you won't have to deal with the sound of ruckus of the audience in the background. I'll upload the full interview soon. (Feel free to skip the interview transcript. There's more to read after that!)
Q & A with Leigh Bardugo:
You had only three
books yet you had so many male characters. Do you know who she [Alina] is going
to end up with?
Yeah. I knew and honestly if you read the books, it’s sort
of built into the DNA of the books. But I also feel like the stories are about
much more than who she ends up with and the person who Alina ends up with is
not necessarily the person who I would have chosen. I would have chosen Tolya
so don’t get excited about that. Tolya’s like my perfect man. He’s also based
on The Rock. Yeah, I think the story
is about much more than that and are about of different relationships. There
are about a lot of different friendships. And for me that was always going to
be a part of the story. And I know a lot of people haven’t read the third book
because you are all waiting for the paperback. The paperback is going to have
the Darkling prequel story in it, some fan art, an excerpt of Six of Crows, so
yeah.
Your characters are
so well developed. How does it come about? While you’re writing them down, does
it flow when you write your characters or do you outline everybody first…?
I outline plot. I outline the major beats, the major things
that need to happen, and I do have the understanding that things might change.
But when it comes to the characters, some of them arrive fully formed.
Sturmhond basically walked into the room while I was writing. He was like, ‘I
got things to tell you!’ and then he would just not shut up and he also became something more as I
was writing him. You don’t know the journey you’re going to take the character
on even if you know what the plot says. You don’t know what emotionally that’s
gonna mean. Alina’s voice took a little longer to write. When I first wrote the
first draft of Shadow and Bone, she was just so nice, she was nice to everyone,
and I was like ‘Oh man I’m gonna punch her in the face!’, so it took a little
while to find her and it was only when I found this sour side of her that I
understood this girl, for obvious reasons. Genya was somebody who I never
expected how important she was gonna be to the story. So it all depends on the
character.
Did you plan to make
Sturmhond into Nikolai?
I hope everybody read Siege and Storm, because that’s a
spoiler! I absolutely knew who he was, but when you plot the synopsis, all I
wrote down was the “mysterious privateer”. And until you start writing those
scenes you don’t know who that person is going to turn into. And I’ll tell you
something: initially I was gonna kill him off in the second book. [Audience
screams “NOOOO!”] And that was what he said, so I was like, “No”. When you fall
in love with a character you have to keep them around you know. It’s like the
reverse George R.R. Martin.
How do you decide
(well I guess you knew that from the beginning) who she [Alina] would
eventually end up with?
You are very hung up on this, I’m sensing. *laughs* Yeah, I
always knew who was right for her, and I wanted her to have some peace at the
end. I think that she’s seen and had been through so much. That’s all I’m gonna
say.
Do you yourself
relate to Alina? Was there any part of you in Alina?
I am extremely powerful! I think that there’s a little bit
of me in every character. None of them are too much like me because otherwise
nothing bad would ever happen to them. We would just write books where it was
like, ‘I met this character named Sheigh Farfugo… she ate lunch and then she took a nap.’ There’s a little bit of me
in all of them but nothing really, really close. I think Alina and I share the
similar sense of humor. We’re both pretty pragmatic about life and when I was
growing up I really felt like I was an outsider and I definitely spent many
years in Junior High School feeling like I did not belong where I was, I hadn’t
found my tribe. And I think if you read Ruin and Rising, you know that she sort
of begins to build her own family. She finds the friends in the people and some
of them are the people who you would never expect her to be friends with in the
end but they learn to fight side-by-side together and that really resonated
with me.
So are their friends
based on your own friendships that you have?
I have amazing friends. I am surrounded by this crew of
amazing people, really amazing women, both in my professional life and my
personal life so yeah, some of the friendships. I think Alina’s relationships
with Mal is really inspired by a bunch that I had while I was at an age where
my life could have gone really bad. It was that year where things could have
gone really wrong, and this friend, it was like us against the world. And also
Tamar and Tolya was based on my college roommate Hedwig. Yeah my roommate’s
name in college was Hedwig. I’m not kidding, when I first read Harry Potter I
was like ‘WHUUT?’, and she was pretty magical so…
Do you and your
publishing team collaborate on ideas or do you write it pretty much on your
own, or do you work with other people who help you?
It depends. I always bring my ideas to Jo (Leigh’s agent).
With the Grisha Trilogy, I brought her a whole manuscript and she saw where the
story was going. The Six of Crows is my next book, it comes out on September
and it’s a heist book, right? So I was driving around LA and I saw this
billboard for a movie called Monuments Men with George Clooney and Matt Damon.
Yeah, I see your blank expression s because when I saw this billboard I was
like ‘I don’t wanna see that movie’, but I really wanted to re-watch Ocean’s
Eleven, so I see this and I literally drove across three lanes of traffic, I
almost drove out of the road, I screeched to a halt and I was like ‘I wanna
write a heist! I wanna write Ocean’s Eleven meets Game of Thrones’ and I called
Jo and I was like ‘Jo, what do you think?’ and she was like ‘Go! Do! Write!’
and we talked about [stakes?] and all that kind of thing but for me, between
the idea and actually showing somebody a draft I tend to keep things pretty
tight. I feel like if I tell the story to too many people the magic leaks out
of it.
So do you lock
yourself in a room for hours on end?
Yes. I also love to draft with people. My friends and I will
go to coffee shops or whatever, and we do what’s called “Friendly
Surveillance”. We’ll take each other’s cell phones so we can’t get online, we
won’t get the wifi password and we’ll make each other write. Or we’ll go on a
retreat, we’ll all stay in a house together, we’ll sit around and it’s good
peer pressure. If it’s a bunch of people on a laptop, you could be like ‘I’m on
Twitter!’. I love to draft but when it’s time to turn that rough, messy draft
into a book, then I go into the bunker and I literally do not leave my house for like, two or three months. I’m not
kidding. The car doesn’t get driven, I order a lot of take-out, nobody sees me
and I’ll come out and my hair is this big and I’m just like ‘AHHH!’ but that’s
how the book gets done.
And that’s when you
show it to your editor, right?
Yeah, that’s usually the draft that goes to my editor and I
send it to Jo at the same time and I have a wonderful editor named Noa Wheeler
who’s been with me through all of the books and I really don’t know what I’d do
without her. Are there any aspiring writers? Don’t be afraid! Be like ‘YES!’ so
I could come to your signing one day. Why not! Write some good books so I could
read them! But you need to find readers you trust, right? And it’s important
because maybe they’re not the best writer but they’re a really good reader and
they can read it and not put their ego into it and they can read it and give
you good feedback. They’re the people whom you walk out of a movie with and they’re
like ‘I didn’t like that the character did this’ or ‘I thought it was slow in
the middle’. They’re people who have an understanding of story and I feel like
they are blessing and you should hold on to those people.
Okay and there are
some authors who have been here to Manila who are your writing buddies as well,
right?
Yeah, we all see each other at conferences and festivals but
the YA community is really unique among the author communities. I don’t think
literary fiction authors just hang out. That’s one of the best things about
becoming an author is that you meet some of the people that you’ve admired for
years. Have you guys read Holly Black? She’s one of my favorite writers in YA
and that I actually get to meet her and hang out with her and have dinner with
her and talk story with her, I periodically will have these moments where I’m
like ‘Am I asleep? Am I dreaming? Am I gonna wake up and I’ll still have the
same crappy job I’ve had before?’, so it’s incredible. It’s a great community.
So if you were a
Grisha, who/what would you be? Would you want to be Genya…?
Well, I wouldn’t want Genya’s life. She’s had a rough
[go?] over it. I mean, I‘d love to have her power. Genya should come over
before parties and make me look dazzling. I would say that I would like to be a
Heartrender because I’m a little bloodthirsty and if you are having a boring
conversation with somebody you could just be like, ‘Sleeeeep.’. But in my heart
I would probably be a Fabrikator. I just wanna be in my workshop making things
or making stories. What about you? Which Grisha would you be?
I just wanna be with
the Darkling! So tell us about your upcoming books.
Yeah, so Six of Crows, I told you guys it’s a heist book.
It’s set in the Grisha world but it’s set in a little country called Kerch. If
you guys have Siege and Storm and you look at the map, it’s this little island
nation at the bottom if you remember it’s where Nikolai went to college or
university briefly and it’s the home of the stock exchange. It’s the opposite
of Ravka, basically. Ravka is this isolated fairy tale realm. It’s been cut off
from the world, it’s failed to industrialize. Kerch is the opposite. Kerch is this place where they stay neutral.
While everybody else was fighting they got really rich. It’s this like
cosmopolitan hub of trade and it has this thriving criminal underworld and of
course all of my “heroes” from Six of Crows come from this criminal underworld.
It takes place two years after the Grisha Trilogy. You don’t need to have read
the Grisha Trilogy in order to read Six of Crows but if you liked the trilogy
you’ll get more appreciable in Six of Crows and you will hear about some of the
characters. I tried to put lots of little goodies in there for the people who
have read the trilogy so you will see lots of little references that other
people won’t get. Shadow and Bone is kind of a “chosen one” story and I wanted
to write something about six kids who are not
chosen ones, who didn’t have grand destinies, who aren’t kings or queens,
who aren’t looking to start a revolution. They’re just looking to survive. And
the guy who leads this crew, he is not a chosen one. He is just the toughest,
smartest, most ruthless kid in the room.
Is that a series as
well?
It’s gonna be two books. They’re really long books.
So going back to your
characters, not everybody is really bad or not everybody is really good. Is it
easier to write people as gray characters or black and white?
I think there’s always a temptation to make characters black
and white and I think sometimes readers want that. They want you to tell them
is this person good or is this person bad but I don’t know many people who are
just one thing, right? I don’t like heroes who always make the right choices
and I don’t like villains who are easy to dismiss. You get these villains and
you’re like ‘Why is anybody listening to this dude? He is clearly bad news!’ so
I wanted to create antagonists who you could see yourself rooting for (I know
some of you do) and I wanted to create heroes who got things wrong and didn’t
always do the noble, right thing because I think that’s more readable. I wanted
magic to feel real, I wanted Ravka to feel real, I wanted Kerch to feel real.
All the characters in Six of Crows have different pasts, different things that
have brought them together but none of them is just a good guy or a bad guy.
How did you end up
becoming a writer? What was your path? Were you a regular kid?
What’s a regular kid? I always knew that I wanted to be a
writer. I was an only child and I would walk around telling myself stories all
the time, and I still do. That’s how I work when I have writer’s block. I put
my Bluetooth thing in and then I walk around talking to myself so people won’t
think I’m completely insane. I have a picture that was drawn for me by a friend
of mine when I was fourteen years old and it was a birthday present that she
drew me in a book signing and that was how long I wanted to be a writer and
that’s why moment’s like this are just crazy because it actually happened! But
I had a very long path. I had a lot of very bad jobs. It took me a long time to
find the right story and for any of you writers in the audience, I did this
thing where I thought you could write a perfect first draft because I would
compare what I was writing to what I saw on the shelves, all my favorite books
and I didn’t realize they weren’t first drafts or second drafts or third
drafts. Those books have been through the wringer so you can’t compare your
first draft to their however many draft. There’s a lot of stages in there so I
had to get to a stage where I could write a messy, crazy first draft, shut down
that editorial voice and that for me was what really made me a writer. That’s
how I became a writer was by writing a book.
And are there
specific books you would recommend to aspiring writers?
Read everything. Never let anybody make you feel ashamed for
loving young adult or loving whatever you love if it’s fantasy or contemporary
or whatever it is. If somebody is trying to pull up with you, they have their
own thing going on. A lot of people ask me about taking Creative Writing
courses or going into getting a masters of Fine Arts and my advice is always
you don’t have to actually go into that little fancy school… all you have to do
is read and write. And that’s what you should do. Read everything. And if
there’s a course you wanna take, go online. All of the syllabi from where I
went to school, they’re all online! You don’t have to go to Yale! Going to Yale
is not what made me a writer. Reading and writing and loving books is what made
me a writer. So go and steal their syllabi! If you want to read it then read
it. And also if you’re having trouble plotting, there’s this great book called
“Save the Cat” and in fact my friend Jess Brody did “Save the Cat for Novels”.
I think it’s out. It’s great for structure, if that’s where you fall down, but
you know, that’s the trick to becoming a writer is becoming an avid reader and
just writing and writing and writing until it’s good.
AUDIENCE QUESTIONS:
You’re always so
active on Twitter and Tumblr and everything. How do you balance that with your
writing?
I don’t. No, really, you’re gonna see this actually in the
next couple of months. Balancing promotion and writing is incredibly hard for
me and I never want people to feel like, if people have gone out of their way
to tweet at me or make an edit for me, I don’t ever want them to feel like I
didn’t see it or acknowledge it but I know things fall through the cracks and I
know also that I may have to disconnect a little this summer because I have a
sequel to finish.
Are there any updates
for the major motion picture for Shadow and Bone?
Yes, but I don’t think I could share it just yet? Guys I
swear, angels from Dreamworks will drop from the ceiling and hit me with
sticks… we can’t talk about it and the thing is, I don’t wanna get your hopes up until we
really know, until it’s really happening. Things are moving, but Hollywood is
slow, man. The best thing we can do is talk about the books, get your friends
to read the books, to help them see how many people wanna see that movie made.
Are there gonna be
any short stories about Genya or the other characters?
Maybe someday. That would be something that would happen
down the line. When I finish the sequel of Six of Crows, I’m going to take a
break for a while from the Grisha world. There are some other things that I
want to work on. Someday I will probably write a Nikolai book but I don’t know
when. I don’t know when that might be but I’ve always known what his story was
and where the story goes.
What is harder,
writing a bad character or a good character?
Writing a good character is harder. It is, because writing
bad characters is so much fun! I think that’s why it appeals to readers. They
do things we would (hopefully) never do.
Do you feel that
there is still some stigma between a traditionally published author and an
ebook author? Also, if you were given the chance to cast the Darkling, who
would you pick?
We don’t know if Sean O’Pry can act! Do we care? I don’t
know. First question: I don’t think there’s a stigma. Authors are really
crossing those lines a lot from ebook to traditional publishing and back again.
People who started as ebook writers commonly traditionally publish, people who
aren’t traditionally published sometimes sell published books when there isn’t
enough push from their publisher or desire for the next book in a series. So I
don’t think there’s a stigma. I’ll admit that for me self-publishing is hard.
You’re doing the work of agents and editors and so many promotion and marketing
and it needs less time to write, so I don’t know if that’s something I would ever
pursue but you know who’s the right person to read about self-publishing?
Courtney Milan. She’s a romance author and she’s really smart and she really
understands the market. That’s how she broke out. Oh, and casting. I mean, for
me, I’m so old that I’m like ‘A young Gary Oldman! Or a young Richard
Armitage!’ but you know who I really like? I assume you guys have seen
Divergent? Do you know Jai Courtney? I want him to be the Darkling.
What YA boks would
you recommend us?
For the fantasy readers, read Megan Whalen Turner. A lot of
people haven’t discovered her books. Amazing. If you talked to any fantasy
writer, they love her. Mark Harris, Robin McKinley are like the classics. A
also love Marie Rutkoski, she wrote a book called The Winner’s Curse. So fantastic. Graceling by Kristin Crishore. There are so many great ones and I
sometimes post about what I’m reading. I just read a science fiction YA called Illuminae. Guys. This is the first book
that I’ve read in a long time where there was a twist and I felt like I have
been punched in the gut, and then for two chapters afterwards, I was like ‘No!
No! No! It can’t be real! No!’ so I recommend it highly. It was incredibly
good. Also, I don’t read a ton of contemporary but some of my favorites are I’ll Give You The Sun, Eleanor and Park, and
there’s a new contemporary called Dumplin
by Julie Murphy and it’s coming out in the fall and I thought it was really
good. They’re all fantastic books.
See? I knew we would be best friends. Just kidding. Here's the actual photo by National Book Store.
After that, the book signing proper started. I was number 68, so I had to wait for a little while.
When number 61-80 were finally called, we lined up right away and while waiting, Kathy and I met some very nice book signing peeps!
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| (L-R) Kathy, Joanna, Innah, moi, and Sam |
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| Photobomb #2 |
Leigh Bardugo was super nice! She made me feel comfortable and less awkward by starting the conversation (as she does with everyone). Hihi. It felt like I was talking with a friend. She asked how I was and I asked her the same and she thanked me for coming and I told her the same. And she actually said my name out loud! (which if I'm correct has never been done by an author I've met before) When she read the sticky-note with my name on it, she was the first ever person to say the correct answer! You see, I have this name frustration because people always have a hard time pronouncing my name. Aljur. Arjune. Every name that sounds close to mine, I've heard everyone say. EXCEPT FOR MY ACTUAL NAME. But she was the first person to say what I wanted to hear. And guess what. She just asked how it was pronounced. It's that easy. And I was like, "It's Ar-Jude" and she was like "Arjude? Okay Arjude... *proceeds signing my books*". By now for me asking is way, way better than just guessing.
She asked me if I have read the three books and I told her that I was not yet done with the third one, Ruin and Rising. Then she was like, "Oh okay, I'll write... *writes down insanely appropriate quote*". Then I was all like, "Can you draw your own amplifier please?" and she was like "OH MY GOD. Okay let's see here... *proceeds to draw a stag*... there. It's not that bad?" and I was like, "It's good! Just like Alina's." and then I said my thanks and goodbyes and we parted ways. But that wasn't before we took a picture together. But sadly, the lady in charge of taking pictures only took ONE, and it was blurred! When I saw the picture, I couldn't help but scream internally inside my head "NOOOOOOOO!" (with matching fists in the air). Hence this.
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| I already edited the crap out of this one to make it look better. |
And that was my #LeighBardugoinPH experience! Here are the signed books, if you wanted to see.
A huge, huge thank you once again to Katherine for being my impromptu photographer during the event! I am very grateful. (Follow her on Instagram and Twitter!) And to the people I have met, it was nice meeting all of you! Thank you to Leigh Bardugo for gracing us with your presence! It was such an honor and a pleasure meeting you! And a HUGE thank you to National Book Store for bringing Leigh Bardugo here in Manila! You guys are the best! Oh yeah, I made a vlog of this event.
Also, I am currently working on uploading the full interview. I'll update you once it's done. :)
P.S. This is not a sponsored post by National Book Store. But of course, if the opportunity comes I'd be happy to... you know, be a member of the Bloggers' Forum or something. Just sayin'. ;)
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