Event Recap: Sarah J. Maas Book Signing Event #SarahJMaasinPH

Hoooow's it going everyone! Boy, am I excited to tell you this story! And even though this post is a month overdue lol I'm still going to write about it and nothing is going to stop me. So with all that said, let's begin!

It was January if my memory serves me right when I first found out about this event and I have to admit, back then I was a Maas virgin. But if you know me, you'll know that I usually haven't read the books of the author prior to the announcement. And this announcement came right after Victoria Aveyard's event was announced, mind you, and I'll have you know that I only cried about not having enough money to buy both authors' books for 30 minutes. But with some tough budgeting, I was able to buy all of Victoria Aveyard's books and three out of six of Sarah's books a couple of weeks before March. But after that, a set of new rules about the signing was released and it sparked quite the reaction from book signing regulars. These rules included:

• a limit of three books per person
• a limit of 350 book signing slots
• absolutely no photo with the author

This caused an uproar from some regulars. I was disappointed about those rules myself because I was really tightening my daily spending just to save up for Sarah's books and I was sad that we weren't even allowed to take a photo. And the fact that only 350 slots are available means that more people are going to camp out a hundred years before the event. And for those who do not camp out, it's the Hunger Games. I also heard through the grapevine that the new rules sparked Twitter wars between the regulars and bloggers, and even NBS staff were involved. Although I will not go off on a tangent about it. It's such a drama, to be honest, and I think we're all over it.

Anyway, it was such a relief to have bought only three of Sarah's books when I heard about the new rules! And days before the signing they lifted the no-photos rule which was sweet. The only problem left is how I'm going to secure one of those 350 slots. Which was why I tried something I've never tried before - I arrived at the venue the day before!

The Makati sunrise

I arrived at 5 PM of the day before and sure enough people were already lined up outside the store although I only expected a handful of people but this is what welcomed me when I arrived.

A screenshot of messages between me and my bookish friend Shea on Instagram. This was the photo I took and sent to her when I arrived that afternoon.

That night I met up with my long-time book signing buddy Kathy and she introduced me to her friends. One of them was this lady named Barbz, and the two of them kept me company while we were waiting in line.

Kathy, me, and Barbz while we were waiting in line.

I really think NBS outdid themselves this time because this time they hired some huge scary bouncers to watch the line from dusk 'til dawn. They kept order and made sure no one was cutting the line, plus having half a dozen bouncers guarding me made me more assured about my security. Some of them were friendly, too! Kathy is a very friendly person and she quickly befriended one of the bouncers, which resulted in occasional chit-chat and jokes with Kuya Bouncer. They even had signs which we LOVED and just had to borrow to take a picture with.

The line.

It's just a shame that we weren't able to take a picture with Kuya Bouncer, but I have a feeling we'll meet again sometime lol. Anyway, the rest of the morning was just the usual. You could watch how my morning went in my Snapchat story:

We were finally allowed to go inside at 10 AM and register and holy cow I was so happy with my number and when I learned that there were seats left for us, I swear I heard the Hallelujah chorus.

Since I attended Victoria Aveyard's event, I noticed that they now always kept the stage cordoned off which was why I could no longer take my traditional picture in the author's chair. :/

Freaking 49!!!! Taken outside NBS on the floor again. And this time I was alone so I totally looked like a nutjob trying to summon a book spirit with the way my books were placed on the ground.

Some of my bookstagrammer friends whom I met during Victoria Aveyard's signing decided not to attend this event, although two of them, Angela and Marsh specifically, decided to still go to the event but not have their books signed (because their books were of the other edition which was not allowed in the signing, although some people still got away with it). It was a nice reunion, really.

OTP... LOLOLOL

At 2 PM, Sarah J. Maas finally arrived! Her interview was longer than Aveyard's, although I wasn't able to record it. Sorry! I'll see if my nice, beautiful, perfect friend Gela can lend me her video of the interview so I could at least transcribe it because the interview actually had some very juicy deets about Sarah's works. 

It was finally time to meet Sarah! Oh my gosh she was so so nice. She was all like, "You must be tired from waiting for so long!" and I was like "I don't feel it [being Tired]. It's all worth it because I get to meet you!", and she was like, "Aw! You're such a cutie!". Oh, no big deal. I've just been called a "cutie" by a New York Times #1 Bestselling Author. No biggie. SAYS NO ONE EVER. 

I think this was the part where she called me a cutie lol

Thank you once again to Angela for letting your iPhone capture these moments!

AND THEN I grabbed my chance to ask her if she could sign my pins (knowing that only books were allowed to be signed by NBS) and sure enough, the NBS staff beside me told me that BUT Sarah did something amazing. She sneakily made a "let me have 'em" gesture and signed my pins!!! That just made me love her even more.

 She was absolutely the sweetest! Plus she looks gorgeous! #PapaMaas (Sarah's husband, the guys who's seated in the chair in the background) is one lucky guy! Josh himself had a line of his own thanks to my friends Kathy and Barbz who were brave enough to be the first ones to approach him. They talked to him a bit and they let him sign their books as well and before he knew it, a long line of girls was in front of him hahaha. But seriously, Sarah is so pretty!

#FLAWLESS

And finally a picture with her!

This signing has got to be one of my top faves! I really enjoyed it and I'm glad to have my book signing buddies! Thank you once again to Kathy and Barbz for everything! ;) I'm eternally grateful. And a shoutout to my bookstagrammer friends who went even if they did not get their books signed: Angela and Marsh. Thank you too to Shea, @bookishwanderlust on Instagram, for having my fourth book get signed! (She only had two books to be signed and I had the guts to ask her if she could let a book of mine be signed because I was past the limit and she gladly obliged!). It was also nice meeting some people too! A quick shoutout to them wouldn't hurt!

• Rachel and Michelle (thanks for letting me borrow your Android cord when I needed it the most!)
• Ate Lei (I've been following you for a long while on bookstagram (@lei_reads) and it's nice to finally meet you! :) Thanks to Angela haha)

And finally thank you to National Book Store for this event and to Sarah J. Maas herself for visiting us! I only regret having read only her first book because I'm already done with the first three books of the Throne of Glass series right now and I could proudly say that she is a new favorite author of mine! SERIOUSLY, THRONE OF GLASS IS MY JAM!!! So that was my #SarahJMaasinPH experience. Until next signing! Adios! :)

Event Recap: Victoria Aveyard Book Signing Event | #VictoriaAveyardinPH

Hello there friends! Did you miss me? It's been 9 months since my last blog post.  I can't believe my last post was about Leigh Bardugo's book signing event. And now I'm returning to the blogosphere by writing about Victoria Aveyard's book signing! I waited that long to finally be motivated to blog again lol. But let's save the catching up for later. Right now let's get down to blogging business.

Taken from National Book Store's Facebook page.

If you've been a reader of mine since I started attending book signings, you may know that I often read the books of the author only when National Book Store announces his/her signing, which means that I'm not usually a fan prior to their signing. It's the same old story with Victoria Aveyard. Once I got word of her event, I organized my daily budget (it ain't pretty) to save some dough for her books. And when I read her first book, Red Queen, holy cow I loved every page. It was perfect for my liking; a fast-paced fantasy book with a dash of sci-fi and a hint of dystopia. I found myself literally not putting down the book. I read it on my way to my uni, while waiting between classes, and even while eating! (Alone of course, which is sad now that I mentioned it.) I might post a review some time, who knows?

But before I go on with the rest of the BS story (BS=book signing, not the other obscene acronym), I want to share another story first. During these past blogless months, the only thing keeping my fanboy self sane was my humble little bookstagram account (an Instagram account dedicated to books). There I got to post pictures of my books, post my bookish rants and raves, and of course, meet other bookstagrammers. This one hot chick [;)] with the Instagram handle TheGeekyAuror reached out to me via Instagram chat and we sort of chit-chatted a few times, knowing each other just a teeny tiny bit in the process. And when the event was announced, I learned that she was going to the event too. So we continued to converse via Instagram chat and promised that we would meet during the event. *sparks* And on March 6th at 4 AM, after awkward descriptions of what were wearing, I finally spotted her and we met. She was already with another bookstagrammer that I've been following for a while but never actually got to chat with (because I AM an awkward penguin) with the bookstagram handle TheBookishHowler. We were casually talking to each other, knowing one another because it was our first time meeting each other, and before we knew it, our bookstagrammer group of three became a group of eight! 

The line.

Yes, I know there's only six of us in this photo.  That was because some were in pee breaks or were meeting other people in line. (L-R: Tin or TheBookMaiden, Ate Nicay or TheNerdySideOfAQueen, Marsh or TheBookishHowler, Angela, Khay or BiblioKhay, and whoever that hunksicle is on the right. Kidding.)

Because Angela (TheGeekyAuror) was so friendly, she knew a lot of bookstagrammers like me through IG chat, and for most of the bookstagrammers in our group, it was their first time meeting Angela in person too. But I loved how our personalities clicked and we kept each other company as if we were long time friends. It made the wait not too burdensome. After chit-chatting and talking about bookstagramming life, we were finally allowed to go inside National Book Store and register. And as usual, some kind of magic happens and my number is always my expected number+20 or so. And we weren't blessed with seats this time so for us it was the cold hard ground. I felt like that Taylor Swift goat all over again.

I was 96. Okay, it wasn't that bad. At least we were all still double digits. And of course, we were all still bookstagrammers, so we did what had to be done (Marsh and me) and searched for natural sunlight in which we could perform our bookstagramming duties.

Bookstagrammin' BTS.

Our chosen pictorial grounds was the floor outside NBS, which is why having a plastic bag under my books was crucial ("I'm having these books signed and I am not going to get them dirty"). We didn't care if people stared at us as if we were starting a ritual with our books on the floor. Yep, bookstagramming life is pretty hard. And after some major touch-ups with my best friend Vee (short for VSCO), and that well though of cropping, a bookstagram post was born. All we had to do next was wait for Victoria Aveyard to arrive, and the result of the waiting is the following selfies. Excuse my haggard face, I was up since 3 AM during that day.

L-R: Tin, Angela, Nicay, Marsh, Ate Mel or Bibliophile_Veterinarian, that hunksicle who keeps on popping up in these pictures, and Isabel or LuiannaaIsabel

L-R: Khay, Tin, Angela, Ate Mel, Marsh, that guy again (seriously why is this hunk of a man in all these pictures) jk that's me and I'm letting go of the jokes, Allen (another bookstagrammer who goes by the handle WishIWasABook), and his friend (whom I am ashamed of forgetting the name pls don't sue me)

We ate at this fancy colonel-owned restaurant that serves this tasty fried chicken cooked in 11 secret herbs and spices. It was too tasty I got oil on my forehead.

And we chatted some more as if we were old friends catching up with one another. And finally, after hours of sitting down on the butt-destroying floor, Victoria Aveyard arrived!

Photoception.

The interview was the worst. (Not as in worst interview ever. I meant that it was the worst part of the day for me.) During the interview I felt as if my energy was being sucked out of my body. That's what you get when you combine exhaustion with staying up since 3 AM + more than a thousand people stuffed in one teeny weeny National Book Store branch + sitting on cold hard floor for at least 8 hours + a thousand people's body heat + screaming. I did all I could to keep myself conscious. And because a thousand+ people attended, the interview was the shortest one I've witnessed (5 mins or something like that). I recorded the interview although I'm still thinking if I should transcribe it or just make a video with subtitles (because the screaming is too much). 

Guess what we did after that 10 minute(I think) interview. Our favorite hobby of course: waiting. We waited for our books to be signed and when we just couldn't take the heat inside NBS, we waited at the entrance where there was an air conditioner blowing cold wind powerfully at us or in other words, bliss. We took more selfies too, which surprised me because I don't normally do selfies, even just by myself.

You may or may not notice this but beneath those smiling cheerful faces hide tired, exhausted souls. When we were cool enough (but then again, we ALWAYS are *puts shades on*), we entered NBS again and found a space between some shelves in which we could sit.

When in doubt, find a bookshelf. (But seriously I think this is the cutest selfie I took during that day.)

Our numbers were finally called and it was time to meet Victoria Aveyard! Angela was so nice for letting me borrow her iPhone to take pictures with when i met Victoria because it totally beats my Android camera lol.

VA: Hi how are you!
Me: I'm good thank you! Thank you for writing Red Queen I loved it so much!
VA: No! Thank you for coming today!
*photographer takes picture*
Me: Thank you have a great day!
-fin-

And after that we finally decided to go home. But not before we took another picture lol. Although we were incomplete in this one. We were never complete in a photo I think.

I never knew that book signings were so much more fun with friends around! (No offense, Mom!) I kind of enjoyed their company more than the actual signing itself lol. But still, thank you very much to National Book Store for hosting this book signing. I could really tell that you were trying to outdo your past signings (the big scary bouncers were new to me lol but they kept everything organized for as long as they could). And thank you to Victoria Aveyard herself for gracing us with your presence! It was such an honor meeting yet another #1 New York Times bestselling author! And finally thank you to my brand new bookstagram friends. You really made this day special. Please check them out if you can! I didn't take pictures with all of them but now's the opportunity to get to know them! :)

Ate Mel - @bibliophile_veterinarian

Tin - @thebookmaiden, thebookmaiden.wordpress.com

Marsh - @thebookishhowler 

Gela - @thegeekyauror, thegeekyauror.wordpress.com

Ate Nicay - @thenerdysideofaqueen, queennicaybooks.wordpress.com

Isabel - @luiannaaisabel, luiannareads.wordpress.com

Khay - @bibliokhay 

Allen - @wishiwasabook 

Ian - @bibliophilemusings, ephemeralwriting.wordpress.com

Shea - @bookishwanderlust, bookishwanderlust.wordpress.com

And of course, my book signing buddies from #JamesFreyinPH, @marykatedejesus and @trixie_keepcalm! I hope I did not forget anyone but if I did please let me know in a comment!

The Epic Reads poster was from NBS's live Twitter contest during the event. I also won an ARC, although I claimed it during Sarah J. Maas's book signing (which is a blog post for another week ;) ), I wasn't able to claim it in this event. I hope I can make the video with the interview soon! And until then, have a great week and welcome back to the blogosphere to me haha!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin