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!
- 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!
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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. :/
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| #FLAWLESS |
- 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! :)
