Queen of the Bookshelves : Meeting Sarah J. Maas

Meeting Sarah J. Maas, author of the Throne of Glass series and A Court of Thorns and Roses is easily one of the highlights of my life so far. Prepare yourself for GUSHING. And a few tears on my behalf.

I live a good few hours away from Derby (where the signing was,) so my day started pretty early at 7am. It was the first time I'd ever traveled alone on a train, so nerves were sky-high.

I really shouldn't have worried though. Everything went without a hitch. Heck, I even grew to LOVE traveling around on my lonesome on trains! Already cannot wait for another signing so I can hop back onto one.

So at 11am, I finally made it into Derby. It was HOT. Like, really hot for England. How lucky was that!

I was not the first person at the shop despite being more than 2 hours early. A girl name Grace sat before me, and she was wearing THE most epic ACOTAR shirt you can imagine.

ISN'T THAT FABULOUS?! Apparently it's from Redbubble if you guys want your own!

So we started chatting, and it was epic. Turned out we live only 30 minutes from each other! How freaking cool is that!?

And then, slowly but surely, more people started to join us. But still not many. In fact, I don't think the signing was much more than 20 people! VERY small.

In the end we all turned into one gigantic friendship group. We've named ourselves the Maas Squad. And ACOTAR Crew. We have many names, much like Celaena/Aelin.

And so we waited, chatting about books, blogging and how much we loved Sarah.

Sarah's throne ;)

The staff at the Derby Waterstones were beyond lovely. They even came around every ten minutes or so with gummy bears and wine gums for us!

I had the biggest pile of books, hands down. People would walk in and GAPE at my pile. Do I have any regrets? Hell no. Never, ever.

Months back on my Twitter that is dedicated to Sarah's books (@HeirOfFire) I created a little project that I called Throne of Postcards. Basically, people would write what Throne of Glass meant to them onto a postcard, which I finally gave to Sarah.

To all those that sent cards, thank you so much! Sarah was BEYOND overwhelmed. She wanted to read them all at the table, but there were sooo many! Safe to say, you guys almost made her cry and ruin that lovely make-up.

And then Sarah arrived 45 minutes before the signing. At the mere sight of her we all melted into the floor and silently freaked out so that we didn't come off as utterly INSANE fangirls. Which we are, duh. She vanished into the back and we all prepared ourselves. With more gummy bears and wine gums, of course.

Annnnnnnnnnnnd then it was time. Sarah took her throne like the queen she is and we all lined up, her loyal subjects. The horror in the eyes of the staff member who saw my colossal pile of books was real. I would say I'm sorry, but I'm totally not!

I wish I could write down our entire conversation, but it was just THAT long and THAT exuberant and gushy and almost tearful on both our parts for me to remember any specific lines. Sarah practically hugged me to death the moment she saw me. And there was me worrying all morning that she wouldn't be allowed to hug me! She's a great hugged btw. Queen of Hugs.

And so I met one of my idols. And it was bloody amazing.

You can find me kneeling next to Sarah looking high on happiness

All those books on the table are mine. WHOOPS!

Also, a month back or so, I won a

competition from Sarah and Susan Dennard (Sarusan forever!!) The prize was a bound manuscript of TRUTHWITCH, Susan Dennard's (freaking AMAZING) new book, and Sarah's last ACOTAR ARC. The ever awesome and amazing Sooz also sent along a copy of her other book Something Strange and Deadly for me too! Promoting her and Truthwitch on my Twitter account (@Truthwitch) is an honor, seriously. You all NEED to go and read her books and talk to her, because she's freaking amazing. (Read my review of TRUTHWITCH HERE!)

After the signing, me and the crew went to a cafe named Bookcafe. We exchanged information, gushed even more, read our dedications in our books and drank milkshakes. Or, in Ray's case, necked back tea.

We did head back to the shop to say goodbye to Sarah, but she was long gone since the signing was so tiny.

And then it was over. The heartbreaking journey home began. But until next year when we meet again, Sarah!