This event came around pretty quickly as it only seemed like a couple of weeks ago that I actually brought the tickets! I was fortunate enough to get the tickets for the London event due to the early warning and it was the only local one I could attend. I had previously gone to last years summer signing for Clockwork Princess and also the promotion for the film adaptation for City Of Bones, with Jamie Campbell Bower as the guest.
The signing didn't start until 11am, so I had an early morning ahead of me, I woke up at 6am to get ready in time to catch the 8am train. I applied a rune, as it was forecasted to rain that morning, and put on my Herondale necklace/ring, I wore the appropriate shadowhunter gear with my black leggings, black leather biker boots, grey 3/4 length sleeve and my black beanie hat.
So it took me slightly over an hour, travelling on the train to London and the various tubes I had to get to the destination. After that it was about another five or ten minutes walk to find the place of the event, so I'm glad I had an app for that or I would of had to of asked for directions!
When I started walking up to the place of the event there was already a line forming, but I was quite surprised that there weren't that many people there. As the line for last years one went through many streets! So I took my place in line, I estimated that about fifteen people were in front of me, I heard that some had been there since 4am! I should also mention the time we got there was 9.30am! As the time went by more and more people where joining the line, some had rune tops on and some had started to draw on runes while waiting. I think I recognised a few booktubers and even some people I follow on Twitter, but I was too shy to say hi, so sorry about that! And as previously predicted it did eventually rain, a lot actually, the organisers actually came out to apologise for the wait in the rain and that we would soon be allowed in the venue soon. So I think everyone was relieved by then, knowing that we would be inside soon, it wasn't until 11.30am that the doors were opened and we were let in one by one. Sarah Rees Brennan waited in the foyer to apologise for the rain, I didn't actually recognise it was her until she came up on the stage later... oops!
It was like a maze in the venue, we went down many flights of stairs and handed in our tickets to the ticket lady, on full view was a book display for Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan's books available to purchase. But I wanted to claim my seats before looking, so we entered the cinema and managed to get seats on the third row, this was a surprise indeed! The seats were very comfy though maybe they weren't ideal for this event as we couldn't see the stage, but we were still thankful to gets seats closer to the stage, so I guess it all worked out!
After that I went back out of the cinema and went to the book stall, I was unsure of purchasing any books at all, as I had most of Cassandra Clare's books but none of Sarah Rees Brennan's. I decided after browsing for quite some time to hold off buying anymore books, due to the fact that Waterstones sell their books for full price, so back into the cinema I went and waited for the event to begin.
We didn't have to wait that long until the organiser announced Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan to the stage. First and foremost they asked the audience who had read City Of Heavenly Fire, a mixture of hands went up and explained they wouldn't talk about any of the spoilers but instead would read unpublished work of voicemails left on Magnus Bane's phone from Alec, Isabelle, Simon, and Clary. The timeline of the voicemails happens between City Of Lost Souls and City Of Heavenly Fire and by the angel were they funny, they had the audience completely entranced and in awe.
The voicemails took about half an hour to read back and fourth from Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan, afterwards they said they now would be open to questions and however asked first would get a Morgenstern ring! Now what was shocking about the first question was that this particular fan out right announced a major spoiler, which caused a major gasp in the audience! I, for one didn't mind as I had already read it, however the answer I was most shocked about was for the City Of Ashes script, as all the fans know the production for COA had been postponed due to the disappointing box office numbers for City Of Bones. Anyway the script included Clary splitting into two people, I know I'm like what the hell read the books, then she said Magnus was running for mayor, err isn't the point of the shadowhunter world being secret Magnus would never do that, and then here comes the finale Jace riding mermaids, I mean stick to the source material! I'm so glad they're reworking the script, I hope they've read the book this time round, but hopefully Cassandra should get news about it in the next couple of weeks, so lets hope she tells us! The Q&A went on for about half an hour, once the last question had been answered Cassandra and Sarah left the stage to take a break and also so the organisers could set up the signing on the stage. The wait again wasn't so bad, row after row was taken to join the line, while in line we had to make sure are post it notes were on the right page, I fortunately was able to get both of my books personalised. This was due to the fact that I buy all my books and share them with my sister, so she took one and I took the other. The books I decided on bringing were City Of Heavenly Fire and The Shadowhunter Codex, I would of liked to bring all my books but there was a two book limit.
Again, the wait in line wasn't long, I'd say it took about five minutes from the line to the signing stall, my sister went before me and got my copy of The Shadowhunter Codex signed, this allowed her to tell Cassandra that these books are the reason why she got back into reading again. Cassandra then asked how did she find out about the books, to which my sister replied me! This allowed me to speak to Cassandra, it was kind of a haze, I think I said something along the lines Tumblr got me to read the books and that there awesome. Once we were moved along we were handed some swag which includes of a bookmark, postcard, and a promotional flyer for The Bane Chronicles, I did notice from Instagram and Twitter that some people were handed T-Shirts as well so I don't know how they got them!
Then just like that it was all over, I think we came out of the venue about some time after 1pm, we grabbed a pizza from PizzaHut, did some window shopping and got some books! The weather surprisingly took a turn because it had become so hot and humid, we were definitely dressed wrong for the afternoon, so we decided to head home. By the time I got home it was 5pm or sometime after, I couldn't believe the day had gone so quickly it felt like two days in one!
A great big thank you is in order for Waterstones for organising such a successful event and to Cassandra and Sarah for taking the time out of their day to come talk to their fans and sign books!
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