An evening with The WARDen

Posted by Susan in Author Spotlight | 6 comments

J.R. Ward book signing

by Susanashlea & Saluki

Susan and I made plans about a month ago to attend a J.R. Ward book signing for her new release “Crave”. She is one of our favorite authors, so when we found out she was going to have the event near us, there was no question whether we would go. As the date of the signing got closer and closer, our excitement level ramped up more and more, until we were sure we were going to die if we didn’t meet the WARDen. So, as you can imagine, when Saturday rolled around, we wasted no time in scoping out The Book Store, which was where the event was taking place. Jerry, the owner of the store, was amazing. He took us through the store to show us how it would be set up, talked to us about what to expect, and just generally made us feel welcome in his store. We purchased a few books, and before we left, Jerry even showed us how to get to AppleBee’s so we could grab a quick lunch. The next few hours flew by, and before we knew it, it was time to head to The Book Store. By the time we arrived, there was already a good crowd at the store. But, since we had purchased our copies of “Crave” several weeks earlier, we were assured a good spot in line and a seat for the question and answer portion. About twenty minutes before J.R. was scheduled to arrive, the book store staff lined us up for the book signing. I just have to say, Susan and I were impressed with all of the staff. They made sure to keep things orderly, but were never rude or demanding. They were there to answer questions, grab a bottle of water – they wanted to help make us feel as comfortable and welcome as possible while we were at their store. If you are ever in Radcliffe Kentucky, stop by their store. I promise, you won’t be disappointed.

Anywho – we had been waiting in line, trying to stay patient, when the lights dimmed and Jerry announced that J.R. would be making her appearance. A few minutes later, she walked in the back and then made her way down the aisle, giving high fives and waving at all of us. Then, she sat down and started signing books. Susan and I were near the front of the line, so it only took us about ten minutes to finally meet our idol, J.R. Ward. As a bit of background, Megsly, who is one of our contributing writers, wrote a blog post about respecting the wishes of authors who do not allow fanfiction to be written based on their books/characters. She used J.R. Ward as an example. Somehow, J.R. ran across the article and emailed the website to ask for Meg’s email address. An email correspondence ensued, which resulted in J.R. telling us how much she liked our site. So, when she was signing my book, I said, “My name is Heather, I’m one of the co-owners of MyVampFiction.” In response, she said “Oh wow! I love your site – you guys are so great!” and pulled Susan and I in for a hug. By this time, it was time to move on, so we took our picture, and she thanked us for coming before we took our seats.

Needless to say, Susan and I had a huge fan girl moment. J.R. Ward – our favorite author on the planet – not only remembered us, but also said she loved MVF. We tweeted and chatted for the next thirty minutes while we waited for the book signing portion of the evening to conclude. What followed was 90 minutes of hilarious, insightful, and revealing Q&A. J.R. took questions about her books, personal life, and writing process. Although we would love to share everything we taped with you, she did reveal some major spoilers for future books and, well, she curses like a sailor *lol* But, we do have several that we want to share with you. It would have been great if you all could have experienced the Q&A first hand, but we are so thrilled to bring you a few snippets from this amazing woman and author.

We asked our MVF followers on twitter to submit questions that we could try to ask during the Q&A, with the promise of a surprise if that questions was answered. @mrschay submitted the question: Of all the female characters, which is your favorite to write, and why? This is the answer to her question, and @mrschay’s surprise is a signed copy of Crave!

After the Q&A, we were getting ready to head back to the hotel when Jerry, the book store owner, told us to stay and have a piece of cake. He had been so nice and accomodating towards us that we hated to turn him down. After we finished our cake and Jerry had left, we tried to leave again. This time, Jerry followed us outside and told us to come back in to get another picture with J.R. Once again, he was too nice to refuse, so we went back inside. J.R. was signing a few more books for people, so Susan decided to buy a copy of Dark Lover, her favorite book, and have it signed. While we waited, we had the pleasure of speaking with J.R.’s personal assistant. We were both feeling a little awkward by that point. Neither one of us wanted J.R. to think we were stalking her, but we also hated to pass up the opportunity to chat with her a bit more. Lucky for us, she was delighted that we stuck around and spent about fifteen minutes talk with us one on one. Then, we took another picture. Well, we thought we were taking a picture.

Eventually, we got it right:

We wish you could have been there with us because the experience we had is one that is really hard to put into words. J.R. Ward is very down to earth, funny, self-depricating, gracious, insightful woman. There is no doubt how much she loves and appreciates her fans. She took the time to make sure everyone had a signed book and picture, while also spending a few seconds speaking to them personally. She took all of our questions and answered them all honestly – at times too honestly judging by the face of her Personal Assistant! It blew us away that she not only remembered us from our email correspondence but said that she loved MVF. Of all the amazing things that has happened to the site in the past year, I think this has to be the number one highlight on the list. So, if you are reading this J.R. – thank you for giving us such a wonderful experience. We can’t wait to see you again in March for the “Lover Unleashed” signing!

And, of course, a HUGE thank you to Jerry and the rest of the staff of The Bookstore. You are an amazing group of people, we can’t wait to come see you again! We will definitely see you again next year.