For those who don't know, I'm originally in Scotland, but I'm studying abroad in North Carolina this year. I got to experience an unexpected bonus of that this weekend - one of my favourite authors, Kim Harrison, is doing a tour for the release of her latest book 'Ever After' and one of the tour stops was in Raleigh. Most of my favourite authors are from the US, Australia or New Zealand, so on rare European tours they tend to only come to London - still too far for me to get to! This is a long way of saying, I was very excited to hear she was going to be less than an hour away from me.
The signing was in
Quail Ridge Books, an independent bookstore that has been there for almost 30 years! I'd never been before, so it was good to find, and they were super helpful when I was ordering my copy of the book through them. I got there to find a large seating area around a podium, and I was glad I'd got there early because it was already pretty busy!
Kim came up and read a couple of page from the book, a nice little teaser from those who hadn't read it yet, and then started taking questions. I tried to take notes, but there were a couple I skipped over because the answers are on her website and things like that. This is SPOILER FREE for 'Ever After' but may have one or two spoilers for books earlier in the series, so if you aren't up to date, be warned!
Q.
When a character dies, do you suffer as much as we [readers] do?
A: Yes! She said if someone like Nick died, she wouldn't mind, but Kisten was very upsetting. She also said that she still can't read the scenes where Matalina dies, because it feels to personal as a mother.
Q:
Why did certain deaths in Ever After [you'll know which ones if you've read the book] occur 'off screen'?
A: She said this was too hard to answer without spoilers, but she would answer if you asked in person, so maybe this will be answered on the website at some point.
Q:
How does she keep things straight in her head, and not get details and character personalities mixed up?
A: Partly from the number of edit rounds that each book goes through means she knows the story pretty well by the time it's done. When she was putting together the 'Hollows Insider' she had to reread the whole series, which also helped. She also works a long way ahead of her publication schedule, about 2 books ahead, so she can go back and change things, or add foreshadowing. She said she's never had a long range plot for the series on paper, just in her head.
Q:
Did she always know details of what happened between Trent & Rachel at camp?
A: No, not at all. There was some shared past between them, and Trent remembers a lot more from camp than Rachel does, but no, she hadn't always known.
Q:
Is every child with Rosewood syndrome actually a demon?
A: Yes, a Rosewood kid is born a demon.
Q:
There seems to be a lot of science in the books....
A: Kim did a bio degree at college, and finds genetics really interesting, hence their inclusion in the books - she likes to bring the logic from science into magic systems and thinks it gives them some more grounding in reality.
Q:
Will there be a happy ending?
A: Rachel wants a happy ending, and Kim is working to give her one. She also said that she is "working for happy endings for all the characters
who survive!"
***
I was lucky enough to be in te front of the line for signing because I bought my book early on, which was lucky since there must have been almost 100 people there!
It was very exciting to be there, and meet her, and get my book signed! :D
~Ailsa
