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1.22.2011

Shadowfever Release Party Recap

This past Monday and Tuesday, I was pleased to attend the Shadowfever release party that was held at the Le Pavillion on Poydras Street in my home town of New Orleans. Out of all the cities in the world, Karen Marie Moning chose mine to come and celebrate the ending of one of my favorite series, the Fever Series.

The release party was separated into to two parts. Monday night began with the signing. It would begin at 4 pm at last until midnight. I pre-ordered my book from Octavia Books and the moment I was able to get off of work I hurried over there. It was around 5:30 and already the lobby was full of women reading Shadowfever. They must have been some of the first in line. I was so jealous. I was surprised by the amount and variation of women in the lobby…but of course all were women. Young, old, trendy, polished, ragged, a little crazy, they had them all. But, as I quickly raced up the stairs to the second floor…I was dumbstruck by the amount of people crammed into the hallway, waiting to get their books signed.

The hallway snacked from one wing of the hotel to the other and women and even some men were piled three to four deep along the walls. It was hot, really hot (temperature) and everyone looked weary of the wait, but ridiculously excited. Once again it was a monstrous mix of people, when I took in the plethora of Barrons Books and Baubles tees I could have kicked myself for not making a tshirt. I never think of that stuff. There was also custom-made pajama pants, hats, boas… people are definitely creative in their fandom. It was really great seeing everything that people had done to show their love of Mac and Barrons. It was also interesting to see how far people can come. The furthest I heard was Oregon. What a trip.

When we finally got into the room, we were moved to another line that had us getting our books and signing up for the forums, then we were seated and waited to get into another line to get the books signed by. It was very organized and KMM’s staff were very nice and handled everything well, especially since we were informed later that KMM actually caught a bug on the plane and was leaving suddenly because she was getting sick. It was terrible and she almost broke down into tears when she said how badly this had ruined her plan. Funny thing to mention, though, most of her staff were wearing pajama pants and shirts that read “K’ruck You….Just saying.” Read the book and you’ll get it. At first I just thought it was another Mac curse, like petunia. I always guess wrong. The signing went quick after that, because of her sickness. I'm sad though, because I wasn't able to get my book personalized. She really wasn't feeling well and there were hundreds of people waiting. I went home a happy girl though, with my hardback copy of Shadowfever with my pink Karen Marie Moning signature on inside.

THE FORUM


So in the midst of waiting, KMM runs off. Like literally runs off and about ten minutes later, returns. She tells us that she has caught a nasty bug and is actually vomiting in between signings and starts to tear up because she tells us how much the night meant to her and how horrible it was that she had gotten sick. We would have taken more pictures, but at her request she asked for no more photography...who wants pictures of themselves battling a stomach bug!

The signing went quick after that. I'm sad though, because I wasn't able to get my book personalized. She really wasn't feeling bad and there were hundreds of people waiting.

The signing went on from 4pm to 12 am. I don't know how she did it.

THE NEXT DAY

I had signed up for the discussion at noon at made it there promptly at eleven. The lobby again was jam packed with readers. I had managed to read fifteen chapters and was reeling with juts those reveals. I had refused to read the two chapters that KMM posted because of the mix up with Shelfari and was pleased that BookAddict Patti had such a good poker face and hadn’t revealed anything when I was ranting about not knowing who the Beast was (she had read the first two chapters, and the beast is revealed quite dramatically). Deep down though, I knew who it was. I think we all did.

The amount of people all reading, gasping and laughing aloud in the lobby was amazing. Everyone was sitting throughout the posh setting with Shadowfever in hand, flipping pages and glancing around and looking at each other knowingly. It was inspiring really. One could only hope to be an author that would draw her fans from around the country to celebrate the ending of a series.

At 11:40 I ran back up to the 2nd floor and scooted to the second row (should have gotten their sooner!) to await KMM again. She came right in, sat down, and informed us that she was still sick but would do her best. She shouldn’t have feared, she was great; I would have looked like a zombie.

The discussion of course led to the finer points of the series. Questions about the druids, Dani and Barron’s men. Finer details discussed and when a spoiler was about to be revealed you should have seen the hands that people through up over their ears. It was hilarious. The one thing that KMM wanted to reiterate about all her characters was that there were no defined bad guys or good guys in her series. That if you took two steps to the left and view Darroc you would see him from another perspective. Same with her heroes, they weren’t necessarily ‘good.’ I think the perspective statement was a hint that she might have more books coming out that won’t necessarily be just the ‘good guys.’

"{I'll be} playing in this world for a long time,” she said and the crowd busted out in applause. Once again, I think everyone expected it, but to hear it confirmed was a wonder. The Fever world will not be ending, there will be more books featuring Barrons and Mac, but not necessarily as the main characters. It was discussed that we might have books about Dani, Christian, Ryodan and others.

Interesting was the discussion regarding Dani. KMM was unsure if she would age Dani into an adult to maybe introduce a romantic tension. She was actually thinking that it would be better to leave Dani as a teenager and progress her from where Shadowfever ends. I got the impression that this might turn into a companion Young Adult series, maybe? Showalter, Kenyon and a few other adult writers have been doing this lately and making good money from it. The discussion turned to how she came up with the series. A Dream. The names of the characters, books --- every part of each book came to her in a dream. In this dream it was as if she was reading these books herself, page by page and when she woke they were burned into her. For three months she resisted writing them – but they wouldn’t let her go, so she gave in and wrote them down. She said the hardest thing was keeping events from revealing themselves too early, because she knew the endings, she knew how it would turn out. She thought it was ridiculous how some of the books ended, but she stayed true to her dream and wrote them like she had viewed them. Before she was a romance writer, she had never done anything like this before.

She also discussed herself as a writer, how her best time to write is at 4:30 in the morning, when all is quiet and the words just flow from her. She gives a very brash statement to wannabe writers “Keep your butt in the chair.” Write what you know, what you love and don’t follow trends and marketing. People are more likely to love what you write if you love it yourself. So true.

Regarding the series in general, she did mention that Eric Etebari still inspires Barrons, but that the characters are about to come alive, better than she ever hoped, in a graphic novel, which will be released soon. She gave the artist a treatment of different actors and models that she modeled her characters off of, and thinks that the treatment will also be published.

She did mention that she will be taking time off after this release of Shadowfever, so we might have a bit of a wait for the next books. She also mentioned that the movie option has expired. There is no talk of another. There has been some sniffing around by Syfy and some others stations, which she is actually more excited about. She thinks a television show would be better than a movie. She will not sign any deal though, unless she gets a consultation clause in there. You never know how the industry is going to treat these clauses thought. A lot of authors do get “Meaningful Consultation Rights for Screenplay and Character Development”, this means they get to have input and stay informed about everything that happens with the novel, but it usually doesn’t mean they can overpower the studios decision. Final call is always with the one producing the movie or series. Usually serious consul rights fall for books that are highly lusted after by studios (Harry Potter, Twilight), the best sellers and “hot” ticket items. Authors like Charlain Harris are not regularly consulted by the producers of the show. Maybe after they see the attention Shadowfever is getting, the stations might rethink their decisions.

After the questions ended, KMM opened up the floor for audio book narrator Phil Gigante. He read page 92 & 93 of the novel. My blood pressure shot through the roof on that one, the man has a voice! The audio book is actually narrated by both male and female readers, which is rather unique. After hearing Phil read…I’m sorely tempted to buy the audio book also. After the reading, the forum ended quickly. We really did have a blast and KMM was wonderful.

I can’t believe she had such strength to do all of this while battling a stomach flu. A big thank you to Karen Marie Moning for coming to New Orleans, sharing her thoughts and just being one of the best authors I’ve ever read… if you haven’t read her Fever series, what is stopping you??













10 comments:

DforDarla said...

Looks like you had a lot of fun! I'm only on the second book in this series but my friend is pushing the books my way. :)

Sophia (FV) said...

Awesome! I wish I could have been there. Thanks for posting this!

Patti (@TheLoveJunkee) said...

I had so much fun - she is such a sweet, gracious lady, and her fans were fun too!
Patti (Poker Face) lol :)

Anonymous said...

Wow, that must have been an awesome experience! Thanks for sharing with us :)

Unknown said...

This is soo awesome!!! I'm glad you enjoyed the release party!! :D thank you for sharing it with us :D!!!

Danny said...

Oh my freaking Petunia... you were there!!! I wish I could have been there too!

The minute Shadowfever was released on my Kindle I wanted to start reading, but I couldn't so I bought the audiobook. And girls, I can tell the audiobook is fantastic!!!!!

I wish I could have seen this man!! I'm actually listening to the audiobook again because it's mesmerizing.

The book was fantastic, epic and perfection!

Thanks for sharing this experience, I'm sure it was a blast!!

Tales of Whimsy said...

Wow. This sounds like such an experience. Thanks for sharing it with us. I feel so bad for being sick. It shows she's really committed and professional that she hung in there.

Felicia the Geeky Blogger said...

I had a friend that went too! I am so glad that you guys all had fun. She said her feet were killing her after the scavenger hunt LOL

Julie said...

Thank you for sharing your experience. It sounds like you really enjoyed yourself!

nymfaux said...

Wow--Well, you totally sold me!!! I had no idea what I was missing--also, I'm doubly tempted to get the audio book, too! :) Thanks for sharing!!! I'm so glad you got to go and experience that in person!!!

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