You know, I don’t think that I have EVER put an emoticon in my blog post titles before. I guess that just goes to show you how absolutely excited I am to share all of this with you.

So as most of you already know, I am obsessed with Cassandra Clare. I would say that…I’m only obsessed with Harry Potter (maybe Doctor Who and Star Wars) more than my Cassandra Clare. I write many blog posts about her, and things from her fandom always appear on my top ten lists. Jace Lightwood is my favorite crush, though Will Herondale also makes the list. Isabelle’s whip and Shadowhunters’ stele and seraph blades make the list of choice weapons. Clary and Isabelle are my top badass ladies. Jace and Alec and Will and Jem are two of my favorite bromances. I could go on and on.

But I won’t. I promise. Unless you want me, which in that case, let’s do this!

Anyway, since I’m a huge Cassandra Clare fan, I was at the Mission Viejo Library this last Friday, where Cassie, and fellow authors Sarah Rees Brennan and Maureen Johnson, had an event where they answered questions and autographed books for the fans.

Now, the library had a contest to find Cassie’s biggest fan…and as some of my followers may know, I won :)

And can I just say that it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I’ve met some of my favorite authors before. I’ve met Meg Cabot…oh, about a hundred times. (Okay, more like six…but still, a lot). I’ve met Cassandra Clare previously and I’ve met Lauren Oliver, and a few others but this time, it was…it was an absolute honor.

So my sister and I showed up at the library at about 3:30 pm, even though the event didn’t start until 6 pm because we wanted to beat that god awful LA traffic, and even though I had a reserved seat as a contest winner, I didn’t want my sister to have to sit alone, super far away from me. I’m a brat but not that bad! Haha. So we were able to get in, and she was able to sit right behind me.

Say hello to my sister!

Allison Tran, the teen librarian at the Mission Viejo library? She’s awesome. She has set up some seriously awesome events in the past few years, Cassandra Clare, Lauren Oliver, Meg Cabot, to name a few. And she is just so ENTHUSIASTIC about it all. She reads the same books and she’s passionate about her job and it makes for a great event. Pair her with the very lovely, Alex from A Whale of a Tale Bookstore, and you have a team that is ready to please and a team that puts on an unforgettable event.

I was WAY too proud of my fancy front row seat :)

As soon as we walked in, we noticed the entire room decorated just for Cassie…posters for the newly released Clockwork Princess and for the upcoming movie, City of Bones, were all over the walls and they had the trailers for both playing for our enjoyment. As soon as I saw Cassandra’s name plate, however, oh, I got so nervous!

I was about to interview one of my absolute favorite authors…ever. She has influenced and inspired me in so many ways. My main goal in life is to become a writer, whether that is through this blog or through my novels, and I look up to her immensely. I also have a high respect for her, and a large amount of gratitude, because her books were there for me during a difficult time. I first picked up City of Bones nearly three years ago, May 2010, right after my boyfriend and I had broken up…after we had gone through, well, a very difficult time. Instead of turning to each other for comfort, we sort of pushed each other away. Heartbroken, I went to the only thing I knew that could help me: books. I bought City of Bones on a whim, and finished the entire trilogy (Fallen Angels hadn’t come out yet) in three days. Three years later, my boyfriend and I are as happy as can be but I can never forget how much her books did for me.

And the fact that I was about to interview, on camera? Oh it scared me so much! I was so insanely excited but so nervous. I was bouncing in my seat, and trying to talk to some of my fellow fans around me to keep myself distracted from my nervousness. It was announced that Cassie, Sarah and Maureen were running a bit late because they underestimated the monstrosity that is Los Angeles traffic. I could tell a lot of people were super disappointed but I was actually kind of relieved! It postponed my interview a little bit and gave me a chance to cool down a bit, so I didn’t make a complete fool of myself in front of the camera :)

Well, the girls finally arrived and the entire crowd went absolutely bonkers. I saw Cassie in the exact same room, two years ago for the release of City of Fallen Angels, and the difference between the two events was obvious. Cassie has gained so many fans, and much popularity since then, and I’m so happy for her. She completely deserves it.

Cassandra brought along two of her fellow authors and close friends, Sarah Rees Brennan (top), author of the Demon’s Lexicon trilogy, and Maureen Johnson (bottom), author of 13 Little Blue Envelopes. I haven’t had the opportunity to read either of their books but I am most definitely going to now. They were both SUPER funny and engaging, and all three authors were obviously friends, and had a great chemistry going on. I’ve gone to events where things are SO awkward but this was like a few friends hanging out together, where it just so happened that about 200 people were watching them. Sarah was…, well, she reminded me of me! She was silly and cracking out jokes, and running around and giving out little prizes to the fans in the audience who had the courage to ask questions. Maureen was super funny too, more of a sharp wit and sarcastic funny…and has a super awesome obsession with Simon Lewis (hence the Maureen character in CoFA and CoLS).

And Cassie was just wonderful. She was so HUMAN, you know? I think sometimes we put those people we worship and admire on pedestals, like they aren’t real, but they so are. She was making everyone laugh, and she had such great writing advice (which you can check out in my writing advice section!), and you can tell that she really adores her fans, and wants to do what she can for her fans. The lady wears a wrist brace when she does autographs because she is so determined to sign as many books as possible. She engages all her fans, and she tries to answer as many questions as possible.

She talked a bit about Wonder Con next weekend, which she will be attending along with Lily Collins (Clary), Jamie Campbell Bower (Jace), and Kevin Zegers (Alec), and there will be a FULL 3 minute trailer shown at the panel, one that she says is super awesome and has scenes from the book that are her favorites.

Also, she has confirmed that City of Bones WILL be at San Diego Comic Con, though she doesn’t know if she will be there herself. She talked about how much love she has for her characters and her books and how hard it is to choose between them.

She also made jokes about Simon being in love with Magnus, and she urges everyone to read City of Heavenly Fire next year to find out what happens to Alec and Magnus (at that point, my sister yelled out “They better get back together” which caused a few laughs). We will also find out who Magnus’s demon father is in City of Heavenly Fire as well, which is SUPER exciting because I’ve been DYING to know. I adore Magnus.

Some of the highlights of the presentation were:

Cassie talking about how she takes the hearts of her readers and freezes them, melts them and mixes them into a drink called a heartini haha.

Cassie choosing Edward over Jacob in the Twilight franchise, which caused a good amount of cheers.

In response to a question asked about ruining fan ships, she replied “What is the point of a ship if not to sink it?”

She claims Full Metal Alchemist as her favorite anime and she says she believes that the book Tessa holds on the cover of Clockwork Princess is A Tale of Two Cities.

and then this awesome one:

In response to a question about why Will is wet when he interrupts Tessa and Jem’s first meeting: “I think Will just kinda likes to be wet, I noticed he’s like wet in every book.”

Then came the SUPER fun and SUPER nerve wracking part of the night, my interview!

I honestly had nothing to worry about it. One, she made me feel completely at ease. She seemed super happy to meet me and even took a picture of my “fearless” tattoo so she could show her tattoo artist friend, who designed all the runes for the books. Once they got the camera rolling, I felt comfortable and was able to do the short interview without feeling like I was going to throw up all over the place, a feeling that I had had before. She took the time to talk to me, ask me questions. She took the time to take a picture with me, and she even brought me a gift (and I got to keep the ginormous Clockwork Princess poster too!)

She was just super easy to be around, and was an absolute delight to meet…and I felt so HONORED to meet her. It was a short interview, and I was allowed three questions but I felt I was able to ask three questions that got lengthy answers and were questions I had always wanted to ask. She also answered a couple of my questions once the tape stopped rolling as well.

I was hoping to have the video up for you guys to watch, but its been a week and still no video :( I didn’t want to post this too long after the event so I’m posting it now, and I promise to post the video once its done!

We talked about my other tattoos, especially my Harry Potter tattoos, since I have four. Cassandra is a well known Harry Potter fan, and she’s known for her Harry Potter fan fic as well, and she told me a funny story about when she got Order of the Phoenix. She and Holly Black, and a couple other friends, had gone to get the book and after they had finished, they had gone walking and were talking about the shock of Sirius Black’s death. No one was around so they didn’t think much of it, because they were fast readers (like me!) and they didn’t want to ruin it for others. Then out of no where, some random, possibly homeless woman comes out of an alleyway and starts yelling at them for ruining the book for her. Hilarious.

Of course, I got my books signed as well. I already had Bones, Ashes, Glass, Fallen Angels and Clockwork Angel signed from the first time I met her so I only needed Prince, Princess and Lost Souls signed. (I’m going to have to track her down once Heavenly Fire comes out…). They were also handing out City of Bones movie posters (yes! I’ve been wanting one), little rune buttons and postcards with character artwork on them.

In the end, I just had a seriously amazing time. Not only was I given the opportunity to sit in on an event like this and get my books signed, but I was given the chance to have a one on one with Cassandra and seriously, its one of the highlights of my life, especially as a reader and a writer. To meet someone who has inspired me the way she has…its just incredible, a wonderful opportunity and an honor. I was also so glad that I could tell her how much she means to me, and how much her books mean to me. I’m looking forward to seeing her again both at Wonder Con this coming weekend AND Festival of Books next month (where I also hope to see Maureen Johnson again, Lauren Oliver, Kami Garcia, Morgan Matson, Sarah Dessen, and Veronica Roth, to name a few).

In the meantime, if you haven’t already heard…I’m having a Clockwork Princess contest! In order to get into the event, you had to purchase a ticket, which included a copy of the brand new Clockwork Princess…and I also won a copy of the book in the Biggest Fan contest…so I decided to get one signed for YOU GUYS. You have until April 1st, 2013 to enter and you can find out how to enter right here.

Stay tuned in this coming weekend guys, I’m going to have lots of fun on here in celebration of Wonder Con, especially with the City of Bones panel…and Doctor Who and Game of Thrones both return as well! Can’t wait!

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