Ilona Andrews at Mysterious Galaxy Recap

Hi, guys! As you may recall, a couple of weeks ago a friend and I decided on a somewhat last minute trip to San Diego for the Ilona Andrews signing. We were both a bit on the fence because, even though we love Ilona Andrews, San Diego is a good 2-3 hour drive and we were both there only a couple of weeks before for Comic-Con. However, I made an executive decision that we should go and we planned to meet up early the next day to make our way down there.

Luckily the signing was on a Saturday so no work was missed. The event was at 2pm, but you never know what's going to happen with LA traffic and I wanted to be double sure we made it in time. We ended up leaving a little before 9am and getting there around 1130am. I am so glad we left early, too, since we heard later that there were some closures on the 5. 

After a quick lunch at Chipotle (guacamole!) we wandered over to Mysterious Galaxy. This was my first time at the store since they moved to this location. I think they moved a while ago but I haven't had a chance to go since then. The store isn't large but it's well stocked and organized and there was plenty of parking.

This awesome display greeted us when we got there. We were about an hour early but there were people already seated and waiting for the signing. We hung out and bought books while chatting with everyone. About a half hour before 2 we spotted Ilona and Gordon who were whisked away to a back room to wait until showtime. By the time the signing started, the store was packed. 

Apologies in advance for the bad pics. They were backlit the whole time and it was really hard to get a decent picture. I also have awkward photo taking powers so these may not be the most flattering pics. Ilona and Gordon are both lovely and attractive in person.

The event started right off with Q&A from the audience. I wasn't sure what to expect from the duo, having never seen them before. They were animated and forthright (sometimes too much so) and had a great rapport with all of their fans. It sort of felt like we were all in the same club together and liked all of the same things. They understood us and we understood them.

We all tried to keep the discussion as spoiler free as possible though a few things may have slipped accidentally. The pair talked about Book 7, Magic Breaks, and how it would be sort of a reboot of the series. We're finally going to get the big fight between Roland and Kate. They said that writing Magic Breaks was really hard because there were so many loose ends that they knew they needed to tie up in this book. They said that starting the book was probably one of the hardest parts of it. 

They talked a bit about the editing process and how their editor, Anne Sowards, makes their books better. Without her they said that their books would be more like manuscripts with bad spelling. Ilona also said that she tends to write the first draft of their novels since Gordon does not like punctuation and tends to write in long, run on sentences/paragraphs. But they do plot and discuss the story together before writing (and during).

The pair talked about their new book series with Avon that they are currently working on. I am kind of blanking on the details right now but I think it's going to be urban fantasy but with more romance. Yay romance! This means that we'll be seeing two books from Ilona Andrews each year, one from Kate Daniels and one from the new Avon series. :)

There were more questions, but then it was time for signing. Luckily we were near the front of the seating area and managed to get a spot near the front of the line. I later heard that Ilona and Gordon signed for several hours. Yikes. It was so gracious of them to stay though and I know the fans were excited. They took the time to chat with all of us and take pics. Truly, they are awesome and hilarious to boot.

After we got out books signed, we hung out for a little while checking out the great selection at MG and chatting with our friend Maggie. Then after a quick stop at McDonald's for McFlurries, we hit the road back to LA. Thanks to the super secret back way, we managed to make it home in about 2 hours. While it was a long and exhausting day, it was totally worth it to meet Gordon and Ilona. If you haven't read the Kate Daniels series yet, you really must.

Thanks, Bookyurt, for being up for an adventure. 

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