Yesterday, I had the wonderful opportunity to see Sarah J. Maas again at a book signing in Baltimore with Maggie from Massachusetts Novel. As always, she was a lovely and amazing human being, and I am so lucky to have met her four times now!
Some of my favorites from the Q&A session that occurred before the signing and was moderated by Stephanie Brown from No B.S. Book Reviews I summarized below. Because of the fact I was taking hand notes (and no videos were allowed) most are summaries of answers. Any direct quotes I’ve written in bold and clearly marked.
Q: What court are you in?
Sarah: The Night Court. I hate the sun, and burn very easily. I also couldn’t be in the summer court because I sweat very easily.
Q: What Harry Potter house are you in?
Sarah: Christine Riccio placed me in a house using Pottermore last year during a signing. (See the video HERE around 15:03). I always believed I was a Gryffindor, but I’m actually a Hufflepuff! I was very distraught until I found out that the Hufflepuff common room is right next to the kitchen. Just think of all the stairs the Gryffindor’s have to climb to get a midnight snack.
Q: What would the inner circles Hogwarts Houses be?
Sarah: Cassian would definitely be Gryffindor. Azriel would be Ravenclaw. Sweet Elain would be a Hufflepuff. Nesta would be Slytherin. Amren would be Ravenclaw or Slytherin, although I feel she fits more in the role of the headmaster. Mor would be Gryffindor. Rhys would be a Ravenclaw. Feyre would be a Hufflepuff/Slytherin (like a snake with a pom-pom tail).
Q: Who is the unsung hero of the ACOTAR series?
Sarah: The Suriel.
Q: What is your favorite High Lord Power?
Sarah: No spoilers! I don’t know if it’s a power, but one of the High Lords (Helion) has a city of libraries like the city of Alexandria and I would love to browse through them all day. I’m really into Helion, like in a weird way”.
Q: What was your inspiration for Rhys?
Sarah: I read somewhere that people thought my husband was the inspiration. He doesn’t really represent Rhys other than they are both tall and dark haired. Rhys’ bond with Feyre is inspired by the bond I feel with Josh. It’s because of him that I can only really write about true love, because I have it every day. He takes care of me while I’m in the writing cave, feeding me and making sure I shower.
“Find someone who feeds you.” – Sarah J. Maas
Q: Can same-sex couples be mates?
Sarah: Yes, and you can see some of that in both series. Don’t want to give anything away, but you may see this in ACOWAR when you read it. It’s also present in the Throne of Glass world. I’m super excited to write more about this, and already have a novel in mind about it.
Q: Some this or that: Is Rhys or Fenrys hotter? Would Cassian or Lorcan win in a fight?
Sarah: This might be cheating, but I think Rhys and Fenrys are equally hot. In any case, I would take them both. In a fight, I feel like neither Cassian or Lorcan would win. I think they would take of their shirts, then get drenched by a sudden downpour. After a bit of fighting, they would get tired and go get beers to talk about their women problems. So in the end we all win.
Q: Would Jamie Fraser (Outlander) and Rhys be friends?
Sarah: Definitely. They would get together and talk about their women problems. And then they would get caught outside in the rain. I feel like in my world there is that gloomy Carebear that drives around a rain cloud and just drenches all the hot men. It’s always a wet t-shirt contest in my mind.
Q: Are you more like Aelin or Feyre?
Sarah: I feel like I’m not like either of them because they are so awesome. All women that I write have a kernel of me in them, though. Out of all the characters, I’m most like Fleetfoot because I enjoy eating, sleeping, and being brushed by hot men.
Q: Do you have any advice for young writers?
Sarah: You have to pursue your dreams and work very hard. If you want to be a writer, you have to treat it as a career and not accept failure. Ever since I was 16, I worked like writing was going to be my career. You need to act seriously and take yourself seriously if you want other people to take you seriously as well. Don’t listen to the haters, and those who say you can’t do it. Writing and editing and can be very hard.
“The hard is what makes it great…you gotta hustle.” – Sarah J. Maas
Q: Can you tell us anything about the upcoming books in the ACOTAR series?
Sarah: There are a lot of fairytales I would like to explore, although many of these ideas are not at all final. I started writing a story for myself during ACOWAR because I wanted to explore new characters and before I knew it I had 250 pages of a new project. I had dinner with my editor and had a few to many drinks, and ended up pitching her three novels and a few novellas in the world. I can say that each standalone will follow a different romantic pairing, both based after and before ACOWAR. There will possibly be a story about a snow queen, and I really like the story of Vasilisa the Beautiful along with Swan Lake. I’m excited because of how much I love romance series following couples in these same storyline.
Q: What’s your favorite Avatar: The Last Airbender Character?
Sarah: Zuko is definitely my favorite. I sobbed during the series finale. I didn’t really like how the romantic pairings ended up without spoiling the series for you guys.
Q: Can you tell us anything about the upcoming Chaol novel?
Sarah: This book will be a parallel to Empire of Storms, not a sequel. Kind of like “Meanwhile, in the Southern Kingdom…..” I sat down to write the Chaol novella (novellas are normally around 20,000 – 35,000 words) and the first day I wrote 100,000. Within five days, I finished and it was 193,000 words. After all the editing, it’s now just as long as Empire of Storms. Aelin and the gang are not in it, it follows the stories of Chaol, Nesryn, and Yrene Towers who was in The Assassin’s Blade briefly. This is not a book that you can really skip before reading Throne of Glass #7. This is a continuation of the same story that has really important plot points, and you won’t know whats happening in #7 if you don’t read it.
“Some major shit happens.” – Sarah J. Maas
Q: Did anything really inspire you for Tower of Dawn?
This is one of my favorite books, and will always have a special place in my heart, along with Heir of Fire. The Mongolian empire was a huge inspiration for the book. I did a ton of research as background. I’m now Genghis Khan’s #1 fangirl. Genghis Khan literally changed the history of the world as we know it. He had Universal education for everyone in his empire and it’s really the Europeans that saw him as a horrible conquerer. I recommend reading Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford (add it to Goodreads HERE).
Q: What authors do you recommend?
J. R. Ward and The Black Dagger Brotherhood series if you’re into Paranormal Romance.
If you really like Faeries, read Karen Marie Moning’s Darkfever series.
If you like YA, check out Roshani Choski and her two books out, The Star-Touched Queen and A Crown of Wishes.
(click on the above titles to go to the Goodreads page!)
Thank you guys for reading my BRIEF summary of the question session. I probably left a few questions out of my notes because I was scribbling madly. Let me know if you have any questions/anything is unclear and I will try and clarify!
You can view my full review of A Court of Wings and Ruin HERE (the first part is spoiler-free!).
If you love the series as much as I do, check out some of my Maas inspired bracelets on my Etsy Shop!
As always, thanks for reading!
Emie's Nook 
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