All Souls Signing

It started with a book. This book:

(Which also starts with a book.)

 

Though I’d like to, I can’t say that I loved it right off. The cover didn’t grab me. I’d heard so many people talk about it that I kept picking it up and reading the jacket, but I also kept putting it back down. Witches and vampires? Again? No, but thanks.

Eventually, I moved past the jacket and read the first page. That led to the second page, the third, and…well, I think you get it. I bought the book, took it home, and devoured it. Though the jacket hadn’t been wrong and the book was about witches and vampires, it was a fresh story, told from a different perspective, more realistic (even though, yes, it’s about magic). It was grounded in present, in the world as it is, and even included some genetics (which I studied extensively in college).

By the time I finished the first book, I was more than ready for the second. And after the second, I wanted the third. Of course, books as big as these take time to write, so when THE BOOK OF LIFE released a few weeks ago on July 15, I had to reread the first two books. Not that I’m complaining. I love to reread books I love.

About the time THE BOOK OF LIFE released, a friend sent me a link to Joseph-Beth Booksellers’ Facebook page. Joseph-Beth, Cincinnati’s indie bookstore, would be hosting Deborah Harkness on August 7 for a discussion and book signing. We both loved the books, so of course we were going.

Yesterday afternoon, my friend and I arrived at Joseph-Beth around five. We had some special All Souls drinks and dinner at the café before claiming a couple of seats near a fireplace and a podium. By then, it was six and only a handful of other people were around. A few minutes before seven, the place looked like this:

 

 

If you look closely, you’ll find me in the second row. The room was hot, buzzing with hundreds of voices whispering (or not) about Deborah Harkness and her books. A Joseph-Beth employee announced that Deborah Harkness had arrived and a cheer went through the crowd. Not long after, she came to the podium and began to speak. She told us about the books, read a few pages, and let us ask questions. In no particular order, here are the things I learned about/from Deborah Harkness:

·        She talks like she writes—vividly, intelligently—and it’s easy to see her as a professor, one that students love. She could’ve talked all night and into the morning about these books (or, really, anything else) and I’d have sat there to listen.

·       The idea for the All Souls trilogy came to her when she was standing in an airport in Puerto Vallarta, where there was a display of Twilight books, among many others with vampires, werewolves, demons, angels, fairies, trolls (and yes, she listed all these). She’d done extensive research on the 16th century (I think…but don’t quote me on that), a time when many people would have believed in these extraordinary creatures. What would it be like if those creatures existed in our modern world?

·        Much of the history in the trilogy comes from her research over the last twenty to thirty years.

·        Included in that research? Matthew Roydon, a real historical figure who knew all the people in SHADOW OF NIGHT, worked as a spy for Queen Elizabeth, and was in Prague around 1590/1591. She couldn’t find many more details about Matthew Roydon than that. So when wondering what a vampire might be like, she pictured him. She pulled him out of history and created Matthew Clairmont.

·        No film studio has the rights to the trilogy, so there’s no knowing if they’ll become movies.

·        She doesn’t know what she’ll right next, if she decides to write again. She explained she has many ideas, none of them demanding to be written right now. (Which is what I feel like most of the time.)

·        When writing the trilogy, she worked through the story chronologically. (Which is how I write!)

·        When asked if she, a historian who deals in facts, believes in magic, she quoted Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and some mathematical principle I don’t remember (sorry, I haven’t had a math class since high school). Basically, her answer was yes.

·        When writing academically, she can only state what can be proven and supported by her research. When writing the All Souls trilogy, she took those unexplained pieces of history and made up her own answers.

After she finished speaking, we 300+ fans lined up to get our books signed. A Joseph-Beth employee with a Post-it pad wrote down each of our names to put in each of our books so that Deborah Harkness could personalize them. Not only that, but she willingly signed each book in the trilogy for anyone that asked. There was even a man who had not just the trilogy, but also her academic works. She signed those, too.

When it came time for my friend and me to greet her, Deborah Harkness welcomed us warmly. A Joseph-Beth employee took our picture:

 

 

And then I asked my question. (If you haven’t read to the end of SHADOW OF NIGHT, this is a spoiler. If you intend to read the books and don’t want to know this, skip to the next paragraph.)  I asked her why she chose to have Emily’s death offstage. I felt her death had less impact because other characters had to tell me it happened. Also, as a writer, I was curious. As for every other question, Deborah Harkness had a prompt, beautifully logical answer. People die all the time with no one there to tell what happened, leaving loved ones with no explanation, no closure, and an aching, lingering loss. She wanted to convey this. That’s why no other characters were there to witness Emily’s death and why it’s never fully explained.

After signing our books, she thanked me for my question and wished me and my friend a good night. Our evening at an end, my friend and I reluctantly trudged to the exit. We’d waited in line for almost an hour and a half, but it was worth. Because the book that started it? It now looks like this: