The Host Signing—The Phoenix Report

Last night Stephenie had a signing at her favorite bookstore, Changing Hands.  If you are ever in the Phoenix area, Changing Hands is a must visit. It’s an independent bookstore that is like no independent bookstore I’ve ever seen with an excellent selection of books, New Age items, adjacent to a cafe, and best of all a knowledgeable staff! If you can’t make it to one of Stephenie’s signings, Changing Hands carries autographed copies of all her books, and they ship worldwide.

Make sure you check out the signing report so there aren’t duplicate questions at Stephenie’s signings later this week.  It’s great to see Twilight fans crossing-over into The Host, but let’s give The Host some love of its very own with fan inspired tee shirts, hats, face painting, etc. Alphie and I want to feature your Host love on the Lexicon later this week when we are in Salt Lake City. Publishers Weekly also featured it in a recent article.

Now on to the signing report via adrienne

Summary of Phoenix Signing for The Host!

It was an amazing 80 degrees and cloudy in Phoenix today. Why is this amazing? It’s May and we didn’t need to run the air in our cars; it’s unheard of!  It was so balmy; Flagstaff (ski resort) actually received 4 inches of snow.  That never happens in May.  It was also overcast so I am sure it made the vampires happy!

We started up to a Local High School Marcos De Neza for the signing.  We arrived around 3:30 and there was a line already.  The doors open at 5 and the Question and Answer started at 6.    The line wrapped around the High School and there were a fair few with t-shirts from the various web sites (Lexicon, Twilight Moms, His Golden eyes).  Some where home made.  I was worried I would be one of the oldest members in the crowd but I wasn’t.  There was a nice selection of people in their teens, 20’s, 30’s and 40’s.  There were even a few great grand moms that have read the book and were waiting for the signing to begin!

As we were waiting for Stephenie, I took a few pictures of the crowd.  It was packed.  The auditorium even filled up on the very top bleachers.

As we waited, everyone was super friendly and we actually made some new friends. They were mother and daughter and super excited for the signing.  We exchanged numbers to meet up and the Breaking Dawn Part in August!

The announcer came out and asked us to sing Happy Birthday to Rob.  I have a short video of that.  It got a little crazy and everyone was super excited when his name was mentioned!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQOECH9EvdQ 

It’s short only because it got super loud and everyone started to squeeze in so I got bumped a little bit.

Stephenie came out and the crowd was so loud; it was a proper Phoenix welcome!  She looked so pretty and so nice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XwVcsKl-gA

As the rest of the signings, we were lucky to fill our white cards for questions and submit them for review.  Since Stephenie said her publicist wasn’t there to keep her under wraps, she pulled more then normal!

 

The Host questions


So Stephenie started her responses with a good question. Did you have a plan the way it (The Host) ended or did you change your mind several times?

She replied that she did have a plan but it change, and that change was Jared (I am summarizing her but I attached the video clip) She said that Jared was the original love interest however, he got on her last nerves being so inflexible (the audience laughed, it was pretty funny). Jared just would not bend. At this point she told us those of us that haven’t read the book to cover our ears and no one did (most people had read the book already which is great!) She stated that Ian was much more caring and compasionate and he changed the book.

This was the question I submitted (sort of).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fauWVo2tEo “You write a lot about the color of eyes, whether they be black, golden, silver, etc., why do you write them so many colors”

(I paraphrased here, it was hard to hear and the video didn’t capture the whole question). Her answer was she believes that the eyes are the windows of the soul and you can tell when someone is being sincere or caring and it is a way to weight people of their value http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EIkxwmzFYQ

The next question that was asked was a reference to Aliens (souls) being mixed up with the Jim’s and the Pam’s, was this reference to the Office?

Stephenie confirmed this was a reference and a fair few people clapped.

This question has been answered during a few other signings. Are you inspired by the people you know and do they become characters in the book?

She made a reference to Jeb and how much she loved him. Out of all the voices, his was the clearest. She also mentioned Doc reminded her of her brother Seth; being tall and very caring. She gave him props running her web site.

Was The Host co-authored? It looks like it might have been from your website?

The answer was that their might have been some confusion from the website. There were no co-authors but a collaboration of stories from “Prom Dates from Hell”. There was some confusion because of the way it had looked on her website. 

What was your favorite world to create in The Host?

The reply was the Planet of the Bats or signing world. She liked how the bats could fly and how they had music

Then someone came prepared and had a TYPED question. It was pretty complicated and the question was about Stephenie stopping in the middle of writing Twilight and started in on The Host. I attached her answer and it’s a nice, long one! Why is the book called The Host and not The Soul since it mostly takes placed from the Soul’s point of view?

Stephenie’s answer was because it was this host that changes the souls and has the deepest impact on her lives and changed everything. Also because the book is from the Soul’s perspective.

Who would be some of the actresses and actors today that you would like to see play the characters from The Host? (

Question has been asked at a few signings) Matt Damon as Jared. According to Stephenie, if you want to get things done, Matt is your man (I have video of this, but you can hear myself and my friend do the “Matt Damon” reference from a movie and then we start to giggle. Too embarrassing to give you the video and that we are super geeks. I want to keep it a secret that I am a super geek. She mentioned James McAvoy as Ian. The crowd went a little nuts on this suggestion. She had no clue who could even try to play Mel. It would be too hard to be both Wanderer and Mel and try to convey that on the screen that you have two voices in your head. She would like to see a screen writer try though!

How much influence on Twilight Move did you have?

She answered that she did go over the script with them a few times. She asked them to change some “potentially retarded things” (audience laughed, it was hysterical). Stephanie told us she looked at them (screen writers) and said “Really? That could not possibly happen” .  She did specify that after seeing the trailer (all the girls went crazy when she mentioned the trailer) and a few more scenes we don’t have access to (lucky girl!) that the movie has a sense of what it should be. The feeling of tension between Edward and Bella, they got it right. Sounds like a good endorsement!

There was a rumor that Stephenie said at one time if they cast someone else besides the Bella, who Stephenie though was perfect (I believe it was Emily Browning it was hard to hear) that she would jump off a building.

Again, we all laughed at this. Her response was that no, what she really meant was that if they cast some horrible “it” actress/singer that wasn’t good and just to drawl in the crowds, she would jump off a building. She stated that she felt they didn’t do that with any of the characters.

Now at this point in the video I took, you can hear my friend ask “who was she thinking, Brittany Spears? And I start to giggle because she did have a point. No one heard it but us but it steps on Stephenie a little bit with her talking. Do you plan on finishing Midnight Sun (Ya, where is that darn book?)

She stated it was her next project and that if she didn’t finish it, people would kill her. We all start clapping which is ironic that we agree with her to finish it or that we will kill her in the literal sense.

In Twilight you have a theme of Pride and Prejudice, Romeo and Juliet (New Moon) and in Eclipse it was Wuthering Heights. Do you have a theme for Breaking Dawn? (This has been asked on a previous signing but she expanded very, very little)

She answered yes; there are TWO books (new info?) She told us one which is Midsummers Night Dream. So she teased us with the second book.

Who is your biggest critic and why?

Her biggest critic is herself. She has no idea if she was sending out “total crap” when she wrote Twilight. She expected the rejection letter to come back with big Ha Ha Ha’s written all down the pages. She was very shocked that people really like the book. She went on to say that she still has trouble judging her own writing. She wanted to tell us that she wants to encourage us to write and believe in our writing. If you love to re –read your stories that means something. If you get excited and think about your characters in the middle of the night that means something. Trust yourself as a reader. If you really like it, there is probably something there. If you are bored with the story and the characters aren’t interesting, you should probably quit, but if you are interested in the story, other people will be too.

This was asked by my friend Jen who you can hear on video squealing and screaming so it steps on some of Stephenie’s answer.

 She also goes on to add that you should be waiting to go home and write a story and be excited about it. Writing shouldn’t be about work it should be the fun part. She said there are other parts that aren’t fun, and that was talking to a crowd of a thousand people! (She was a little nervous up on the podium)

Did you get any pressure from the editors in the beginning to make your books more edgy? (I.e. include sex, more violence, etc)

She did get some of that in the beginning, and that is an aspect that  could relate to anything. She stated that you will be pressured at one point or another. She specified that some times you do need to listen (that is the tricky part) to your editor and other times you need to fight back and say “no, this is how it’s supposed to be”

The vast majority of your fans are female. Do you have anything you would like to say to your male readers?
A: you rock
B: you are my favorites
C: you are more likely to get a response back on my space
D: you are brave to be here with 990 girls (we all laughed).

Part of the video gets cut off, but Stephenie mentions that they are really smart to be here with so many females. One of the guys in the audience jumps up and takes a bow. I have this on video somewhere and it’s really funny.

That was the end of the Q & A so we lined up by our group numbers to get the books signed. She was sighing multiple copies of The Host but only two of her other novels.

The actually signing started at 6:45 and I was finished with a signed copy of The Host and my very well traveled, battered Twilight (which she commented on that she likes to see books well worn, pages falling out and tape to hold the outside together). I was pretty nervous to go up and get my book signed only because I admire her so much. This is how close I was allowed to come to Stephenie while she was signing. The handlers were shooing people away. All in all, it was a great signing.

Stephenie is a warm person and you can tell she cares about her fans and readers. Now if she could just type faster so Midnight Sun will come out sooner.

I have more video posted and some that I have been trying to post but You Tube is not cooperating tonight so it is no loading. It all should be (hopefully) up by tomorrow night. It will be referenced under ‘The Host, Phoenix Signing”. I hope everyone enjoys the videos!