So, Thursday morning I wake up. So many butterflies. Not only am I meeting one of my favourite authors ever. I'm interviewing her too. I was screaming internally the full day.
I thought I'd leave super early to get there because A) public transport is not reliable (more on that later) and B) I want to be punctual!
The plan was that my friend Emily, who usually comes along with me to signings would meet up with me and film the interview with her camera because its better than mine.
It takes about 50 mins to get to Newcastle from where I live and I left 2 hours before I would be meeting up with Laini.
On the bus, I sit tightly clenched with nerves thinking 'are my questions good enough?' 'I wont have long, so which ones should I cut out?' 'What if shes already heard these questions a thousand times and is going to be so bored by having to answer them again?'. I tried not to even think about what sort of word vomit would spew out in the presence of Laini.
20 minutes into my ride, Emily rings me. She says the Metro trains aren't running so she's going to get a bus instead, she just wanted to let me know so I don't stress. We both agreed that we had plenty of time so being a little delayed wouldn't harm us.
10 minutes later, my bus takes turn not on the route it usually takes. It's taking us to the bus depot to pick up a new driver. Adding on about 15 minutes to the ride. I tell myself to be calm, we still have time. We accommodated for this.
Emily texts me: They've turned the engine off the her bus.
Her bus had broken down. Shit.
Right then was when I was questioning how on earth I can travel for 3 hours, taking 2 trains to interview Sarah J Maas in Glasgow and be there in plenty of time but I can't make a 50 minutes journey (one I take 3 or 4 times a week to university) to a nearby city without some kind of problem.
So while Emily waits for another bus to pick her up, I get stopped at every red light in the city (obviously) but somehow manage to make it to Waterstones on time, just without someone to record. I have questions and my phone so I think i'll just have to voice record it. BUT THEN, Jo, a lovely Waterstones employee volunteered to film it on my phone. (Thank god I recently got a new one that actually has the capacity to hold 1GB videos.)
I kept hoping, right until the last minute that Emily would make it in time, but alas it was not meant to be.
After all this, my day still worked out pretty amazingly, Emily got to the signing eventually, Laini was THE BEST. Such an amazing, inspiring woman. Meeting her was totally worth all the stress.
I was extremely time conscious during the interview because it was 14:47 when we started and her signing started at 3 (We ended up finishing the interview at 14:59) and she then needed to be in Edinburgh for her evening tour stop. Laini was so busy, it must be exhausting!
However, they had ran out of Minya stickers which I was so gutted about. Thankfully I've worked out a trade for one, but I know a lot of people wanted to collect them.
Finally, the best bit:
(Complete with police sirens interrupting Laini's answer and me stumbling over words with nerves)
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