I decided kind of last-minute to go to Rachel Gillig's St. Louis signing for The Knight and the Moth, so I thought I'd give a quick recap. There have been a few St. Louis author events I would have liked to attend, but they're all usually in the middle of the week and I have to travel two hours one-way to get there. So, since this event was on a Saturday (May 24th, to be exact), I said, "Let's do it!" But, like I said, it was still a pretty last-minute decision, as I wasn't sure I wanted to go since you had to buy a book with the ticket and I already had the ARC version and FairyLoot and Barnes & Noble editions on the way. However, I saw the videos of the B&N version with the blue foil and decided I wanted the regular version. I just like the look of the silver foil better. So I thought if I'm going to buy the regular edition, I might as well get a signed one.
My dad said he'd go with me, so we headed out from my place and got to The Sun Theatre around 4:30ish. I got my pre-signed copy of The Knight and the Moth when I walked in, along with my signing number ticket. I was in Group 5 out of, I believe, 6 or 7, so that was kind of a bummer as it meant waiting longer to get my books signed after the discussion. Next time, I'll get there earlier to get a better ticket. I thought they were still doing the signings by seat. That shows how long it's been since I've been to one. Ha ha. I ended up chatting with the ladies next to me when I found a seat. It was, thankfully, a seat near the front, so that was nice. The place was almost full by the time I got there. It was a sold-out event. But anyway, my seat neighbors and I talked about NetGalley ARCs and special editions to kill time before it started.
Rachel Gillig (on the left in yellow) started at a little after 5 p.m. She was funny and charming in a positive, awkward way, like a self-deprecating-sense-of-humor type. I have a few videos from the beginning of the signing, but this one was my favorite because they talk about Bartholomew, my favorite character in the book. He was probably everyone's favorite character, honestly.
Rachel discussed how Sybil's appearance is similar to Aurora the singer, and Rory's is similar to a male singer I had never heard of before. Well, I've never heard of either of them, but I specifically didn't know how to spell the singer for Rory to look it up for this post. Rachel also said she likes to write slowburn romance to make readers suffer, she likes tangible magic rules (her example was how El in Stranger Things can just do things and it irritates her how it's not explained), and she calls herself a sedentary toad for liking to write on her couch in her home. For The Knight and the Moth specifically, she talked about how 2025 is the year of lady knights in publishing. She blames The Green Knight film for that. She also said Zelda is a big inspiration for her. And the only hints she gave us for book two include the word "tournament" and that there was inspiration from A Knight's Tale film.
After the panel, I waited like 1.5 hours to get my books signed. Since The Knight and the Moth hardback came pre-signed, I just got my three copies that I brought signed instead. There was a three-item limit to what you could get signed, and only one The Knight and the Moth copy could be personalized. I tend not to get books personalized anymore unless they're like a major favorite author (i.e., J.R. Ward or JLA), so I stuck to just a signature. I would potentially have gotten my B&N edition signed, but it wasn't delivered until right as I was in Rachel Gillig's signing event. How rude, B&N. Please fix your shipping times. Honestly, though, I'm not even sure that I'm going to keep the B&N edition. I think I'll wait until book two comes out to decide which edition I'll keep/get rid of.
The signing line itself didn't take very long. It was a quick drop-your-books-and-take-a-pic line. I think I barely said hi to her. They did have us hold up our The Knight and the Moth copies, so I held up my ARC version, since it was the one I got signed. I also got my One Dark Window and Two Twisted Crowns B&N editions signed as well. After that, my poor dad (who sat in the car the entire time for some reason instead of going out and doing something) and I headed home. We stopped at Culver's on the way for a small snack too.