The tour began on March 31 at BN in Arboretum at 5:00 pm. We came in a little early, were led to the back room, and shortly after they brought us out. We follow the nice bookseller to the signing space and see 200 people. And they all go, “Yay!” except that there is 200 of them and it sounds more like, “Rawr!”
We have a short Q&A, we got to signing, and we sign until 10:30 or so. Author math: 1 new book plus 3 books from home = 4 signatures x 200 = 800 signatures. 500 signatures is about 3 hours. We have an awesome time, and then the readers leave and we stay and sign stock. And more stock. And more stock.
We finally get through it and call our Uber, and it takes us home. We land, eat something – I am very proud of myself for ordering takeout to be delivered with perfect timing – it was left by the door by the time we arrived but it did not sit long enough for racoons to steal it. We eat, finish packing in a tired stupor, and pass out for about 4 hours.
We get up at 5:00 am, and by 5:30 am we are on the way to the airport with our bags and our airline apps. We get there, check in the bags, go through TSA Precheck and they send me right back. My TSA precheck is not there. It turned out that there was a typo in my KTN, the frequent flier number. Now that I know about it, I manually fix it everywhere.
We grab some kind of weird breakfast – airport food is always a little sus – and get on a plane. We land in Minneapolis at 12:30 pm. We get to the hotel, which is amazing. It’s called the Graduate and it is straight out of a Dark Academia novel. It’s right by University of Minnesota and there are lounge spaces and long, ancient looking tables everywhere. The students use it as a secondary Student Center. I stole pictures for you from their website.
It would be an amazing event space. Like I want to write a dark academia novel so we can have the book release party there.
We drop our bags off and get an Uber to Tropes and Trifles. The city is under siege. Every house and business along the road has signs ICE OUT and WE LOVE OUR NEIGHBORS. Minneapolis’ community game is strong. Deepest respect.
I will say that if you would like to visit, do not hesitate. We felt safe, and Tropes and Trifles takes great care of their visitors.
We arrive to the store about 2:45 pm and we are shown to the table filled with books. We keep signing but somehow the boxes keep coming.
We also meet a very good boy.
We presign the books until about 5:00 pm, when we get a little break to grab a bite. The only options around Tropes and Trifles were a BBQ restaurant and a bakery, so we grab an uber back to the hotel and eat at their restaurant. Nothing wrong with a BBQ, but for a signing event, you want something light.
We eat quickly, grab an uber, and arrive to the signing venue, which takes place in this amazing church. Except that there is no table. Usually there is a table, but this time, there are only chairs.
I have a pantsuit that only looks good when I am standing or half hidden behind the table. Had I know this, I would’ve worn a dress. I went with the suit because an ice storm was coming and it was cold. More on that later.
The signing starts and again, there are many people. We do a short Q&A and at some point, I do a Vanna White impression with a giant cover. Except I am not quite that fabulous, hehe. The session goes well, we switch to the signing, and we sign. And sign. Tropes and Trifles has a 6 book limit, so the presigned hardcover plus up to 6 books from home.
It takes a little bit, and we get everyone through, and arrive to the hotel around 11:00 pm. We grab a little sleep, get up at 5:00 am, and by 6:20 am, we are at the airport. We are due to fly to Chicago, where we need to catch a connecting flight to Lexington.
Remember the ice storm? It is spreading across the Midwest. Chicago is not accepting planes. The flight is delayed. We sit. We wait. We board. We sit. We wait. We deplane with our bags. We sit. We wait.
At this point I call Jocelyn, who is Tor’s publicist, and explain that there is no way we are connecting in Chicago. She magically manages to rebook us on a later flight. We should be getting into Charlotte at 5:00 pm now. The signing is at 7:00 pm. Plenty of time.
We sit. We wait.
We board. The plane is de-iced. We wait. We wait.
We finally take off.
We land in Chicago, speed march to the right gate, and stop. The domino effect is in full force. Our connecting flight is now delayed by two hours.
More texting to Jocelyn, who connects to Joseph-Beth, and the store graciously agrees to move the event to 8:30 pm. We had an unprecedented level of support for this. Thank you so much to everyone involved.
I check the email, and see a message from Mod R, which says, “Everything is fine,” which is usually a code for “The sky has fallen, but Mod R picked it up and put it back.” The website had crashed, and she had to contact the host support, who got it fixed in record time. I thank her and ask her to post the delay announcement.
We sit. We wait. We talk to other people who are sitting and waiting. We look for some place to charge things. We sit.
Finally we board and fly to Lexington. We land at 8:10 pm, grab our bags, and call an Uber, except the uber driver is 12 miles away. What? So, we cancel the uber and grab a taxi, and it takes us to Joseph-Beth. We are reasonably sure that everyone has likely left by now.
We make it to the store at 8:30 pm. Joseph-Beth – a beautiful store, by the way, and if you have a chance, you absolutely should visit – has two floors of books. As we are riding the escalator up in our travel clothes with our bags, we hear the “Yay-Rawr!”
Nobody left. We go straight into Q&A, and there are pictures of us with readers where Gordon looks amazing, because he always does, and I am wearing upscale sweatpants and a T-shirt that says “Easily Distracted By Dogs.” Sorry. It couldn’t be helped.
We get through the line – one person flew in from Germany, omg – and by that point it’s 11:30 pm and there is a lot of stock. The store graciously offers to stay with us until we sign it all, but we feel bad about keeping everyone late, so we agree to come back in the morning.
We get to Origin hotel, which is also gorgeous, fall on our faces, and fall asleep.
We are up at 6:00 am, we grab breakfast. Breakfast at the Origin in Lexington is a religious experience. Like it is so delicious, and it looks like one of those highly edited food shots. It was perfect. By 7:30 am we are in an uber and on the way to the store.
We get there, we are let in, and we sign stock. And we sign. And we sign. At 9:15 am, we had to leave for the airport, but we got through all of This Kingdom stock and we will be sending bookplates to Joseph-Beth for the rest.
We get to the airport, and the plane is delayed. We wait, we wait, we wait, we we board the plane, and then we are finally in Baltimore. As we are going to get our bags, Jeaniene Frost, who is co-signing with us, is texting me wanting to know if we are alive. I confirm that we are alive and we agree to meet for dinner. It is Gordon’s birthday.
We end up at a Brazilian steakhouse. But this point I am so tired of eating highly fried and rich food, that I find some marinated eggplant on the salad bar and I eat it like there is no tomorrow. Midway through dinner, a woman comes over and gives us this hesitant look.
Me: Hello.
She: ILOVEYOURBOOKS.
We took lovely pictures, chatted, and it was a very cute moment. She couldn’t get a ticket to the signing because it was sold out and ended up at the restaurant by pure chance. Serendipity. On tour all of our time belongs to the readers and book stores, and all of us are very glad that we were able to meet her.
The next day, we make a quick excursion to Collector Corner and Black Sheep Yarn Store, where I buy yarn I do not need. Black Sheep Yarn store is lovely and they tried very hard to explain their return policy to me. Returning yarn. Heh.
We meet with Jeaniene and her sister for a quick brunch, get back to the hotel, change clothes and arrive to the BN. We are welcomed, led to the back room, and then brought out.
No table. Oh, and it’s worse. It’s not chairs. It’s tall bar stools. Note to self: dresses next time.
We have a ton of people again, everyone is asking questions, I scroll through Maggie 2 to prove that it existed. Jeaniene Frost is MC’ing like there is no tomorrow, and then we all transition to the signing.
There were some heavy moments at this signing and some happy moments. At one point someone accidentally grabbed my phone instead of theirs, and somehow took a bunch of pictures – I must’ve happened to unlock it just before – and then apologized profusely. I texted the pictures back and took a photo for posterity. Hehe.
We signed until just after 9:00 pm, and as soon as we finished, the lights went out, and we had to go. We got back to the hotel, fell on our faces, and slept until 4:00 am, at which point the uber came to pick us up so we can be at the airport in time. We got there at 5:00, gave them our bags, somehow dragged ourselves through the security and to our gate, waited again, got on a plane, flew, landed, ubered, and at noon walked through the door of our house.
We put the bags aside, changed clothes, sat on the couch, and fell asleep until 4:00 pm, when it was time to pick up the dogs from boarding.
It was an amazing tour! We got to meet so many people. Thank you for all of the smiles and the old, well-loved books. It was our privilege to spend time with you!
And now I have the grand announcement. Ta-da!
Here we go:
- #9 New York Times Bestseller in Hardcover and Ebook
- #10 New Times Bestseller in Hardcover
- #14 USA Today Bestseller (We have #14 bestselling book out all books in US)
- #2 Sunday Times Bestseller in UK – huge thank you to Waterstones
- #6 Independent Books Store Bestseller
And we have regional lists:
- #13 North California Independent Bookstore Alliance
- #14 Southern Independent Bookstore Alliance
- #7 Mountains and Plains Independent Bookseller Association
- #8 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
- #9 Great Lakes Independent Bookseller Association
We haven’t had a true hardcover edition since Magic Triumphs. Hidden Legacy had very tiny hardcover runs, primarily aimed at libraries. We are coming back from an almost 4 year traditional hiatus (Ruby Fever came out in 08/2022.)
I love Maggie, but I also understand that it is a dense book with a lot of worldbuilding. It is not a YA/NA, it is not that spicy, and it is in a genre largely unknown to Western audiences. Books like that don’t usually hit the lists unless they have a film or TV tie ins. Tor had gone above and beyond to promote it, but between the long break in our publishing career, the hardcover price, and writing in a different genre, I didn’t expect any fireworks.
This is unbelievably amazing. I was shocked. Absolutely shocked. How did this even happen?
We worked so hard on this book, and right now all of it seems worth it.
Thank you.
You are the best.
As Dina once said “Release the Horde.”
Yeah, that.
+1!
Yay-Rawr!
and we ate well *nom-nom*
I loved this. I was unable to meet you all on your tour but this glimpse helped with the FOMO.
Congratulations! Well deserved.
Yay! Congratulations!
Congratulations on all the accolades for This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me! Wow, that tour sounded nuts with the winter weather. Glad you made it back home safely.
Mod R handled everything, including us, while you were on tour. She kept us from climbing up and down the walls while reading.
The Horde rules!
Please come to Houston one day!
Jo-Beth is the BEST! I hated I missed you guys there. We were in town for NCAAs and I couldn’t get the stars to align.
The book is great. As you promised it’s very much a traditional high fantasy and not really a romantasy. It’s nice to see that difference hasn’t hurt the sales much if at all (no offense to romantasy fans).
Sounds like a stressfully awesome trip! I’m jealous of those who were able to be there and I’m appreciativd of you and those that have shared their photos with us .
YAY-ROAR!
Mazel tov! You hoped the audience would find it AND IT DID!!!!!
So happy to meet you in Baltimore. Hope you can do a signing in New York soon!!!!!
This is SO well deserved. Congratulations. ♥️
Welcome back home!
Who else wants to cuddle under a warm blanket on the couch after reading through this tour madness?!? I’m amazed you made it out alive on the other end, and that you still have functioning hands…
All the kudos for the tour, and all the kudos and all the thanks for Maggie 1. I’m on the obligatory instant re-read, that’s a hard feat to pull off!
Congratulations on the books success. We never doubted it would be a big hit, so glad all your hard work paid off.
Took me three days to read it, but it was worth every minute and I probably will read it at least two more times. Thank you for brightening our world with your genius.
Congratulations! And I know you are shocked, but it’s like a masterclass on writing. You did an incredible job and I think it actually has really wide appeal.
No.
Thank YOU. YOU are the best😊
Your book tour sounds exhausting! But, I was so happy to get to go to one!
Now, relax and enjoy a few moments. I expect the pups and the BDH will not let you rest for long.
The tour sounds exhausting but fun. Now relax and recharge.
Then please go finish Maggie 2. The cliffhanger ending in book 1 killed me. I an not Undying.
Agree. Ready to pre-order Maggie 2 right now! Rereading entire backlist as part of my own personal Maggie celebration! Loved Maggie so much!
She says: Dark academia novel…
I say (in my best Jack Nicholson impersonation): Is there another kind?
I know…. Imagine a dark academia novel by Ilona Andrews. Yes, please!!
+1
When I read that part, my mind went to the scene in Blood Heir when Aurelia (aka Julie) and Luther talk in the library at Emory University. The place Luther realizes that’s Julie talking like Kate and practically blackmails her into finding out what’s going on or else he will let the Lennert family know she’s in Atlanta.
Hmm…more library shenanigans for the next Julie book in the far, far future? 🤔
Congratulations!!!!!
Well deserved
My first introduction to portal fantasy was the Witch World books by Andre Norton (lo, those many moons ago). You two deserve crash time; I’ve traveled in the aftermath of Minnesota blizzards via car. Tense indeed.
Me too! *highfive* ❤️📚
Thanks for reminding me.
I need to reread those.
It is an amazing book! I couldn’t put it down and have already planned to reread it!
Congratulations!
Congratulations! Happy belated birthday to Gordon!
That tour sounds like a whirlwind.. I am sure you are happy to be home with the pets and tea.
The book is fantastic… Yay-Rawr!
Congratulations! Its absolutely well deserved! Thank you for writing it and your time spent traveling to meet the Horde!
Congratulations!!!
As a wise Yogurt once said…
“Never underestimate the power of the… Horde!”
I’m not sure how you managed that crazy schedule. I was exhausted just thinking about it.
BTW, we don’t care what you wear as long as you keep writing such awesome books!!! 😉
It happened because Maggie is your best work to date and House Andrews are genius at world building and character development. Y’all are also hard working and you make every word count in the whole scheme of things. I am so happy for you both!
Congratulations! the accolades are well earned – y’all are fantastic writers.
We the Horde are very lucky that you are so generous to your fans.
Happy birthday wishes belatedly and I hope you both enjoy several days of complete rest!
I am soooo happy for you. Y’all deserve all the recognition. Thank you for writing wonderful books.
Congratulations!
Love hearing about your adventures, trials, and tribulations.
I got to see y’all in Austin at the first signing; I was at the tail end and I did not want to pester you more than just to sign and get out of your way because even then I was sure you had to be exhausted. I cannot imagine the level of deflated you must be back home now. 🙂
Congratulations on the highly deserved accolades for a wonderful book.
RAWR! The Horde is mighty!! And truly, I’m seeing this book everywhere! Thank you so much for the love and effort you poured into it!
Heck yeah you did! Congratulations! We’d love to see you in Boston for Maggie 2 (Electric Bugaloo?) Tour, just so you know…
(And you know the BDH would eat up some IA dark academia…)
I am so so happy for you both! This is well deserved and TKWNKM is a fabulous book! Can’t wait for the sequel!
I totally begged my local bookstore to carry it – I told them how amazing it was and showed them pictures of how **pretty** it was and talked about how good it would look on their shelves!
IMHO it should be higher on those lists!
Congratulations! I just finished the audiobook. I can’t wait to read about the Sleepless Duke’s reaction.
You say tea- that sounds like 2-cocktail emergency post whirlwind tour to me. Cheers regardless. Awesome book and phenomenal authors! All the accolades are well deserved.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Maggie deserves all the love in the world, I’m so happy for you guys!!!! Hope you guys get time to relax lots!
Congratulations on this well deserved recognition of your amazing creative spirits!
Book tours sound brutal….
Thank you, Ilona and Gordon, for sharing your gift with the world!
May we all find peace and safety in this moment.
It was terrific seeing you in Lexington! Thank you for persevering!
“[G]enre largely unknown to Western audiences” is doing a lot of unnecessary work there. Isekai is a very close cousin if not identical twin to portal fantasy, and portal fantasy is a staple of Anglophone fantasy. I grew up on Harold Shea. Series like Seventh Sword and the Gandalara Cycle in the 1980s even include isekai’s resurrection motif.
Isekai tropes differ quite a bit, which is why certain readers who had expectations based on the older Western portal fantasy trends were taken aback in reviews 🙂 Meta descriptions provided in the beginning of Prince/villainess, the knowledge of the plot, the multiple men courting the heroine etc – this is all out of isekai field.
Congratulations on everything! The most shocking part of this story was that someone exists who thinks yarn will be returned. I am not familiar with this concept.
Me either. The yarn would have to be losing its twist for me to return it.
Congratulations on the book success! With it being at no2 in the UK, maybe a trip to london would be in order. We have good tea and yarn here and a very polite BDH faction 😉
Soooo when is the dark academia book coming out? No! Wait! She said other things… go back and read it….
I’m so sorry about the ice storm!!! So is there a plot yet or.. No wait stop it! Read it again.
Congrats on so many best selling lists…. will it be a novel or novella?
Oops I did it again 🙂 The horde cannot be stopped!!!! Seriously though, you deserve all the love and awards and attention This Kingdom brings. It is an incredible story.
Congratulations!
The book is phenomenal and the feedback is well deserved. Thank you for taking the time to meet people!! I’m sure the people who got to meet you guys won’t forget it! ❤️
Yay!!
You have uncovered the secret BDH plot. We give you all the monies so you can give us more books! 🤞🤞🤞
Much secret, very plot! 👀👀
congratulations! You need to take a tour of the PNW. Look, you’re #8 already, and the horde here is ready to take you to #1. Please, please do an event in the PNW
Congratulations!
Congratulations on the well-earned list achievements! Maggie is AMAZING. I’m so grateful I got to meet you both. I was so impressed by the time and care you took. I met you toward the end of the line at your last stop, during the phone heist (only an observer, not the perpetrator!), and STILL didn’t feel rushed. Thank you!!
The Horde is not shocked!!! Y’all are amazing and I’m thrilled for you.
Congratulations on a job WELL DONE!!
Have a fabulous weekend and and hopefully get a little R&R in.
“Not spicy.” Ha! Ma’am. I felt feelings I’ve never felt before. It wasn’t explicit, but it sure was hot!
Wonderful book
The book is amazing! Of course it’s doing well!!
congratulations – it’s a well deserved honour! It is dense, but I have to say that the world building is my favourite part. It reminds me of the older, more traditional fantasy I gobbled up as a kid, and have actually missed (without realizing I had missed it).
I’ve been reading it slowly because it deserves slow, and enjoying it all, so thank you for writing it!
YAY! That is awesome! Sadly I couldn’t make the Austin one even though it was in my backyard. I can’t imagine not taking a few days to relax in the middle of all that.
“and I am wearing upscale sweatpants and a T-shirt that says “Easily Distracted By Dogs.”
I laughed so hard at this! I’m pretty sure you could wear a potato sack and the BDH loves you so much we wouldn’t care at all🤣
It sounds like you had an amazing whirlwind of a tour and I love that you got to do cosigning with Jeaniene!!
Happy belated birthday to Gordon 🎂
TKWNKM is a truly fabulous book. My husband is reading it, and he typically isn’t a reader. But I’ve raved about it so much (I’m on my third read through, lol) that it snagged his interest. I so rarely get to discuss books I love with someone who has also read said books, so I am thrilled.
Thank you for all you do. You share your talent with the world, and the world is a better place for it.
Of course the Book did well. It was amazing!
I am so glad the tour went well if not on schedule. You deserve a good rest now. Next time come to Portland and visit Powell’s! I couldn’t justify flying halfway across the country for a book signing but I could make it to Powell’s if you add it for Maggie2.
They have been to Powell’s in the past! I saw them there!📚
This book is amazing. I can’t wait for the next one, but after reading what you all have been through, I’ll happily wait however long it takes—books don’t write themselves and you deserve a break! 🙂
It happened because you guys are one of the hardest working entities in the business, and your fans love you for it, and you deliver a quality product every time, with all the traits and levels that entails, plus fan service second to none, and the BDH is kind of evangelical about you guys.
Congratulations. Well deserved! The book is amazing!
A well deserved Congratulations to House Andrews. And it happened because you’re awesome writers and Maggie rocks!
When Maggie 2 comes out, and you come back to Minneapolis (PLEASE!! I got sick at the last minute and couldn’t come) you must, Must, MUST schedule time to go to Steven Be’s yarn store (https://stevenbe.com/). It’s a really good yarn store with a rock star personality, and there’s no other place like it!!
You can tell from the first chapter that you genuinely enjoyed writing this book. I could feel your glee at times. That alone made it a really great read – add in an overall amazing book and no wonder it is hot, hot, hot!
Wish I still lived in MD so I could have met you in Baltimore. I’m betting the Brazilian steakhouse was Fogo de Chão. The family has eaten there a few times. I always hit the salad bar for first course and the men in the family are all “don’t fill up on salad – there’s meat!”.
I am exhausted just reading about your book tour and experiences. I hope you guys get to take some time to recoup and recharge. I knew the book was going to do great but I am so happy for you guys with all the work you put in. It deserves all the praise!
HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY GORDON🎉 Wishing you long life, perfect health and many more moments of mischief and joy and boatloads of good clean money 💐✨️🎉
House Andrews we stand by your work and this was most satisfying. Please soak it in and absorb the fact thar YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING 😁✨️🙌🏿
Thanks for the glimpse into this tour…yay-rawr it is 🤣
We love your books, even new to us genres. What’s not to love? Great world building and delicious characters! We are the Book Devouring Hoard!
I was explaining to my grandkids how great Maggie was and why I have already reread it. We talked about how Maggie changed the book and what would they change in a book? It was a great conversation.
I am not surprised…from the moment I read the snippet of Maggie meeting Reynald at the teahouse, I knew this story was special, and you delivered.
Congratulations!!! It’s an amazing book!!!
Congratulations on the success! We’re all so happy for you.
As someone who had the privilege of attending one of the signings (Baltimore), I cannot thank you enough for doing the tour. It was so much fun to connect with other fans, listen to the Q&A and get to talk to you for a moment. No joke, I think I would be less nervous to meet a major celebrity than I was to meet you 😂😂
The book is amazing, your work has brought me so much joy over the years. Thank you so much!
I want to make a tiny point.
if you had come to Argentina I would have sold my house to come and see you.
Another thing, after the book hangover I went into a rabbit hole on every media. Facebook, Reddit, threads, etc. There were many many discussions, some people were “absolutely and totally loved it, more, more, more!!! give me or I will complaint, do you want to discuss?”
Some others were like “I enjoyed this and that, but not the other, either way I want more”.
There were different ships sailed (as if could be any other option, green really suits her well), and many discussions for that.
But even in the deepest of the internet seas, all I saw was respect at the moment of interchanging opinions.
Even in desolated places without our beloved Mod R.
It gave me a very happy feeling, being part of a too much well behaved Book devouring horde. I’m so so proud of what I saw.
This books, this authors, they bring the very best in all of us.
PS: any itty bitty clue of when we can have more, pretty please?
Yay-Rawr! This book deserves everything!! ❤️
I’d also like to start a petition for a stop within a 4hr drive of Charlotte, NC for the Maggie 2 tour. I read “Charlotte” in the post above, and my heart nearly stopped thinking I made the biggest mistake of my life and missed a signing here 😂
It’s well deserved and I am glad it is getting the recognition it deserves.
Congratulations! I absolutely loved Maggie 😍 I can’t wait to see how badass she gets in the future.
That is so exciting. I’m happy for you and for us, the BDH.
Thank you for all that you do. Get some well deserved downtime if you can.
I attended your book signings at Powell s Books years ago. You always did a great job at talking with your fans. You still do. Congratulations!
We all knew from that first snippet that Maggie (except we didn’t know it was Maggie) was something special. I’m so happy for you. All of the risk and hardwork. Well done! Yay-RAWR!!
So proud and happy to be BDH!!