Bloody Night Con 2015 Barcelona

One of the perks of being a young adult fantasy/supernatural author is attending cons with teenage girls and having a legitimate excuse that it’s for business purposes! 😉 I will even admit that I had a total “fan girl” moment when Ian Somerhalder asked me to sign my book for him. I’m sure he had no idea that this was in fact my first ever book signing! For those of you who know me, I’m a huge fan of The Vampire Diaries and Damon Salvatore and this show was a big inspiration for my book. To say that giving my book to Ian Somerhalder and his request for a signature was huge, is the understatement of the century.

And then when he offered to hold Wilder in the photo op, I really thought I was going to lose it!

So I wanted to share some of my excitement from the trip and giveaway this signed picture along with a copy of Wilder all leading up to the launch on Monday, June 15th. To enter just subscribe to my mailing list on the top right corner of this page. You’ll also get two free chapters before it’s published as a bonus.

Enjoy the pictures and quotes below!

Ian Somerhalder (Damon Salvatore) Panel

What’s the thing I miss most? My sanity

The story is about to evolve, it’s going to be dark and sexy

Last scene is a true depiction of where the season is going. Stefan and Damon are going to find each other, it’s going to be dark and volatile and sexy. The old Damon will be back and usually it’s a good Stefan and a bad Damon or a good Damon and a bad Stefan but maybe we’ll have the brothers be bad together.

I’m going to be directing more so that’ll be fun. Even if it sucks don’t say it, just say Ian’s such a great director! 😉

If you look at me, Paul, Zach, Chris and Malarkey and all these crazy bastards we really do function like a boy band. So today you have your own personal boy band right here. It’s really a blast. Who’s the singer? Malarkey! I can sing but I only sing in the shower. It’s the best concert because of the acoustics.

Zach Roerig (Matt Donovan) Panel

I went down to Las Ramblas with Chris and I felt someone’s hand in my pocket. I turned around and was like what the hell? Someone tried to pick pocket me!

Funniest cast mate? We all have our days, but lately Paul has been the funniest, Ian’s pretty funny. He has lots of good one liners.

I cried at the last table reading with Nina.

Michael Malarkey (Enzo), Zach Roerig, and Ian Somerhalder Panel

Zach’s about to have shoulder surgery and Michael and Ian rushed him on stage and nearly tackled him. When they remembered they felt really bad and apologized profusely.

Ian: The three of us is what’s left of The Vampire Diaries!

My question on directing:
Zach: I can barely act… baby steps.
Michael: I need to do a lot more acting, get that under my belt. But yah in the future definitely. I’d like to work with actors.
Ian: I think these guys would make incredible directors. They’re very intelligent with huge hearts and great chests. Directing is one of the purest forms of the art of film making because you walk into an empty room and sit there with your set designers and producers and the money you have to spend and what you can do with that room. And you come back 5 days later and it’s literally transformed.

Full Panel – Kat Graham (Bonnie Bennett), Chris Wood (Kai), Zach Roerig, Michael Malarkey, and Ian Somerhalder Panel

  

Michael: What did I tell you yesterday for my prediction for the Barcelona vs Juventus game? 3-1. I should have put money on it.

Ian: Thanks to all the fans this year our panel at Comic Con is going to be bigger than ever. It’s going to be in the H hall which is the biggest hall, it’s where Twilight is!

Kat and Chris and Ian about Bonnie and Kai:
Ian: It went so well in 1994
Chris: Worked so well last time
Kat: Didn’t even try to kill each other, not once
Chris: And in 1903
Ian: He never tried to kill her, he made her dinner
Kat: I never stabbed him not once
Chris: I never stabbed her not twice

Ian’s fondest childhood memory: Growing up in the Bayous of Louisiana being a little lad and being on the boats the piros, the french version of the canoe

Ian: Zach gave us the best wedding present, he built a deck for my Airstream by hand. He just showed me a picture of it. It’s truly pretty incredible. Thank you brother.

Who would you take on a deserted island?
Kat: My dogs and my mom and Frankie my best friend, my gay husband.
Ian: If you had the dogs and you got hungry you could eat them.
Chris: I would be stuck with all of you (pointing to the crowd).
Kat: And all of you would be pregnant
Chris: Don’t cheer for her after she does that! That’s the most backwards thing! (He looks mortified) I don’t know who! Zach you answer!
Zach – Obama, Schwarzenegger and Ian
Ian – So you’d have food, governance and entertainment
Michael: I’d go with Zach because he can build stuff, hunt, and gather. I’d definitely be the female in the relationship.
Ian: Here’s the good thing, you can try all you want but you can’t get pregnant!

Hardest scene:
Kat: The show is so dramatic. Every week you read the script and it’s like life and death. I haven’t had an easy scene in many years.
Chris: Probably the scene where I get my head chopped off
Zach: Season 3 when I drowned myself. It was like physically hard. Kat had to pull me to the surface.
Kat: Yes oh my God. It was so nerve wracking! You had literally weights that weighted him down to the bottom of the pool. I had to swim to the bottom of the pool without goggles and unlatch him and pull him up with my own little strength all in one take.
Ian: Any scene with Paul Wesley is hard.
Kat: Yes I agree! I’m so happy I haven’t had scenes with him.
Michael: Kinda true.
Ian: Any scene that you have to pull from something that really hurt you. I always go back to the scene when Damon is laying in the road and missing his humanity. He professes it to this stranger and ultimately kills her. I was very emotionally attached to that scene. It took me like two days to come out of it.

Check out this video at the end of the event: