Onyx Storm Release Party With an Editor

BRAVE THE DARK.

As a girl who has always wanted to attend a book release party, attending the midnight release of the most anticipated book of the year was a good start. Of course, I am talking about the release of Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros.

A couple of months before the release, I called a nearby Barnes and Noble to see if they had tickets to their release party left. With how popular the Empyrean Series is, I should have known the answer would be “no.” I was bummed but accepted the fact that I could attend another release for another book. However, right before the release, I received a text message from a friend saying she had an extra ticket. I jumped on the opportunity so quickly to attend. Now, I am the only Editor at R.I. who attended an Onyx Storm release party. Both the other Editors were supposed to attend events; one was canceled due to the weather, and the other was no longer able to attend.

When the event started, I arrived at the Barnes and Noble in Hurst, Texas, around 9 pm. There were at least 100 people already there waiting. There were so many groups of people hanging out and having fun. I found the group of friends I planned to go with and also ran into other friends who were attending. One of them is one of our photographers, Shayne, who does all of our specialty couples shoots for the magazine!

My book & goodies!

About 20 minutes later, the employees had everyone file into lines to enter the store, those who pre-ordered the book, those who reserved it, and walk-ins. I was in the pre-order line since the book was a part of the ticket that I bought from my friend. The pre-order also came with a goodie bag, which included a bookmark, sticker, and one of the coolest enamel pins that I own now.

My group of friends occupied a table by the in-store Starbucks, playing Cards Against Fourth Wing. I honestly didn’t know this version of the game existed, but I wish I had known sooner. All I have to say about it was that it was very entertaining - honestly, Ridoc would love this game.

When it comes to social media, I think we can all agree that every release party was different. While some offered crafts, games, and photo-ops, ours didn’t. For those wondering, the biggest differences would be by who hosted the event, whether an "Indie" bookstore, a franchise like Barnes & Noble or select private events, everyone who attended a release party had a different experience.

My experience at the release party was letting us all continue to talk, which led to myself and my friends venturing outside of just the group we attended with. During this time, there were people filming videos, taking pictures and quizzes, talking about theories and predictions, and even passing around friendship bracelets and bookmarks. I was given a purple dragon bookmark by the sweetest girl!

I also spent some of this free time shopping around as they still had the registers open. Thankfully, I thought to bring a gift card I received for Christmas. I picked up a cool copy of Dracula by Bram Stoker, Blood of Hercules by Jasmine Mas (which I now know is a 'why choose' book, but one of our other Editors loved it!), and, to keep on the theme for the night, The Things We Leave Unfinished by Rebecca Yarros.

Books I got while at the Onyx Storm Release Party!

About an hour before they handed out the books, everyone gathered around to announce the winners of the costume contest. Our release party featured a lot of characters, including Violet, Scribes, Venin, Tarin, Andarna, Imogen, Sloane, Brennan, and even Cat. Once the winners were announced, we all played trivia as a group. They gave out custom wooden bookmarks to everyone who answered correctly. I was humbled really quickly because I only knew the answer to about 3 of the questions. I clearly need to pay more attention to the characters' last names, minor characters in the story, and of course the locations. 

After many rounds of trivia, it was finally time to line up to receive our copies. We split into our three lines again and waited. Thankfully, everyone who 'walked in' was still able to receive a copy. Barnes & Noble was allowed to hand out the books at 11 pm CST, and by 11:15, the store was cleared out to start reading.

You know, a quiz I wish we would have taken was a "what are odds" - "what are the odds of me making it into the Riders Quadrant?" while the dreams are high, the odds are low. Between us Editors, we might all be able to handle a dragon, but probably not the parapet or the gauntlet...unless you count Rachel M I will put money on her making it through, she was a track star, after all. But the rest of us might like wearing riders black, but the scribe and infantry quadrants are calling out names.

Although crafts and a photo-op would have been fun, I had such a good experience. Everyone there was so wholesome and welcoming. There was no judgment for dressing up or freaking out over the book. We were all just happy to be there!

Onyx Storm Book Dedication

Something to note, and that we are all seeing on social media, is the process, distribution, and standard of the Onyx Storm release. I was really lucky to get to attend a release party so last minute and guarantee to get myself a special edition copy of the book. One of the other Editors had her order placed months ago and had received two notifications that her order was canceled and that she could receive a regular (non-sprayed edges) copy of the book but not the special edition. She ended up not even knowing she was going to get a book when she found it in the mail, which the order still said 'canceled' for online. Now, the book she received was warped, but she was able to fix it and get it in almost perfect condition. Our other Editors' orders came in but were delayed. Overall, I think we will all be talking about the release of Onyx Storm for many years to come

Now, back to reading Onyx Storm! I mean, this book dedication makes me want to jump straight back into the world of the Empyrean Series. Myself and another Editor are still working our way through the book, and our third Editor is just ready for us to be finished so she can start blabbing and, of course, sharing more Onyx Storm inside jokes and memes.