Tag Archives: Katie Couric

As I think you all know by now Mags, Jill (the silent partner behind the blog), and I went to see E L James on the Katie Couric show today.  It was a long but amazing day!  Mags and I were there early, we had to make sure we got seats and hopefully good seats!  And we know how passionate E L James’ fans are and we weren’t risking not being able to get in!

It worked out nicely, we got to meet some other fans, we met Michele from Color Me GREYsessed and a few of her friends, including one from Seattle.  Then there were a whole bunch of ladies from Passion Parties, that was fun, but a little early in the morning for that kind of talk.

Waiting outside the studio

Around 9:45 they starting bringing us through security to the waiting room where they offered a snack, drink and bathroom usage.  We could also watch Rachael Ray.  There was also got a chance to talk with a few other fans, but honestly, my feet hurt from standing outside for so long that I sat most of the time and checked in with everyone on Twitter.

I’m not sure when we were brought into the studio, maybe around 11 AM and were seated.  I admit I had no idea how they did the seating, it seemed very random.  But we ended on on the right side a couple rows back.  At first we didn’t think they were good seats, but we were right near where Katie stands when she’s positioned in the audience so that was cool.

At noon the show started with a video introduction and then Katie came out in a leather dress and very high heels and told us she was going to be our mistress. Although the studio looks pretty big on TV, it’s not really that big and it was very intimate.  I felt drawn into Katie, so much so that even though I could see behind the stage a bit I didn’t notice E L James waiting to be announced.

Katie and Erika started out talking about her career in TV, and how she worked behind the scenes.  They quickly moved on to Erika’s writing career and Fifty Shades of Grey.  What I have always liked about Erika is that she’s a regular person.  You can tell that she’s not looking for stardom or the spotlight, that she really did write for herself and is still finding her place with the notoriety.

I should admit, I’m watching the show as I write this.  I was so in the moment when I was there and then my brain turned to mush. But a couple things stick out.  I had no idea what she was talking about when she referred to the ”ebayers” at the book signings, watching it taped I realized she meant the people who comes with large stacks of books to sell on ebay, duh.

Her boys haven’t read it, they could, but she seems glad they haven’t.  And they’re not really teased about their mother being the mother of mommy porn, but rather about having money now.  Yea, otherwise they might have to admit they’re paying attention to romance novels, teens are funny that way.

One of Erika’s better lines was about her husband, Niall Leonard, who “didn’t take the hint.” She did expand on some of what she has said previously about them trying some things out.  But some of it might have been more of a laugh then a sexy night in bed trying to figure out the choreography of the scenes.

Erika did talk about the development of Christian and his issues.  She did talk to a child psychologist about Christian and from the way she worded this, it might have been to help with the meeting with Flynn.  But that’s just my guess.

As for the movie and a 4th book.  We got no new insight.  She would like to work on a few other books before rewriting from Christian’s POV, maybe she’ll do that in the future.  As for a movie casting, she does have a short list for Ana (4 Actresses) and Christian (3 Actors) but since it’s a collaborative process for making the film she doesn’t want to mention any names.  As for the fan pole, Ian and Alexis won with the fans.

She would like to rewrite the first 2 books she wrote and also has ideas for 5 other books.  We could be waiting a while for a book from Christian’s POV.

There was a segment with men, but it did at times go down a weird road.  I did learn thought that as a single woman I should be prepared to discuss my pain threshold on dates.

Relief at finishing the interview

After the show E L James did answer a few questions for the audience and she was free to throw in a swear word or two, but that was it.  Here’s some of what we learned:

She apparently has a large collection of sex toys that she received as gifts from fans so you’ll have to find a different type of gift to send her if you want to get her attention.

She has commented in the past that she doesn’t think it’s a book for teens, but seemed to indicate that it might be ok in the setting of a teen reading with a parent.

She did have an alternate ending to the books, but apparently screwed it up with something she had written earlier in the series.  But she wont tell us that ending since she might use it in another book.

One thing I did get out of the show was a freedom to call her Erika, it seems she’s always referred to as E L James, but here she was freely called Erika, it took down a barrier.  It’s like were best friends now, at least in my head.

Guests of the show got a signed copy of Fifty Shades of Grey and a copy of the Classical Album, YEA!

Crissy

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