British novelist E L James drew a crowd of more than 500 men and women when she appeared at an independent bookstore in Miami for a book signing. Later she spoke to a sold-out crowd at the Biltmore Hotel. If you weren’t able to get to Miami over the weekend, you are in luck. On May 11 she will appear at the Willow Ridge Country in Harrison. For a mere $85 you can hear her speak about her “hot” trilogy. Or you can wait for the movies. James signed a contract with Universal Pictures to translate her words to the big screen.
An interesting coincidence is that Ruta Sepetys’ novel “Between Shades of Gray” is being mistaken for one of the books in James’ trilogy. Sepetys’s novel is set in 1941 in Lithuania. It is the story of a mother and her two children who are captured by the Russians and sent to Siberia. Not anything like James’ plots.