’50 Shades of Grey’ author to visit Seattle for first time
Aug 2, 2012, 1:34 PM | Updated: 3:12 pm
This July 12, 2012 file photo shows author EL James posing with her book "Fifty Shades of Grey" at a book signing during the first day of Comic-Con convention held at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego. James will soon make her first visits to two hotspots featured in her erotic trilogy: Seattle and Portland. Vintage Books announced Thursday that the Britain-based writer is including the two U.S. Pacific Northwest cities on a tour this fall to promote her multimillion-selling novels. James will appear at Seattle's Third Place Books on Sept. 22 and at Portland's Powell's Books on Sept. 24. (Photo by Denis Poroy/Invision/AP, file )
Her steamy stories may have taken place in Seattle, but
Britain-based author E.L. James is now slated to visit the
city for the very first time.
Vintage Books announced Thursday that the writer is
including the two Pacific Northwest cities on a tour this
fall to promote her multimillion-selling novels. James
will appear at Seattle’s Third Place Books on Sept. 22 and
at Portland’s Powell’s Books on Sept. 24.
James’ trilogy began as fan fiction, a thriving genre
online in which fans write variations of their favorite
books and characters, stories usually intended solely for
fellow aficionados. James used the vampire Edward and teen
Bella from Stephenie Meyers’ mega-selling “Twilight” and
placed them in Seattle.
Without ever visiting the Pacific Northwest, James has
said in interviews that she wanted to create a sense of
“distance” for the story. “But it was also different and
exotic for me as I’ve never been to Seattle or Vancouver,”
James told The Guardian. “So
there was lots of research. Google street view was my
friend.”
Her trilogy was first called “Master of the Universe” and
published two years ago on the website FanFiction.net. James’ stories attracted
a strong following and were released commercially in 2011
by Writer’s Coffee Shop in Australia.
Vintage has defended “50 Shades” as an original creation
with a passionate following and not something that
qualifies as mere “fan fiction.”
“It is widely known that E.L. James began to capture a
following as a writer shortly after she posted her second
fan fiction story,” Vintage said in a statement released
last march. “She subsequently took that story and re-wrote
the work, with new characters and situations. That was the
beginning of the ‘Fifty Shades’ trilogy. The great
majority of readers, including fan fiction aficionados,
have found ‘Fifty Shades’ deeply immersive and incredibly
satisfying.”
James will also travel to Houston, Minneapolis, San
Francisco, and Los Angeles on her U.S. book tour.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
