BEA Day 4 Recap

Day 4: BookCon (Saturday)

Christina's and my reaction to the
number of people attending BookCon

The fourth and final day of BEA was perhaps the most surprising for me (and I think Christina too), because while past BEA attenders said it would be packed, both of us severely underestimated just how packed it would be. Since we had nothing really going on early in the morning, we slept in (until 8:50!) and took our time getting ready before strolling over to the Javits Center. Even then, while there were a lot of bodies, it didn't necessarily seem overwhelming, though we did meet a woman who said that the BookCon side (since BookCon only attendees were only allowed in certain parts of the center) was out of control—scary even!—and that she was going to stay on the BEA Attendees side only as much as she could help it. (People wanting to get things signed had to go on the BookCon side, since one of the big draws was certain celebrity author signings.)

In light of all these bodies, Christina and I decided to split up. She headed downstairs to the Diversity in Books panel that we were both interested in attending, and I went to Bloomsbury to get a copy of The Bone Season (along with another TMO sampler, but I gave it back since I already had one) and then hurried downstairs to get into the panel. Except that I couldn't get it in, because the room was at capacity and there was already a huge crowd waiting to get in.

The packed Diversity in Books panel

Though I tried to explain that one of those seats that was supposedly taken in there was for me, I was turned away with everybody else and was just going to sit by the exit rather disappointedly until the panel ended when the complaints of several waiting crowd members won out and they opened up the room for them to fill the standing room only part in the back.

Christina has a rather good summary of the panel on her blog here, so I won't rewrite it, but suffice to say the panel was really really interesting. I'm glad she talked me into going! After that, we went upstairs to various booths to chat with publicists and editors and such, but we had to give that up once we got to BookCon side, because it was so busy. So we though we would go to the Epic Storytelling panel early and secure a place in line, but the line was already so long, they weren't allowing any more people to join it!

And thus ended Day 4 of BEA. It was only about noon too, but Christina and I returned to the hotel to change and then headed into the city. First, we went to Books of Wonder, a fabulous bookstore that had several signed copies of a lot of books because of a BEA YA author event that had taken place there on Friday night. After much deliberation (because my suitcase was already full!), I decided to only purchase The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski, and a signed copy of Jennifer E. Smith's The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, possibly one of my favorite contemporary romance stories.

The High Line - so pretty
and relaxing!

As we stepped out of Books of Wonder though, it started to rain and that's when we grabbed some food, just a snack since we were supposed to meet Alexis for dinner (though that didn't end up working out). After that, we headed to the High Line, but again it started to rain so we ducked into Chelsea Market for a little bit to wait out the rain and found this cool custom jewelry maker booth called Brooklyn Charm and Christina and I both had necklaces made. Then we went up to the High Line and it was wonderful! Warm, so we had to keep moving out of the sun, but we relaxed in the park, first one a bench, then at a table, then on a patch of grass and read. Then we headed to dinner at Salsa Y Salsa, a restaurant only a couple blocks away, and were just headed over to say bye to Alexis when she called to say her goodbyes over the phone because she was falling asleep.

So, Christina and I headed home and settled in for the night. Watched a bit of the Thunder vs Spurs basketball game and then Sense and Sensibility, before going to bed far too late for a 4:30 wake-up call. All-in-all, another satisfying day, though I wish I'd had one more to just stay in NYC and relax. Leaving early Sunday morning was a brutal decision, I think. Especially with me being so "delicate" in the morning and all.

There you have it! My first BEA experience laid out in exquisite detail! Did you have any questions? Thoughts? Did you get to go to BEA or has this excited you to save up and try to go next year?

Alexis, from Alexis Adores Books, awesome "I <3 YA" manicure!

Read More

BEA Day 3 Recap

Day 3: The Endurance Test (Friday)

We started Friday at the same time as Thursday, 6:30 for Christina and 6:37 for me. Though I was actually more awake that morning (I actually woke before my alarm), I was more scatterbrained, and kept forgetting things. My room key, my badge, my wallet. That combined with our brief breakfast pitstop to partake in the complementary muffins caused us to leave the hotel about twenty minutes later than the day before. 

While 20 minutes might not seem like a long time, it made all the difference. When we arrived at the Javits Center and went to check our suitcase, we were informed that the bag check we'd used the previous day was already full, and were redirected to the baggage check at the far northeast corner of the facility. Armed with our muffins and our schedule, however, we were not deterred. After finally identifying what the side doors with shorter lines were that we'd read about in tips posts, we plopped down on the floor to wait the hour or so before they opened the exhibition floor.

The daily BEA newsletter, Show Daily, is really fascinating and has a lot of really interesting articles as well as ads featuring various booths' galley drops and author signings for the day. I perused that to pass the time and then filled the rest of the time taking selfies with Christina. Our schedule, while carefully plotted, with every moment basically accounted for was full, but surprisingly easy mostly because it involved a lot of sitting and waiting for things. So when they opened the exhibition floor, Christina and I beat a path to the Simon & Schuster booth to grab Scott Westerfeld's Afterworlds. Even though we reached the booth at approximately 9:01am for the 9am drop, there was only a small pile of books left. I'd estimate maybe 15. It was really shocking, honestly. After fighting our way through that chaos, we hoofed it to the Sarah Maas line, arriving at the Autograph Signing area at about 9:03. 

And there was already a line.

Mind you, Sarah wasn't signing until 11. But Christina really wasn't surprised since, as she astutely pointed out, pretty much everyone we'd met the previous day had mentioned going to the Sarah Maas signing. I sat in line while Christina went to pick up galley drop sheets. In the maybe twenty or thirty minutes she was gone, the Sarah Maas signing line moved four times. Four. Honestly, it was a bit ridiculous, but it kept growing and it wasn't a BEA-sanctioned line yet (by which I mean, the BEA volunteers hadn't acknowledged us as an actual line) until they finally moved us into a queue. As I was waiting for Christina to come back, though, I met some other bloggers, namely ScottReadsIt's Jon, and his friend, Kelly, who evidently also has a blog, but since we did not talk about blogger things or exchange cards, I do not know what it is. We had a very delightful conversation that ended in Jon striking out to see if he could track down an Isla and the Happily Ever After ARC, though no one was really holding their breath (if only though!).

This is just the first part of
the Sarah Maas signing line.
It continues around the corner.

Christina returned with CJ, Jon returned sans Isla, and we spent the rest of the time waiting. Sarah, whom Christina and I hosted at our college last year, remembered me, so we had a really great conversation where Sarah was stunning and hilarious and amazing as usual, and I was extremely unintelligent. It was fabulous to see her again though, and from there, CJ, Christina, and I headed out to eat lunch on the steps and take a bit of a rest before diving back into the fray for a 1:00 signing of A Little Something Different. (This was the book I didn't know there was going to be a signing for, and I was so freaking excited that it was here! It was delightful meeting Sandy Hall, the author too.) This afternoon, like Thursday's, was filled with drops, basically us running between Macmillan and all the other publishers.

I dropped in to grab a copy of The Doubt Factory prior to attending the Sandy Hall signing (which I had been told had been canceled, and the only reason we went was because I saw her name on the sheet on our way to Sarah Maas' line earlier, and I just wanted to see if maybe it was still a go), but we headed back over to Hachette's booth at 2, so I could grab a copy of Famous in Love, before rushing over to Macmillan for Sway. We started the line, this time legitimately. The rest of the day was spent running around trying to grab books. 3:00 at Hachette (Little, Brown) for Salt & Storm and The Darkest Part of the Forest. Alexis (from Alexis Adores Books) was kind enough to stay behind at Macmillan and grab me a copy of Trial by Fire, which was dropping at 3 as well (thank you so much, Alexis!!!). She also got to LB in time to grab her own ARCs of Salt & Storm and The Darkest Part of the Forest, though I was going to grab her one in exchange for her getting Trial by Fire for me. Then we headed to the 3:30 drop for The Vault of Dreamers, where I really embarrassed myself. (Ugh, I feel the need to apologize to the universe for that one. Sorry x1000 there.) Then we hopped over to Bloomsbury for the 4:00 drop of The Fire Artist.

The Vault of Dreamers ARCs

After that, the day was over. Christina and I packed our books into the suitcase, dropped them off at the hotel and then headed out for a relaxing evening in Central Park, before grabbing dinner at an Italian restaurant on the Upper West Side. It started to rain on our way out of Central Park though, which put a bit of a damper on things (no pun intended), but it wasn't for very long, so after dinner we were able to walk around a bit. We got a shake from the Shake Shack for dessert (lines out the door as usual), and then hurried back to the hotel determined to watch Harry Potter. Again, our attempts failed, and we mostly ended up just reading before bed.

Day 2 Spoil:

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld

Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

We Should Hang Out Sometime by Josh Sundquist

Not in the Script by Amy Finnegan

The Doubt Factory by Paolo Bacigalupi

A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall

Sway by Kat Spears

Famous in Love by Rebecca Serle

Landline by Rainbow Rowell

The Fire Artist by Daisy Whitney

Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper

Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini

The Vault of Dreamers by Caragh O'Brien

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

(I actually got The Jewel by Amy Ewing on Day 1/Thursday, so oops. Picture taking fail.)

Thoughts? Comments? Concerns? Any books on this list that get your heart pumping?

Read More

BEA Intro and Day 1 Recap

So, I attended #BEA14 this past weekend. And I say it so nonchalantly, because there is no way to adequately capture the experience in a legitimate sentence, so I have to toss it over my shoulder like it's not a big deal, knowing full well that it is in fact a HUGE deal, inherently de-legitimizing the sentence! Have I lost you yet? As you may or may not have noticed, this blog has been dreadfully dead since, well, September, and while I could explain to you that I have been writing things for the blog all this while, and you could totally not believe because if I was, why didn't I just post them, I figure, I'll skip all that and just say hello with a post of a different nature.

My lovely friend, Christina of Christina Reads YA, writes these convention recap posts all the time. While this is our first convention as actual attendees, we have volunteered at the Romantic Times Booklovers convention several times. She wonderfully sums up everything that she did or saw or got, and intersperses with these events, observations or interesting anecdotes about the things she witnessed. I don't write recap posts, because I often find that by the time I sit down to write them, there is so much running through my head, I have no idea what to focus on. But this time, I'm going to try, because this will likely be the only BEA I'll have the chance to attend for a while. Why? Allow me to casually drop another biggie: I'm moving to Japan to teach. I'll be in school when BEA is going on next year, so I'd like to be able to remember with excruciating detail what exactly this experience was like, because it was fabulous!

I admit my initial impression of the convention was less than stellar, for reasons that I will explain later, but overall, I had a fantastic time hanging with one of my besties (it was supposed to be two, but one of them, unfortunately, had an issue with her flight and couldn't make it), meeting some of her fellow bloggers, and, of course, being up to my ears in books!

I had a little bit more difficulty planning for the actual execution of BEA since I was already traveling before I headed to NYC, and I'd been forced into a smaller suitcase because the larger one broke last year (and I totally forgot to buy a new one). But Christina, B, and I planned this trip to death. Christina researched so many different bloggers' previous BEA experiences, perused who knows how many tip posts, and forwarded to us a steady stream advice. Bring a suitcase! Wear tennis shoes. Be prepared to crawl home on all fours at the end of the day—your feet will hurt that much. BEA is HUGE. Steel yourself against goodness knows how much crazy. Quite frankly, it sounded slightly like the publishing world's version of the Hunger Games. After reading all that, I was quite prepared to go to war in the aisles of the BEA show floor.

But honestly, it really wasn't anywhere near that bad.

Now I heard several BEA veterans remark that BEA this year was considerably calmer and tamer than in previous years, so maybe it really was something like a battle before, but this year was really enjoyable and pretty laid-back. And thanks to our battle plan, Christina and I went, saw, and conquered in a relatively pain-free fashion, and we got pretty much everything we wanted.

180º of the main entrance hall of the Javits Center.

In celebration of that, consider this week: Recap of BEA Week, because I'm going to run through each day—what we did, what we got, what we learned, who we met, and, of course, what strange and unnecessary faces we made. Starting with…

Day 1: Wednesday (Blogger Con)

Christina and I did not attend Blogger Con. I, because, lol, can I really call myself a blogger right now? And Christina for reasons she explains on her own first BEA recap post. I took a bus to NYC from DC where I had been visiting friends, and arrived around noon. It just so happens that my bus let me out on the south side of the Javits center, so I got a good look at the size of the facility as I walked along it on my way to the hotel. It was a short 15 minute walk, made only slightly awkward by dragging a suitcase around, but other people were doing it, so it wasn't quite as weird as I thought it might be.

The Yotel is a very interesting place—a pod hotel on the edge of the theatre district. As such, our room was tiny, but we had a pretty spectacular view of the Hudson River and the Javits Center. There was a bit of a hiccup as I tried to get into our room, though, because Christina was asleep and my name was not on the guest list (because there hadn't been space for a third name when we originally booked our room), but I finally made it and dropped my stuff off, and then the two of us returned to the Javits Center and picked up our badges.

Christina and I getting our badges.

We couldn't really see or do much there, though, since they were still setting up the actual show floor, so after that, we headed into the city to a must-visit place whenever we are in NYC, the Strand. That took up most of the afternoon, as Christina and I greedily filled our arms with books and then found a corner to read in. It had been a long time since either of us had had a chance to relax in a bookstore. Despite the fact that we were going to receive a sizable amount of books over the coming days at BEA, Christina and I both left with a bag of books. 

Pure deliciousness @ Max Brenner

We had dinner at Max Brenner, a delicious chocolate bar, and then headed to Broadway to see Aladdin. I am an avid musical fan, but this was my first Broadway musical, and though I had heard mixed reviews about the show, I had a really wonderful time. Genie was every bit as amazing as I'd heard—hilarious and a wonderfully strong singer—Aladdin was great, I really loved his voice, and his friends, Belkak, Omar, and Kassim, who I initially was not so fond of, became some of my favorites. The song they sing when Aladdin meets Jasmine was definitely a highlight, as was their big song in the second act about adventure. I can't wait until the soundtrack comes out. every single song. It drove me so crazy, I had to switch seats during the intermission, because I couldn't focus on the actors' singing.

Really, everyone was great. The characters I was not as inspired by were Jasmine and Jafar (a shame since Jasmine was my favorite Disney princess growing up), but I was having such a great time that it didn't detract from my experience too much. What did, however, was the girl sitting next to me who felt the need to sing or hum "under her breath"

After that, we headed back to the Yotel and finalized our plans for the following day. Exhausted, but tingling with anticipation, I fell into a rather unsatisfying sleep.

Well that wraps up day one. Expect a recap a day with a BEA tips post on Friday. As always, feel free to connect with me in the comments or via email or any of my other social networking sites!

Did you get to go to BEA this year? If so, what was your experience like? If not, did you have any questions I can answer for you? Were there any books at BEA that you were beyond excited for?

Read More