BEA Recap- Wednesday, May 26

Here's my recap of the first day of BEA. Hope you all enjoy it- it's a long one!

Susan and I went to Javits on the shuttle and met up with Maria V Snyder on the bus, and once there, immediately started wandering around at booths and grabbed some glorious ARCs. Susan went to Beth Fantaskey's signing and so I stood around and chatted with Meaghan until Susan came back.

Meaghan and I had the best time together standing next to some random chair in the middle of the autographing area. Diana Peterfreund and Jennifer Lynn Barnes came up and said hello; it was really funny because I didn't recognize Diana right away so while we were hugging, I was like "Who is this strange woman hugging me?" but then it dawned on me. Apparently, I was not the only one doing this because Diana had grown out her hair and became virtually unrecognizable. We talked for a few minutes, then they went off to do whatever it is they needed to do. A little while later, Susan came back to us after getting her signed book.

We then wandered around to other booths and grabbed ARCs. We stopped by James Dashner's booth to get signed copies of The Scorch Trials sampler where there was surprisingly no people around. I'd have thought the place would be mobbed. He accidentally called me Book Chick, but recovered a second later, and yelled (in a joking manner) at his publicist to keep him from making a fool of himself. He's a very funny guy and I'm glad we stopped by.

After that, we wandered around and stopped by the Egmont booth and there was a guy dressed up as a superhero there signing his books, but upon closer inspection (i.e. me being right next to him asking an Egmont rep for a Dangerous Neighbors ARC and him telling me who he was), it turned out to be none other than Nico Medina, fabulous author of Straight Road to Kylie and Fat Hoochie Prom Queen. He and I chatted for a quick few minutes and he signed an ARC for me.



We met Bree Despain there and she walked over with us to get into the Matched ARC line; Matched is very sparkly and I am SO HAPPY I have it! After that, I had to go off to the Crossing Over panel which had Melissa Marr, Stephanie Kuehnert, and Michele Jaffe (as well as two other authors whose names I can't remember). I listened to the last 20 minutes or so of their panel, then went up to introduce myself to Michele and wound up being introduced to her agent and new editor. Then Michele and I followed her editor to the Penguin booth where we almost met the head of Penguin (I'm pretty sure that's who it was; it was someone VERY important), but he was not around. Michele also made sure to harass her editor into sending me an ARC of Rosebush, which I did get shortly after BEA, which is awesome!

So Michele and I broke off and walked over to the Harlequin booth, where she waited in line with me so I could get a copy of Rachel Vincent's My Soul to Keep. While waiting in the LONG line, we chatted with this girl named Allison, who was very funny and awesome, and runs a blog but I can't remember her blog name now!! I think Michele got a business card from her, so I'll have to ask her. I want to follow this Allison's blog if I'm not already. Although I think she reads my blog because she remembers my awesome header, so Allison, if you're out there (btw, I really hope that's her name... I'm doubting myself left and right!), leave a comment!

I also got a photo with Michele, which was great. After that, Michele left to continue doing some edits on her new novel and I went off to find Susan and Meaghan (Bookworm's Haven), who I eventually found. We rested our feet and I moved books from the big tote to my backpack. I also bought a bottle of apple juice, which cost $4. I must say that I am glad to not be in New York anymore, as it is the place of price gauging. Then we went right back in for our afternoon of signings, though we first stopped at some booths to pick up more books.



I ended up breaking up from them because we all had different signings to go to. The first signing I went to was for Daphne Kalotay. She's an adult writer and I actually took a class from her at my college. She was the fiction writer-in-residence (fiction is one semester, poetry the other semester) my senior year of college and I loved her class. She did remember who I was, which was great. She asked me how my writing was going and I said "pretty well" even though I hadn't been writing for a looong time. But now I've started up again, so that's good. She did also ask what I was doing there, but then answered her own question because my dad had told her about my review site when they had met once when he came to pick me up for a school break. So that was cool that she even still remembered I did that.

After that signing, I went over to Heather Brewer's line where I met up with Devyn and some other bloggers while waiting for the signing to start. The time flew by, either because I was at the front of the line or because I was having too much fun (I honestly can't remember- my notes don't mention anything). I think Heather vaguely remembered my blog; it really sucked not having business cards. I will definitely be doing that for next year. It could also be awkward trying to see if they remembered my blog from when I reviewed a book of theirs or interviewed them from way back when.

I got into Lauren Oliver's REALLY long line. No joke, it snaked around and there were a ton of people there. Apparently, they'd started lining up like an hour beforehand. While waiting in line, I had a fruit snack package but I don't think I did much else. I probably just took that time to relax and unload. The good thing about long lines is that you can put your stuff down, lol. When I got to Lauren, I was SO happy they still had ARCs of Delirium. Lauren was signing both of her books. My Harper publicity contact Elyse was helping Lauren with her signing and asked if I was Book Chic once she heard my name was James. I said yes and she was like "OMG!" and hugged me. Yes, hugged me- how sweet is that?! She introduced me to Lauren and I told her my blog name. Now I think that Lauren said she had seen my blog and loved it, but I could be very wrong. Either way, it was a lovely experience and it was fun chatting with both of them for a few minutes.

Once that was over, I went to a plethora of signings very quickly. By the end of the day, people were just leaving and there wasn't as many people around. I went to Jenny Davidson's line and hung out with some bloggers at the front of the line. We were all excited for Jenny's newest because we all loved her debut, The Explosionist; she probably was not expecting to be bumrushed by a bunch of YA book bloggers, but that's what happened.



After that, I went to Inara Scott (Delcroix Academy: The Candidates) and Lauren Kunze's (The Ivy) signing, then went to Daniel Nayeri who was signing ARCs of Another Pan, which I was very excited about. I felt bad for him because there was like no one in line and occasionally a person would trickle through and get a copy. But it was probably at least a bit more fun for him because he got a lot of excitable, passionate bloggers. Like James Dashner earlier in the day, Daniel called me Book Chick but also caught himself. He recognized me almost right away, which was very cool. I wish his sister Dina had been there too- that would have been awesome to see the two of them together, but ah well.

My final planned signing was Wendy Mass. I was so excited that she was signing because I LOVE her books and think everyone should read them. I introduced myself but don't think she remembered me or my blog, which was a bit sad. Also, while I was waiting in line, I saw Courtney Sheinmel toward the front so I was like "OK, this is my chance to say hi to her. Do not be shy!" and I had willed myself to say hi once she passed me in the line. Well, she kinda disappeared. It may have happened when I was talking to Melissa Walker for a few, but I thought I'd been paying such good attention to the people walking by. Apparently not. Once I got my book signed, I ran into Stephanie Kuehnert who was waiting in the line next to Wendy's and we talked for a quick minute.

Then I stopped by HarperCollins' booth to get Ascendant because Diana's signing ended before everyone in line got a copy so I assumed that they would've been taken back to the HC booth. I thought wrong, and ended up just getting an E-Galley of it. Le sigh. I will take what I can get though. Then, I walked over to Penguin where Ally Condie was literally just finishing her signing (it was over at 4:30 and I got there at 4:29) and she signed my copy of Matched. They had run out of galleys which was why Ally was just chillaxing when I got there, but I already had one. It was actually kinda funny watching me realize what was going on because I'd only come over to ask about Grace. I wish I had gotten a picture with her, but I kinda didn't think about it; tried to get Grace by Elizabeth Scott, but they had run out.

After all that, I wandered back to the entrance to wait for Susan and attempted to massage my aching shoulders. It is no joke carrying around tons of ARCs; I felt like such an old person walking out of Javits that day, hobbling around and groaning every time I had to sit down or stand up. We went back to the hotel for a bit, changed rooms due to AC problems, then crashed Harper Blogger Reception (well, I did cuz I wasn't invited), stayed there and chatted for a bit, then went to this diner next door to eat. Tons of fun happened there, like this video below, then went back to hotel and went to bed. Oh, glorious bed!

Armchair BEA Episode 3 - Impressions from Marco van Hylckama Vlieg on Vimeo.

Pictures-
1) A picture of the huge autographing area
2) The Crossing Over panel
3) Me and Michele Jaffe- she is very fashionable. I only wish I could've gotten the whole outfit
4) I took a picture of Diana Peterfreund signing ARCs when I was in another line... I wander if she saw me taking it because it looks like she's looking right at me. How weird is that?