Book Expo America 2012 Recap Part 1

This was my third year going up to BEA and it was the best one yet! I woke up VERY early Monday morning to take the train up to New York City. I meant to get a bunch of reading done since my e-galley of Timepiece by Myra McEntire was going to expire in a few days, but instead I spent the vast majority of my time checking email and on Twitter.

I did however finish Don't Breathe a Word and got a good chunk of Timepiece read. I arrived in NYC on time and stopped at the McDonald's in Penn Station for a quick bite. I was going to be meeting my friend Susan (Wastepaper Prose) at Penn Station to help me walk to my hotel but she got held up. I found the hotel REALLY easily and that gave me confidence that I could actually find things in NYC by myself. I checked in with no problem and then hung around the room a bit before heading to Scholastic. I did have to ask the concierge how to get there by subway though because I had no idea. He was very nice and helpful and gave me a subway map with directions.

Now, I left the hotel around 5 for the Scholastic event at 6 because I wasn't sure how long the train ride would be. Guess when I arrived at Scholastic? 5:20. Both subway stops were like right next to my locations and there were only 4 stops in between. So I entered and wandered around the Scholastic shop for a bit, but you can only do that for so long.

Around 5:35, I just went back to the lobby and stood around, fiddling with my phone trying to look busy. Eventually, my friend Rachael (Book Muncher) came by and we chatted a bit before heading up to the event.

Like last year, it was held on the Greenhouse level, which is absolutely gorgeous and I wish I had gotten a picture of the view. But it basically overlooks Soho and at evening time, it's simply beautiful with the sun setting. They had set out popcorn, cookies, pastries, and cotton candy as well as drinks. I grabbed some food and drink and attempted to mingle. As Rachael and I came to realize later, we're not good at mingling when we don't know anybody.

I did however get to see publicists Sheila Marie, Becky, and Charisse, who introduced me to James Dashner (who I think is pretty darn cute). Surprisingly, James actually remembered me from his BEA signing two years ago because he had mispronounced my blog name as "Book Chick" not "Chic" and asked why I had "chick" when I was a guy. His publicist informed him of the correct pronounciation and he felt silly. But it was a funny story and, honestly? All too common. Ah well. We had a nice little chat and then we separated to mingle with other people.

I also talked to Maggie Stiefvater about our train rides; I thought it would be awesome if we ended up on the same train up to NYC, but alas, we were on different routes. I ran into Donna Cooner, author of Skinny, and chatted with her a bit about her book and how I can't wait to read it.

I also talked with some bloggers, like Mitali and Erica, and it was so good to see some familiar faces! Eventually though, it was time for the presentation to begin. I loved what they did this year. There were 8 authors presenting and they were broken up into two groups of four.

Each author got a chance to talk about their book and then the whole group would read a scene from it. It was a lot of fun and I loved some of the authors' interpretations of the words and character actions. By which I mean, I enjoyed seeing Maggie fall down several times during the James Dashner reading of The Infinity Ring where she played two characters, and when I say she fell down, she FELL DOWN. Completely committed to it, especially when the two characters she played landed on each other during an earthquake. She deserved an Oscar.

Anyway, after the event, I snagged a quick picture with James Dashner and then I headed out to Junior's Cheesecake where I met up with my roommates, all of whom I had never met before, as well as Susan and her posse. Here's the complete list of people who were there: Susan, Miranda, Jess, Kat, Jessica, Stacey, Emily, Yara, Allison, and Wes. You can also check out this video to see us at Junior's (thanks Emily!)! It was an AWESOME time and I loved meeting new people and seeing old friends and talking about books. I want to do that every night!!

Afterward, we parted ways and my roommates and I got distracted by Ricky Martin coming out from the Marriott as well as Obama driving by around the corner. We eventually made it back to the hotel and prepared for the first day of BEA, which involved asking me a lot of questions since I'd been twice before. I love answering questions so I enjoyed it. Finally, around midnight or so, we got into bed and slept.


To see more pics, go to my Facebook album for it! If the link doesn't work, let me know!

Pic 1- My view after getting out of Penn Station
Pic 2- A view of the Scholastic store
Pic 3- Rachael eating ALL the cotton candy! (Actually, the one on the right is mine.)
Pic 4- Raina Telgemeier, Jeff Hirsch, Kate Messner, Donna Cooner (Raina's book is on the screen)
Pic 5- Maggie Stiefvater, Eliot Schrefer, Sharon Cameron, James Dashner
Pic 6- James Dashner and I!
Pic 7- Outside of Junior's.