Book Expo America Recap 2012 Part 3

I got to BEA Wednesday not too long before they opened so the line was very long. On my way to find my friends, I happened across two hot shirtless guys going down the line (with an S&S person following them taking pics) passing out postcards for Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush Hush series. The cover for Finale was being revealed that morning. I followed them for a bit before gathering my courage and asking the S&S lady if I could get a pic with them. She said of course and called them over. We had to find the right light first to take the pics and then she took two. I was able to make coherent sentences (and even make a joke!), which I did not expect. They then told me to tag them when I put the picture online but they didn't say what to tag them as. I asked S&S on Twitter and got no reply; they may not have liked me asking for their phone numbers too...

So as soon as I was let onto the BEA floor, I immediately went to S&S' booth for the Becca Fitzpatrick signing. I've been talking with Becca since before Hush Hush came out and we've been trying to meet up since then. I was SO EXCITED to hear she was signing, though I do wish it had been a poster of the Finale cover instead of a Hush Hush paperback (since I already have a signed ARC) but the T-shirt was an awesome extra. I love it. Anyway, Becca is amazing and so sweet. She recognized me, gave me a hug and we got a picture together. We only got to chat for a minute, but it was so nice to see her.

Since it was only a little after 9:30, I decided to go find the line for Sarah J. Maas' Throne of Glass, which started at 10. There was already a HUGE line for it, so I abandoned it and went to the Little Brown booth to try lining up for Chris Colfer. Technically, we weren't supposed to start lining up until 10:30 for the signing at 11, but we threw that out the window. I wanted to make sure I got a ticket- only 200 were handed out! I was number 45. While waiting in line, I got to chat with Pam, Rachael, Lenore, and probably some other people too, as they were passing by on their way to some other place.

In this line, there was a cute guy in front of me who I thought might be gay (mainly from how he acted and spoke. I know, I know, I shouldn't stereotype, but I do). Anyway, I found him on Twitter and he is. So I basically admired him from afar and remade a song in my head (Boy on the Dancefloor by Lisa Scott-Lee became Boy on the BEA Floor).

So eventually, the line started moving and I had my camera all ready. I was able to take a picture of Chris as soon as the booth came into view and then my camera DIED. I had batteries with me luckily, but it was a mad scramble to switch the batteries before I made it to Chris. He was signing just his name so the line moved very fast. I was able to switch JUST in time, but apparently the publicist didn't think so, hence why this picture now exists. I think it's hilarious. I had planned to give Chris my business card with my phone number written on the back, but as you can see in the picture, the table was pretty bare so I didn't feel comfortable doing it. I also don't know if I would've gone through with it anyway.

On the way out, they were handing out Land of Stories totes but as I was leaving, the tote lady was dealing with some crazy lady who wanted to cut in line or get a picture of/with Chris or something. When the publicist wouldn't back down, the lady marched off in an angry huff. I gave the publicist this look like "That was crazy, wasn't it?" and then asked in a meek voice, "Can I have a tote?" and she gave me one. YAY!

After that, I went into Tim Gunn's line since it wasn't too far into his signing. He was signing in the same aisle as Chris (3600) and I had to start at the 4200 aisle. I actually ended up right behind the cute boy, but was too shy to talk to him. I kinda stayed at the periphery of his conversations with other people, part of it but not really. It didn't take too long to get to Tim and he was the sweetest. He took the time to ask your name, take a picture, and just chat with you. He had asked previous people what they did for a living and I was excited for him to ask me because I could mention my blog and give him a business card (specifically, the one with my phone number, lol). But he did not, however I did do something equally, if not more, awesome- I made him heartily laugh. I had mentioned that I was so excited to meet him this year because 2 years ago, when he signed another of his books, he was ticketed but it was just too early for me to get up.

Then I went over to Penguin's booth for Marie Lu's signing of Prodigy. Well, kinda. There was already a line so I had to get to the end of it. It was ticketed and I was number 100 and no, I did not get a prize. Yes, I did (jokingly) ask. I also think an author/publicist that I know was running the line but I could be wrong. It was great to see Marie again (not that she remembered me, I'm sure) from when she did a signing for Legend last year. Once I got my signed copy, I went over and chatted with Becca Fitzpatrick (and completely forgot to get her to personalize my copy of Hush Hush!) and the lovely ladies from Fallen Archangel before having lunch.

After lunch, I stopped by signings for Flock by Wendy Delsol and Drink Slay Love by Sarah Beth Durst; it was lovely to see Wendy again and so great to meet Sarah after all this time (we've been chatting since her debut!). I then went to go stand in line for the ticketed signing of Eve and Adam by Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant. During that time, I found out about an upcoming non-fiction book about women in comedy coming out later this year. It's called We Kllled: The Rise of Women in American Comedy by Yael Kohen and the cover has like all my favorite women comics! I asked for an advance copy but they didn't have one. I will totally review that book though so expect an email from me soon, Macmillan! Anyway, the line moved really fast and I gushed to Katherine about how much I loved Animorphs and Everworld growing up, which I had no idea she and Michael wrote together. I can't wait to read this book because it sounds so interesting!

I then stopped by Dan Krokos' line in the autographing area, except it was like an hour too early and they wouldn't let me stand around and start a line yet. So I just kinda wandered for a minute and happened across Kate Ellison's signing of The Butterfly Clues. I of course made a fool of myself. First off, there was no one in the line (probably because Egmont did not advertise ANY of their signings; in the autograph book that they give us, for all of Egmont's signings, it was just TBA.) so there's me charging down the aisle with my big bag of books and I come up and tell her how much I loved the book and, like with Sarah Tregay at TAC, mentioned my review of it, like she would remember every single blogger's review, especially from 6 months ago. I was babbling a bit and she looked at me like I was insane. She politely said thank you and asked if I wanted the book personalized and she signed it. I said thank you and left, then berated myself for acting like a loon in front of yet another author. The list just keeps growing.

Anyway, I wandered around some more but around 25 minutes before Dan's signing, I decided to go back and I was not the only one waiting! There were already like 5 or 6 people in line. So I put my stuff down and waited for the signing to start. Dan remembered me from Twitter and thanked me for coming. I refrained from telling him how cute he is. I then went to Tamara Ireland Stone's line and I think I made a fool of myself, but I'm not entirely sure. I believe she asked me if I liked time travel, and I was like "Yeah, sure." or something like that. I don't remember, but it felt like a very awkward conversation at the time.

After Tamara, I got in line for Rachel Cohn. I love Rachel's books so much and am so excited to read Beta, however I'm not entirely sure how this picture came about. Most of the time, I just took pictures of the authors while I still had one or two people ahead of me. Only with authors I know do I ask to get a picture with them, or if they're a celebrity and I can do that. But Rachel and I only talked once several years ago when I asked about getting an advance copy of her book You Know Where to Find Me, so I don't think she would remember me. Either way, I've got this picture and it's great.

I then went to Susane Colasanti's line because the BEA website had given me false information about Lincoln Pierce's (Big Nate) signings. I thought he had one at 4 in the autographing area and he did not, so unfortunately I missed out on seeing him. While in Susane's line, I chatted with Kristi (The Story Siren) who was in the next aisle over for Julie Kagawa. Now, I already have a signed Susane book so I was mainly in line just to say hi and get a picture with her. Kristi does not have a signed Susane book so she gave me her name on a sticky note and I got a signed copy of Keep Holding On for her. We also both got up to our authors at the same time so I told Susane I was getting the book for her and then pointed, lol. Susane and I also got our picture together which we've been trying to do for the past two BEAs but we keep forgetting! But now we have it and we're happy.

Phew. So that was my Wednesday at BEA. I'm going to stop here and next week, I'll finish up with Wednesday evening and my morning on Thursday before I had to leave NYC for home.

Pic 1- Me with the two shirtless guys playing fallen angels. They were very happy to do the photo and did not appear to be creeped out by me.
Pic 2- Becca Fitzpatrick and I!!!
Pic 3- Picture of the Chris Colfer line (cute boy I'm referencing in the post is on the left in the black shirt with red lanyard; you can only see his back though)
Pic 4- Chris Colfer signing books and the publicist telling me to MOVE DAMN YOU MOVE!
Pic 5- This is a pic of where I started in the Tim Gunn line. He was in row 3600.
Pic 6- TIM GUNN AND I!!!!! OMG *dies right now*
Pic 7- Sarah Beth Durst and I!!!
Pic 8- Rachel Cohn and I!!
Pic 9- Susane Colasanti and I!!!