BEA - Getting There and Day 1

The Ongoing Saga of Book Expo America

Volume I

Getting There
-Monday-

My alarm went off at 3:15 a.m. All my stuff was packed and ready to go so we poured some coffee and headed off to the airport! My fantabulous husband dropped me off at LAX and stayed with me up to the security check in point. I kissed him goodbye, took off my shoes, and went through security. Thankfully, Starbucks was open in the terminal so I grabbed a coffee and sat down to read on my Kindle while I waited the hour and a half for the plane to depart. Finally boarded and found a pillow and blanket in my seat! What a nice surprise! (I flew United there. Would definitely do it again.) Slept a bit, read some, tried to ignore the crazy turbulence. I closed my eyes and pretended we were off-roading. Yes, it was that bad. SO thankful when we landed 5 1/2 hours later at JFK airport.

I easily found the Airtrain and took it to Jamaica Station. Bought my MetroCard and took the train to Penn Station. I didn't get lost, no one was rude, it was a great trip!

Penn Station is literally across the street from the hotel I stayed at - Hotel Pennsylvania.

Picked up my room key at the front desk, dropped off my stuff, and headed down to the Javits Center to pick up my badge early. I just missed my roommates Erika and Tirzah who were heading back from the Book Blogger Convention at the Javits. Met up with them at the hotel and we headed out to the Scholastic Blogger Party!!

The people at Scholastic were very nice! They let me in, even though I'm not an official book blogger (I do blog about books, and reading, and post some reviews, though...). We went up to the Green House and it was SO awesome! Snacks and drinks and AUTHORS! We got to chat with a lot of people, including people from Scholastic and book bloggers from around the world. I finally got to meet Lindsi from Books, Sweets, and Other Treats. Met Andye and her daughter Kit from Reading Teen!

The Scholastic authors who were there and did a wonderful "Readers Theatre" for us were:

Raina Telgemeier, author of DRAMA
Jeff Hirsch, author of MAGISTERIUM
Kate Messner, author of CAPTURE THE FLAG
Donna Cooner, author of SKINNY

Maggie Stiefvater, author of THE RAVEN BOYS
Eliot Schrefer, author of ENDANGERED
James Dashner, author of INFINITY RING
Sharon Cameron, author of THE DARK UNWINDING

Me and Tirzah at the Green House

After this, my roommates and I decided to find some food. We ended up at "Cozy Soup 'n Burger." They had pretty much everything on the menu. The price was right so we ate and had enough energy to hail a cab and get back to the hotel.


Day One
-Tuesday-

I woke up at 6:00 a.m. I wasn't sure if I could do this, being used to PST but I think I had enough adrenaline pumping through me to get me up. We got ready and walked the five blocks to the Javits (with a stop at Starbucks on the way...). Right when we got inside, I saw Farrah! She's my editor and a super blogger and writer! I finally got to meet Britney, her co-blogger and another aspiring author. I met some more new friends in line (bloggers and librarians). I stowed my rolling suitcase in the coat/baggage check area for $3. Totally worth it! I filled it up with books as the day went on. By the end of the day, it was completely filled up. :)
Erika, Tirzah, and I took a break for lunch at the hot dog carts outside.

I met Shanyn and Tara! We ate lunch at the benches in front of the Javits.

I made a schedule for each day. At first I was worried because I had a few things that overlapped times. The good thing was that some of the lines were really long and I knew I wouldn't get a book so I headed over to the other event scheduled for that same time. It all worked out!

Authors I met/Books received/Events I attended:
-Shannon Messenger signed ARCs of her first book KEEPER OF THE LOST CITIES. I know Shannon from SCBWI and it was so great to see her again. (And her book is the first one I read from my BEA books. Very good!)

-Editors' Buzz - a panel about new books coming out. I met several authors (Lenore Appelhans - author of
LEVEL TWO,  AC Gaughen - author of SCARLET, Hilary Weisman Graham - author of REUNITED) at my table and Bridget Smith, a literary agent.

-YA authors panel - evolution of YA fiction. I only stayed for 30 minutes because I went to another signing. Interesting conversations about what's coming next after the wave of vampires/werewolves/demons/witches.

-Shannon Hale signed copies of PRINCESS ACADEMY 2! I was excited to meet her. I love her writing.

-Ally Condie signed her first book MATCHED and posters for the trilogy. (She is SO incredibly nice and personable!)

Erika and I in the bubble!

-Captain America Joins the Avengers - this book is for my boys. :)

-The Apocalypsies party - 20 YA authors in one room! And cookies! And swag. Too much goodness. ;)

After we had enough goodness, we walked back to the hotel. The NY post office is on the way back so we stopped there to mail our books home. I had 22 lbs. of books! (And it only cost $12 to mail them home!)

Random - in line, I noticed a mom and daughter who also had BEA books. The girl looked familiar to me as a blogger that I follow. I finally asked, "Do you blog? Are you IBBookBlogging?" She and her mom were surprised that I knew who she was! :) It was nice running into them.

Tuesday evening
Erika and I went to the Teen Author Carnival at the Jefferson Branch library. The building looked like something from Hogwarts. I loved the architecture and the stained glass windows. We listened to two different panels from YA authors. This was a fun time to get to know the authors better. I won a box of books! Yay!

Gretchen MacNeil moderating the panel.

Lauren Oliver speaking. Siobhan Vivian on her left.

Ceiling of stairwell. The lighting wasn't fantastic but it was really cool!

I met Siobhan Vivian and told her I liked her tweet about "denim diapers." She laughed. :) Chatted with lots of authors and visited with bloggers.

We met Liz and when I added her on Twitter, I noticed that she made reference to a gluten-free pizza. Erika and I were just talking about getting pizza but Erika needs gluten-free. Liz recommended a restaurant that she had gone to that was across the street from the library. Olio is a cute garden-like restaurant. I would definitely go there again.

** I may add more books to this once I get my box of books in the mail. There are some that I forgot about in the shuffle and busy-ness and my mind being confused about which time zone it's in. ;)

BEA DAY TWO post
BEA DAY THREE post