BEA 2013 Recap: Day 2

Friday

May 31, 2013

Day 2

Me with Bailey

Steph, Nicole & Gabrielle

Having gotten a decent(ish) amount of sleep the night before, I finally felt like I was ready for BEA. I woke up ready to go and feeling more relaxed than I had in days. Gabrielle and I got to the Javits Center early and lined up with Bailey and her mom in a somewhat different location which proved to be my favorite spot (you were right, Jenny—I’m just sorry that by Saturday your secret was out and everyone loved that spot).

Me, Jenny & The Moms

We entered the floor and wandered pretty easily. There seemed to be less of a desperate edge to everyone on Friday (Thursday was just madness in comparison), and I hit the Sylvia Day signing before lining up for Susan Dennard’s Something Strange and Deadly.

Susan Dennard

I had chatted via twitter with Susan prior to BEA and told her that there was no way I could “line hop” from her line to Kat Zhang’s and Erin Bowman’s. She told me I could, but I was insistent the lines would be too long to hit all 3 signings in the 30 minute allotted window.

I was right, in case you were wondering.

After that I did some aimless wandering, jumping in the tail end of a few lines for signings. Fun fact: line signings are their craziest in the beginning. If you wait for the last 5 minutes or so, these lines drop to like less than 10 people. I had fun getting a few last minute books this way. I also had a few tickets for signings (thanks to Kelly, who had a few to spare and graciously let me use them!), so I was able to get signed copies from Jamie McGuire and Rick Riordan.

After this I went down to the Penguin Teen Fire & Ice Luncheon where I got the chance to eat a real meal during BEA (that was the best turkey wrap and chips I’ve ever had in my life) and also meet Richelle Mead, Anna Jarzub, and Melissa de la Cruz.

I’ve been a fan of Richelle’s for years. Listening to her talk about her writing process and getting the inside scoop of the upcoming Vampire Academy movie (it’ll be released Valentine’s Day 2014, guys!) was fun. I mean, it’s Richelle Mead.

Melissa de la Cruz was fantastic as well. I had no idea they were trying to make Blue Bloods into a tv series. As soon as she said, “A few years ago the CW was looking for a vampire series…” I knew where it was going. I’m sorry Blue Bloods didn’t make it (even though I love The Vampire Diaries), but I’m excited about The Witches of East End series starring Jenna Dewan-Tatum. You may know her husband, Channing?

Octavia Spencer

We were also given copies of Tandem (Anna’s book), Frozen, and The Indigo Spell which each of the authors signed for us after the panel.

After the panel I made my way back to the exhibit hall floor and wandered around while I waited for Gabrielle to finish up at a signing. Friday was a bit of a blur, but I know I saw Octavia Spencer, Paula Deen, and I heard a rumor Jim Carey was floating around? I met up with Gabrielle and then we tried hard to hit 10 lines in an hour.

Yeah. That didn’t happen.

I did manage to get Scorched by Mari Mancusi, which was high on my must-have list. I missed getting a signed copy of The 5^th Wave and seeing Grumpy Cat (seriously, that line was INSANE!), but over all I had a blast.

Alethea Kontis

We also bumped into Alethea Kontis, who I knew from her books but also the YADCers group. We stopped and chatted with her and she signed my copy of Hero I had gotten from a galley drop (I had missed her signing earlier). I'm happy it worked out this way because Alethea took her time signing and even added some artwork to her signature. If I had gotten the book at her signing I know she wouldn't have had time to do draw on the page as well.

Lastly I had won the chance to meet Samantha Shannon, author of The Bone Season, which is being hailed as a huge breakout hit for this fall. Samantha is so sweet and kind and has the best accent. I could’ve listened to her talk all day. She was gracious enough to sign ARCs for myself and a couple other bloggers that won.

After this Gabrielle and I were done. We grabbed out stuff and headed back because we knew we had to ship all of our books from Thursday and Friday in an hour. Thank goodness my mom and her grandmother met us at the post office right around the corner from our hotel and helped us pack everything up. We made it with 3 minutes before the post office closed.

Whew.

Last year I shipped books daily from the post office. I did like that this year I used less boxes because I was able to really pack everything in and it cost less. The problem was, shipping 2 days’ worth of BEA books (plus books I got at various parties) in an hour was crazy. I won’t do that again. That was way too hectic.

Unfortunately the fun of the evening consisted of dinner and then staying in at the hotel to get everything packed and ready since Saturday was the last day of BEA and we had to leave right from BEA to the train station. But all in all, Friday was my favorite day.