Friday, June 6, 2014

BEA (Book Expo America) Day 1: & Haul

It's BEA (Book Expo America) 2014 and once again my sister and I are off to NYC to romp all over and revel in the books!!.

We've been invited to several book events and I'm planning on going to the Youtube Blogger Meet Up on Saturday at 1230 and again at the Strand at 5pm.  I was supposed to goto a event last night but as always life intervened and I can't role into the city until way later. ( I hate real life man, why when I was sooo close to accomplishing one of my yearly book goals, so darn close. Le Sigh)

Well here's what happened, we waltzed into the Javitis Center at 620 am thinking we ruled and we were there early. Ha, Ha I tell you.

This is what we found when we walked in.
It appears we all have the same idea.Get here early and get the best tickets.  We jumped on line, I went downstairs got my press pass and then dropped off my bags at the coat check ($3.00 per bag, best $6 ever!!). 

 Making those lists and checking them more than twice. (lol we were book elves) Switched with my sister for her to get her badge, then grabbed our choices of ticketed authors then off we went to waste time until doors opened for breakfast at the Harlequin Teen event.

Harlequin's Teen Event featured, Julie Kagawa, Jennifer L Armentrout, Robin Talley, Alexandra Ardenetto and Adi Alsaid, along with all the editors for each book and several publicists.   

We sat at tables and ate breakfasts while they came around and talked to us in a Round Robin style which allowed us to meet them all and hear more about each book and why they choose to write it and help get it published.  Then when it was all done we got pictures with the authors and autographs if we wanted them. I got a chance to meet the newest hot new adult author of the moment and take pictures with her:
Yes y'all I met the awesome Jenn L Armentorut.
From them we hauled the following:

Ghost House by Alexandra Ardenetto
Talon by Julie Kagawa (One of the books I really came to BEA for)
Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley
Invisible by Dawn Metcalf
Stone Cold Touch by Jennifer L Armentrout

Yes y'all I had breakfast with some awesomely inspiring authors!! And an awesome Harlequin notebook and pen set, along with the amazing Harlequin bag!! (I'm a little excited so excuse the exclamation points)

By 9 my sister left to hit the showroom floor for the Neil Patrick Harris signing, and I joined her after my photos with the breakfast authors.  After that I was lost in the awesomeness of BEA and I snagged books from all over. Here are a few I got and can't wait to read:

For whatever reason the Harlequin booth was the most popular booth this year, every time I went over the lines were long as hell.  For the 10 am signing they ran out of books. Boo!! I was so disappointed then I went and got a few books at the autographing section and that helped to make me feel a little better.

I got:
That old black magic Mary Clack 
Strong Darkness by Jon Land who I completely fawned over,. I loved talking to him especially because I was the last in line this year.
Deep Blue by Jennifer Donelly
I Am Pilgrim (which my sister snagged for me while I was on the Deep Blue line.  I got more but just watch the video to see all the awesome books from day 1.

I will say that this year BEA went all in and had well versed and knowledgeable staff on hand to help out when we had questions, This year they also had a charging station for us to sit and use. There was one to pay for and it cost a bit of money ( I forgot to write down the price). Luckily I could head into the press office and so I did. I used it as a safe place to unwind a few times throughout the day and I met several wonderful people who I talked to a while before heading back out onto the showroom floor.

I noticed that this year the entire building was being used for the event with events booked for downstairs that I wasn't aware of before. The food court was busy as ever and there were more chairs than they have had in a while.  

This year as well there were more buses that went to Penn Station as well as being more frequent. I loved that we didn't have to worry about how we were getting to the station and i loved that each bus was marked.

This was one of the most organized years I have seen, in my three years of attending.  From the beginning to the end of the day, the Expo staff were doing their best and were well prepared unlike the other years.  I found that the bag checks were all open and fully staffed that the staff was courteous and were very good at maintaining a great flow for the bags.  

I'm hoping the rest of the week goes just as smoothly.  *crosses fingers*

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