After getting our tickets we did some chatting and decided to head over and get in line early for the Children's Breakfast (my first BEA breakfast event!)While waiting someone came over and offered us this little round promos for I Am Number Four, they had tons and they all were numbered. We were told to go over to Harper Collins to find out if we were winners of a signed copy of the book, and turns out we were! I do think it helped that I had number 4! Anyways back to the Children's Breakfast. Luckily since we got in line early we got seats towards the front of our section, which was the seating only section and we also got the speakers books which was nice! We also got to spend some time chatting with Julie from Booking Mama and Kathy from Bermuda Onion. Unfortunately the program started awfully late so we only stayed for Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York and Cory Doctorow because we had a lot packed into our day on the BEA floor. I think in the future I could take a pass on the breakfasts unless there was someone I really really really wanted to see speak.
Luckily for me, the day started off with my most anticipated event. The signing for the first 3 books in the True Vows series from HCI, the first Reality-Based Romance series. Unfortunately not all 3 of the authors were able to make it but I did get to meet 2 of them! I actually stood in line with Judith Arnold (one of the authors of the series) at another signing, I was kind of freaking out!
Other highlights of the day included:
Meeting Susan Mallery (three times actually over the course of BEA).
Seeing Adriana Trigiani again, what a sweet sweet lady! It's impossible to be in anything BUT a good mood when you are around her!
Meeting up with Barbara and Sarah of Blueslip Media. They are just as kind in person as they were via email, they are also extremely encouraging!
Saying hello to Marilyn Johnson the author of This Book Is Overdue, she was walking past me while I was standing in line and I recognized her and we had a quick chat!
Seeing Elizabeth Scott again, she's just a sweet and funny person!
Finally figuring out what the "Various Authors" signing was at the Harlequin booth and it was what I had hoped it would be, authors of the category romances! Yay!
And the surprise highlight of the day was seeing an advance reading sample of this:
You might be asking yourself, well what is it? Well, I'm glad you asked! I actually designed that cover! So imagine my surprise when I walked by and saw that! I pretty much freaked out! I also got the opportunity to meet someone from the Press who I had done some work for in the past! So as you can imagine I ran around the rest of the day showing the ARC to anyone and everyone I knew!
Here's what I picked up that day (click to enlarge):
Signed
Unsigned
After shipping off our books for the day Gail and I headed back to the hotel for a quick change and a rest and then headed to the Algoquin for a Harper Collins Book Bloggers reception! Had some fun bonding with some fellow bloggers and when we left we found out there was a parting gift, see below! How kind!
Overall thoughts for the day. I was expecting to feel horribly like I did last year at the end of the day but I actually didn't feel so bad. I guess my shoes were better this year and my posture was as well so yay me! Also I did like how everything (except the shipping) was on one floor this year but the Autographing Area certainly could have used a lot more space. It was kind of a madhouse over there! I think I went to a lot more signings this year, and feel like I was interested in more than last year. Overall, a great time!
Upcoming/other posts:
BEA Day 1
BEA Day 2
Book Blogger Convention
Alea's BEA Picks On A Theme or OMGGGG!
I love the author breakfasts and I'm so glad we got to see you and Gail for a little while. I totally agree with you about Adriana Trigiani!
ReplyDeleteI hardly got any signed books! I'm glad I saw you for a tiny bit!
ReplyDeleteThis looks so fun! I really want to go next year.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome about your design!!
ReplyDelete