Pictures from BEA Part II

BEA was one of the greatest experiences, and I am already eagerly anticipating BEA 2012.
I cannot say enough how grateful I am to the awesome posse of the smartest, sweetest, most amazing girls (too many adjectives?) who took me under their wing and made the whole experience less daunting.
I'm glad I didn't have to trek it alone!
Tuesday Highlights

• Arriving at Javits bright and early and meeting up with the girls - Jennifer from Reading with Tequila, Emily from Red House Books, Eleni from La Femme Readers, Taschima from Bloody Bookaholic, Lexie and Tegan from Poisoned Rationality, Briana from BAM Book Reviews, Nikki from Wicked Awesome Books, and Danielle from Frenzy of Noise.
• Walking briskly (absolutely no running - we're not on a track team!) with Tasch and Tegan to the Scholastic booth and absolutely spazzing over galleys of Forever, which I did not expect them to have (usually final books in a series market themselves!)
• Seeing the rest of the floor, saying "pardon me...excuse me...thank you very much" so many times that one of the publicists from Macmillan said I sounded like Kyra Sedgwick's character from "The Closer." Haha
• Signing lines with Ilsa Bick (Ashes and Draw the Dark), Cara Lynn Shultz (Spellbound) at the Harlequin booth (or should I say, the Harlequin Headquarters. That place is bigger than the Batcave!), Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl), Leigh Fallon (The Carrier of the Mark), and Jeff Hirsch (The Eleventh Plague)
• Sat in on the YA Editor Buzz Panel, which was a godsend because for some reason, my feet didn't hurt but my back sure did. Sat next to the wonderful team from Girls in the Stacks - who just so happen to be Texas bloggers. Some drama with galleys - "do they or don't they?" and almost getting squished, but I'm small so I made it out alive.
• Had an amazing hotdog, even if I did shame myself by forgetting that I was in New York City and asking for mayonnaise.
• Me and Jennifer braving NYC's idea of a "mall" for dinner and having what was easily the funnest, most interesting conversation of my year (you just don't get good conversation like that where I'm from...lol...unless you're talking about how hot it is, how amazing the Rangers are, or something to do with politics)
• Galleys I swooned over: The Carrier of the Mark, Legend, The Scorpio Races, Forever, Wonderstruck (today belonged to Scholastic!), Variant (so excited to see this one) and The Eleventh Plague

Jacob Javits, the larger-than-life NY senator who did so much for education - especially G/T education.
Way to represent, HarlequinTeen!
So excited to see this cover!
Abrams booth - Dairy of a Wimpy Kid
The enormous autographing area. Reminded me a lot of Disneyworld, only no fast passes
Me, Taschima, and Danielle
Me and Tegan - love her. I was this close (thumb and forefinger) to bringing her back to Texas with me to be my little sis. Buuut...that's kidnapping, and is indeed illegal in every state.

The dashing Eoin Colfer
As surprised as he looks, at least the flash wasn't on.
At the YA Editor Buzz Panel. By the way, I absolutely adored that emcee guy. Woulda liked to bring *him* back to Texas too!
Man, Jason Valdez is hot. He almost reminds me of Percy...
Leigh Fallon - and her accent - were so charming and sweet! Meeting her and getting a copy of Carrier of the Mark was a great end to a great day.

Wednesday Highlights

• Got to Javits at 5:50 in the morning. No, I wasn't crazy, I was just paranoid about somehow not getting Rick Riordan and Scott Westerfeld tickets.
• Having the absolute BEST cab driver in the world. He got me from 5th Ave to the Javits in 4 minutes (aaaand had to outwit a firetruck that blocked three lanes of traffic down a narrow street). I love you, Alfonso!
  
• Breakfast run to Dunkin' Donuts (still ain't got nothin on Krispy Kream) with Tasch and Tegan
  
• Getting career advice from Rick Riordan...RYE-or-dan... (who knew exactly where my hometown is) and getting to take a picture with Julie Kagawa (her publicist-person actually let me and Tasch take a picture with her, and didn't look at my camera like it had Anthrax on it like Rick Riordan's publicist-person. Ha!)
• Jennifer and I meeting the funnest Macmillan publicist-person in Ally Condie's line and the *ahem* absolutely high-five-worthy conversations we had. We wondered if, in the future, we'll all be wearing yoga pants like the cover model. Gah, I hope not. I'd never be able to pull that off. Plus...that sign that was right across from us that we kept guffawing over. Well okay, they laughed and I guffawed.

• other Cool author signings: Scott Westerfeld (Goliath), Kady Cross (The Girl in the Steel Corset), Ally Condie (Crossed), Marie Lu (Legend)
• Hanging out at Mars - the eatery of the future! Our hilarious server who thought that snorting was the funniest thing ever (and when I say "snorting", I mean the sound that emits in between laughs...not the other verb meaning), and that slightly eccentric martian who danced with all those kids. LOL.
• M&Ms store!

Wednesday looking @ Javits
Stood in front of a cute little kid in the Rick Riordan line with Tasch.
Easily the best thing about BEA. My kids at YG were like "when you meet Rick Riordan, make him do the 'hook em horns' sign!" As I am an adult and really do want people to take me seriously, I nixed asking for the hook em horns sign.
Julie Kagawa! Got moving advice from her - the verdict? Kentucky is a cool place to live, especially the Louisville area.
I honestly don't remember of Jane Lynch was Wednesday or Thursday...but there she is!

The eatery of the future!
Thursday Highlights

• Just managing to get through the day without bursting into tears at the thought of this being the last full day of BEA was an accomplishment
• Made the rounds - Little Brown wins the 'Best (Booth) in Show' for Thursday - and had the good fortune of our group being "line-heckled" by Maureen Johnson, who by the way has fabulous taste in dresses. Apparently there was some kind of drama that went down today, but I don't feel like it's my business or right to pass judgment on other people, so...I really don't know!
  
• Left BEA early to figure out how to ship the bountiful booty home. Note to those who may attend next year: do.not.use.FedEx. Ever. Ever, ever, ever. We shipped two boxes - one that weighed 70 lbs and the other that weighed 35 - to Texas, media mail (and we shipped them THURSDAY and they arrived the very next TUESDAY, gaw I love our USPS!) for around $50.
• Had the absolute BEST pizza at Lombardi's because Tasch's mother has amazing taste! Good call on Lombardi's
• And now...the only real drama of the trip, and it was all my fault. Sometime shortly after 11:00, I managed to get myself lost in a really unfamiliar part of the city. When the streets aren't numbered anymore, it easily happens, and I scared myself into hyperventilation at not being able to hail a cab. I swear, every episode I'd ever seen of "SVU" came back to mind. But I had guardian angels in Lexie and Chaz and the sweetest cab driver - once I did manage to hail one down - who told me about the first time he got himself lost in the city when he first came over to America. That was the sweetest thing.

Me and Jennifer
Maureen Johnson, hard at work being one of the nicest, sincerest authors in the industry
Contrary to what Randy Newman sings, short people DO got people to love them!
Maureen thought Nikki and I were cute
This is *not* my stack, this is LEXIE & TEGAN'S...holy smokes!
That is BEA talent right there.
Lombardis


:D