BEA 2014 - I Was There Part II! And another giveaway!

BEA 2014 - I came, I saw, I conquered. Sort of. To be honest, Saturday, BEA kinda conquered me. But, that's a story for later in the post. We left off at the beginning of BEA's official day 1, which happens to be my day 3.

DAY 3 - Thursday, May 28

The day dawned slightly chilly, but after a brisk walk and a pit stop at Dunkin' Donuts, we arrived at the Javits Center around 6:30 a.m. to get in line before the 9 a.m. proverbial bell rang. You may think 2.5 hours is a ridiculous amount of time to wait, but to be honest, the time goes by relatively quickly. We took lots of selfies, perused the PW Show Daily, went over our schedules and compared them to the map of the show floor, and we went over our strategies and potential meet-up times for the day.

Anna, Me, and Jen

Jen, Anna and Val getting familiar with the map

Thursday, Val and I went to the HarlequinTEEN breakfast before the show started. We had the opportunity to engage in a round table discussion with some of their super talented YA authors and some HarlequinTEEN publicists. It was really interesting and I loved that I had the chance to talk with these awesome people in such a small forum.

I made it back in line right before 9 a.m., and then we were off! The day went remarkably smoothly, with me getting to nearly all the signings I wanted to, and hitting the galleys I wanted the most. The book I was most excited to get was R.L. LaFevers' Mortal Heart. And the author I was most excited to meet for the first time was Amy Plum. She remembered my name! And, she was so sweet. (And, so was her French chocolate)!

Me chatting with Amy Plum

Annith!

The lines weren't too bad - nothing unexpected - and people were generally very chatty, patient and kind. There were a few snafus in the autograph area with attendees getting different messages from different volunteers about times when we could and couldn't start lining up. But, overall, it wasn't too bad at all.

After leaving BEA, we had a hankering for some real NY pizza, so Anna, Jen, Val and Rebekka from Endlessly Reading went to John's Pizzeria for dinner. That pizza was THE BOMB. And the building was gorgeous, too.

Anna, Rebekka, me and Val at John's

And, when it was all said and done, the books I got made me giddy with excitement.

DAY 4 - Friday, May 29

We realized we were establishing a routine when we all rose at the same time, left the hotel at the same time, stopped at the same Dunkin' Donuts (for the record, I got ICED coffee on Friday instead of hot coffee), and arrived at the Javits to take our place in line at 6:30 a.m. Why fix what isn't broken? While we were waiting, I saw Becca Fitzpatrick walk by. Then, she stopped underneath the big banner for her new book, Black Ice, and I had to get a picture of it. Here she is with her editor:

See? It pays to get there early! After the daily selfie and show daily perusal, we hit the show floor at 9 a.m. with a solid plan. Top priority - Sarah J. Maas' Heir of Fire. After waiting approximately 1.5 hours, I finally had that gorgeous book in my hands.

Me with Sarah Maas

On Friday I also had the chance to see Jennifer L. Armentrout and Cora Carmack. I've seen Jennifer a lot over the past few years since we don't live too far from one another. And, Cora and I have had a lot of opportunity lately to interact since I'm on her street team. It was so nice to see both of them again.

After another great day at BEA, we hit up the Blogger Picnic in Central Park where we had the chance to eat together and share our experiences from our first few days at BEA.

After dodging the rain in the subway and making our way back to our hotel, we had time to pet our books, which is the best way to end any day at BEA. Right?

DAY 5 - Saturday, May 30 - BookCon, a.k.a. "The Seventh Circle of Hell"

Up at 5 a.m., out the door at 6 a.m., a stop at Dunkin Donuts, and in line by 6:30 - again. But, despite us sticking to our regular routine, we could just tell as soon as we walked in the Javits that there was something different about today. There were already tons of people in line to get in to BookCon, and honestly, I think I could smell insanity in the air.

I'll spare you the bitching - I know you've already heard all about the fiasco that was BookCon. You know - Jen summed up Saturday pretty darn well.

"I went to BookCon. It was awful."

If it hadn't been for Jennifer Armentrout signing copies of The Return, I don't think I would've gone. But, she was. And I needed that book like I needed air. So, after waiting for a really long time (it was so worth it), I got my copy and escaped to the BEA side of the Javits. While I sat over there eating lunch, I could've sworn I saw tumbleweed blowing past me.

At the end of the day, I did go to the Bad Boys of Romance panel with Jennifer Armentrout, Cora Carmack, Jeaniene Frost and Sarah MacLean. It was one of the best parts of the day.


We headed for home after that, and I finally was able to unpack my books at 8:30 p.m. After reflecting a bit, I can say that, despite BookCon, I can say that BEA was amazingly awesome.

Giveaway

Speaking of amazingly awesome, I have another giveaway! Want to win an ARC of R.C. Lewis' STITCHING SNOW? This looks like an incredible new fractured fairy tale from Disney Publishing. If you're in the US, enter below to win yourself a copy!

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