I had a lot of fun this year at BookExpo America this year (and I didn't pick up as many books as last year. My to be read pile thanks me).
Day One: Wednesday, May 25
After a fight about letting me in with the Press Lady of Doom, I headed in and started wandering around. I was going to go visit Lauren Oliver, but her line was HUGE. Ginormous. So I hit Scholastic first.
Unlike last year, I took the time out to introduce myself and whathaveyou. Since I got in after the rush of people, the booth was basically clear - which ended up being to my advantage, since I got to gossip with the Scholastic people for a good half hour and ended up with a stack of books from them.
Fun fact of the day: Talk to people if you see something that looks interesting. I ended up talking to a booth with calendars because they had a Pokemon calendar and they ended up giving me a Goats In Trees calendar because I loved it so much.
I wandered around for a little while longer and picked up some more stuff before heading over to Sarah Maclean's Eleven Scandals To Start To Win A Duke's Heart signing. (I loved her YA book The Season and her romance novels are my guilty pleasure.) She was a sweetheart.
Sometime around this I ended up running into Kate Lied, the publicist assistant at Bloomsbury. She's one of my favorite people to work with. I also saw Mitali and Susan at this point, too, I believe.
And then I got to meet the fantabulous JULIE KAGAWA! Squeegigglegiggle.
She's as nice in person as she is online - as is the fantastic Harmony; I met her on the line for the signing and we ended up spending a lot of time hanging out together that day.
Then there was the Maureen Johnson signing. I'm not kidding when I say she may be the most fantabulous being in all the galaxies. She most definitley is.
By the time the Maureen Johnson signing was over they had already cut off the line for the HarlequinTeen signing, so I joined Harmony on the line and just said hi to everybody. (Kady Cross is fantastically nice as well as gorgeous.)
After that I floated around with Harmony some more - got lunch, hit a few booths - before going to see Lisa Desrochers for my last big signing of the day. (She's a sweetheart; I have a signed copy of Personal Demons to giveaway to you guys.)
Day Two - Thursday, May 26
On Thursday, I ran into BEA and spent the first hour waiting to see if there would be an extra copy or two of Maureen Johnson's Name of the Star, despite me getting there after the cut off line and Penguin having a ridiculously small amount of the books.
There wasn't.
But I swung over and met Leanna Hieber at her adult book signing. She's a new YA debut with Darker Still, which sounds absolutely fantastic. She's a sweetheart.
Then I wandered around for a little bit while my mom went to Jane Lynch's signing and got my sister and I autographs because she's awesome.
Then I went on to Kody Keplinger's line - she has a lisp, too! I love when awesome people have lisps - and got a copy of Shut Out and met some new bloggers. Oh, and I met Donna from Bites. Who I simultaneously friend-hugged and fangirled over, because she's fantabulous. (And gorgeous.)
I stopped by Egmont and talked to them about upcoming trends in YA books and picked myself up an Hourglass poster. I drifted around a bit more before heading home early to get some reading in. All in all, not a bad couple of days, if I do say so myself.
How was YOUR BEA - or Armchair BEA - experience!? (Oh, and if you're on WORD and not on the direct post, click Read More to see the full book list with Goodreads links!)
BEA IMM
* = autographed
Soul Hunter by Aaron Dembski-Bowdem*
Blood Reaver by Aaron Dembski-Bowdem
Shut Out by Kody Keplinger*
Blood Wounds by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Wisdom's Kiss by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
The Perilous Prophecy of Guard and Goddess by Leanna Hieber*
The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa*
The Sword of Darrow by Alex and Hal Malchow
When She Woke by Hillary Jordon
Passion by Lauren Kate*
Chasing Zebras: The Unofficial Guide to House, M.D. by Barbara Barnett*
Eleven Scandals To Start To Win A Duke's Heart by Sarah Maclean*
Dragon's Tooth by N.D. Wilson*
Going Underground by Susan Vaught
After Obsession by Carrie Jones & Steven E. Wedel
Fracture by Megan Miranda
Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers*
The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson*
Legend by Marie Lu
The Bridge to Never Land by Ridley Pearson & Dave Barry
Straw House, Wood House, Brick House, Blow by Danie Nayeri
Things That Go Bump In The Night by Patrick Carman
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater (!!!)
Forever by Maggie Stiefvater
iBoy by Kevin Brooks
Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby
In Darkness by Nick Lake
Between by Jessica Warman
The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch