Ambassador of Books ~ Book Club Madam ~ Blogger Gal

Friday, June 4, 2010

My BEA Recap: Part 2

[Find Part 1 of my BEA Recap here.]

BEA Day 1

On my first full day in New York my alarm went off at 4:50am. With less than 5 hours of sleep I somehow was rather chipper that morning! I quietly showered (without, hopefully, much disturbance to my roomies) and walked the few blocks to the convention center. I had to get in line for tickets for some big name authors, and I’d heard that tickets were only handed out until 6:45am. I arrived at the convention center at 5:30am to find only two people in line ahead of me, and that’s when I saw the sign: “Tickets will be handed out beginning at 6:45am.” So yeah, I was a bit early! No matter though – many more people started arriving within 15 minutes.

After picking up tickets for Cory Doctorow, Rick Riordan, and Matthew Reinhart (those last two were at Kiddo’s request) I sat down for a relaxing chat – and some tea – with a group of bloggers. It was great to have this time to simply relax before the craziness of the day began.

While wandering around before the convention I ran into two bloggers I’d met before and one I was very happy to meet:



Wendy @ Caribou’s Mom, Serena @ Savvy Verse and Wit, “The Girl” and Anna from Diary of an Eccentric, and me

At 9am the convention opened and I began browsing the booths. To say that there was an overwhelming number of booths would be a serious understatement. It is simply incredible to me how many different kinds of publishers and book-related businesses were exhibiting!
For the Win
My first big plan of the day was to get Cory Doctorow’s new book, FOR THE WIN, which he’d be signing at 10am. I spent about 30 minutes in line for that and was thrilled that his was the first book I picked up at BEA.


Cory Doctorow signing books

Crossing AntarcticaI browsed a few more booths then headed over to pick up another book I really wanted. Co-author Jon Bowe was signing copies of CROSSING ANTARCTICA, which chronicles his own experiences there. I love reading about the polar regions so this was a must-have for me.

For lunch I met up with three other bloggers and we headed to Chipotle (yes, we ARE addicted to Chipotle!) We were all so tired and hungry that there really wasn’t a great deal of chatting, but we had fun all the same.

My lunch buddies: Jill @ Fizzy Thoughts (with Billy the Goat) and Jenn @ Jenn’s Bookshelves

And me with Jen @ Devourer of Books
The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles, Book 1)
After lunch I again browsed the booths (all this browsing does involved picking up books too!) then got in the enormous line for Rick Riordan’s new book, THE RED PYRAMID. Kiddo was especially excited about the chance to have this book signed by the author to him. I had a great chat with my fellow line-mates and educated some of them on what book blogging is all about.

Rick Riordan
Encyclopedia Mythologica: Gods and Heroes Pop-Up
I immediately hoped over to the Matthew Reinhart line (also VERY VERY long) to get the gorgeous new pop-up book ENCYLOPEDIA MYTHOLOGICA: GODS AND HEROES. This is no ordinary pop-up book! Kiddo has one that is about ancient sea creatures and it is simply amazing. The detail that’s included is unbelievable.

Matthew Reinhart

The rest of my day was spent methodically working through the booths. I did make time to hook up with Dot Lin, my long-time correspondent from Tor Publishing. It was wonderful to meet her and I’m just sad that I didn’t think to take a picture.

That evening Harper Collins hosted a Book Blogger Reception – look for details and photos in my next post!

TO BE CONTINUED ...

14 comments:

Shanyn said...

I didn't wake up to you showering on Wednesday so I think you did a pretty good job :) Especially since you were technically taking a bath.

You can take any of my photos that you would like! Not that I have very many. I need to bring someone next year that strictly takes photos, hails cabs, and carries books!

Wendy said...

It was so fun to meet you too, Heather! I spent most of today trying to get organized from the BEA LOL - it is a daunting task! Looking forward to Part III :)

Suey said...

Loving all your pictures! Sounds like you totally knew how to do this and it was all no stress! Beware, if I ever get to go, I'll probably follow you all over the place!

Amanda said...

Hey Heather!! Thanks for dropping by Desert Book Chick.com. And thanks for this post on BEA.

I am so jealous of all the lucky US bloggers who got to go to this event.
I would love to meet other book bloggers face to face, and of course, just be in the atmosphere of BEA.

NEXT YEAR: we are specially going to the US to go to BEA and the BBCon. So who knows? I might meet you there. I'll probably be the only Outback book blogger there!

Helen's Book Blog said...

It sounds like so much fun! And, it's great for me to see everyone's photos of all the other bloggers since I haven't met anyone yet (!).

Heather J. @ TLC Book Tours said...

Shanyn - A designated papparazzi would be fantastic!

Wendy - I spent 3 hours writing recap posts tonight while Kiddo and Hubby were at hockey - now I'm exhausted ... :)

Suey - It would be great to have you with me at BEA - what fun we'd have!

Amanda - If you do get up here I'd LOVE to meet you!

Helen - I was drooling over photos last year, and that was one of the main reasons I just HAD to be there this year. Hope you can make it to BEA yourself sometime. :)

Jen - Devourer of Books said...

You did such a better job taking pictures than I did!

Beth F said...

I was so sorry that I ended up with a meeting right when I was going to meet you all for lunch. But it looks like you all had an awesome time.

bermudaonion said...

I ate at Chipotle with Jill one night, so she must really be addicted! I didn't get much sleep in New York, but why would anyone want to sleep when they visit the Big Apple?

Jenn's Bookshelves said...

Yay! I'm so glad you were better about taking pictures than I was! I'm totally mooching a few from you...I need to update my twitter avatar!

Serena said...

Darn! I wish I had gone to Chipotle! I'm addicted too! I missed out...not that it matters when there is one near my office...and soon near my apt!

Looks like your first day went well.

Heather J. @ TLC Book Tours said...

Jen - But I STILL missed getting pics of so many bloggers I love. :(

Beth F - Lunch was great, but we were so tired that there wasn't a lot of talking ...

bermudaonion - Sleep? Who needs sleep?!

Jenn - I'm THRILLED that we finally met - you are wonderful and I'm so looking forward to meeting your boys now!

Serena - Yeah, you can NEVER have enough Chipotle!

Anonymous said...

Mmm...Chipotle! Even though there's one very close to our house, we still ate at the one in NYC.

The Girl would have loved those pop-up books!

--Anna

Heather J. @ TLC Book Tours said...

Anna - Agreed, but I don't think either of you would have enjoyed the line ... :)

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