BEA Recap + Giveaway: Day 3, or Where I Lose All My Professionalism and Make A Total Arse of Myself

Hey guys, I’m back with Part 2 of my BEA recap – read on for some of my most embarrassing moments ever!

BEA Day 3: Galley Drops, Signings, Authors, and Blogger Outings, Oh My!

I got to Javits early (and DID NOT take the shuttle bus – see Part 1 of my recap for this experience), and headed straight for the Harper Collins booth to get a ticket for Kiera Cass‘ signing that afternoon, and for the galley drop for Amy Zhang’s Falling Into Place, which was one of my most coveted titles for the fall. The drop also included Tape by Steven Camden, and Anatomy of a Misfit by Andrea Portes.

With this galley drop, you were handed every book on the pile instead of picking and choosing. As a result, I ended up handing back a galley that I didn’t want, but I noticed that lots of people just took whatever was given to them, which didn’t really make sense to me. This was definitely my first experience with this kind of galley drop, and I do think it could have been organized a little better.

Me and Katherine

Keri, Quilbert, and me!

I immediately sped over to attendee shipping to drop off my books. On the way back, I met up with Keri (Quill Cafe) again, along with Katherine (The Lady Critic’s Library). We chatted for a bit before I headed over to check out the BEA Young Adult Authors Panel.

Cynthia Weil, Ryan Graudin, Robin Talley, Frank Portman, and Amy Ewing.

This is a panel that highlights some of the books that publishers think will be big in the fall. The authors and books were: Cynthia Weil (I’m Glad I Did); Robin Talley (Lies We Tell Ourselves); Amy Ewing (The Jewel); Frank Portman (King Dork Approximately); Ryan Graudin (The Walled City). I was especially fascinated to learn that Cynthia Weil is an award-winning songwriter who wrote a semi-autobiographical book about – what else? – songwriting. Definitely put that one on my TBR.

There was a galley drop for Rainbow Rowell’s Landline afterwards, so I headed over so I would be early. In the line I met Cat from Sourcebooks, who convinced me to get some romance recs from her, and Chaz (The Bloody Bookaholic) and we talked about how much we love Rainbow’s books.

I went off to Amy Ewing’s line next and managed to get a copy of The Jewel signed. Amy had the BEST outfit – I’m pretty excited to read The Jewel!

After that, I immediately went to get in line to meet Morgan Matson (Since You’ve Been Gone) – I love her books, and I knew that I’d see a lot of bloggers there. Sure enough, I immediately met Rachel (Tiger Lily Rachel/As Told By Rachel) and Kate (Verb Vixen), who were also super excited to see Morgan. Mitali (@AlleyofBooks) came by to say hi as well. And of course, I saw Adele (Persnickety Snark) again, because it wouldn’t have been BEA without more Adele chats!

I also got to chat with Emilie (Emilie’s Book World), Katherine, and Andi (Andi’s ABCs) – I was especially excited to talk to Andi, whose blog I’ve admired for quite awhile, mostly because she talks about accessories and clothes, as well as books. She has the best Boston accent!

Meeting Morgan was amazing – she seems a lot like her characters, full of sweetness and summer and life. We chatted for a bit and I noticed that she has a phone case with the SYBG cover on it – it was pretty awesome.

From there, I ran over to the Random House booth for the E. Lockhart (We Were Liars) ticketed signing and met up with Keri again – the tickets weren’t being given out yet, so Keri and I kind of hung out for a bit until a line started. Grabbing a ticket, I RACED over to the autographing area, stopping only for a second to chat with fellow Toronto blogger Jenn (Lost in a Great Book). I was just in time to start the line with Emilie and Katie (@isolateme/The Bevy Bibliotheque) for Megan McCafferty (Jessica Darling’s It List #2).

I’ve met Megan before but that was before I read the JD series, so I told her how much it affected me, and how I saw her wearing the Pajants for the first time in Chicago at the ALAN conference a few years ago. She recognized my Twitter handle, and was like, “Oh yeah, we chat all the time!” (OMG, MEGAN MCCAFFERTY knows who I am!), and we had a great chat about how happy I am that Jessica Darling is available for younger audiences now. Megan said that she’s having a ton of fun writing middle-grade Jessica, and that she just finished writing the third book in the It List series.

I raced back to the E. Lockhart line, where Keri generously let me slip back in line with her. I ran into Toronto blogger/bookseller Rachel (Reading Timbits), who decided to just come with us to say hi. I managed to convey to Emily how much I enjoyed the way she explained Foucault in The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, and Rachel acted as paparazzi (thanks, Rachel!).

From there, I headed to a panel on world-building in YA, moderated by Margot from Epic Reads! I saw Margot and Aubry (the #TeaTime hosts) at the back just before and ran over to introduce myself. They both gave me big hugs – it was so awesome to meet them after talking to them online for so long! Margot had to go get ready, but Aubry and I chatted about #TeaTime the day before and how meeting them was a total bucket list moment for me (Aubry was like, “You need to aim higher.” =p).

Jamie (The Perpetual Page-Turner) came along then, so I went to grab seats with her and a few other bloggers. The panel started with Margot yelling, “What’s up, BEA?!” and all of us cheering.

The panel consisted of Brandon Mull (Five Kingdoms Series); Scott Westerfeld (Afterworlds); Kiera Cass (The One); Heather Demetrios (Exquisite Captive); Michael Grant (Messenger of Fear) – it was fun, with lots of talk about the “rules” in world-building and what’s breakable and what’s not. I loved how Heather Demetrios was basically belly-dancing while talking (you can totally tell she wrote Exquisite Captive), and Scott Westerfeld’s discussion of world-building made me desperately interested in reading Afterworlds.

Embarrassing Story Time: At the end of the panel, Margot announced that the authors’ books were up for grabs and I pretty much just lost it and ran up to grab Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld and Exquisite Captive by Heather Demetrios. On the way, I tripped running up to the stage, ended up on stage, and essentially accosted poor Heather.

Let me just say, this is the EXACT OPPOSITE of the way that you should behave at BEA. Heather was absolutely lovely and gracious about the whole thing, though. I also ended up chatting with Kiera Cass as well, who was sweet, adorable, and I basically just wanted to hug her. I told her I would be in her signing a little later.

So, guys…you think that’s the worst part. But no…story time continues. Growling stomach ignored, I decided to stick around for the next panel on Real YA so I could meet one of my favourite authors EVER Gayle Forman and hear from E. Lockhart, Jandy Nelson, and Meg Wolitzer.

The panel was AMAZING. I just ended up soaking in everything they said and didn’t really take notes, but the mutual admiration was fantastic. Gayle talked about how people always ask her why she doesn’t write in the parts when characters go to the bathroom, and she’s always like, “Really? You want to read that?” Meg Wolitzer talked about how flashbacks aren’t really flashbacks to her, but essentially, just the way people think – we’re always projecting into the future and the past. I loved that so much.

So after the panel. I am starving. I’ve been carrying around my copy of Just One Day all day. And I rush the stage, before the authors can even get off, and babble something incoherent at Gayle Forman about how much I love her, how much Allyson was like me, and thrust my book at her WHILE THE OTHER AUTHORS ARE WAITING TO GET OFF THE STAGE.

Gayle was gracious enough to sign my book and be nice about it, but guys, I honestly want to say here – if you ever go to BEA, do NOT act like this. I was unbelievably embarrassed by my own behaviour afterwards, and I’m still kicking myself like crazy. This is why bloggers and readers can get a bad reputation, and I basically just proved them right. I’ve felt like the biggest, lamest loser ever since, and I guarantee that it will never happen again.

Once Gayle finished signing, she went into a tent on the side of the stage with the rest of the authors, and I slunk back. Luckily, Gayle saw Jamie and immediately they had a lovefest right there (which I am desperately hoping erased my crazy-person-ness from her memory).

I was feeling pretty stupid after all of that, but knew I should apologize, so I waited while Gayle talked to some other bloggers and Jamie…and then I apologized and Gayle very nicely said it was no problem and we took a photo together. I also told her she should come to Toronto sometime, and she was like, “Canada! I know, I have to get to Canada!” (Jamie was like, “No, Tiff, Gayle only gets to come to Philly!” =P).

My last signing was with Heather Demetrios, whose line was basically over – but luckily I had gotten the ARC beforehand, so she signed it and I got to chat with her about my love for Something Real and Patrick Sheldon, and gush over her slave bracelet and #jinnicouture.

It was SO nice to be out in the sunshine and in the park after BEA with real food (finally!). Special shout-outs to Christine (Readerly Musings), Hannah (Indiereadergirl0329), Ellen Goodlett (author),  Giselle (Xpresso Reads), Micheline (Lunar Rainbows), and Betty (Book Rock Betty) for some great conversations.

At the end of the Blogger Picnic, since it was my last night, I managed to convince a bunch of bloggers to go down to grab drinks at McGee’s, also known as McLaren’s from How I Met Your Mother. I ended up sitting with Giselle, Micheline, Nicole (Feed Your Fiction Addiction), Jenni (Live to Read Love to Read), Andrea (The Overstuffed Bookcase), and Rebekka (Endlessly Bookish) who were so much fun to chat with.

Love these ladies!

Me and Andrea!

I was a little tipsy when I tried to take this

The table next to us included Danielle (Love At First Page), Cece (Cece Reads), Wendy (Book Scents), and Chelsea (Starbucks & Books Obsession), Michelle (Pink Polka Dot Books), Teresa (Readers Live A Thousand Lives), Heather (The Turning Pages), Jessica (Lovin’ Los Libros), Tonyalee (Lilybloombooks), and Grace (Books of Love) – sorry if I added or subtracted anyone, this was hard!

All in all, despite a lot of lessons learned and some humiliation, BEA was an amazing experience for me. I loved meeting so many authors, publishing people, and bloggers. Thank you so much to everyone I met for being unbelievably kind to this newbie. See you next year!

If you’ve read to the end of this post, you deserve a reward, so here, giveaway (US/CAN only, I’m SO sorry, I can’t afford the shipping)!

a Rafflecopter giveaway