Category: Book Expo America-2012

So this is it, my very last BEA post for 2012. I am sad to see it end. I hope you enjoyed the posts as much as I have.

I decided for this very last post that I would link to all the awesome bloggers I met when I was at BEA 2012. Please if you haven’t checked out these blogs out you really should.

These are bloggers I met while I was in NYC.

Then when I got to the hotel I saw:
Jenn from Jenn’s Bookshelves and Trish from Hey Lady . Both bloggers I have meet in the past.

My roomies for the week were:

Rea Write
The following I met at BEA and Publisher events:
http://alitareads.wordpress.com/ (Alita-Canadian)
http://bermudaonion.net/ (Kathy)
http://www.bookingmama.net/ (Julie)
http://bookjourney.wordpress.com/ (Sheila)
http://www.tickettoanywhere.net/ (Gail)
http://www.misbehavinlibrarian.com/ (Jennifer-Canadian)
http://bookishlyyours.com/ (Katie-Canadian)
http://www.almostgrownup.net/ (Jen)
http://theladycriticslibrary.blogspot.ca/ (Katherine)
http://www.coffeebooksandme.blogspot.ca/ (Jenna-Philippines)
http://www.thefakesteph.com/ (Steph)
http://bookchicclub.blogspot.ca/ (James)

Sorry I am drawing a blank right now on who else I met. If we met at BEA please let me know and I will adjust this post. I know I have mentioned other bloggers in posts I have made previously to this one.

I loved meeting old friends and new friends this time around.

Before starting this post I want to mention that I was in no way compensated for this review.

I was so happy when Kimberly said that we would be staying at the Hampton Inns during our week in NYC for BEA.

I was first introduced to Hampton Inns when I went to NYC in 2010. I loved it and since then when ever I travel I always make it a point to stay at Hampton Inns. (Meadville, PA) I am always recommending the Hampton Inns when I hear friends traveling.

I personally always find the atmosphere at Hampton Inns to be very warm and welcoming. It feels like you are at home. I have to say though that this room (Manhattan/Time’s Square) was much bigger then the room I had in 2010 (Madison Square Gardens).

When I arrived at the hotel on Sunday night, my roomies weren’t there and the staff quickly said that they would hold my bags for me while I went to meet them. From that point on I have to say that everyone went above and beyond what I expected.

Sadly, I didn’t get to know the day staff as well at the night staff. The night staff (Britney and Luis) were fantastic and always smiling and laughing with us. They were extremely helpful (providing me directions to the M&M store) and willing to take a few minutes to chat with us. I was a little bummed that I didn’t get to say bye to Luis since he didn’t work the Friday night. So if by chance you are reading this Luis, thank you so much it was a pleasure to meet you. Waves hi to Britney, you were awesome and I am happy to have met you.

The only down side was that we always seemed to miss the fresh cookies but could smell them hours later. I have to say that luckily I did manage to nab an oatmeal raisin cookie one afternoon on my way out.

I love how the Hampton Inn provides a breakfast to eat there and on the go. I was lucky enough to partake in both. The mornings I was able to sit and eat there was always a great selection of stuff to pick from. I feel in love with the biscuits they were so good.

The breakfast on the go bags were great as well. You got a muffin, an apple, mints and water. Perfect for a quick bit on the go.

The entire staff was friendly and very approachable any time of the day and the place was super clean and you could see they took pride in the building because after the room was cleaned someone would come to see if it was clean and someone was always cleaning something.

I loved how close I actually was to the Javitis and Time’s Sqaure and everything else.

I know the next time I go to NYC I will definitely stay here again.

This time last week I had to get up super early because I had a car picking me up (6:45am) to take me to Penn Station. I was going home.

The whole week was fantastic and I couldn’t have wished for a better week. Well actually it would have been nice had the weather cooperated more. (The first part of the week was raining)

This time I really stepped out of my comfort zone in so many ways. First was rooming with three bloggers I have never met in real life Kate from Midnight Book Girl , Kellie from ReaWrite and  Kim from On The Wings of Books . OMG all I have to say is from that first night I knew it was going to be a hilarious adventure with them. One that I will always remember. I don’t think I have laughed so much or so hard in a long time. (Kate and Kim you know what I’m talking about LOL)

The second was walking all over NYC….alone. I was nervous at first but quickly realized if you don’t make eye contact or say anything its all good. I always made sure before going out that I had my print outs and the staff at the hotel were always there to offer directions. I have yet to take the subway on my own and quite honestly I don’t think I am ready for that. Its just to darn complicated.

This is NYC subway map

Montreal’s subway map

Perhaps one day I will feel confident to ride the subway on my own but for now I am okay with walking around NYC or going with other people.

In a way I was happy to be coming home because I think by Thursday I was getting over whelmed with the amount of foot traffic there is in NYC and the horns and sirens etc. I live in a subdivision in Montreal and its never that noisy here. I was also sad to be leaving I had made some amazing friends and I enjoy NYC.

Thankfully Tina from Bookshipper was going to be traveling home with me. We had text that night before so she was waiting for me at the train station. We were able to get a red cap (porter) to bring our bags down for us and he was super nice to get us pre-boarding. Which honestly is a life saver when traveling.

The train ride was pretty uneventful until we got to the border. For some reason its always longer to pass through customs coming into Canada then it is going into the US. A handful of people were removed from the train and you could see from the clipboard that a few names were highlighed. Thankfully Tina and I weren’t interrogated.

Then the fun started once we got into Montreal because they only had one porter and an elderly couple had tons of baggage and we kind of joked with them asking if they were moving here and they brushed us off. Seriously they had more baggage then Tina and I put together. (Tina had two suitcases and I had two suitcases and three tote bags). So Tina and I were left down stairs until the porter came back. Thankfully he did.

It was nice to come home although we didn’t hang around too long downtown because there was a student protest that was going to begin very shortly and we didn’t want to be mixed into that.
So that it is. Its always so much fun to get away and I love NYC but its always nice to come home again. Although its always one of those things were  you need a vacation to get over a vacation and that was me last week. I had a hard time re-entering back into reality. Michael being sick didn’t help much.

I hope you enjoyed my BEA and NYC recaps.

It was nice to relax this morning and not feel rushed. The only plans I had were shopping and meeting up with  Kathy from Bermudaonion for breakfast. We met at a cute little place and grabbed breakfast to go and sat in a little urban park and ate. I always love meeting up with Kathy and getting to talk to her. After that we went on the hunt in Time’s Square in search of the Naked Cowboy who I have yet to see. Nope we didn’t see him. We spent some time just sitting and talking which is so nice and then sadly Kathy had to leave to catch her plane back home.

I went back to the hotel and met up with Kim because we were going to do the bus tour of the city and I was super excited. What better way to see more of the city. We had so much fun hanging out and seeing the sights. I enjoyed my afternoon with Kim.

I won’t post all my pics (because I took alot) but I will share some of my favorite ones.

The Flatiron building. It was so hard to get a good shot of the building.

I was told this had something to do with 9/11. I think next time I would like to get off and look at it more.

For some reason we ended up getting off at Battery Park and I am so happy we did because we got to see this and it was so much fun to watch the water coming up. I would have loved to have run through that. I think Michael would enjoy this.

Of course no stop to Battery Park would be complete without stopping to check out the Positive Brothers. I think some of the members are the same as one guy looked familiar to me.

From there we walked to the 9/ll Memorial where we were lucky enough to score some daily tickets. This was such a peaceful spot and not once did you realize that it was in the city because it was so peaceful and serene. You literally couldn’t hear the city and the noise. It was a little emotional because thoughts of that day popped into my head and it brought me back to that day.

After that we walked back to the bus to finish up the tour. We drove by United Nations and were sad to discover that the flags are removed daily, then Trump Towers (nope didn’t see Donald), Rockefeller center is an amazing place and I think next time I would love to get off and look around even though Tina and I did walk around after one of our parties.

After the tour I hit a souvenir shop to pick up a few souvenirs and made our way back to the hotel. Kim had decided on doing the night tour since it was a part of the ticket and Kate and I decided to go out for supper and what we thought was a nice little place but quickly realized the service sucked and wouldn’t be going there again.

So that concludes the trip. I had so much fun this past week.

Today was the last day of BEA. I went today because there was still a few signings I wanted to see and things I wanted to do before leaving BEA. In the past the day last has always been a little quieter but since they opened the last day to Power Readers it was a little busier then normal.

The morning started out perfectly because my roomie Kate was a mission to get her Dean Koontz book, Odd Apocalypse  and it was basically come hell or high water. This I think was the one and only book that she really really wanted and she told us several times that if anyone managed to get a hold of it that she wanted it.

Thankfully a super nice power reader behind us in the waiting line to get in was very accomendating and offered her her copy of it so this made for one very happy Kate as you can see.

She was so happy to have gotten this finally and no one was hurt in the process. LOL

After getting in I managed to get the few books I had hoped to get and meet a few authors in the process. Such as:

This is Faith Wilkins the author of Wacko Academy (a debut novel. She is only 15 years old) I read and loved her book so I really wanted to stop by and say hi.

After meeting her I met up with Shane Peacock who is a Canadian author who was signing his upcoming book, Becoming Holmes. (I recently met him when he came to Michael’s school) Another Canadian author I met was Susin Nielsen and she was signing her newest upcoming book called The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen. I got to meet Justin Halpern who was signing his book I Suck at Girls (I loved his book Sh*t My Father says).

The next signing I wanted to go and do was for the book The Curiosities: A Collection of Stories and all three authors were there: Tessa Gratton, Brenna Yovanoff and Maggie Stiefvater (who I have to say is so sweet and I got all fan girl on her. I couldn’t remember her series of books)

I also got to meet Leanna Renee Hieber the author of Darker Still and an added bonus was she was signing ARCs of her upcoming book The Twisted Tragedy of Miss Natalie Stewart.

This beautiful picture was behind Leanna. I love it.

So that wraps up the Thursday the last day of BEA. I was sad to see it end but happy at the same time. My feet were killing me and I looked forward to heading back to the hotel to relax and we decided that we would stay in and order a pizz and chill for the evening. The pizza was pretty good considering all the trouble we went through to order it. Poor Kate but in the end we found a place.

After pizza I told everyone that I need one more PinkBerry run and we walked a few streets over to grab one and low and behold who did we see there but the one person I was hoping to finally meet on this BEA trip, Sheila from Book Journey . Okay this wasn’t the first time I saw Sheila. I think she was one of the bloggers I saw the most at BEA this year.

Sheila it was so much fun to finally meet you over and over and over again LOL Just an FYI, Sheila in person is exactly like she is online.

After mailing a box I picked up the following books:
-Peguins Hdden Talent
-How does sleep come
-50 shades of Early Grey the parady (You so know I was going to get that one right?)
-Discover New York City and Not For Parents New york City everthing you ever wanted to know
-starry river of the sky
-The Twisted Tragedy & Darker Still
-The Perculiars
-a wild goose chase christmas
-Malcolm at midnight
-The Paladin

If you have been following me or have spoken with me you will probably know that this fedex box was almost the death of me. Just a little FYI if you are shipping international make sure you get a customer invoice, if not your box will be held. I found that out the hard way. It seems like the people who are working in the booth has no idea.

I told her it was being shipped to Canada and all she made me fill out was the mailing slip and thankfully I am one of those people who tracks their packages because I’m not sure I would have been notified and I could have possibly lost this box.

So when I opened the box everything I sent was there. Phew I was so happy. I only wish they would have taken the time to package it properly instead of just this. I asked about it and was told it would still be the same amout of weight. Hmm I really wonder?

This is the box spread out all over my couch.

This is the signed pile.
-whats left of me (I saw her in the booth and she graciously signed it for me)
-Each Kindness
-Narc
-The Curiosities
-Skylark
-Find your happetite
-The Near Witch
-I suck at girls
-Becoming Holmes
-wack academy
-The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen

Not signed:
-sky color
-carnival of souls
-the darkest minds
-beta
-shadows
-the farm
-surviving high school
-the spindlers
-prodigy
-the demon catchers of Milan
-vordak the incomprehensible double trouble

I got two tshirts that are super cute and I am so excited to have gotten Authors Are my Rock Stars. Plus those cute tote bags.

This is the assorted swag I picked up.

I want to send out a huge thank you to all the publishers who took part in BEA you were very generous with the books you gave out and the swag.

Its hard to believe that this was day four of my trip and the second day of BEA.

I was super excited for today because it was the Children’s Author Breakfast at BEA and its been one of the breakfasts that I always attend. This year I think they changed things up a bit by offering the standard $25 tickets (basic seating and no breakfast), a $45 ticket for breakfast(which I feel isn’t really worth the money) and then they offered a $95 which got you much closer to the stage I believe, the same kind of breakfast as the $45 and all three books.

I noticed a huge change right away. It seemed like every other chair had a tote bag, (which apparently after speaking with Little Brown because the tote bag was to go with Chris’s book, there was suppose to be tote bags on all the chairs. So not sure if someone was taking them or what) a poster and two books in the past you always got a book from each of the authors who were speaking (their newest book that is coming out or is out). So I was a little bummed that I didn’t get Lois Lowery’s book, Son.

I made it a point to sit where a tote bag was along with Chris Colfer’s book and John Green’s as that was on my wishlist to read.

I love this breakfast and I loved Chris’s talk. It was nice to hear that he as literally been working on this book since he was 10 years old.  He also brought pictures of his drawings (from when he was 10) and the illustrator’s version of them.

Chris’s cover version

Illustrated by Brandon Dorman

I am so excited to read this book. It sounds so good.

I love the banter between Chris and John Green. Who Chris referred to as the Justin Bieber of the literary world.

I ended up sneaking out a little earlier because there was some awesome things happening at 9am that I wanted to get. Then I quickly made my way to Little Brown to get in the “UN-official” line for Chris ‘s signing and I am happy I got in line when I did because they were limiting it to only 200 and I was #52.

This is Chris signing my book and I was telling him that he did a fantastic job with hosting and that I loved his John Green comment and he laughed when he saw my badge and asked if I was a Bieber fan. Of course I can proudly say I am not. But he is just as cute in person and I was super excited to had the chance to briefly speak with him.

The day was pretty much a blur with running all over the Javitis. I managed to be walking around and stumbled upon:

Here is Stacy London signing a blad of her upcoming book. She is just as pretty in person as she is on What Not to Wear.

This is taken when I told her that I met Clinton Kelly in  2010 and the same book event and seeing her there I had to stop and get her book signed. She has the most amazing pink high heeled shoes on.

One final thing I had to do before leaving Javitis that day was:

Go and see Jeff Kinney author of the Diary of a Wimpy kid books. Michael has just started reading them so I knew I had to stop and get a calendar signed for him. Which he loved.

Books from Day 2

When I left Javitis I headed back to the hotel for a quick rest and to freshen up because I was going to be meeting Tina for dinner. We have been planning this since we knew we were going to BEA.

We love this place. I had the pumkin pasta salad. It was so good. We ate at this place last time and said we would do it again.

So this is a wrap on day 2. Hope you enjoy it.

Tuesday June 5th

Its hard to believe that this time last week I was having so much fun in NYC and BEA.

Today would have been the first day of Book Expo America and we (roomies and I) got there bright and early to get in line. Thankfully I got a text from Tina informing me of a shorter line so we quickly ran to where Tina was and she was right the line was a little shorter then the first line we were in. (That one was wrapping around the New Title Showcase.)

I was super excited to get to BEA this morning because I was going to be meeting a super sweet and totally awesome blogger. When I found out she was going to be attending we exchanged numbers and text with plans to meet.

The blogger in question is Alita from Alita Reads . She is a Canadian blogger and I have known her roughly two (+) years. We actually have a very funny story and everything that goes with it we knew we had to make it a point to meet. I first got to know Alita through a Secret Santa exchange when she had me and that same time we took part in a Christmas Card exchange and she was on my list to send to and then this past Christmas it came full circle when I had her name for the Secret Santa. So I was super excited to finally meet her and put a face to the blogger. Plus we even had the same camera (in different colors). Alita it was so nice to meet you finally.

Shortly after parting the doors opened and we were allowed to hit the exhibit hall floor. This time around I felt like I knew what I was doing even though it was very over whelming. I decided early on that I wasn’t going to spend a majority of my time in the autographing section like I did the last time. I really wanted to hit the booths and talk with the reps I knew and worked with.

I made it a point to try and get to the autographing section for books that I really really wanted and sadly some lines I was turned away because they either ran out of books or the time was up.

One of the first books I managed to get right away was Shannon Messengers debut novel, Keeper of the Lost Cities. I have been hearing so many great things and I stalk follow Shannon’s blog.

The first day was surpisingly not as busy as I remember it from previous visits. Although I have to say that after lunch it seemed to get busier. I didn’t stay the full day because I wanted to get back to my hotel and get ready for the events I was invited to that evening with Tina.

I was very picky on what I was taking although with that being sad I missed out on same great books and signings that I would have loved to have gotten such as Stephanie Chong’s second book coming out at the end of August called The Demoness of Waking Dreams. I went to the Harlequin booth and it was crazy.

Here is the books I went back to the hotel with on the first official first day of BEA. It was a great start to my first day at BEA.