When we checked in to the hotel, we were informed that the city was working on the sewer system, and hot water wouldn’t be available until after 4 am. I’m an eternal optimist and assured myself that I’d be able to hop in the shower at 4:15 am and the hot water would be available. Once again, I was wrong. Nothing but cold water! Needless to say, after my very quick shower, I was awake and invigorated.
We arrived at the Javits Center around 5:30 and stood in line for author signing tickets. My goal was to get a tickets for the Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins and Little Bird of Heaven by Joyce Carol Oates. Luck was on my side…tickets were obtained.
After getting breakfast at a local diner, it was finally time for the exhibit hall to open. The ribbon was cut and I walked in to a book lovers heaven! Rows and rows of publishers, “bookish” vendors, you name it. I finally had a chance to meet Miriam from Hachette after working with her for over a year now!
Finally it was time for my first ticketed author signing. First up, Joyce Carol Oates. Now, I have to admit, I didn’t really look at the author signing schedule before arriving in NY. After getting my signed copy of Little Bird of Heaven, I had to rush upstairs for my book blogger signing at the Firebrand booth. I was impressed at the number of people interested in book bloggers and what we did, and spent an hour answering their questions. I was pleasantly surprised when Shane Briant, author of The Worst Nightmare stopped by to introduce himself. I will be reviewing his book (and hosting a giveway) in the next month. I also finally got to meet Tyler from Scholastic Books-an amazing resource and overall great guy!
Immediately after my signing was Suzanne Collins’ author signing, so I literally ran across the exhibit hall and downstairs to the signing area. I was dismayed at the seemingly endless line, but it moved quickly and I obtained my signed copy.
I remained in the author signing area for several hours, and got to meet Melissa Marr, Sarwat Chadda, Luis Alberto Urea and his wife, Cindy (who both squealed in delight when I told them who I was!).
Late that afternoon, I met with Emily from Sourcebooks. My family has always been a fan of the books Sourcebooks publishes (expecially Horrid Henry!) so I was thrilled to sit down and talk with Emily about ways that we can work together.
By this time I was exhausted. I’d slept for a mere 3 hours the night before and had been on my feet for several hours. But the night wasn’t close to being over!
After a quick trip back to the hotel for dinner (complimentary due to the lack of hot water!) we went to the BEAtweetup, the first Tweet up for Book Expo America. It was packed with bookish people, of all types, including publicists, authors, etc. Here I met Valerie Russo from Hachette, Frasier and the GetGlue gang, Bethanne Patrick (aka Bookmaven) and many many other great people!
The night was still young, so we jumped in a cab and went to a Kidlit party. I met some great YA authors, which I was exceedingly happy about because I’m interesting in expanding my reviews to YA fiction.
The night came to an end and after returning to the hotel, I quickly succumbed to a deep sleep…
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