Ok…. so it is not really on a stick. I just said that. In Minnesota our joke about our State Fair each year is that you can get just about anything on a stick. And it is true. You can even get a deep-fried candy bar – on a stick. I do not kid. And BEA dipped in chocolate would be wonderful… but I digress…
BEA was an event that will stay with me forever. My first time to New York. My first encounter with anything bookish that is so big and soooooo amazing. I will try to give it justice in this post and hopefully not leave out anything.
Sunday May 23
I arrived in New York in the morning with Reagan from Miss Remmers Reviews. We taxied to our hotel and were able to turn in our luggage but not check in yet. SO – we did what those in New York do….. we walked. We walked down to Time Square (just a few blocks from our hotel) and down to Central Park which was gorgeous! We walked into the park… and around within the park and upon stepping out of the park we promptly took a right turn instead of a left and walked 30 blocks out of our way. After catching our error – we turned around and walked the 30+ blocks back and then rewarded ourselves with a yummy lunch before finding our way back to the hotel.
Sunday evening Esme (Chocolates and Croissants) rolled into New York and we all went out to eat together and made our introductions.
Monday May 24
We spend the morning and early afternoon checking out New York. Around 3 pm we head to Strand Book Store, home to 18 miles of books. We then stop for frozen Yogurt on our way to the Jefferson Library for the Teen Author Carnival – 30 authors and 3 different categories and panels. This was a lot of fun to listen to the authors and purchase books.
After the event, we stopped at Olive Garden on the way back to our hotel. Since my readers told me I could not go to chain restaurants while in New York we decided that we could cover it up by changing its name….. so we called it Evilo Dengar (Olive Garden in code).
After dinner we asked the hostess how to hail a cab. I asked if we were to stand out in front of it and she laughed and said only if I wanted to be ran over. She came outside with us and taught us how to wave down a cab. That was really funny. The cab driver told us that even though she told us to wave that was touristy and we were to hold our hand out straight as that is how the professionals do it. (Already we are learning so much!)
Tuesday May 25
Up early we went to the Javits Center to sit in on a discussion on the Value Of A Book and panel. Afterward we had seen on Twitter that the Class of 2010 Debut authors were going to be at the Javits Center in the lounge. Reagan, Esme, and I went to see what that was about and I am so glad we did. We were the only ones to show up so we had these authors all to ourselves. They gave us t shirts and swag and we talked to them for over an hour. It was a blast!
After this, Esme decided to go explore and Reagan and I decided to go read in Central Park. We went back to our hotel and changed, grabbed our books and off we went. It was a beautiful day and I finished The Opposite Of Me while in the park.
From there we went back to the hotel, cleaned up and started our walk to the Class of 2010 Author Event. This was a blast! It was many of the same authors we had met this morning, and more. After they shared about their books, we had a chance to buy books and have them signed.
After the signing, we met some other Bloggers and a group of 12 of us went out to dinner. (How super cool is that?) It was so much fun to get to meet a few of the people who’s blogs I read as well as a few that were new to me but I will be sure to check out!
Wednesday May 26
Up at 5 am to go the Javits for the tickets for author signings. Reagan and I went to this, for me mainly just to experience this early excitement. We did well and the line was still short when we got there. (Our hotel was 5 blocks from the Javits so it was within walking distance and the weather was perfect).
After that craziness I grabbed a cup of coffee and hung out in the lounge and waited for the doors to the event floor to open. When they did – seriously look out. I think I was drove by a heard of people to a booth where they slapped a book in my hand and I had to fight my way out of the crowd. (Note to self….next year, stand back until the crowd clears).
It’s hard to explain what this was like – other than to say it is a book lovers paradise. Publishing Houses and authors galore, I tossed my agenda to the wayside and decided just to experience BEA. I met with the Publishers that send me books, talked about upcoming releases, made new connections and picked up books along the way. I mailed one box home before 2 pm when I was to meet with Author, Adriana Trigiani.
I sam not going to go into a lot about the authors tea that I enjoyed with 5 other fabulous bloggers as that is my Wednesday post (stay tuned tomorrow for that one!). I will however let you know it was FABULOUS… and let you have one teaser photo:
After the tea we went back to the Javits where I walked around tired and happy until Reagan was ready to walk back to our hotel. We quickly changed and were off to the Book Blogger Get Together sponsored by Harper Collins – and it was amazing!!!
**Note: I am not giving you all the pics I have – there are too many, I am just giving samples here and plan to do a slideshow yet this week of all my pics.
After this fun meet up I went to dinner with Reagan, Heather (Age 30+ a Lifetime Of Books), and Barbara from Reading Group Choices. We had a blast chatting and chatting and what I thought would be an early night, was not…. and I had a blast.
Thursday, May 27
Reagan had left at 4 am to catch her plane back to Minneapolis as she had a wedding she was in. Late night on Wednesday so did not push myself to get up super early. We got to the convention center around 9 am. Again we separated and off I went to see all the booths I did not the day before. A second box of books was building downstairs in the UPS center with my name on it.
At 2 pm I met Sarah Pekkanen (woo hoo!) when she picked up Kathy (Bermuda Onion) and I for a tour of Simon and Schuster Publishing. This was a great experience and I am not going to go into great details as this is my Thursday post along with the review of Sarah;s book, Opposite Of Me. However, I will share a sneak peek picture:
After the tour we went back to the Center for the Book Blogger Reception from 4 – 6 pm. This was also a lot of fun, more bloggers to meet and the exchanging of business cards was happening left and right. There were also many authors in this reception and I had a wonderful time mingling with them as well. At the end of this event my roomies and I had an invite to dinner with a couple authors and publishers. I also met my two new roomies at this event – Care from Care’s OnLine Book Club and Kim from Sophisticated Dorkiness. They were so much fun!
Friday, May 28
The Book Blogger Convention was today and this was so cool. They had a wonderful breakfast set up for us and there was a bit of social time before the convention started.
The convention itself was informative and fun. I wrote a lot of notes and appreciated hearing the different panel speakers share topic discussions such as social justice, marketing, Bloggers and Authors, Integrity and Ethics, and more. This was a great wrap up to the week.
That evening we were invited to join a group of 22 bloggers for dinner and we had excellent food and company!
I can’t describe what this entire event was like. It was bigger and better than I had imagined. The Book Bloggers are an incredible group of people and I enjoyed my time with each of them.
Saturday, May 29
When I booked my trip to New York I had agreed to stay one day extra to do a show with Esme (Chocolates and Croissants). I wish I had a picture of the two of us but I do not. We went to lunch with Carrie and Kim in the late morning before they left. We then went and saw the King Tut exhibit which was really interesting.
After a nap (me) and shopping (Esme) we went out to eat at a wonderful restaurant called Yum Yum. It was Thai food and it was… well… yum yum. Then we went to the show Mama Mia which was a perfect ending to an amazing week.
Thank you to everyone I met during this time in New York. I had so much fun and will probably be floating around my home town for the next several weeks. (Maybe months) 😀
