BEA Day Three (Otherwise Known as Fangirl Day)

I made mittens.

They have narwhals on them.

And they are lined to make them extra warm.

And they are made out of alpaca. For coziness. The pattern is by Ysolda Teague from her book Whimsical Little Knits 3. The yarn is Blue Sky Alpacas in a sport weight, I forget the colors. The lining is Spud and Chloe Fine.

And I made them for Victoria Schwab, author of The Near Witch. Because she loves narwhals. And she loves alpaca. And she is my friend. So she gets mittens. Friends get handknits.

Kelly and I went off to the Javits Center this morning, ran around the floor grabbing books, then ran into Victoria before her signing in the Disney-Hyperion booth. And we got to chat for a while. And I gave her mittens. I think she likes them.

Then we went over to the signing and Kelly and I got in line. We were given numbers, because V did not believe 50 people would show up for her signing! And from the look of the signing line, she was WRONG. There were LOTS of people.

So then I got a signed paperback of The Near Witch and got to squeal with childlike joy at the little narwhal V drew on the inside.

After that, I rushed over and joined the insane line for the Bitterblue signing. And although the line looked impossible, it moved rather quickly! So now I have a signed copy of Bitterblue. And I am a happy Laura.

And then there were other signings with other wonderful authors, including Maggie Stiefvater and David Levithan. I am completely spoiled.

We headed home early, since BEA winds down early on the last day. Later, we'll be off to Red Lobster for Kelly's birthday dinner, and then I'll sort through the books and update my spreadsheet, then decide which books are getting shipped back to Indiana and which will be lovingly packed into my luggage and flown home along with me. And I need to pick a plane book. But how can I choose which book to read on the plane when I have SO MANY great ones to choose from?

Have some pictures.

BEA Day Two!

Today was a very early day for us, we woke up at 5:30 AM to hop on the train to the city (after grabbing bagels first), then we raced over to the Javits Center for the Children's Book and Author Breakfast to see John Green.

JOHN GREEN.

And not just John Green, because we also got to see Walter Dean Myers, Lois Lowry, and Chris Colfer (from Glee and now author of a new middle grade release that seems promising).

From there we went to signing after signing after signing. It was fantastic. I got to meet Erin Morgenstern, who wrote The Night Circus, Libba Bray who is a ROCK STAR (literally), and even MAUREEN JOHNSON. I adore Maureen Johnson. And everyone I met was absolutely fantastic. I know it must be hugely stressful for authors to sit in a booth for hours at a time and meet hundreds of people and sign unspeakable numbers of books. That can't be fun. But the authors I met were all welcoming and enthusiastic about meeting their readers. And this makes me love them even more than before.

Here are today's pictures, including the breakfast pictures, and authors I happened to see (including some I just snapped pictures of as I walked by, like Jane Seymore of Dr. Quinn fame and Lois Lowry, who had an insanely long line).



If you don't know who everyone is (and unless you are obsessive about the book industry, why would you?), I will tell you who is who if you ask me!

Day One of BEA

I am so tired, I feel as if I have melted into a puddle of Laura and there is nothing left of me except for eyes and maybe the hands I am using to type this post.

Tomorrow I will be MORE tired.

But we did all sorts of things and got books signed and run around and wait in lots of long lines. And I met author people and saw Victoria Schwab, who I fangirled. I fangirled a lot today. Here are pictures. I will tell you more later!

New York City Tourist Day!

Okay. This blog is going to be annoying to many of you, because for a few more days, it is going to be the place where my vacation photos (and videos) live during my time in New Jersey and New York City. I'm at BEA (Book Expo America), in case you forgot, and today was a tourist day. Kelly took me into the city to show me all the things that I ought to see while here...things I will not see while spending the next three days in a convention center meeting authors and picking up books.

FIRSTLY...

It rained. And not just a little bit. It rained a LOT. And we thought, "It will warm up. We do not need to bring coats or sweatshirts! We will bring these two umbrellas!" Except one of the umbrellas was broken. Two of its arms were snapped free from its nylon outside protective thing, which meant it wanted to turn inside out and smack me in the face from time to time. And by that I mean all the time.

It occurred to me that the umbrella was a metaphor for my life.

It also kind of felt like that umbrella was giving me the finger for the first half of the day. You know how it goes.

And my shoes became soaked through. Which was cold, and uncomfortable.

And I had the time of my life.

We went to the New York Public Library. And we went to The Strand. And we went to Times Square. And we went to a cupcake place that Maureen Johnson likes. And we went to Shake Shack, where were were accosted by feral squirrels, one of which I am pretty sure had scabies, or mange, or some other fur/skin condition. And it also had crazy eyes.

But anyway, I took pictures. So here you go.



Pictures with books were taken at The Strand. I have more Strand pictures trapped on my phone, but they cannot come off my phone until I get home and transfer them with The Magic Cable. Meanwhile, if you want more pictures and updates, take a peek at my Twitter feed in the sidebar (look to your right, scroll down a bit) and here on my Twitpic.