The Best of BEA

I'm back from BEA and no surprise, exhausted.

The sheer size of BEA is enough to make you tired. Add into that the number of great books available, the number of postcards and flyers you have to dodge and the skill it takes to manuever around the crowds and you'll understand why today I feel like the walking dead.

Lucky for the rest of the world, I'm the zombie variety that doesn't feast on the living. Instead, I come bearing a list...my fave BEA moments:

Hello, Again!

Meeting "new" friend who felt like old ones.

Thanks to email and web forums, I've met some really great people of the writer-type. Whether it's sharing experiences, doling out advice or sending out a quickie "congrats" or "that sucks" I talk to a lot of my writer friends more than I do my friends from college and high school. Because you know, writers are online way too much.

I met so many people for the first time and it felt great. Putting a face to a name (or sig line) was wonderful. Even better, it really felt I'd known them forever. So sorry to anyone I hugged who isn't normally a hugger. But after all we've shared online, hand shakes are just out of the question!

I just wish I could have spent more real time with some of them like Kelly Starling Lyons (my sister in writing) and Mari Mancusi. And don't let the "darkness" of Mari's books fool you. She's so adorable!

The Lost Tribe Wanders

Kicking it with the Class of 2K7.

Trade shows are murder. Without a plan, trade shows are mind numbingly boring!
I had no plan. Go, sign...end of plan. Hooking up with the 2K7 crew gave me more direction, albeit nothing too structured. If I hadn't hooked up with them, I think I would have been sitting in the Kensington booth waiting on my editor and publicist to baby sit me...and they were too busy for that.

Together we wandered the trade show floor getting our free books and catching up on our new lives as authors. The best part was, there was no pressure to be together. We'd traded phone numbers and if someone wanted in, they called. It worked well and definitely enhanced my experience.

No pictures please

This was weird, but in a very nice weird way. Me and the 2K7 bunch were standing in line for the Rachel Cohn, David Levithan signing. We get to the table and Rachel looks up and says, "Ahh the class of 2k7."

Hmmm...did we look like a bunch of newbies because we were clustered together?

Obviously she recognized one or some of us...but she never did say how she knew.

Jacking people for their swag

Naturally, there was some cute swag at the show. My favorite item was a beach bag from the Voice imprint of Hyperion. Very very cute, burnt orange and beige bag. And perfect mini-tote for the beach. Oh and it came with flip flops. Notice I didn't say a book, because they'd run out by the time I got to it.

Anyway, standing there waiting on getting our totes and the Voice rep says, Who still needs flip flops.

ME (pointing to Carrie Jones): She needs a bag and flip flops.

Rep: Oh just take one from the table.

So Carrie grabs the bag of the woman standing beside her. The shock in this woman's face sent me into uncontrollable laughter. I wasn't even polite enough to wait until we left the table! The woman was too stunned to say "Hey, that's mine" or anything.

And poor Carrie didn't even realize she'd jacked the woman for her bag. She honestly thought the woman was handing it to her.

I think I should mention that Carrie is from Maine, where I guess people do polite things like pick up a bag for the person beside them to give, as they patiently wait their turn. But where I come from, un-ah, it's every man for himself.

M*A*S*H Geek out

I have no idea what this says about me, but one of the highlights of the show for me was seeing Alan Alda. He was signing his new book at the table right beside Holly Black's line. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a book from him because he was a ticketed signing and they'd run out by the time I arrived.

But we're standing in the Holly Black line and I see several photogs - the kind that looks like paparazzi. So I'm all, Who are they shooting.

I look up and it's Alan Alda. Gah!!!

I am not easily star struck. And while I will defintely get excited to see other authors, seeing actors is like, so whatever for me. But I'm a huge fan of M*A*S*H and if you love the show, you love Hawkeye. Plus, I adore actors who have that longevity. And, Alan Alda has some to spare. Not to mention he's a damn good actor. So no shame in my game. I was psyched!

Uhnnn...Na,Na,Na,Na

Speaking of celeb sightings, Master P was at the show. Now sure why.

As me and the tribe were making our way down the main aisle, I look up at this really tall guy and think, Hmmm...he looks like Master P. So I instinctively look down for his badge and sure enough it said Percy Miller on his tag. Cool. I wasn't star struck at all, just thought it was neat that he was at a book expo.

Missing LL

Oh, this is not a favorite moment, but while we're talking about celebs, I totally missed the LL Cool J signing. Grrr!!!! There was a photo of him in the Saturday PW Daily and I'll just say this....Mmmm, Mmmmm, Mmmmm!

Doing the Thirty Thing

I walked to Javitts from my hotel and back. Thirty blocks. And to the hubster, I was neither being cheap or unsafe. As per usual, for me, I staked out the entire route to see where everything was situated. According to the bus schedule there were no bus stops close to my hotel. One stop was 10 blocks down, one was 15. Javitts was also 15. Why bother with the bus?!

The old college try

I loved that me and Lutisha Lovely made pretend we were coming back to BEA later to hang out, Friday. She was dead tired. I was dead tired (and a tad funky from that 30 block walk). But we were both all, Yeah girl, call me and we'll hook up later.

When she called me later, she was at her hotel chilling and I was at mine, freshly bathed and waiting on room service. Hey girl, at least we did hold up to that "I'll call you" end of the deal.

Kid-Lit Nite Cap

Finally, I was able to make it to a Fuse 8 Kiddie lit happy hour. I felt bad for the regulars of the Landmark Tavern. When they walked in and saw the entire front of the restaurant overrun with young 'uns (compared to the average age of the patrons that kept popping in) the disappointment on their faces spoke volumes.

It was nice meeting Betsy Bird, Miss Fuse 8 herself. I also met Liz B. And I want to know this. When did librarians become so friggin' cool? I love it!