I'm Back! And I Have Stories of BEA to Share!!

Goooooood morning, everyone!!

You may have noticed that I was pretty much MIA last week. Well, that's because I was in NYC! It was so awesome I can't even begin to properly describe it. Let me give you a hint:

1. Free books
2. Book bloggers
3. Free books
4. Famous authors
5. Good friends
6. Free books

This is just a tiny sample of all the books I got. I couldn't carry everything home with me, so three boxes were shipped and are on their way to me now!

Do you see those titles?? Keeper of the Lost Cities (review being posted today on Goodreads), by Shannon Messenger! The Raven Boys, by Maggie Stiefvater! The Spindlers, by Lauren Oliver! Black City, by Elizabeth Richards! ALL the pretties! It's still very overwhelming. 

You may also notice I have two of some of those books up there. That's because I plan on doing a giveaway in the next coming weeks.

So let me share a tale of BEA. I have many, but this is the one I'll be sharing today.

As you may recall, I told you all a few weeks ago that I was going to be signing copies of Elemental at BEA. Well, my publisher called a few days before to tell me that they'd be bringing two whole cases (i.e. seventy books) for the event. I started to panic.

I mean, seventy books is a lot. Sure, a lot of people go to BEA, but there are dozens of signings going on at the same time and who was I to be chosen over some of the huge names that were also going to be there?

I started hoping and praying that I'd get through half of my books and not be there twiddling my thumbs for too long.

When the first day of BEA came, I really started to sweat. All my nightmares were being played out before me. HUGE lines were forming for really huge names while slightly lesser known authors were sitting at their booths pleading with their eyes for people to come and take their books. I did tend to go to these folks. I felt for them! I knew I would be one of them the very next day!

I couldn't sleep Tuesday night. At all. My stomach had twisted into this horrible, nauseous knot and I just KNEW I was going to humiliate myself and disappoint my publishing company.

Luckily, I had an author breakfast to go to on Wednesday morning to take up some of the time before my signing at 10:00. Because my signing was going on at pretty much the same time as one of my all time favorite authors', Becca Fitzpatrick (who would be signing copies of Finale--according to the BEA website), I'd begged my husband and fellow SHP author Dan Cohen to stand in line for me.

The breakfast ended a little early at 9:22, so I decided to go to her line and chat with my husband and Dan until they were done getting my book or 10:00 rolled around (whichever came first). I checked out the front of the line first because that's where they should have been (due to the fact they had yellow exhibitor badges and could get in before everyone else).

They weren't at the front of the line.

So I started walking towards the end of the line. And it was a long, long line.

I still didn't see them.

At this point, I was getting a little upset. We'd discussed this! They knew they had to get there early in order to get a copy and I was NOT about to wait until this fall to read a book I'd been dying for for years now and could get at BEA.

While checking out the line, I ran into another SHP author, Kimberly Miller. She claimed she saw the two slackers at the SHP booth.

o.o I thought they'd lost their minds.

It was 9:40. I still had 20 minutes before my signing so I figured I had plenty of time to go there before anyone showed up for my signing and demand they get in the Becca Fitzpatrick line before it was too late.

I turned the corner to the SHP booth and saw something that looked similar to this:

That couldn't be for me! I thought to myself. There's NO WAY that is for me.

But it was (I know, still very shocked over here). And then I was humiliated for an entirely different reason.

I'd showed up twenty minutes too early. How unfashionable of me!

Well, it turned out Becca Fitzpatrick was NOT signing Finale (despite what they'd advertised), so that was the reason my husband and Dan were not in the line. I immediately forgave them and apologized for thinking they'd lost their darn minds.

But now I had a new problem.

I had twenty minutes before my signing and people were there, waiting. I couldn't just walk off and mill around until 10:00 like my original plan. And I couldn't just stand there making them wait when there were other books to be gotten.

So I started a little early.

There's me!! And for some reason, people actually wanted to get their picture taken with me. The lady to the right of me (left in this picture) had just posed with me.

There's another view of the line! This was before we had to move it because it was getting in the way of another signing that was just about to start. You can see the guy in the next booth looking over.

There's me and Kendra Saunders (the marketing guru at SHP)!!! Kate Kaynak and SHP editor Vikki Ciaffone are in the background.

There's me, Dan Cohen, and Kendra Saunders right after my signing! And like most pictures involving me, I was just in the middle of saying something when they snapped the pic.

The whole experience was awesome!! All seventy books were gone! The thirty some odd copies they'd brought to just hand out were also gone!! The display copy had to be taken off the shelf and given away (story for that one on Wednesday)!! And STILL people were coming!

It was soooooo amazing. I am so happy! I did NOT disappoint my publishing company! And I am soooo ready to do this again.

Keep checking back for more BEA stories! They are all VERY good. And at the end, I'll be doing a giveaway!

Happy Monday, everyone!!