My small but perfect piece of Forever.

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Day 2 of BookCon 2015

My final day in NYC started off more stressful than the rest. My mother and I had decided there was no advantage to getting into the chutes down in Queue Hall since our first objective was to get into autographing lines. I checked my Twitter account (@amp2004) around 8:30 only to find that the autographing line for Sarah J. Maas was capped! This was inconceivable to me! Her autographing session was scheduled to begin at 11 and during the previous morning, no autographing lines were started until 10. The chutes for the autographing session lines were the same chutes that they use to lined up early birds for the showfloor. Once I arrived at Javit's, I bee-lined it to MacMillan while Mom checked our luggage. I asked a very nice man what could possibly be done to get a chance to meet Sarah. He directed me to the Bloomsbury booth (which slipped my brain in the mad rush) on the other side of their wall. I turned the corner and there she was! After weeks of limited sleep and knowing this was the last day of my epic book event, I may have been a little weepy after my encounter with Sarah. She was so gracious and beautiful! I had brought two books for her to sign, my copy of Heir of Fire and my friend Samantha's copy of A Court of Thorns and Roses. Samantha is a SUPER fan and a part of my book club at the library.

The beautiful Sarah J. Maas (Throne of Glass)

Sarah's reply to my tweet!

After walking away from the Bloomsbury booth in a daze, I got pulled into a booth signing and then ran into my BookCon App Twiin, Emily!

I met up with Mom at the line for Throne of Glass swag. MacMillan was doing a YA trivia contest on the other side of the curtain where we waited. It was tempting to shout the answers through the material!

Since I had missed Adi Alsaid's in-booth signing the previous two days, I headed over to the Harlequin Teen booth. The line had already begun an hour ahead and I happily joined. Mom held my spot while I raced over to Simon & Schuster to get the Shadowhunter swag. While in line, I was photographed by UpFrontNY.

After Adi signed my copy of Let's Get Lost, one of his people gave me an ARC of his new book: Never Always Sometimes! This book kept eluding me the two days before.

On the way down to the Fierce is my Middle Name panel, I got stopped by the Galactic Hot Dog guys. This is my 5 year old son's favorite book that I brought back for him!

The line for the Fierce panel had already begun and I rested my legs by sitting on my collapsible fishing stool that I'd been dragging around. Mom was smart enough to add a travel pillow and I was fit to be queen ;)

While in the panel line, I ate lunch and checked my Twitter feed. Turns out that the line for Sarah J. Maas' poster signing at Litographs had already begun 2 hours in advance. I grudgingly accepted that I would miss this event since I really wanted to see Rae Carson, Charlaine Harris and Sarah J. Maas in panel. About a half hour later, one of my friends texted that she had an extra ticket for the poster signing and asked if I was interested. YOU BET I WAS! T.J. is a co-founder of WeSoNerdy and we met at the Twilight Forever event in NYC at The Hard Rock Cafe in November 2013.

Here are my notes from the amazingly Fierce panel:

Rae Carson (Walk on Earth a Stranger), Charlaine Harris (Day Shift) and

Sarah J. Maas (A Court of Thorns and Roses)

"Why do you chose to write fierce female characters?"

~Sarah: she was a girly girl and a tomboy. She pretended to be Indiana Jones and Han Solo. She saw Buffy (the Vampire Slayer film) and wanted to be her.

~Charlaine: when she was young, Cosmo (and other girls' magazines) had articles about how to keep your date entertained and to never argue with your date. Her mom told her that women are stronger then men but our culture wanted outwardly weak females. That conflict was a constant struggle.

~Rae: while she was dating "Jerkface" he would ask "are you sure you want to eat that? You might gain weight..." ***GASP*** needless to say he was kicked to the curb ***cheers*** She wanted to write about a girl who wasn't society's perfection but still saved the world.

"Are your characters good role models?"

~Charlaine: everyone should be Sookie

~Rae: when a guy is awful, kick him to the curb

~Sarah: my characters are loyal to a fault. Feyre is self sacrificing for family but also learns self love

"Sometimes characters make bad decisions, are flawed; how did you choose?"

~Charlaine: personal life experiences

~Sarah: Scarlett O'Hara (Gone with the Wind) was an inspiration. Decision making is important. Too many goody-two-shoes out there.

~Rae: had terrible self-esteem when younger but grew out of it with help from friends. It was very challenging to write the first 1/3 of her novel. Lee loses trust in the world and works to gain it back.

"What do you think about love stories?"

~Sarah: LOVE adult romance! The smuttier the better ;) Fun to write about characters "banging"

~Charlaine: enjoys writing about the search for love. She has been married for 36 years! Never settle!

~Rae: LOVE romance! She especially enjoys the slow build that Grace Burrowes writes.

~Sarah: married her first boyfriend who she met on the first day of college and has been married for 5 years.

"Do you have a target age group for your audience?"

~Charlaine: no, I write for myself!

~Sarah: wrote fanfic for a Sailor Moon/Harry Potter crossover. High school sucked and writing was an escape. I write for me!

~Rae: I write for myself.

Charlaine was asked about her characters being all shapes and sizes. She said that it was important to show all people.

Sarah was asked about Feyre and Aelin meeting. She thought that they would be like two cats meeting and would end as allies since they are both survivors and respectful of each other. Women should support women.

Rae was asked about any commonality between her first trilogy (The Girl of Fire and Thorns) and her new series (Walk on Earth a Stranger). They started as short stories.

Charlaine was asked about writing the supernatural. They are entertaining! The next two novels are mysteries.

Sarah was asked about her mega-verse. Parallel worlds, maybe the wryd gates allow travel between ACOTAR and ToG. Each series occurs at around the same time. ACOTAR occurs a couple months later. She spoke about coming back from darkness to get your happily ever after. Now what? Inspired by Hades and Persephone mythology and will be longer. She has secret Pinterest boards to help.

Rae was asked if she would write more in The Girl of Fire and Thorns world. Maybe but it would not follow Elisa and might be just for herself.

"How do you confront the fact that fantasy has been done?"

~Charlaine: I got there first!

~Rae: does not read YA while drafting

~Sarah: writing itself is very different than reading. She has very supportive friends and this is not a competition!

This panel was very empowering. At one point I was so moved that I teared up. After a few audience members asked a couple questions, I quietly and respectfully exited to run upstairs to the poster signing. I met a bunch more people from the BookCon App including Anna of Unquenchable Reads and Sydney in the line at Litographs. The line went quickly once we started and I was over the moon about the poster!

This was the end of my scheduled day and so I met up with Mom and unloaded my haul to her. She had attended the panel for Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer and was done for the day. Luckily she headed back to the apartment before the sky opened up and we all received flash flood warnings on our cell phones. T.J. and I wandered around the showfloor and hit a couple booths that we missed earlier in the event. One must for me was the Scholastic booth where I took this pic:

truth

While we were there, the lovely staff handed us the Brian Selnick's ARC of The Marvels. It is HUGE and gloriously illustrated. They let us know that he was signing soon so we headed down to Queue Hall. While in that line I ran into Melissa from the BookCon App.

Once I got in front of Brian my brain kinda went everywhere... Judy Bloom was signing to my left:

David Levithan was signing to my right, and Nick Bruel had drawn Bad Kitty on the autographing table:

T.J. and I took one more round of the showfloor as they ripped up the carpet in hopes that I would find The Golden Compass graphic novel at Penguin (unsuccessfully) or any other treasure. I was sad to have the best book event of my life come to an end but after three days, my body was done.

swag haul

Kid haul

Book haul, the left stack is autographed

My complete haul, the left stack is autographed

The kids' complete haul

This beast was at least 65 pounds. I wrapped the books in the totes to prevent damage as they shift around.

Good bye BookCon! I hope that I'll get the chance to attend in Chicago next May!

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Day 1 of BookCon 2015

2 weeks ago, I attended the second annual BookCon event at the Javits' Convention Center in NYC. Last year I attended alone and was very jealous of the young fans who were helped out by their parents. So I invited my mother to attend and we had an amazing time! Thanks to my VERY productive day at BEA, I had breathing room in my Saturday schedule at BookCon. Here is my Day 1 experience:

After standing in the chutes of Queue Hall (1C) for the showfloor and running into Carolyn from the BookCon App, I headed straight for Penguin to get in line for Charlaine Harris.

Charlaine Harris (Day Shift)

Craig Burke (@BookHopper) of Penguin tweeted when I picked up J.R. Ward's The Bourbon Kings ARC

I Love the Cat in the Hat!

BookCon partnered with WORD Bookstore this year. Many publishers required the purchase of a book in order to get into an autographing line. I stood in line to buy 3 books for over an hour and a half. My mother got into line for Gayle Forman and held our spots while I bought our books. The staff handling the lines never checked for receipts and I was not given one when I paid with cash. It was all on the Honor system.


Me, Gayle Forman (Just One Day, If I Stay) and my mom

As soon as we were done with Gayle's signing, we noticed a very busy line. I ran into Donna (who I stood in line with at Charlaine Harris) who let me know that it was for Marissa Meyer and Leigh Bardugo (2 hours before their signing).

almost 3 hours of waiting for Marissa Meyer (Cinder)! Totally worth it!

After that signing, I went straight to Hall 1A to get in line for the Truth or Dare panel with Marissa Meyer and Leigh Bardugo. It was HILARIOUS and so much fun!

Marissa was dared to act like Thorne for 1 minute

Marissa was asked: "What do you want fans to take away from your books?"
~that romance exists, book boyfriends are the best, strong female characters to embolden the reader

Leigh was asked: "What do you love most about Marissa's books?"
~book boyfriends, the best men who treat a woman right!

Leigh was asked about "writing good or evil characters."
~write characters that surprise the reader, wanted a dictator that you could follow, characters that are left up to the reader to decide if they are good or bad, keep the reader guessing and the moral compass spinning

Marissa was asked about "favorite Lunar book."
~best: Winter- so hard to write, love/hate; most fun: Cress! Thorne cracks her up

Leigh was asked: "Do you miss the Grisha Trilogy?"
~no, they are still with me, Six of Crows is in the same world, set 2 years later

Marissa was asked about "her next project."
~Titled Heartless, it is a prequel to Alice in Wonderland. The Queen of Hearts loves to bake. She is pushed into marriage with the King of Hearts but had fallen in love with the Joker. The Mad Hatter and Cheshire Cat are present in her book.

Leigh was asked: "if any Grisha Trilogy characters pop up in Six of Crows?"
~there are a few goodies, cameos, we will hear about those characters. Six of Crows will have a sequel.

Marissa was asked about "her most embarrassing moment."
~she doesn't embarrass easily

Leigh was dared to free-style rap one of her characters. Here is the Darkling:

Marissa was asked: "What do you love most about Leigh's books?"
~they have been friends for years and she feels like a creepy stalker, Nikolai, world building, mythology, history, bold female leads that are still flawed

Leigh was asked: "How are the characters different between the Grisha Trilogy and Six of Crows?"
~in 6, these are kids looking to survive, not the chosen one. 6 shows a different side to Grisha abilities

Marissa was asked to create a character, Angelina Bronx, on the spot.
~beautiful and she knows it, back stabber, and she has a invisible pet dragon named "JoJo"

Leigh was asked: "Do you read reviews?"
~when Shadow and Bone was published, she read them all then cried in her closet. There would be glowing reviews that included "but..." and could only see the "but..."

Marissa was asked if she consciously included diverstity.
~the issue is more for-front now, but not during her writing process. She had diverse friends and is was natural to include them. She loved anime and had a black friend who she attended ComicCon with and she had no one to cosplay as

Leigh was asked: "Do adult YA readers deserve criticism?"
~shaming is wrong, if we didn't shame boys to not like girl things, how much better would the men of world be?

Marissa was dared by Leigh to sing the Lunar Anthem

(which she made up on the spot ;)

Leigh was asked: "Who was the most annoying character to write?" while Marissa stood on one foot.

~Zoya, love her but she's a pain in the butt

Marissa was asked if she had any crushes on her male leads?

~every. single. one. of. them. by the end of a book, she is a swooning mess

Leigh was asked: "What do you want readers to take away from your books?"

~Leigh recalled a fan encounter where the fan said that Alina made her feel brave about how she looked; find escape

Marissa was asked: "Do you like to write good or evil characters?"

~drawn to good, but enjoyed writing Levana's story

Leigh was dared by Marissa to sing a song with a Russian accent

Marissa was asked: "Do you ever read fanfic?"
~when she found out that Lunar fanfic had been written, she ran around her house screaming! Life had come full circle. She did read 1 story from Kai's perspective and never again after. It started to shift her thoughts. She does check to see how many have been written though.

Leigh asked Marissa a truth: "first kiss?"
M~ 18 and it was horrible

Marissa asked Leigh a truth: "premise for worst/cheesiest story?"
L~twin assassins with golden eyes, the boy was named: Blood

Leigh confided that Toyla was inspired by The Rock (Dwayne Johnson)

Marissa dared the audience to never be swayed from loving what you love.

Leigh Bardugo (The Grisha Trilogy)

Leigh replied to my tweet and I had the most RTs on my dress from her fans

Marissa Meyer (The Lunar Chronicals)

Karla tweeted about my dress at BEA and Marissa replied!

My swag haul and a few kids' books

My book haul for Day 1

Thank you for reading!

Thursday, June 4, 2015

BEA 2015 Recap

It has been one week since I traveled to NYC for BEA 2015 held at the Javits Convention Center. I had the most amazing time! It was my first BEA and no other book event can compare! I met the most amazing people in line, publishers at booths and authors at their events. BEA will be held next May in Chicago. I desperately hope that I get the chance to attend.

Here is my BEA 2015 recap in pictures: