2010 BookExpo America and Book Blogger Convention Part One: What I Did

My god, am I happy I went to New York last week!  There is no possible way for me to write a short and simple blog post to share everything I experienced in New York last week at the 2010 BookExpo America (BEA) and Book Blogger Convention (BBC).  Many of you already know how much I love to write long blog posts, and since no one in our “140 character Twitter world” wants to read long blog posts anymore, I have decided to break apart my one very large BEA and BBC post into several semi-long posts over the next few days, saving us both time and energy.

Part One: What I Did

And did, did I do!  I did so much, experienced so much, saw so much, learned so much, talked so much, walked so much, hurt so much, lost my voice so much, and met so many people (but strangely, I did not eat so much) that I couldn’t even keep my stories in order when giving my husband a near six-hour rundown of my activities over the past two days.  I promise I will make it easier on you!  As he always says, I’m a much better writer than talker.

Tuesday:

After staying awake for 40 hours straight, it was time to “wake-up” (ha!) and leave for the airport at 2:30 am.  Yep, I am an idiot, and I sleep-deprived myself before coming to the event.  I blame LOST rather than my own self.  After a quick hour and a half drive, I got to the airport, flew to Washington, D.C., and then paid an extra $50 to change to an earlier flight to NYC so I could make my first event.

• Penguin Publishing Blogger Tour

I arrived 40 minutes early, after an easy breezy ride from the airport in my town car, so security sent me up to the fourth floor.  I chatted with the receptionist, and never saw a soul, even though she kept calling people like a trooper.  I headed back downstairs and found the 30 or so other bloggers in the buildings lobby, and thankfully our tour guide found us and I got split into a tour led by someone I have been working with for months.  We all had a great time chatting, visiting “take rooms” (yes, we got to just take books that we wanted, and they even offered to ship them home for us) and meeting other staff, including Amy Einhorn herself.  We eventually met up with all of the other bloggers and publicists, and got a catalog from each imprint for their upcoming books.  It was heavenly and I was so glad that I made it there on time.  Everyone was so nice, and it was very cool seeing what a publishing house looked like.  As a girl I dreamed of working at one, so it really was a bit of a dream come true for me.  If only I lived in New York …

• BookExpo America at the Javits Convention Center

And here is where things went sour.  I walked around the open areas of the convention center, in my lovely patent leather heels and began to lose feeling in multiple toes.  I don’t know why I thought it would be a good idea to wear shoes that hurt like hell when I was going to be walking around so much, but, like a fool, I didn’t pack a single pair of comfy shoes in my suitcase.  I did however manage to check out the new titles section, as well as register in the press room.  When a woman sat down right behind me to look over my shoulder the moment I sat down to write a quick blog post, I knew it was going to be brutal in there.  There were a few computers, and I couldn’t believe the behavior of certain members “of the press.”  They made me ashamed to be one myself, which is why I never visited that room again, and you haven’t been able to read an update on the event since.  As I mentioned in my previous BEA post, one old dinasore basically screamed at another female blogger a good ten minutes before a nice man just shut her up by stopping what he was doing to pacify this big old crabby baby.  I was actually traumatized by the whole thing, and apologized to the woman who was screamed at on behalf of the big old lady baby.  I felt so bad for her, because no one deserves to be singled out and ridiculed just because they write their own blog or website.

• Serendipity Restaurant

I’m sure you know of this place is a big fat (and semi-expensive) tourist trap, but since I was a tourist and a fan of the movie Serendipity as well, I decided on my fifth visit to New York it was time to go there.  My blog friend Pam (who hosted me so I could attend the BEA and BBC) picked me up at the convention center, and we headed off for dessert.  I was surprised by my lack of interest in their signature Frozen Hot Chocolate, and was thrilled that Pam had the foresight to also order a Hot Fudge Sundae.  Between us sharing each dessert and my chili, I had one heck of a yummy time.  I enjoyed looking over their mini gift shop, and wished I had a job, so I could buy White Trash Ken for myself.

• Dylan’s Candy Bar

I’m not much of a candy girl, as I mainly specialize in eating chocolate.  Why stray, I say?  But Pam wanted to show it off, and it was a cool place to buy expensive candy and candy-related apparel.  I loved seeing some old-timer candy snacks, such as my beloved candy cigarettes.  Oh, how I miss the non-PC days of the 1980′s …

• Central Park

It was a perfect day for a walk in New York (that is, if you weren’t wearing heels and have arthritis all over your body like me) and since I thought we had time to kill (oh, just wait) Pam and I walked to Central Park to people watch and trade stories.  I loved hearing about her similar yet-different dysfunctional childhood, and she heard all about the time I got to meet Augusten Burroughs, the man whose inspired the one and only tatoo she has on her.  It was a lot of fun getting to know each other in “real life” and before we knew it, we had to walk over to The Plaza Hotel for our next event.

• Indie Book Awards Reception

Just as we were walking in, I spotted the Sex and the City 2 premier that was next to the Plaza.  Red carpet, photographers, crowds.  I knew we’d stop by later, as I had just told Pam “all the times I’ve been in New York, I’ve never once spotted a celebrity.  I’d really like to this trip.”  Well, as we were going up the steps into The Plaza, guess who I saw?  Rachel Dratch from Saturday Night Live.  I am thinking she was headed over to the SATC2 event, but since she was under-dressed, I am not sure.

We were greeted by waiters serving mini burgers, and of course we each grabbed on.  Pam feel in love with hers so much she took it home, as it was so adorable.  I’m more of a document it, then chow it down, as you can see below.  (I look tired as hell in this picture, don’t I?)

We met two of the judges, who were kind enough to let us pose with the medal that the author of the book who we were representing (Savannah Law by William Eleazer) and who shared all sorts of great stories about reading books non-stop for six weeks for the event.  They even asked me if I was interested in being a judge next year, which I was, so, we will see.  But, after a half hour, I asked the question “so, when do we begin.”  Oh, yes, my first major screw-up of the trip.  I had written down that the Indie Book Awards Reception was from 5-7 pm, and the awards were from 7-9 pm.  There was no 7-9 pm, and the four of us laughed and laughed as I couldn’t believe we had missed the first 90 minutes of the event.  This is why it is never a good idea to decide to go to a conference 10 days before it begins, because you have way to much info to memorize and too many details to work out.  Still, we had fun, and met some cool people, so there you go.

Pam and I spent an embarrasing amount of time standing outside of the SATC2 premier, chatting with other people and attempting to spot celebrities.  I nearly missed Courtney Love, and never got a great shot of her, but at least you can see her shoulder in this picture.  We were just having fun posing on the red carpet and in front of empty limos.  Afterwards, we took a brief walk near Times Square, and then drove home to her house in Jersey.  Since she lives over an hour away, we tried to make it an early night, but I still didn’t get to bed until 1:30 am.  Big mistake.

Wednesday:

• Day One of BookExpo America at Javits Convention Center

Wednesday was my scheduled long day, so I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get an early start to the BEA.  However, what we didn’t plan on was the traffic, and it took us around two hours to drive to New York, so I missed out on meeting a few big named authors and books, including (sigh) Justin Cronin.  Of course, this was the one books my husband asked if I got that he’d like.  I know, I suck.  I did get to meet Katheryn Stockett, and plenty of other cool people, ranging from librarians, publicists, authors, bloggers, and other industry insiders.  You’ll hear more about them in another BEA related post.

What I will say here is this: Javits was so jammed packed, so crazy, and even so darn ghetto at times, I was close to kicking someone’s butt or having a major cry.  Thankfully, I didn’t do either (until Thursday night, ugh) but I was so tired and stressed out from the crowds I never once ate or even took a bathroom break while at Javits Wednesday or Thursday.  I couldn’t make it off the main floor.  I told my husband it was like the first time we went to Europe, and it felt like I had visitied all of those 15 cities and all of their museums and churches in afternoon.  I was overloaded, to say the least.  People were pushing and shoving, my feet, back, neck and arms were killing me, and with my bad sunburn, carrying my three giant-sized book bags filled with books and catalogs nearly killed me.  I was happy when it was over and I could ride the shuttle to the hotel room Pam had gotten for us for the night.

• Celebration of Book Bloggers at The Algonquin Hotel

Harper Collins was cool enough to invite their authors, publicists and book bloggers for a great meet and greet Wednesday night.  I only had to walk twelve blocks, but already I was at a disadvantage because I couldn’t wear the beautiful cocktail dress I brought along, due to the shoe challenge I was facing.  I put those heels on and said a loud “oh hell no” and just kept on what I wore to the expo.  However, after six blocks, I couldn’t even make it, so I popped into a shoe store after spotting a pair of leather sandles and semi-yelled for “a size nine and meet me at the register to whoever was listening.”  Thankfully I followed it up with my midwestern smile and an image of a bandaged foot and “please hurry” and was out of there in under five minutes.  Woman understand these sort of situations, because shoe emergencies are no laughing mattter.

I made it to the hotel, and after a few minutes of chatter with the people I already knew from Harper, I slid into the first available seat with my wine and cheese plate.  I had a great time talking to so many people, and this was probably my favorite moment of my entire trip.  (More to come on this later.) I was sad to leave when it was over, but since I was beyond starving, tired, and in severe pain, I was out the door like Cinderella at the stoke of midnight.  Plus, I was trying to meet up with Pam and her daughter for dinner.  When I didn’t reach her at first, I had an emergency cheeseburger at McDonalds, and made it back to the hotel.  Did I mention it was like 100 degrees outside?  I would have went to bed, but I finally got through to Pam, and was still starving, as in three days my food intake was combos, a hot fudge sundae, three crackers, and three pieces of cheese along with that burger.  I needed more food, and fast.  We had a hard time finding the restaurant her daughter wanted to eat at, and ended up getting there just as it was closing.  We eventually found a little place that was tasty, and I had a reuben and fries.  This was also the last meal I’d eat in 24 hours, so thank god I went back out.  We stayed up talking to midnight, and I crashed, as I had to be up early the next morning.

Thursday:

On my way out of the hotel I guess I was still exhausted, because I later learned that I forgot to close the door to our room, leaving a sleeping Pam and her daughter exposed to potential murderers for over an hour before they woke up and saw it wide open.  I am beyond mortified, even still.  I never forget to close a door, let alone a HOTEL room door.  Sorry Pam, I can’t say it enough.

• Day Two of BookExpo America at Javits Convention Center

Today was the less-crowded, better mannerered, more polite day at BEA.  I shipped off my first round of books ($50+, ouch!) and felt a spring in my step, even though my feet were covered in band-aids.  I was happy to be carrying a lighter load.  Then, I stumbled upon the short Wimpy Kid line and knew I was going to be a hero to at least one person in my family.  I met a bunch of more cool authors, etc., and was so happy that I made it to NY for the BEA.  I was also relieved, as the night before I was in a panic, since I lost the bracelet that my husband bought for me when we eloped.  I had looked everywhere for it the night before, and was devestated by the loss.  But I had found it that morning, in a weird spot in my bag, and all was good, until …

• Book Blogger Convention at Javits Convention Center

Again, tired and blistered feet forced me to sit down at the closets table, especially since I was so exhausted that I couldn’t walk any further.  I was having a nice time talking with a variety of industry types at my table, when all of a sudden, when I mentioned my whole family (Me, my mom, and my brother) was laid off, I started crying a tiny bit.  Oh, the horror, especially since I never cry about being laid off.  People at my old job were amazed at how well I carried myself after hearing the news and would tell me so all the time during my last few weeks of work.  I only tell people I am unemployed in the first place because I want them to realize how bad we have it here in Michigan, and it isn’t just auto workers.  I think it was a combination of my pain and my stress from being around aggresive book grabbers mixed in with the relief of finding my bracelet, and of being so tired and overwhelmed all week long.  Thank goodness I got over it fast, and the people at the table seemed to understand.  (Thank you!)  I met even more cool writers and reconnected with ones I had met the day before, once I managed to sneak away from my table.  I was sad to see six o’clock come.  (More to come on that as well.)  I knew Pam was waiting outside, and before I knew it, we were stuck in one heck of a Lincoln Tunnel traffic jam, and we didn’t get to her house until 8:30 pm.  I am so thankful for her husband’s baked ziti after another day of not eating anything but my emergency combos.  After watching The Real Housewives of New York, and chatting endlessly with Pam and her husband, I lost my voice and went to bed at 2:00 am, even though I had to wake up at 5 am.

Friday:

• Book Blogger Convention at Javits Convention Center

The early start was rough, and thank goodness I wasn’t riding the train alone.  I would have fallen asleep or at least missed Penn Station.  We missed the earlier train, and I got there just in time to eat half a corn muffin, look for my complimentary luggage tag that never showed up, and talk to a few people before heading in to the conference room.  The conference began, and my first thought is how freezing cold it was in there.  I was supposed to wear an adorable new sleeveless summer dress, and I thought to myself in the morning, no, it will probably be too cold in there, don’t wear it.  I am so glad that I listened to myself, because my hands and feet were frozen that entire day.  I wasn’t the only one, quite a few people were wearing their t-shirts over their clothes from their swag bags, and once the organizers announced at the end of the day we could take a left-over bag, I darted out to grab one just so I could get a second t-shirt to wrap around my other foot.  Now, I have Neuropathy, and whenever I feel a breeze of cold or warm air, my body goes ultra cold or hot.  My toes had been numb for days, but with the air, I was in the beginning stages of hyperthermia.  Seriously.  I felt like I was in the artic, and I was miserable, even though our opening speaker was hilarious and several panalists were very interesting.  I was losing my voice, and I was just hit.  I held out as long as I could before leaving at 4:30 pm, just a few minutes shy of the very end.  Just as I was leaving, I noticed that a lot of seats were empty, as people snuck out throughout the day, and I was very surprized by this.  Perhaps it was the exhaustion of a long week for all of them, or maybe the cold air as well.  I myself felt that the event should have been before the BEA, not after it.  I hope they will make that switch next year.

Pam and I were supposed to go out to a show, but I had no strength, and I had to get some rest.  We went back to Jersey on the train, and her husband picked us up and took us on a drive-by of the Jersey shore town they used to live in.  I didn’t see Snookie and the gang, but then again, they are probably still filming in Miami.  I had a nice quiet night that involved pizza and Glee, and even though it was low key, it still was fabulous.  I love talking to Pam, we are cut of the same cloth, even though I am much more hyper than she is.

Saturday:

• Airport!

I said my goodbyes, and spent many hours traveling and flying to connecting destinations to get home to Michigan.  I think I made it home around 7:30 pm.  I’ve never been more happier to sleep in my own bed in my entire life.  It’s been two days and I’ve still not recovered, nor have I regained feeling in all of my toes.  I’m just happy that I made it there and learned so much about new books, and met so many interesting new people.  I’m so thankful certain people helped me out so I could attend.  I can’t wait to share more of my stories later this week.  Just wait until you see all my books and swag from there!  I’m still waiting for two more boxes, so stay tuned.

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