Book Expo America 2012 - Day One

Nothing really compares to Book Expo America. It's an exciting, intense, whirlwind and a book lover's dream. A three day long book love fest filled with amazing authors, knowledgeable publishers, and excited bloggers and other industry professionals. I love being around people who love books just as much as I do and this whole event fills me with warm fuzzies for everything about it.

Upon arriving at the Javits Center I immediately freaked out over the amazing Cassandra Clare Shadow Hunter stairs. Each year the stairs get decorated with a book and this year honoured Cassandra's amazing series. While waiting to go into the exhibit hall Harper Collins had a bunch of people in Carnival masks and Carnival of Souls t-shirts to hand out masks advertising Melissa Marr's signing later in the day. I manged to snag a mask on my way in.

I also met up with Kelly from KellyVision in the morning and it was lovely to chat with her in line while waiting. It made it bearable and we ended up meeting up quite a bit during the week.

The mad rush to enter the exhibit hall is exhilarating and frightening at the same time. Forget staying with your friends because you will be separated in the crowd.

I attend the YA Buzz Panel first thing in the morning. The novels discussed were Crewel by Ginnifer Albin, What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang, Skinny by Donna Cooner, Skylark by Megan Spooner, and Colin Fischer by Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz. I left the panel very excited about each of these books and eager to read them. The editors love and admiration of the novels they were discussing was evident and it made you want to read them as well.

I went to autographing sessions for Gretchen McNeil's Ten, Amy Garvey's Glass Heart, Melissa Marr's Carnival of Souls, Tonya Hurley's The Blessed, and Kat Zhang's What's Left of Me. Meeting each of these authors was a highlight, and I am super excited to read all of their novels. 

The novels I picked up on day one are -

Ten by Gretchen McNeil (goodreads)

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (goodreads)

Glass Heart by Amy Garvey (goodreads)

What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang (goodreads)

The Blessed by Tonya Hurley (goodreads)
Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr (goodreads)
The Diviners by Libba Bray (goodreads)
Beautiful Lies by Jessica Warman (goodreads)
The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken (goodreads)
Eve and Adam by Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant (goodreads)
The Prophet by Michael Koryta (goodreads)

Tuesday night also happened to be Teen Author Carnival. I went this year and was so glad I did. It is so much fun. If you attend BEA and love Young Adult novels this is a must attend event.

The two panels I sat in on were

Is This The Real Life? Or Is This Just Fantasy?

The authors on this panel were - Barry Lyga, Tom Pollock, Hannah Mokowitz, Michelle Hodkin, Corrine Jackson, Rebecca Serle, Eliot Schrefer, Crissa-Jean Chappell, Kody Keplinger, Tiffany Schmidt, Fiona Paul and Gretchen McNeil. All the authors were funny, happy to answer questions and it was a fantastic panel. Barry Lyga is less intimidating in person than I was expecting (I Hunt Killers is seriously scary, sue me) and Tom Pollock has a lovely accent that was making all of the audience swoon. Of course, Michelle Hodkin is lovely, so pretty, and awesome (but everyone already knows this). Gretchen McNeil was a fantastic moderator, kept things flowing and was hilarious (she is also so pretty). 

My second panel was 

Where Have You Been All My Life (Let's Talk Boys)

The authors on this panel were - Hannah Mokowitz, Scott Tracey, Michelle Hodkin, Kieran Scott, Jackson Pearce, Crissa-Jean Chappell, Jennifer E Smith, Kody Keplinger, Sarah Tregay, Victoria Schwab and Jen Calonita. Also a fun, interesting panel. I enjoyed Victoria Schwab and found her really sweet. Her Tom Hiddleston crush was shared by a majority of the audience. She had an ARC of The Archived and I may have squealed a little. Michelle Hodkin got a huge round of applause for her answer to the "Marry, Kiss, Kill" question involving the Hunger Games Boys (for those curious Michelle would Marry Peeta, Kiss Finnick and Kill Gale).

In both these panels the highlight was getting insight into how these authors write the novels we love. Many questions were about the writing process, and what they hoped to convey while writing. Unanimously, the authors wanted to provide an experience for the reader, instead of teaching some lesson.

*so this happened! :)

After the panels there was a mass signing. I was able to chat with Michelle Hodkin for a bit about Noah, her teasing us with a bind up of The Evolution of Mara Dyer, and she signed my hardcover. I also got to chat briefly with Jackson Pearce, Fiona Paul, Lauren Morrill, and Aimee Carter (who recognized me from Twitter). All of the authors were incredibly nice. It's pretty mind blowing when an author recognizes you or your blog.

I volunteered to ask an author a question that was selected out of a box of pre-written questions. I was given a box of goodies for doing this. Included in the box were

The City's Son by Tom Pollock (goodreads)
Level 2 by Lenore Applehans (goodreads)
The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter (goodreads)
Fathomless by Jackson Pearce (goodreads)
Narc by Crissa-Jean Chappell (goodreads)
Winter White by Jen Calonita (goodreads)
Iron Witch by Karen Mahoney (goodreads)
The Wood Queen by Karen Mahoney (goodreads)
Witch Eyes by Scott Tracey (goodreads)
Demon Eyes by Scott Tracey (goodreads)

Another highlight of Teen Author Carnival was running into Katherine (from The Lady Critic's Library) and Katie (from Bookishly Yours). Both ladies are awesome Ottawa bloggers whom I love hanging out with and getting to see them in NYC was so fun.

So that was day one of my BEA/NYC experience. Tomorrow's day two post features my reaction to meeting Chris Colfer, getting to meet Bethany Griffin, and line ups from hell!