Book Expo America 2013 - Day One - Post 1.3 and Day 2 - Post 2.1

Now Dunkin Donuts is right around the corner from my house, so I didn’t have far to go. I got home, two hours after I began, and decided to just take a light tote I had in the front seat and the ice teas. The world slanted. I tripped coming up the stairs to the house (there are only four in total). The tip of my rubber soul (Dammit Jim, I’m a paperback reader, not a writer) caught one of the steps and I went to my knees on the porch. Oh nooooo!!! There went my ice teas. However, while they both went over, only one dumped its contents all over the porch. And I was right. It was gone in two minutes. There was a tiny bit left I dumped into the good cup.

I went out to the car to get the rest of the stuff. When I looked at my suitcase, I discovered why it seemed like pulling the luggage was like trying to swim in molasses. I had shred the back two tires rendering the luggage useless and now I have to throw it into the trash. I went upstairs to put on fresh clothes of the non-sweaty variety and when I came back downstairs, the coffee table was covered in ice tea. So, apparently, while the one cup did not spill, it was still, in fact, broken. So, I had that mess to clean up. By this time, I was so tired and frustrated that I just I warmed up left-overs for dinner. Hubby was gone for the weekend off playing in the woods. I hadn’t left the AC on in the bedroom as I figured it would use too much juice when no one was home but Egg and he won’t go in there with the AC on. Not only does he not like the sounds the fans and AC units make, he would like to live in the desert. I swear he’d join the Foreign Legion if he could, only he doesn’t have front claws (not my doing, he was a rescue/foster cat). I took a bath figuring that would calm me, but my body was throbbing so much, I just couldn’t get comfortable. I had no energy to email Terri and tell her the complete and utter crap my day had turned out to be. I couldn’t even update my spreadsheets. I was working off about 5 trying to collate everything. 

To add insult to injury, I had my phone either in my pocket or in my hand all day. I would often look down to see all my apps jiggling with the big, nasty black X box. I know how to deal with that. What I didn’t realize had happened, and I have no idea how it happened, so my apps rearranged themselves and some even put themselves into a folder. For instance, my phone app was now in a folder with my weather app. My HBO to Go app was now in a folder with my contacts app. I had absolutely no idea how to get them separated. And when I tried to go on the computer even for a few minutes, wireless internet was not connecting, so I had to unplug the wireless thing and plug it back in so I could connect.

Terri promised Friday would be better. I swore to myself never again. I just couldn’t go through it again. If Friday was not markedly improved, I was never going back again.

BEA Day 2 2.1

The alarm went off way too early again. I tried to organize some of my events, but it was difficult with Egg yelling at me and trying to sit on the papers. It was hot and humid already. I couldn’t take the heat. I know we are supposed to dress in business casual, but the nylon capri pants I was wearing the day before were unbelievably hot. Plus, with the possibility of blisters as well as spilled ice tea due to the rubber sandals, I decided to wear sneakers. Well, my sneakers look ridiculous with my capri pants, so I decided in the face of this heat wave I would wear shorts. I did try for a nicer top, though.

Since I had blown out the wheels on the suitcase the previous day, I had to bring down the back up suitcase from the attic. This one was sturdier and heavier empty. So, while it was more cumbersome, I was fairly certain the wheels would remain intact. After taking care of Egg for the day, making lunch and packing up my stuff I headed out. This time, though, I left the AC on in the bedroom hoping that the crazy cat would stay in there all day.

The drive was uneventful, traffic better than Thursday, got to the ferry made the crossing and headed to the expo. Lady Luck was smiling on me that day. I felt pretty certain she took pity on me for all the mishaps and trauma from the day before. I got to the baggage check right at the bottom of the escalators and was lucky enough to be the last piece of luggage they could take. And I was earlier than the prior day, so my spot on line was much closer to the front. I had time though to concoct a scheme. I took the daily paper for the show and went through it to see if there were any updates or adverts. That is how I got confirmation of the when and the where of the biggest celebrity to hit BEA 2013. That’s right, Grumpy Cat. I had heard rumor the prior day, but it was confirmed in print.

I got out my schedule and tried to condense all the print outs I brought. I had one spreadsheet that had the autographings including book title, author, publisher and booth or table number, but no time or day and it was alphabetical by title. I had one spreadsheet that had the events in time and date order including the author name and booth or table, but no publisher name or book title. I had a printout of my agenda, but it was not in table format and was many pages long and fairly useless. I had a word document that had listed all the galley drop information I could find including the publisher, author and title. I added the booth number, but there were no dates or times. This is definitely a take way for next year, to clean it all up into one document, which I would have done had I more time to prepare for the show and the printer decided it could print black and white without having the yellow ink cartridge.

So, my time on line was well spent. I had it all fairly well mapped out. I had a signing right at 9 am, but on the way, hit some of the big booths, so I managed to get an ARC of Kami Garcia’s book. From that signing, I went to the tables as I wanted to jump on Alethea Kontis’s line for Hero. I loved Enchanted, which if anyone is a fan of fairy tale type stories, this is a fantastic book, so I was very keen to get a copy of the new book signed. I wasn’t too far back on line as the signing didn’t start until 10am. Alethea had the most sparkly hairdo in the expo, I must say. She was a delight to meet. Still had time, so actually could jump on another line in the same time slot and from there went to another table signing that started at 10:30 which was Susan Dennard. She was signing Something Strange and Deadly, not a galley of the new book coming out later this year. From there I headed to Harlequin for their Teen Hour at 11:30.


My observation here is that the prior day had been all about picking up books for me, other people and as giveaways. I was all over the map with where I was going, didn’t know the layout and where the big publishers were. I also wasn’t mapped out with what booths were giving the galleys out I wanted and where they were on the floor. Since the tables where a nightmare with so many heavy hitters in the same time slots, the name of the game was Book Acquisition. Friday, though, was more planned, controlled. After blowing out the wheels Thursday, I knew I needed to show a heck of a lot more constraint and I wanted to make sure I got the books signed that I really wanted, so the mission was Operation Autograph and I chose to accept it. So while I was on line, I tried not to fret thinking about all the cool things I was surely missing.


At the Harlequin booth I played Around the Booth in 80 days, trying to find the end of the line which was cleverly hidden behind a column. It was fine, though. I wasn’t actually that far, but far enough that I did not get one of the cool Harlequin Teen canvas tote bags they were giving out to the people at the front of the line. It’s okay, though. I have so many tote bags hanging on hooks at the back of my closet that I haven’t seen since I moved into my house over two years ago. My philosophy was to enjoy and appreciate the things I did manage to acquire and not lament the things I could not or be jealous of those who did get them. I was just happy to have what I got. Besides, while standing in line the publisher handed out another book and it just so happened the author was at a booth across the way, so she came over and signed some copies while people waited in line. Now what did I do after that? I didn’t have anything until 2pm. Or so I thought.