Book Expo America - Day Three - Post 3.1

In retrospect, I should have checked the ferry schedule for the weekend before setting out from the house. I didn’t relish driving into the city and trying to find a place to park. I knew the doors would be open by 8am as the author breakfast was at 8am. It was almost 7 by the time I found the schedule and weighed my options. Although, well aware of the fact that it might have cost me an autographed book by Neil, I decided to wait it out for the ferry. I had hoped that decision didn’t haunt me.

I had my Kindle app on my phone, so I read for a while. I got out of the car around 7:30, unpacked the suitcase and headed back over to the ferry terminal. I got my round trip tickets for the last time for this expo, validated my parking for the last time and went down to wait in line for the ferry for the last time. While in line, some other attendees lined up behind me. The girl directly behind was talking about Neil and that she was going to try to go, but she had heard people were already lining up. I cursed myself out. I tortured myself the entire way over and figured I’d better come up with a Plan B, which would have been to get Kate Brian’s Shadowlands signed as I don’t have the first book in the series yet. I decided a plan of action was in order.

So, my plan was to get to the show, check in my luggage immediately and go see how bad the line for Neil was. I was expecting the line to go around the building. Okay, so I exaggerate. If the line wasn’t bad, I would sit my butt down and wait it out. But if the line was really ugly, I was going to go get in line for the show. I walked as quickly as I could to the JJC, checked my luggage and went off in search of the line for Neil Gaiman.

Not surprisingly, I was a bit confused. He was going to be in 1E12 and 1E13, but for some reason, I was thinking 1A12 and 1A13, so I went to the hall where the Book Bloggers convention was. It was eerily silent. No line, no nothing. There appeared to be something going on all the way down towards the end which I believe was the author’s breakfast. I started walking back and ran into a staffer, although not literally. I asked her where Neil Gaiman was and she looked at me like I had three heads. How to explain who he is? Very early on in our conversation, I also realized there was going to be a bit of a language barrier, so I thanked her and went on my way. I almost went up to get in line for the floor show, but I was not quite ready to give up.

I headed down the long hall downstairs, passing by several wings and went through the food court, it was there in a hall with an arrow pointing that indicated 3A – 3D, I found the line for Neil. It wrapped around the wall, but looking at the number of people seated, it did not seem like there were 500 people in line yet. So, I sat down to wait it out. That was one of the most difficult things I had to do. It was fine until 9am, but once the floor opened up, I was thinking of all the shiny new books the publishers put out for the final day and Power Reader Day to boot. I know the best things were going out first thing and I was stuck in line sitting it out as I waited to be ushered into the lecture rooms for Neil. Now, it is a trade-off I would gladly take again and again, but only if he changed up his lecture. I wouldn’t want to hear him repeating the same lecture over and over. Don’t be daft. But anyway, this Shirley was alone on line without Laverne, so I had to tough it out reminding myself Neil was worth it.

This was the line behind me.  The photo above was the line in front of me.