Bookworms at BEA: Days 1 & 2 – Travel, Random Meetings and BBC

Posted 4 June, 2012 by Pushy in Blog, Bookworms, Danny, Discussion, Discussion, Heather, Kristen, Pushy / 9 Comments

Hello, hello, hello, dear reader!!!!  Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by!  As you know four of us are at BEA this week:  Danny, Pushy, Heather and Kristen, and as we’ve spent the past month sharing our previous experiences at BEA with you, you know we had to share this week with you!!!!

Sunday! Arrival and Evening Awesomness

*Pushy* On Sunday we all arrived.  After some taxi shenangians (and not of the sexy kind) we all arrived at our hotel for the week, got settled and did the happy dance for all being in the same place at the same time!  We were actually just about to settle in for the evening when Kristen saw the following:

*Kristen* Yep, I sat down to check out Twitter and saw that Julie Kagawa tweeted that her and Katie McGarry were at their hotel and would LOOOOOOVE some company. Ok, maybe love is a too strong of a word…but either way I thought it might be fun to fan-girl it up! And they were both so nice! It was such a great start of the week!

*Danny* It was amazing!!!! The evening at the Bar with Julie and Katie were one of the best moments! Especially since I love Julie’s books so much. And I was so fangirly over meeting Katie. First thing I said to her (instead of introducing myself ) was: “Oh I LOVED you book…” yes, that’s me being fangirly…

*Heather* We had a ton of fun. Katie is such a sweet person, and it was great getting to know her. I know I’m definitely going to be in line to get her book! Plus Julie is a great lady too, and it’s always nice to hang out with such wonderful people and have such nice conversations.

First Day of BEA and Book Blogger Conference! 

Then, today was our first day of the conference and it started off with Book Blogger Con.

*Pushy*  This year’s BBC was a bit different from last year’s and I have to admit, I wasn’t thrilled with it.  I did LOVE the keynote speaker, Jennifer Weiner!!  She was funny, honest and just so sweet (in a cussing, snarky way).  I was sad at the change to the speed dating.  Last year we met TONS of fabulous authors.  This year we only met six and it was hard to choose because of the format.  Also the afternoon panels weren’t that great.  I’ll definitely have to see what changes they’re planning to make next year  before I decide if I want to attend again.

*Danny* Jennifer Weiner was fantastic! I love her speech – she was fun and insightful! Truthfully, I also have to admit that I was also not so thrilled about the panels. Inviting the Authors was great and I love the way it was organized. However, we didn’t get to one of the tables where we could meet the authors I was truly interested in.. so that was sad! But. we did sit together with my favorite Bloggers: Jenny (Supernatural Snark), Melissa ( I Swim for Oceans), Allison ( Allison Can Read) and Jen (Book and a Latte). Also, we meet Erica (the Bookcellar) and Kate (Verbvixen) whom I love deeply! Of course me made some new and old friends! That’s what I loved most about bea Blogger con -meeting all my favorite people!

*Heather* I’ve been a big fan of Jennifer Weiner, the author, for years. But after listening to her keynote address today, I’m an even bigger fan of Jennifer Weiner the blogger and the person! She’s brutally honest, snarktastic, and just awesome–and I love that. This was my first Blogger Con, and I wasn’t very impressed by the panels–while some of the speakers were very knowledgeable, others didn’t seem well prepared or suitable to speak on the topic they were brought in for. Mostly, I’m just used to the highly structured and organized conferences of scientific conferences were the time frames and agendas are strictly followed, so I guess I expected more out of this conference.

*Kristen* I actually was the black sheep of the group and didn’t sign up for the blog con.  I thought I could go do some other stuff, plus save a bit of money so I could stay through Thursday. So, everyone got ready to leave and I stayed at the hotel to catch up on family stuff. The did some touristy stuff like the Museum of Modern Art and then headed to the Javit Center for a couple of afternoon general sessions.  I learned a LOT at the SEO workshop and got SUPER excited at the Pinterest session where I’m hoping to do a few fun things with over here at the Bookworms.

*Pushy* After BBC, we headed back to our hotel and got ready for a night of networking!  Danny and I were off to Scholastic while Heather (our resident Indie Maven) and Kristen were off to Consortium’s BEA Blogger Party.

*Danny* This is Teen was fanfreaking amazing!!!! The authors who were there were amazing! They acted out scenes from their books and it was so hilarious! I couldn’t get enough. It was around 2 hrs and I was laughing my a** of the whole time. Specially Maggi was so super cute and I totally was amazed by the epic awesomeness that is James Dashner and Jeff Hirsch! I was so happy to be able to go there!

Authors: Maggie Stiefvater, Sharon Cameron, Donna Cooner, James Dashner, Jeff Hirsch, Kate Messner, Eliot Schrefer, Raina Teglemaier.

They were all so super exciting, but I seriously have a crush James Hirsch and James Dashner!

*Heather* Consortium’s BEA Blogger Party was fun–good wine, great food, good company, and a lovely swag bag complete with copies of The Silenced Majority by Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan and Planes, Trains, and Auto-Rickshaws by Laura Pedersen.

*Kristen* It was fun to hang out with Heather and do some chit-chatting (and wine drinking) and talk about our blog.  Then we finished off the day with a LOVELY Italian meal followed by a brisk walk in the cold because my navigation skills SUCK! (SORRY HEATHER!!!) (Heather’s edit – The navigation skills I inherited from my truck driving father told me we were going to wrong way, but she didn’t believe me 😉 )

*Pushy* So, now we’re back at our room in our hotel, already in our jams and planning out our plan of attack for tomorrow.  We’re definitely looking forward to a fun (if exhausting) day.

But before we leave you we wanted to announce the winner for the final BEA2U give-away!!!

Elena

will get one of the three books she asked for:
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater,
Prodigy by Marie Lu
or The Spindlers by Lauren Oliver!

Wish us luck!!!!!

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Lover of words and authors; absolute fan girl of books! Give me a good story, with characters I can love (and hate) and I'll follow you anywhere. Sing me a song of worlds I can dream of, and I'll listen forever.

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9 Responses to “Bookworms at BEA: Days 1 & 2 – Travel, Random Meetings and BBC”

  1. I HOPE YOU GUYS ARE HAVING FUN! And congratulations to Elena too! I think I need to read something by Jennifer Weiner soon — I love it when you meet authors and it makes you love them more. It’s a totally golden feeling! x)

    Anyways, have a blast everywhere else at BEA! We’ll all be so happy when you return! <3
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