BEA Wrap Up: Part 1 - Monday

I'm still trying to remember everyone I met and everything I saw that looked awesome - it's pretty hard. BEA is my favorite book moments of the year. I look forward to it each yet. I love meeting people who love books as much as I do! 

Monday I went to the Book Blogger Con for the first time. It was interesting and I loved meeting so many bloggers!

I got eat breakfast with Jenny Han (I really need to her books! I keep hearing awesome things about them and they're perfect for summer.), Tricia Rayburn (who has an awesome sounding middle grade novel coming out under T.R. Burns and I loved her Maggie Bean books), and Sonja Manzano (who plays Maria on Sesame Street and has a YA book coming out with a GREAT cover story.)

I adored Jennifer Weiner! As the keynote speaker, she made great points about the lack of respect for women's fiction and those who blog about women's fiction. She was really sweet and very funny.

During Lunch, I got to chat with Julie Kagawa (who is so super nice), Jordan Matter (who's book of photographing dancers looks amazing) and Heather Ross (who makes her own fabrics and has a craft book coming out. She also has a picture book out in the fall).

One of the dancers from Jordan Matter

After panels on Blogging Today, Critical Reviews, and Demystifying the Book Blogger & Publisher Relationship where I jotted down notes for future reference, Jenny Lawson from the Bloggess ended the day. She was amusing and very honest. 

After the day, I went to a dinner party for Soho Teen, in the cutest restaurant.

We talked about books, authors, and book cover over food. Soho is just starting a teen imprint. Keep your eyes out for great books coming soon!

Countdown to Book Expo America 2012

I can't believe BEA is less than a month away.

I couldn't be more excited to be with my people (all those who love books) again!

This year I'll be attending Book Blogger Con for the first time. I really wanted to go the last two years, but couldn't make it. What should I expect???

 I know that it's different this year.

I'm really excited to learning more about blogging and to meet some of the people behind my favorite blogs!


For BEA, I'll be there Tuesday and Wednesday.

In preparation, I'm doing the following:
* checking out the author signings in booth and marking down the ones I want to see. There's so many that I know I'm going to have to narrow them down, but it's going to be hard.
* checking out the author signings in the autographing stations. This is also going to be hard to narrow down.
*Making a list of all the publishers I want to visit and any contacts I have there
*Double checking to make sure I have enough business cards to hand out
* Prepping my two to three sentence plug on why my blog rocks to give to publishers/authors/bloggers/librarians that I meet.
*planning on comfy walking shoes and layers because I'm always hot there, but sometimes cold.
*A suitcase to check
*planning snacks because of the food prices/variety and because I don't want to take time out of the day.  There's so many people to meet!

Anything I'm forgetting?

So looking forward to meeting you there! Who else is going?