BEA 2009 Report, part 2

I meet Andrew at Penn station and we hoofed it to the Javits Center. There we met James, Eva, and Gina who then whisked us downstairs to the children's book area. There we threaded our way through the crowds to the green room where we could collect ourselves before the signing. This was the first event we had all been at and I was a little nervous. We weren't sure how many people would show up to our signing, how complex our signing should be, in which order we should sign, and on which page.

When it was finally time to sign, we got up and walked to our spot in the middle of the long signing table. As made our way to our seats, I looked at the authors we were passing. I couldn't believe who was there - Emril, Mary Higgins Clark, Lee Childs, Melissa de la Cruz! I started geeking out and had to restrain by self from trying to trade books with them.


The signing was a little chaotic to begin with, all of us were signing at the same time and switching the books back and forth in a nonsensical way. The whole time the line kept getting longer and longer. After a few minutes we got in our groove, each drawing a head shot of a character. Eva even started drawing some pictures next to her signature. They extended our signing time and we eventually signed a total of 124 books in an hour or so. When it was all over there was only one book left.

We were exhausted but adrenillized at the same time. I noticed the author of "Hunger Games" (my current favorite book) was signing her new book couple spots down from us. I tried to get in line but it was a ticket only signing. I was so disappointed - I was tempted to run back behind the signing table and attempt to get a book from her. That would be in bad taste, so I restrained myself. Still, I was Jonesing badly for a copy of that new book.



James wanted to see an Alice Neal show in Chelsea so we walked down to it (I was carrying my luggage the whole time. The show was great and it was nice to decompress in a beautiful and quiet gallery space after the hectic environment of BEA.

Later, we returned to James sweet hotel and found a nice place to have dinner with our agent Judy. A couple of bottles of wine and some delicious food combined to make an enjoyable and entertaining evening.

It was late when Judy hailed a cab home, and we returned to the hotel and watched the basketball game. After tucking James in, Andrew and I headed back to his place.