BEA 2015!

Hey Everyone!

Today I'm headed to NYC for my 5th BookExpo America. WOO HOO!!! I can't believe it's been 5 years since I've started this blog, time has definitely flown by. I'm not going to put up any posts this week since I won't be around to return comments and generally be social, but I'll be back on Sunday and will have all sorts of fun things to share next week!

Talk to all of you soon:)

- Jenny

BEA 2014 Recap

Hey Everyone!

Some of you might be reading the title of this post and thinking to yourselves "wasn't BEA two weeks ago?" Yes. Yes it was. I'm clearly running a bit behind on my recap post :-) I've been both lazy and busy with work (an interesting combination to be sure), so it wasn't until this weekend that I finally had time to sort through pictures and put this post together. *pats self on back for being on top of things*

Most bloggers who attend BEA do impressively detailed multi-post recaps about their time in NYC, but as mentioned previously, I'm far too lazy for that kind of undertaking, so I'm just going to merge my favorite moments, pictures, and books into one absurdly long ramble. So sorry in advance!

BEA is always something I spend a full year looking forward to, not just for the books, but for the opportunity to spend time with people I don't get to see nearly often enough and the chance to meet entirely new people who love books just as much as I do. BEA just wouldn't be BEA for me though without my amazing mom and mother-in-law who have been so kind as to accompany me the past 4 years. We make a whole week of it, arriving early to do touristy things and staying after to catch a show and hang out with friends, and I couldn't love the two of them more if I tried.

They're going to be less than thrilled with me for posting the below pictures, but I think they look adorable and therefore need to be seen by the entirety of the internet :-) You're welcome, Moms.

(Left: My mother-in-law Cathy; Right: My Pammy)

We arrived on Tuesday morning and just wandered around the city, eating at Chelsea Market and walking the High Line before meeting up with my beloved Danny from Bewitched Bookworms for dinner.

(This picture was actually taken on our last day in NYC, but it's my favorite picture of us. And I swear I brought clothes other than this sweatshirt and the jean jacket you'll see below, but the weather in NYC was much cooler than I'd anticipated, so I had to recycle the only warm clothes I brought!)

Wednesday was the BEA Bloggers Conference which is always fun for me if for no other reason than I get to stuff my face with pastries and hang out with other bloggers. The highlight of the day, however, was attending a brunch hosted by the wonderful people at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. For those of you who don't know, LBYR launched a site called NOVL a while back to bring together readers, authors and book lovers in general, and the brunch consisted of the NOVL team sharing the upcoming titles they're most excited about. This was a truly spectacular way to kick off BEA, and I can't thank everyone who put it together enough for including me.

That same evening I was also lucky enough to attend a party hosted by Epic Reads wherein I completely sucked at trivia and helped lead my team to a rousing loss by coming up with exactly zero answers to the bookish questions we were asked. I'm going to spend a good chunk of time in the months between now and BEA 2015 studying just in case more trivia games are to be played in the future. WATCH OUT EPIC READS, I WILL DAZZLE YOU NEXT YEAR!

The first official day of BEA started out on a high note with a breakfast hosted by the hugely generous group at HarlequinTEEN, and those of us in attendance had the distinct pleasure of chatting with their various authors, editors and publicists, all of whom were incredibly sweet and so very enthusiastic about their books.

After a full day of standing in line after line of awesome and getting to meet a variety of fantastic authors, bloggers, librarians and other bookish people, I got to spend cocktail hour with the team behind MacKids. A huge thank you to them for letting me be a part of their event!

(Left: Danny, Lauren and me; Right: Danny, the wonderful Ksenia and me)

Thursday wrapped up with the YA Author/Blogger Party hosted by Liza Wiemer of WhoRuBlog (with the help of Andye and Hannah!), a truly spectacular evening full of books, food and fun, and I was honored to have the opportunity to attend with my BEA partners in crime, Danny and Mary.

(Top left and right: The view from the party's outdoor space; Bottom from left to right: Me and the adorable Faye from Little, Brown; Danny, Josie Angelini and me; Danny, me and Mary)

Friday was yet another whirlwind day that seemed to be over in the blink of an eye, and then suddenly it was Saturday and my BEA was nearly over. Saturday started out with an amazing breakfast hosted by the team at Bloomsbury, and their crazy delicious donuts gave me the energy (or sugar rush, whichever) needed to tackle the masses in attendance thanks to BookCon (BEA opens its doors to the public via BookCon on the very last day). Before I say a few words about BookCon however, I just want to say again my sincerest thanks to everyone at Bloomsbury and all the other publishers who hosted events and were nice enough to include me.

Now, to BookCon. I'm probably in the minority with my thoughts on BookCon, but I walked away from the last day feeling hugely encouraged by what I saw. While there is certainly room for improvement moving forward (as there always is with anything), what just blew me away about BookCon was the sheer number of people. People who were excited about books. And authors. And book publishing. I may not have loved wandering through a massive crowd wedged into a too-small space, but it made me indescribably happy to see so many people, young and old, show up to meet their favorite authors and proudly flaunt their love for books.

Before I wrap this up with my top 5 books, I do need to mention a little something special about BEA that always brings a smile to my face. What's this grin-inducing something special you ask? The Ellora's Cave booth my friends, the Ellora's Cave booth. You see, they don't just have books at their booth, oh no, they bring their cover models as well. Their muscle-bound, tank top-wearing cover models, and Mary and I never miss an opportunity to get our pictures taken with them. Last year there were only two models available, but this year we snagged three. SUCCESS! I think next year we need to try for four :-)

MY TOP 5 BEA BOOKS:

I got some truly oustanding books this year, but these five are the ones that were immediately moved to the top of my to-be-read pile!

The Beautiful Ashes by Jeaniene Frost
Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper
Exquisite Captive by Heather Demetrios
Talon by Julie Kagawa
Compulsion by Martina Boone

A few last pictures before I go!

 (Me with Lauren and Pam, two people I've missed at prior BEAs but finally got to meet this year!)

Both a personal and professional highlight, as well as a completely surreal moment, for me was meeting author Kelsey Macke. Some of you may remember me posting about a cover design contest hosted by Spencer Hill Press back in October of last year for Damsel Distressed, a contemporary YA releasing this coming October. I was completely floored when my design won that contest, and seeing it in printed form for the first time with people carrying it around BEA was beyond anything I could have imagined. Kelsey is the cutest thing in the world, and I'm so grateful to her and the team at SHP for giving me the chance to make a dream career become a reality!

(The shot at right was the moment I walked up to Kelsey's table. If my mom had taken a shot of my face, it would have held the exact same expression:-)

(My biggest supporters!)

BookExpo America 2014: Here I Come!

It's BEA time again, so I'm on my way to New York City at a completely absurd hour of the morning to surround myself with thousands of books and book-loving people. I could do without the ridiculously early flight, but other than that I couldn't be more excited! Since I'll be perfecting the art of standing in line this entire week, things on the blog are going to be a bit quiet, but I'll be back on Sunday and will have a full recap sometime next week.

I'm pretty miserable at taking pictures at BEA, but I'm going to make a concentrated effort to be better at it this year and will hopefully capture some of the fun moments on film (so to speak) to share with you guys. If I fail as I have pretty much every year prior to this, I'll just borrow photos from other people I've randomly photobombed and post them ;-)

Have a great rest of the week everyone!

BEA Bound!

Hey Everyone!

I just wanted to throw up a quick post today to let you know the blog will be slow for the next several days as I'll be attending BookExpo America in New York City. This will be my third year going and, as always, I'll have my mother and mother-in-law in tow so it will inevitably be yet another family adventure. Win.

I fail at taking pictures mostly because the only camera I own is a large one with multiple lenses, and I lack the motivation to lug it through NYC and BEA on top of carrying books, so usually I just sort of throw myself into pictures with other people and then randomly ask if they'll email me a copy. Well done me. I do plan on doing a recap when I return though, so I guess you'll all find out how successful I was at photo bombing people ;-)

To give you a little laugh, I thought I would leave you with my favorite picture from last year: Me (left) and Melissa from I Swim For Oceans with a pirate.

Confused? Believe me, I was too. I don't know how we ended up with this pirate. One minute we were sitting on the ground taking a break from the lines and the next thing I know poof! Insta-pirate. Awesome.

Talk to you all next week!

BEA 2012 Wrap Up + Winners

(Before I start rambling about my BEA experience, I just want to say that I stole all the pictures in this post are from Melissa at I Swim for Oceans because I'm lame and didn't bring a camera.)

This year was my second year attending BookExpo America, and I have to say the the event just seems to keep getting better. Authors, publishers and publicists, and fellow bloggers were there in force and I had an absolute blast meeting as many people as I possibly could. Of course, because I'm me and can be more than a little challenged in large groups of people, the trip was not without its entertaining moments. Let's start from the beginning shall we?

For those of you who read my previous BEA post, you know Melissa flew to Ohio a couple days early before she, my mom, my mother-in-law (also known as the Moms) and I flew to NYC absurdly early on Monday morning. I'm not a morning person. Not even a little.

See this photo?

That's me on the right pretending to be excited by life at 5:30 in the morning at the Columbus airport. That expression fell from my face the minute after Melissa clicked the button and I returned to my sullen, half-asleep, "are books really exciting enough to wake up at 3:30am for?" state of mind.

For those of you who have never traveled with me, I have a secret for you. I'm bad news for anyone that wants to be on time. Without fail, every plane I get on is late. Or catches fire (seriously). Or has mechanical failure. Or the entire flight gets canceled. Our flight to NYC was no different, and we were of course delayed because our crew was "resting". Super. Once everyone was properly rested, we managed to get to New York late but without further incident.

Once there, the days all sort of blurred together in a whirlwind of awesomeness. There were books. There were fantastic people. And there was exhaustion. When I get exhausted, I get slaphappy, and then things like this happen:

I have no excuse for this picture. This was taken at the Teen Author Carnival event Tuesday night, and all I can say is I was tired, it was late at night, and I was hungry. If you look in the hand not holding the Penguin water bottle, you'll notice I have a vise-like grip on a yellow wrapper. That would be a bag of peanut M&Ms (win!), which, along with the water, was absolutely keeping me from certain death at that point in the evening. I hadn't eaten much that day which might explain why I'm licking the water bottle. Or not. Whichever. Melissa, of course, was kind enough to document my slow dissent into death. Bless her.

One of the primary activities at BEA is standing in lines. Lots of lines. And then more lines. This might not sound like fun, but for me it's a blast as I'm surrounded by fellow book-lovers and often stumble upon bloggers whose blogs I follow or whom I've spoken to on Twitter, and that makes it all worthwhile. While waiting in one of many lines this year I was introduced to a hilariously horrifying cartoon called Salad Fingers, and sat with Melissa watching in rapt fascination and terror as she played episode after episode on her phone. If you haven't seen this cartoon, watch it immediately. I've been scarred for life and I want everyone else to be scarred along with me ;-) Seriously, his soft, lilting voice will haunt my dreams for years to come, as will his need to caress rusty kettles. Melissa and I may or may not have adopted British accents and whispered the creepiest of his lines to one another in the middle of the night just to freak the other out. Whuh.

Also, there was a pirate at the event this year. One who refused to leave Melissa and I alone to wallow in our pain (my feet still hate me) on the floor of the Javits Center while waiting for the Moms to get their books signed. He called her Melissa of the Helmers and me Jenny of the Zemanek and asked many a passerby what brew they were drinking. He went on to tell Melissa her hair was the color of the sun. I got no such compliment. Where was my "you have hair the color of tree bark", that's what I'd like to know. Apparently the pirate was fonder of Melissa than me. *cries* We took a picture with him but it hasn't been emailed to us yet, as soon as it's in my hands I'll update this post ;-)

In all honesty though, BEA is an unforgettable experience, and one I look forward to repeating again and again despite my body's protests at the moment. To all the wonderful people I met, thank you for making BEA 2012 the best one yet!

Oh, and don't even ask about my flight home. Yes, it was delayed. And it's possible I cried like a little girl when we sat on the runway for 2 hours. Travel + Jenny = MADE OF WIN.

Top: Me, Melissa, Author Dan Cohen, and Danny from Bewitched Bookworms. Lower left: New York City from the the top of the Standard Hotel. Lower right: The Empire State Building at night from our hotel room.

Lastly, I hosted a few giveaways prior to leaving for BEA and have finally drawn winners! Thank you to everyone who entered and to Jennifer Estep and the people at Penguin for providing such generous giveaways! Winners have been emailed.

DARK FROST + KISS OF FROST

Winner: Melissa

PENGUIN GOODIE BAG:

Winner: Cheryl