BEA Confidential: Days One and Two

on June 06, 2012

As some of you know, I'm attending BEA (Book Expo America) here in New York City for the first time this year. So far, this event is both exciting and exhausting. I'm trying to pace myself, like a marathon runner.

On Monday, I attended the Book Blogger Conference. For breakfast and lunch, different authors rotated around the blogger tables. The YA author our table was lucky enough to chat with was Jenny Han, who wrote The Summer I Turned Pretty series.

Picture from Darla @ DForDarla

Jenny is pictured above with her friend (and now co-writer) Siobhan Vivian. Their book, Burn for Burn, comes out in September. Jenny explained how they wrote the book together. They spent about a year plotting, then divided up sections to write. Then they put the drafts up on Google Docs and both of them edited it at the same time. They clearly enjoyed the process -- and remained good friends! I can't wait to read it.

At lunch I got to meet the very charming Julie Kagawa (of the Iron Fey and Immortal Rules series) and hear about her books. I can't even imagine writing two different series at the same time!

And I've also met a whole slew of fun and friendly bloggers, booksellers, teachers and librarians. It's such a pleasure to be surrounded by so many people who love books! I met:

Steph from FakeSteph, Kimberly from On Wings of Books, Kate from Midnight Book Girl, Amber from The Musings of ALMYBNENR, Darla from DForDarlasDefiniteReads, and Christina from A Reader of Fictions. I gave my Melissa Marr mask to an adorable Canadian blogger and forgot to get her card. I hope she wins her scavenger hunt!

Monday evening, I got to have dinner with some incredibly nice editors and publishers and publicists from SoHo Press/Teen. They're very excited about their new YA line, which will debut in the fall. We had a fantastically fun evening talking everything from YA love triangles and cover art to study abroad and the marimba. Thanks again, guys, for hosting such a enjoyable and memorable evening!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of chatting very briefly with some amazing authors: Gretchen McNeil, Aimee Carter, Rachel Vincent, Julie Kagawa, Gabrielle Zevin, Maria V. Snyder (who signed a book for my BFF Shanan @TheBookAddictNet. Shanan LOVES her books and introduced me to the Poison Study series.)

Today is going to be a blockbuster day. The Children's Author breakfast is in the morning, and there will be lots of signings throughout the day.

Here on the blog, his afternoon kicks off the Debut Author Challenge Hop. My post will go up around noon! I've assembled a bunch of great 2012 YA debut authors for my winner to choose from!