BEA 2012 Trip Report

This week, I spent Tuesday and Wednesday at BEA (BookExpo America, an annual publishing industry convention in NYC) and have decided that next year, I am going to create a pre-BEA training regimen so that when the convention ends, I won't feel as if I've been pushed through a colander.  It will involve tote-bag-carrying exercises, an endurance test in which I stand for as many hours as I can handle, and an obstacle course in which many people swing heavy bags of books at me as I try to walk down a narrow passageway.

Despite the achy feet and shoulders, though, I love BEA.  I think the best thing about it is that everyone in the whole vast enormous conference center has one thing in common: a love for books.

Here are a couple photos that I took:

First, because I know at least someone is wondering, here are the books that I carted home.  (The sideways one with the title you can't see is a wonderful picture book called The Tiptoe Guide to Tracking Mermaids.)

And here is my view from my hotel room.  Notice the itty-bitty moon in the morning-blue sky.  This view was rather magical, and I half expected to see dragons curled on top of all the water towers or chimney sweeps dancing with Mary Poppins...

Here is Tim Gunn.  Not because I met him.  (I didn't.)  But because he's Tim Gunn, and I totally want to install him in my writing room and have him say, "Make it work," at key moments.

Lastly, here are me and Clifford.  Clifford didn't say much, but I had so many great conversations with so many fantastic people that it more than made up for Clifford's silence.

I failed to take any pictures of my signing, but thank you to everyone who came!  I signed lots of copies of Drink, Slay, Love, gave away lots of Vessel bookmarks and postcards, and had a blast!

And to those of you I missed seeing at BEA, so sorry I missed you! 

Can't wait for next year!  After my training regimen, of course.