BEA Day One!

Today was the first day of bea 2013 and what a day it was. My feet are sore, my shoulders ache and I can't wait to do it all over again tomorrow.

Got to the Javits Center around 8.45 and joined the massive queue. By the time the doors opened, I'd already gotten two tote bags (tote bags are big at bea: by the end of the day I'd have eight.) Not really having anything I desperately wanted to do today, I decided to just wander around.

I managed to talk to a lot of great companies, big and small and pick up a lot of really good-looking books. I also managed to sneak in a few "I'd really like to work for you here's my card"-s  which hopefully weren't too annoying. I think they were fine. ;)

Met up with Natalie (Books Are the New Black) again for lunch which was lovely. Didn't really run into any other friends from the Blogger's Conference but I know they were there. And I'm sure they had just as dead of arms as I had.

After going home to drop off my books, have dinner and walk my friends' dog, I went back into the city to catch We Are Young: Tumblr Does YA at Housing Works. It was really fun! I managed to make some new friends in the crowd (a really nice girl named Rebecca(?) and two other Mollys with whom I have decided to form a band) and finally meet Rainbow Rowell, who I've been Twitter friends with for a year or so now. The other two authors I had not heard of before but I'm definitely going to check out their stuff because they both gave great talks. Ruthie Baron was absolutely adorable and talked about falling in love with Logan Echolls and Eliot Schrefer was super fun and interesting. It was a great night.

Going early tomorrow as Bill Bryson (my hero!) is signing at 9.30 and want to make sure I catch him. So I'm going to bed so I can get up tomorrow.

Here are the books I grabbed today that I'm really excited about:

Fashion in the Time of Jane Austen and Mr. Darcy's Guide to Courtship from Shire Books
Burial Rites from Little, Brown and Company
My Life in Middlemarch from Crown Publishing
Palmerino from Bellevue Literary Press
It's Not Love, It's Just Paris from Grove Atlantic
Watch How We Walk from ECW Press
Betwixt and Between from IG Publishing
The Returned from Harlequin
My Notorious Life from Scribner