My BEA 2013 Experience and a GIVEAWAY!!

This past Friday, May 31st, I went into New York City to attend Book Expo America...my favorite day of the entire year. I seriously love the experience every time I go.

This year, my friend, Kim, and I stayed at a hotel right near the train station in New Haven the night before, so I only had to get up at 4:30 a.m. to get ready (got to sleep for a whole extra hour this year! :D). We took an early train into the city so that we could go to the Children's Author Breakfast (I covered this event for Yalsa's The Hub, so if you want to see a full write up, check it out here).  We got there with enough time to check our roll-y bags, try to get tickets to the Rick Riordan signing later in the day (they were gone by 6:45!!) and to find seats at one of the breakfast tables. This year's awesome speakers included Octavia Spencer, Mary Pope Osborne, Rick Riordan and Veronica Roth.

In addition to hearing them talk about literacy, books, and writing, we each got a Camp Half-Blood t-shirt, a Magic Tree House mug, a paperback copy of Divergent, and a copy of The Case of the Time-Capsule Bandit, the first book in the new Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective series. They also revealed the cover for Rick Riordan's upcoming, The House of Hades, book four in the Heroes of Olympus series while we were there, which was really cool!

After the breakfast began the madness of trying to find the ARCs that I'd really hoped to snag, trying to get books signed by the authors I love and admire, and trying to see my Librarian friends that I knew were there... I literally spent the majority of the day moving from one part of the floor to another like a shark that can't seem to ever stop in one spot for fear of dying... LOL.  In fact, I was moving so much that I never even saw one of my friends, Heather, though I *know* she was there!

Here in brief are some of my experiences during the whirlwind of the day:

*Giraffe stalking - throughout the day I spotted and took pictures of probably about six different instances of adorable giraffes on the floor because...well, I just can't help it. I'm obsessed!

*Getting Alethea Kontis to autograph an ARC of Hero for me. Had to snap her
pic because she was dressed in such a pretty Princess outfit! Sparkles!

*Hanging out with Evie from Bookish! It was so cool to meet her in real life and to hang out at the expo.  We took turns standing in lines together so that we could still sneak off and grab other things...everything was happening at once!...and I wish I'd remembered to snap a picture, but I'm terrible at that. Oh well.

*Getting to talk to both Diana Peterfreund and Shannon Hale (both of whom I adore) informally on the floor!  I literally just stalker bombed them both and started gushing, LOL. Glad they didn't just run from me. I also ended up talking to Suzanne Young, Cat Patrick, David Levithan, Leanna Renee Hieber, and Amy Tintera (So cool! I love getting to speak to authors) out on the floor.  That's not even counting the authors I spoke to while getting books signed!

*Giant lego sculptures.  (This is my friend, Kim, who runs a lego club at her library so we had to take pictures she could show to the kids!)

*Whiskey tasting, champagne and cake at the Abrams booth...need I say more?

*A close encounter with a real scallywag of a pirate! LOL, he was kind of scary,
actually...

*Having a picture book signed and then stamped by the dog that it's about to my little doggie, Noel! So

sweet and Kushka was really adorable in real life.

*Getting to grab eight books that I'm especially looking forward to reading JUST
FOR FUN!!!! (The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider, The Shade of the Moon by Susan Beth Pfeffer, How to Love by Katie Cotugno, Teardrop by Lauren Kate, The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle, Across a Star-Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund [which I'm reading right now...], The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black, and Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas)

*Standing in line with other crazy librarians all trying to get Diary of a Wimpy Kid umbrellas for ourselves summer reading prizes...

As I said, those were just some of the highlights of what I did during my crazy day at BEA this year.

Now...on to the super fun (for you!) part... First, here is a quick video showing the booty I brought home from BEA:

This haul actually managed to fit into one LARGE roll-y suitcase and my little library bag that I carried around the floor with me.  Thankfully this year because I stopped back to my big bag about four times throughout the day, I wasn't nearly as sore the next day as I was last year! I was still tired, but my shoulders and neck and feet were all much, much happier.

Aside from my favorite ARCs and some stuff that I picked up for work, I came out with a few ARCs that are either duplicates of books that I got signed or are ones that I probably won't have time to enjoy.  SO...I thought that I would have a couple of giveaways to let YOU all enjoy my bounty. Giveaway Number 1: 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Winner gets to choose three of these books: Rose Under Fire by Elixabeth Wein, The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider, Left Drowning by Jessica Park,  a chapter sampler of United We Spy by Ally Carter, All the Truth That's in Me by Julie Berry, Wild Cards by Simone Elkeles, Stalked by Death by Kelly Hashway, Skin by Donna Jo Napoli, and an MP3 audio book of Sylvia Day's Entwined with You (adult).  

After the winner of this giveaway has been announced next week, I will have a second giveaway where the winner will get to choose from those titles left after this winner chooses their bounty.

Good luck!!