BEA Year 2 Roundup Part: 2

This second part of my BEA14 recap is going to be a collection of pictures and notes from the entirety of BEA/BookCon. There was just so much that happened at the expo on a daily basis that if I recapped every moment you'd be sitting here reading for hours and as much fun as I'm sure that would be *laughs* I think the highlights will be enough excitement.

Last year I didn't have any sort of plan going into BEA and this year I really tried to stick to a schedule but we all know that never works out as intended. Which is okay! I found that stressing out over author signing times and being at a specific booth is just one terrible headache after another. So, I just said hell with it and did a few things I had written down and the rest was left up to chance. I have found that the best things have come from wandering around the floor without direction. In my venturing I crossed paths with Lemony Snicket (whom I met last year). YEAH, unbelievably cool, which, I still believe to be the case. Now here's the interesting part...I didn't meet him at his signing or anything officially announced on paper at the event. He was handing out promotional pencils near his publisher's booth. The ironic thing is that no one recognized that the Lemony Snicket was giving away pencils. People were just grabbing them because they were free. Fortunately, I knew that face, and therefore walked up to him and spoke to him about the event. I get that not everyone knows what authors look like but I think for future tips looking up pictures of authors is a must! You never know who you may run into on the expo floor...(another perfect example will be listed below!). Then again, I thoroughly embarrassed myself by going to a Kiera Cass line signing and thought someone at HarperCollins was her...and it was mortifying. Lesson learned: We all make mistakes. Some more often than others. That's humans for you!

Quick rundown of who I met:

(Me, Cora Carmack, and fellow Avon Addict Nancy Scanlon at the HarperCollins party!)

Holly Black (she has the best hair ever!), Becca Fitzpatrick (was very kind to listen to my ramblings), I asked her if she was excited for Black Ice and if it was more difficult than writing the Hush, Hush saga. Her answer was no, because Hush, Hush has a lot of thriller/suspense in it so tackling this new novel wasn't such a dramatic leap. Sarah J. Maas, Julie Kagawa (LOVES dragons, and so do I) - we had this bonding moment over them while she signed Talon for me! I finally met my #1 favorite author Jeaniene Frost!! I made the biggest fool of myself because I did this high pitch voice where I was all like "Oh my god, you're my favorite!". It was not one of my finest moments because then after that—dead silence. I stood there and no more words would leave my mouth except what I said before that. I was fantastically, hilariously, speechless. We stared at each other for a good 2 minutes without saying anything. I awkwardly shuffled away soon after that in a fangirl haze. I told myself I wouldn't go catatonic but that's exactly what happened. Well, hopefully next time I'll make a much better impression. I also met Kiera Cass, please read above for those cringey details. I met Emmi Itaranta, Cora Carmack, Jenny Han, and Loretta Chase. Terribly sweet people! Authors I had the chance to meet again were Jennifer L. Armentrout, Sarah MacLean, and Melissa de la Cruz.

 (B.J. Novak (appearing to be in his own world), and me!)

Celebrities I met include: B.J. Novak (fan of his from The Office!), Jason Segel (I have a great story for him...), and Cary Elwes (I died...I loved him in The Princess Bride, and his guest-role on Psych). I made sure to not be one of those people who gets shuffled along and ends up with a 1 second window to say hi. I spoke with them all, and I think that shocked the heck out of the people in line because no one before me dared. Let's get something straight—if I'm going to meet people I love and will never have the opportunity to meet again, you can very well bet I'm going to make sure it's worth it! :)

 (Me and Cary Elwes *sighs happily*)

(Jason Segel signing - I got a picture with him after all! But that angle though...)

(Side note: How fantastic is his expression in this photo??) 

Here's the story with Jason Segel...remember when I said walking around without a strict agenda can be a good thing? I wasn't kidding. While I was casually on my way to a signing (I still had time to kill) I spotted a familiar face roaming the BEA floor—unnoticed. Jason Segel was walking around unattended. I couldn't really believe it until I walked up to him and asked him if anyone had recognized him so far. His reply was "you're the very first". I took the time to tell him how he gave a great speech earlier at his breakfast, and then maneuvered into asking him for a selfie (in the nicest way possible). He said yes! But of course my phone memory storage decided it was full and wouldn't let me take any more pictures. After three tries he said he had to be somewhere, and I basically got really sad. It was then that he asked if instead I'd settle for a hug, and I was like are you kidding me?!! YESSSSSSSSSSSS. So he hugged me, and I didn't even ask, he offered! It was like the best thing to happen in that moment. Right smack dab in the middle of the BEA floor Jason Segel hugged me and it was absolutely glorious and once the people around us realized who he was—out rolled the cameras. Which, now, I'm wondering if I'll find any shots of myself photobombing in their attempts to snap pics of him. I should google... And there you have it my epic BEA recap.  

& That's my BEA experience in a nutshell, hope you enjoyed!

Be sure to check out my BEA Roundup Part: 1

Want to know what books I picked up at BEA14? Click here!