BEA 2013 -- Day 2 (Thursday, May 30th)

I'm back with another installment of my 2013 trip to BEA. Thursday was actually a very jam-packed day and I'm still tired just thinking about how much Kathy and I "accomplished!" As exhausted as we were by the end of the day, it was definitely worth it!

We woke up fairly early since neither Kathy nor myself sleep very well in hotels. We decided to head out to the Meatpacking District for a delicious breakfast at Pastis. This restaurant is absolutely delightful and when you step inside, you feel as if you are in France... or at least that's how I imagine it to be! Kathy ordered the most heavenly French toast and I opted for scrambled eggs, potatoes, and rye toast. My meal was delicious and I can confidently say that the bread was some of the best I've ever had! I'm still drooling when I think about how tasty the rye bread was.

Then we decided to head to the Javits Center and pick up our badges. We were right on a bus route and thought we could just hop on a bus that would take us to the Javits Center. That's not exactly what happened. We waited at the bus stop... or what we thought was the bus stop; however, the bus driver pointed down the street. We chased the bus only to find that he was making a left hand turn -- not stopping for us. I decided that I wasn't trying again and that a cab was definitely the way to go.

We arrived at Javits (after a wild cab ride), picked up our badges, and hit the show room floor. Despite attending a few BEAs over the past few years, I still love the initial rush of seeing the crowds and all of the books. Having said that, I've discovered that it takes less and less time each year for me to get tired of the hassle! Kathy and I picked up a few ARCs that we were anxious to find and then attended a few meetings with some publicists. We even managed to snag a few autographed copies of books without having to wait in the killer lines! Thank You, Mystery Writers Association!

We decided to leave BEA a little early because we had such an exciting night planned -- basically we wanted to conserve our energy for the parties. We grabbed a Burrito Bowl at Chipotle, which has now become a tradition for us, and then headed to the Simon & Schuster offices for Atria's party. It was called Bloggers, Books, Bites & Brews; and they had quite a few authors in attendance. I was glad to see Sarah Pekkanen and M.J. Rose again, but I was also thrilled to meet Emma McLaughlin, Nicola Krauss, and Amy Hatvany.

We left Atria's party a little early and scrambled across town to the Workman party. It was insanely crowded and I knew I wasn't going to last very long. I was so glad to catch up with some of my Workman and Algonquin friends as well as sample some yummy food. One of my highlights was realizing that I was standing next to Brad Meltzer!

Then we headed down the street to the 2nd Annual Bird Bash at Penguin's offices. Not only was I happy to see my friend (and party coordinator extraordinaire) Lydia Hirt, but I loved catching up with so many of my Penguin contacts. And don't even get me started on how many amazing authors were in attendance. I got to meet (and talk to for quite awhile) Sue Grafton -- she was unbelievably nice and funny! I also talked to Emma Straub, Beatriz Williams, Anton DiSclafani, Meg Wolitzer, Amy Brill, Elizabeth Gilbert, Lindsay Faye, and Suzanne Rindell. For someone who considers authors to rock stars, it was an unbelievable night!

Penguin's Offices

Lydia, Candace, Me, and Kathy

After the party, Kathy and I took the subway back to our hotel and it was a pretty uneventful ride. In fact, I'm happy to say that we had basically no transportation or direction issues the entire day... if you don't count the bus. But honestly, what were we thinking? A bus in New York City?