BEA 2015 - Day 1 (Wednesday, May 27th)

I've been back from BEA 2105 a little over a week now, and I'm finally getting around to writing a recap post. Things have been crazy with the last week of school and catching up on everything I missed... namely housecleaning and laundry!

Once again, I had a great few days in New York with my roomie Kathy (aka Bermudaonion). We had so much fun discovering books, walking around the city, and just visiting with each other. This is our sixth year (I think!) rooming together, and it's always a wonderful time. I am truly blessed to have met such a wonderful friend through the world of books and blogging!

I always take the train from Harrisburg to New York, and I absolutely love my peaceful train ride. This year was no different... except that my husband joined me for the first leg of the trip. He is working on a contract with Amtrak in Philadelphia, so we rode together for the first leg of the trip. After he departed, I pulled out my book which just happened to be Sarah Pekkanen's latest THINGS YOU WON'T SAY. Needless to say, I wasn't able to finish it in just an hour and a half, but it was really good; and I knew I'd finish it on the way home.

I arrived at Penn Station and wasn't sure if I wanted to catch a cab, Uber, or walk. Kathy and I decided to move away from our normal hotel in Times Square and stay at the Marriott Eastside on Lexington. While it was about a mile and a half from the train station (and a half mile farther than last year's hotel), I decided to walk. The weather was mild and Kathy said she's meet me part-way so that sealed the deal.

Fortunately, Kathy and I were able to check into our hotel early and unpack before heading out to the Javits Center. BEA actually did something a little different this year -- it started at 1:00 on Wednesday. Kathy and I took the shuttle from our hotel, got our press passes, grabbed a bite, and then headed onto the show floor. I admit that the show floor doesn't hold quite the same thrill for me anymore, but Wednesday seemed unusually quiet. We had to wonder if the mid-day start was making a difference.

Kathy and I grabbed a few books and talked with some of our publishing contacts, but we really didn't have long at BEA. Harper Collins invited us to their annual Blogger Preview Event and Party. We traveled to the 21st Century Fox Headquarters and what greeted us was amazing! Representatives from each of the Harper Collins imprints shared with us the books they were most excited about for the Fall. Of course, the fine folks at Harper Collins provided tons of books for us. I plan on covering BEA books in another post, but suffice it to say that there are so many HC books I can't wait to read over the next few months... including Harper Lee's GO SET A WATCHMAN which will be available on July 14th!

At 6:30, we headed to the Fox Sports Lounge for the party. I wish my son could have seen all of the sports photos and memorabilia -- he would have loved it! There was sushi, sliders, and much more as well as some yummy beer and wine. I had to do my best to sample a wide variety of the offerings, right? There was also a pretty impressive list of authors there including Sophie Jaff, author of LOVE IS RED, Stephanie Evanovich, author of BIG GIRL PANTIES and THE SWEET SPOT, and Kimberly McCreight, author of RECONSTRUCTING AMELIA and WHERE THEY FOUND HER -- two really good books! In addition, I was thrilled to meet the author of the upcoming release ORPHAN #8 Kim van Alkemade. We were surprised to discover that we live less than a half hour away from each other. Do I even need to tell you how excited I am to attend her book release party in August and have her visit my book club?

Kimberly McCreight and me at Harper Collins party!

After the party, a few of us, including Jenn from Jenn's Bookshelves and Candace from Beth Fish Reads, went to a restaurant that is an old favorite for Kathy and me  -- John's Pizza. Kathy and I weren't sure that we would have time to visit our "regular lunch spot" so we were both happy that it worked out well for us to have dinner there. I honestly can't get good pizza in Central Pennsylvania, so it's always a treat to get some delicious, thin-crust pizza!

At this point in the evening (around 10:30), Kathy and I both were ready to crash. We decided to walk back to our hotel because we rarely take a cab or the subway, and it took close to a half hour. Lucky for us the rain occurred while we were at the Harper Collins events and we had an uneventful walk "home." When we arrived back at our hotel, I was exhausted and ready to hit the sack. I wanted to get a good night's sleep because Thursday was guaranteed to be another fun day!