BEA 2012- Day 1, The Dirt and the Books.

June 5- I am exhausted. My feet are killing me. My eyelids are about to give up on life and shut. My entire body is basically in pain, but it was so worth it. It is every year. [END of that thought]

That little paragraph up there is all I was able to get out of me after that first day at Book Expo America. However, it was aweeeesooomee. I met so many authors, so many new bloggers, and got so many books. The whole experience is amazing, going from one thing to the next, multitasking, being in this autographing section but already thinking of the next.

This was my day in photograph form:

They were having this, promotional thing for Carnival of souls were a bunch of people got together wearing Carnival of Souls t shirts and masks and just, well, stood around, giving me and my friends plenty of time of coming up with a strategy to take one of the girls out and rob her shirt. We got our shirt at the end. No girls were harmed.

Melissa Marr!
She signed my copy of Carnival of Souls, she is pretty great. I can always pin point  who she is in a crowd because of her hair. Big, curly, and RED!

Group photo!! These are most some of my friends.

The top line of girls from left to right:
Nikki @Wicked Awesome Books
Briana@BAM Book Reviews
Tegan's Boss

Bottom line of girls, from left to right:
Lexie @Poisoned Rationality
Emily @ Red House Books
Tegan @Poisoned Rationality
Bri @The Book Pixie
ME! @Bloody Bookaholic

Me with Rachel Vincent, author of the Soul Screamers series which is amaziiing.
She was signing in the Harlequin Teen Hour along with Julie Kagawa, Aimee Carter and Maria V. Snyder

The line was ridiculous! I was the first in line on Tuesday's Harlequin Teen Hour, and I started the line more than an hour early. So imagine! It was crazyy!

Harlequin Teen Hour line...

Harlequin Teen Hour line...

Maria V. Snyder.

Julie Kagawa!! Signing my copy of The Immortal Rules, and The Iron Knight (which I brought from home).
One of my all time favorite authors!

Aimee Carter signing my copy of Goddess Interrupted.

This image was on the walls of the Harlequin Teen booths. I just HAD to take a picture!

My friends!
Tegan, Jess and Sandra (all book bloggers).

Gennifer Albin signing my copy of Crewel, she has the most beautiful smile (and always takes a good picture!).

Lauren Oliver from far away! She was signing her Middle Grade book Splinders,
so I decided to skip her line this once. 

Bri, Leah Clifford (author of A Touch Mortal), and Darla (Sandra's sister).

Day 1's book haul!
Total of Books: 41
And I didn't pick up any unnecessary copies. It was a good day.

A close up!

Ignore The Future we Left Behind, Beautiful Lies, and The Ruins of Lace.
The books I listed aren't in my collection anymore, I gave them to friends.

Swag anybody?

Lexie doing her thing in the room next to ours. 

They had a photo booth in the form of the Reached cover . It was great promotion.
I think they upped their whole game when it came to promoting books this time around.
Kudos.

BEA is worth it. It's worth the money, and the slight headache we had from the whole incident about a bunch of people getting denied their Press badges (yours included). I mean, they pissed me off royally because of that, but having been able to see my friends again and do this event all over again with all of them is all worth it. Being able to talk face to face with publishers instead of in email is so great, that way maybe, just maybe, they will remember you. It makes the relationships between bloggers and publishers just that much stronger.

Also, the free books are always a perk.