Cat Johnson Braves Doll Lil’s Word Association Challenge!

I left you all at the end of the first day of BEA though I really should have ended it after I arrived back home because the story of carrying the 52(!) books I collected on Day 1 home on the subway could have been a post of its own. Needless to say, my arm-shoulder muscles are quite a bit stronger now and some people may have thought I was a traveling book stall.

Day 2 of BEA found me a bit more prepared for what to expect but more daunted by the prospect. It started off with an author breakfast – when I signed up for the author breakfast I had no idea what BEA was going to be like but I heard that the author breakfasts were a fun event. I decided not to pay the 40$ (!) requested for table seating (this includes the actual breakfast of juice bagel and muffin – wow! Starbucks was starting to look cheap) and chose the gallery seating which cost “just” 20$.

The authors featured on Wednesday were Diane Keaton, who wrote a biography, Charlaine Harris and The Office’s Mindy Kaling who opened the event and introduced the rest of the participants. Well, the truth is she was the best part of the breakfast and my main disappointment was that while each guest received Charlaine Harris’ Dead Reckoning (which was nice) many people in the audience were complaining that the other books weren’t on show and that in previous years this was not the case. I will have to get Mindy Kaling’s book – it sounds hilarious! So, a bit of a disappointment in the morning … Still, this was an exciting day for me.

I finally get to meet a long time internet-buddy Dani who is doing some fabulous things with Entangled publishing and who is a real super-hero; who else would fly in for BEA on day 2 and come straight to the event from the airport after being up all night? I also got to spend some time with her post-show and meeting her just proves that people who read are some of the loveliest most intelligent people out there!

More excitement was to be had as I also got to sit down and chat with one of my favorite authors, Jana Oliver, who is one of the nicest people you will ever meet if you haven’t read the and the series you need to do so – now. Jana, thank you so much for making the line for Rick Riordan’s signing go by like lightening! ;)

Another fangirly *squee* from me was endured by those in my immediate vicinity when I went to the Harlequin booth where Deanna Raybourn was signing her new Julia Grey novel – the *squee* was triple in strength – one for the book, one for meeting the Fabulous Deanna Raybourn (who will be visiting the Dollhouse later this month) and one for her seriously fabulous shoes. Ms. Raybourn was as lovely in person as her blog suggests.

I think it only right to mention that the authors who participated in BEA deserve a huge round of applause – it can’t be easy to sit in a booth and sign, sign, sign till you just can’t sign no more while meeting an endless line of people – some who just say ‘hi’ and ‘thank you’ and some who decide they need to tell you exactly what they think you need to do with the characters you have been writing.

In one line the person in front of me decided to explain in detail why he thought an author shouldn’t have killed off a character and then explained what he would have done differently – the author just smiled said thank you and continued signing. I would have reconstructed the death scene using the reader. Actually, I almost did in that case – my feet were killing me and he was going on and on…

Other signings on Wednesday included: Mira Grant (), , , , , …the list goes on and on…

Thursday was a rather short day for BEA – it closed at three and most signings ended quite a bit before that. Not to say it wasn’t hectic – it was complete and utter craziness! Apparently the exhibitors like packing even less than me because they decided giving out and dumping any remaining books in the aisles was preferable to packing everything back up again – book palooza! In addition to that there was a special signing with Melissa Marr – AND and a signing with and her new book Blood Rights which looks beautiful! There was also Kody Keplinger and and I got to meet Cara Black author of – she was so sweet.

For me Thursday wasn’t just about the signings – it was also about getting to know the publishers, and get to know them I did! I have to say, they were very kind to this blogger. Most publishers had an online publicity representative or something like it and they were happy to say hello, discuss books and blogs and future feature goodness. I really hope the Dolls will be able to share some of that with you in days to come…

Well, BEA was winding down, my poor feet were considering mutiny and my back was wondering if I had decided to change my profession to mover, BEA was coming to a close. It was a completely out of this world experience and I had a spectacular time, but truth be told I missed having the other Dolls there. It would have been so much fun to share the experience with them. So…next year ladies – New York NY!!!!!

Happy Reading!

Noa first fell in love with books when she discovered 100 acre wood and its inhabitants. To this day, the last pages of “The House at Pooh Corner” make her cry. In a good way. From“Calvin and Hobbes” to “The Iliad and the Odyssey” and lets not forget “Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes”. Biographies, mysteries, history books and romances all have a place on her bookshelves. Who needs furniture? This 29 year old singleton’s dream is to invent the zero-calorie chocolate. But until that day arrives, she tries to create sweet confections with whatever chocolate she can find. An MA in conflict studies (need a mediator?) means Noa loves a good debate, especially when she wins. If she were in charge, books would be free for everyone.

Doll Noa

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