Slightly Longer BEA report

So I said I'd make a longer report today, after the pain had ebbed. Well, it hasn't, but I'm still reporting, because I'm just that dedicated. Also, I'll probably forget all this stuff if I don't list it now.

Clearly I had fun. I'm really not kidding about the two-foot-tall stack o' ARCs, and I think I was actually kinda conservative. (Of course, I think I'm doing good if I get my bead-addicted self out of JoAnn Fabric under a hundred dollars, so make of that what you will.) I mentioned a couple of my finds yesterday. I also got some books signed.

Cory Doctorow's Little Brother
Cecil Castelluci's Janes in Love
MT Anderson's Kingdom of the Waves (AKA Octavian Nothing II) (Ooo! And there's going to be another Whales on Stilts title!)
Adam Rex's Frankenstein Takes the Cake
David Carter's Yellow Square (well, not the actual book, but a one-page promotional foldout thingee that I may frame.)

All these authors were very cool and funny and personable, even when I could actually see their fingers start to fall off after signing umpty-ump books for umpty-ump gushing fangirls like myself.

Chocolate kisses to the all the publisher types I talked to, especially the following:

Flux
Kane/Miller
Feiwel and Friends
First Second
Harper Collins

Whether I was shamelessly begging for ARCs or just burbling about current titles, you were enthusiastic and knowledgeable and generally great to talk to.

Of course, the best part of any conference is the colleagues you meet, whose names you never get because you're too busy talking about other stuff. So hi to the teen/adult librarian from Ohio, a fellow line-waiter for Cory Doctorow, who tried to convince me that I missed the Midwest. Also in that line, a very cool gal who appreciated my shirt so much she immortalized it on digital film. Finally, the bookseller/art major in the Adam Rex line who traded titles and Lemony Snicket chat.

I wish I'd been able to go all three days, but I'm glad I got even this one.

Note to self: Take small bags. Big bag does not equal good. Big bag holds more books. More books is more weight. More weight is not being able to move your shoulders for three days. Mmmkay? Mmmkay.