Mundie Moms

Friday, June 20, 2014

#BEA14 Recap: Day #2 (Saturday) & My Thoughts on Book Con


I recently shared my recap from my 1st day at BEA here, which was Friday. Today's post is my recap from my second day at BEA, which was Saturday, aka the crazy insane day, and also the BEST DAY EVER! Before I talk about how crazy it really was, here is the fun that went down. 


Cassandra Clare, myself, Holly Black (aren't the not adorable! I LOVE their matching outfits and their shoes!

Saturday was my crazy full, insane, and totally fun day. It kicked off with a Book Con breakfast with Scholastic. That was SO much fun! It was the right amount of people, and made it so easy to visit with everyone. The breakfast included Cassandra Clare, Holly Black, and Maggie Stiefvater. Seriously, these ladies ROCK! I just realized that I never got a picture with Maggie. I have no idea how that happened. 


Cassie & I


I loved bumping into a few friends while there! Erica Haglund (we finally met!), KatieB (the other KatieB from Katie's Blog), Keri Peyton, and DJ (Life in Fiction)! Of course Andye from Reading Teen & I having fun being our goofy selves. lol 


Thank you to Scholastic for a really fun, memorable breakfast!

*****************

Now the fun work beginnings! 

Cassandra Clare & I during her The Shadowhunter Codex signing (pic from TMI Source)

One of the things I love about BEA is not only seeing so many friends, but seeing all my author friends, and being able to help out at their signings. Last year I loved helping Cassandra Clare out at her signing, and meeting so many fabulous fans of hers. This year was no different, though it was a little crazier as she had back to back signings I helped her with. I loved seeing all her fans both young and old.

*The Green Room*
This is what REALLY happens in the greenroom lol

Cassie, Holly Black, Libba Bray (whom seriously gives THE best hugs!), and Barry Lyga

I got to see another one of my all time favorite people/authors - Jennifer L. Armentrout! I love this girl!! 

Cassandra Clare signing #2

After Cassie's The Shadowhunter Codex signing, she had a quick break, and then went out to sign with Holly Black. 

Cassie and Holly both signed The Iron Trials, which will be out this fall (it's REALLY good!). It was awesome that they were seated right next to Jennifer L. Armentout (whom you can see pictured on the other side of Holly Black). This signing took a ton of team work, and Scholastic kicked butt with this! It was a lot of fun helping out with this crazy, insane line. I'm going to talk more about it in my Book Con issues. 


One of the things that's awesome about BEA, is author may randomly roam the author signing lines, which happens more often than not. Look who waited his turn in line....Scott Westerfeld! Love this photobomb of Scott. Yes, that is the fabulous David Levithan near Cassie. 

After the signing I snagged a quick picture with Scott and Barry, whom are fabulous to talk to!

This is one of my favorite pictures! Myself with Cassie and Holly at the end of their signing.

Can I just say, not only are they absolutely amazing, they have some seriously awesome fans! 
It was so great to meet so many fans whom I've talked to on line, and it was wonderful getting to watch fans meet Cassie and Holly for the first time. Some of my favorites were the youngest fans. You guys all rock and I wish I could have snagged pictures of each of you, but the line was crazy, and there was no time to do that. 

The other nice thing about Cassie and Jennifer signing beside each other, getting to see friends behind the scenes. These lovely ladies (The Irish Banana, Vi3tbabe & Jen from Jenuine Cupcakes) were working Jennifer's signing while myself and Fangirlish were working Cassie's two signings. 

Book Con PANEL

Maggie Stiefvater, David Levithan, Cassandra Clare, Veronica Roth (loved her hugs too), Scott Westerfeld & Holly Black

After Cassie's signings we all headed to the secret green room... okay it's really secret, but they took us a secret way to get there so the authors wouldn't get mobbed, because yes, it was that crazy, to wait until the it was time for their panel for the Book Con. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this picture which Tracey at Scholastic took & if you look closely you can see that I'm the creepier in the mirror. I seriously have no idea how I accidentally photobombed but what an awesome picture to photo bomb. 

The cool thing about being in this room was this amazing group of authors. While it was seriously awesome to be in the same exact room, and very close to Stan Lee, and Cary Elwes (okay I might have fan girled when he walked by me), and to have Martin Short and Amy Poehler walk by you, being in a room with these amazing authors have far outweighed the awesomeness of the actors in the room. Yes it was amazing to see them in person and breathe the same air as them, but the authors, at least in my opinion, are AMAZING! 

Panel Time

Look at all the awesome fans! This room was packed to see & listen to Cassie, Holly and Maggie!  
At the end of the panel Scholastic handed out arcs for each of their books!

THIS DAY was seriously made of AWESOME!! It was such a blast. I absolutely loved being able to help out behind the scenes. Thank you to Simon & Schuster, Scholastic, Cassie and everyone involved with the two signings and the panel! 


The day ended with some NYC touristy fun. It was so much fun unwinding and walking the streets of NYC with Fangirlish and Heidi. 


We wondered around Rockefeller Center, went to the Top of The Rock, and walked to Central Park. 

The Empire State Bldg, the Statue of Liberty & the Freedom Tower

THE VIEW from Top of The Rock is absolutely AMAZING!! I'm in awe over how big NYC really ice. 

Heidi, Myself & Fangirl (Erin) with Central Park in the back ground. 


LOOK what we found at Central Park! They totally look like The Fault In Our Stars clouds! How fitting was that!? They ended up being something else, but we still refer to them as TFIOS clouds. 
Saturday was the perfect ending to a crazy two days, and I wouldn't have changed a thing, except for Book Con. 

My Thoughts on Book Con

I've helped out at and been apart of a lot of book festivals, and author signings, and I have never witnessed a more disorganized, and literally insane event. I mean to the point that in one area I got stuck in retrieving drinks for authors, there was no where to move, and people were getting physical. If there had been a fire alarm, I am not sure how many of us from this particular area would have made it out safely. Because of the chaos, a lot of teens skipped getting into author lines. Which in my opinion was wrong. Teens should have felt safe and have been able to go. 

The author lines and the designated area for the Book Con goers should NOT have been clustered together. Like, at all. This was a huge problem. Had they not been clustered together, it would have been much better. Instead teens were leaving the event because of how crazy it was, and some felt unsafe. How lame is that to host a book convention and have people leaving because they felt unsafe. 

With Cassie and Holly's signing, while the volunteers were doing the best they could, it took getting the person incharge to come down and help Erin and I get the lining going and more organized. Yes, Erin and I took over and got the line moving. Like I said, the volunteers were nice, but they were totally not prepared for the crazy. I felt bad for the volunteers. I also got the impression that no one knew what to do. Here's the think with the lines, they need to constantly be moving. When authors are given a set time to sign, and a certain number of books, the lines need to move in an orderly fashion, and that lacked big time with Cassie and Holly's signing. I loved seeing some of us signing veterans stepping up and helping out the publishers/authors, and those volunteering, because it really did get crazy. It wasn't just Cassie and Holly's line who suffered. 

Seriously, this event was horrid on the front end, at least with the author signing area. I was really shocked with how it was. I heard from so many people how disappointed they were. Next year, those who are over Book Con, need to do a better job at organizing this event.

 The part that rocked was the security and those over the panels. They seriously had their stuff together. I wish those same people were over the author signing area. They needed security people up there. Those people don't mess around. They escorted us through the back way, had security detail by the green room, and made it impossible for anyone to get too close to the actors and authors. We had people popping out of some crazy weird places to see Cassie. Great job to them! 

Luckily the rest of the day was awesome, even if the book con craziness at the author signings was an EPIC failure. 

Labels