BEA 2010

I was going to wait until I had photos but I can't find the cord that gets pictures off my camera and it might be days before I find it and then I'll be over typing recaps. So whatev. Here is my week:

Monday

-Am exhausted from thinking about Lost finale all night and sleeping 3 hours.
-Get off Newark airport train at Newark Penn Station instead of New York Penn Station. Cluelessly do not realize something is wrong until I step outside and see short buildings and cliche Jersey guys loitering around.
-8 hours after leaving my house, having eaten only Chik-Fil-A breakfast and JetBlue potato chips, slog to Bonobo's raw food restaurant for AMAZING coconut chai I remember from last trip only to see signs everywhere announcing a coconut shortage. Nearly break down in tears in front of apologetic lad at the counter.
-Go to crazy-busy Teen Author Carnival. Meet Kody Keplinger in the elevator. Volunteer to read the beginning of SEA during Heidi Kling's panel so she doesn't have to. Finally meet my agent for the first time in an elevator while the elevator alarm is going off because someone is leaning on it.
-Agent feeds me because I am somewhere beyond hungry. I am too tired even to think what I want so I eat whatever she orders. My agent takes such good care of me!
--Back to the hotel to meet Chelsea Campbell and Dia Reeves, who both look even more tired than I am. Nonetheless we talk until midnight. (P. S. I expected Dia to be adorable and was not disappointed.)

Tuesday
-Wake at 6:30 am for some reason. Set off around 8 for breakfast at a Greek diner. Challah French toast and bacon at a lunch counter with the Greek language around me and obvious regulars. So New York! <3
-Pick up badge at BEA, have custard at the Shake Shack, then to the Forbes Museum to ogle old Monopoly games.
-Heidi has finally woken up, so I have a fun lunch with her (and she has breakfast ) and her friend Laurel.
-Meet Dia for vintage clothes shopping and go to amazingly affordable store in the East Village called No Boundaries. I find a green dress for $20. Everything after that is expensive. I snap a picture of a dress made from what looks like burlap sack fabric with an orange garbage tie type belt for hundreds of dollars, proving the complete accuracy of Zoolander's "Derelicte". We stop at Veselka for a fortifying eastern European snack. Then we get chocolate hazelnut ice cream from a truck.
-Class of 2k10 debut author event at Books of Wonder. Another well-attended shindig. We can't stay for long because we're meeting the Tenners for drinks at the Algonquin Room.
-No Tenners at the Algonquin Room. Dia wants to have drinks and tell knock knock jokes but we can't think of any. It is very swank there but the staff is sooo nice and non-snotty that I manage to relax. Jen Nadol and Amy Brecount White show up at 8 and we have some excellent conversation for awhile.
-Dia goes to the top of the Empire State Building while I stay down in the lobby like a chicken and watch international tourists take photographs.
-Meet Heidi, Chelsea and Kody at a McDonalds, which was the only place they could find ice cream at 11 pm. (WTF, city that never sleeps?) I ask Kody if I can ask her research questions for a blind character in my WIP since she is legally blind but it just turns into a conversation on how awesome Po is. RESEARCH ENOUGH.
-I spent Tues. night with Heidi and we chat until nearly 2 am.

Wednesday
-Reach BEA around 11. I run into some bloggers and Bree Despain, who offers me the extra bed in her hotel room that night within minutes of meeting me.
-The Tenners are supposed to have lunch together. We slog through INSANE HELL-LIKE HEAT a couple blocks to find every restaurant too busy. We slog back. I am sweating in the crevices of my elbows.
-Heidi and start wandering around BEA. Heidi seems to know everyone, but some bloggers recognize me! Yay! I squee to Natalie Standiford about how much I lurrrved How to Say Goodbye in Robot, score some ARCs by following around savvy bloggers, have two different conversations with Melissa Marr and Josh Berk about inappropriate ass touching in the crowded BEA floor (I swear that was not a topic I was trying to get into)...
-Heidi tries to change her flight so she doesn't have to leave this awesomeness. Evil airline says NO.
-Heidi and I attempt to leave BEA so she can catch a cab and I can transfer my stuff from her hotel to Bree's. There is not a cab to be had. Did I mention the INSANE HELL-LIKE HEAT?
-I slog back to meet my editor and agent so we can have dinner. Of course, we must go right back out into the INSANE HELL-LIKE HEAT, but my agent manages to get a cab. I realize that I accidentally left a banana peel in my purse thinking I'd spot a trash can soon and there is banana on my signed Simone Elkeles book. I RUE THE DAY I bought that banana.
-I have a very long dinner with my editor where, among other things, I get to see a preliminary cover for Between the Sea and Sky, which is gorgeous, and get my revision notes.
-I huff many many blocks in the INSANE HELL-LIKE HEAT which is still hanging on even after dark to get my stuff from Heidi's to Bree's. I am soaked with sweat. I can't even recall when I was last this sweaty. Years ago. I take a shower and step out just as Bree gets in. She tells me a tale of getting lost in NYC which is so awful it makes my day seem completely relaxing in comparison, while I pick banana off my stuff.

Thursday
-A Malaysian bookseller shares a cab with us from the hotel and pays for it. The weather is waaay nicer. Good luck is with us!!
-Am determined not to leave Javits center. I follow bloggers around and load my bag with books; Firelight, Mistwood, The Eternal Ones, etc. I seem to have a knack for running into Mitali everywhere I go. I'm terribly impressed she can wear cute heels and lug a huge bag around all day without seeming like a zombie.
-My editor wants to meet at 3:30 at the Flatiron to have drinks, which means another quest to try and ESCAPE the Javits Center. At least the weather is better but there are still few taxis. I take the shuttle bus to Penn Station, then walk some blocks, then take the subway one stop down, and manage to be only a half hour late. Pretty good by Javits standards...
-We discuss Between the Sea and Sky revisions, which I am SOO excited about, while I drink this dark chocolate frappe that is one of the best things I've ever tasted.
-I try to tell my agent she can take me out for a cheap dinner, somewhere where they don't replace your silverware during the meal, but she insists I need to get used to being a fancy author already. So we have dinner at Tabla with her friend Melissa, an editor at Chronicle. The conversation is hilarious and the food is endless and good. I feel a little ill upon leaving. So. Much. Food.
-Back at agent's apartment. She has scored me an ARC of the new Jennifer Donnelly book Revolution. I ignore the sensible idea of sleep and follow her out for drinks. We go to a sports bar where a balding man in a business suit alternates between hardcore making out with his date and doing a goofy dance to the bad 90s music for over an hour.
-We sit up telling disturbing stories about roaches and dead bunnies until 2:30 am.

Friday
-Wake before 8 am when my phone beeps with a text. I have to get the stuff I left in Dia and Chelsea's hotel room by 10 am. I hate mornings and I want to die.
-There are no frickin' cabs in this city ever. I feel incredibly accomplished when I actually manage to score one. It's only six blocks to walk but I'm so over it and my feet have the nastiest blisters.
-I get to say goodbye to Dia and Chelsea and my plane is on time. Goodbye for now, NYC!

P. S.
Saturday
-Slept 10.5 hours last night. Still sooo tired.