"The Long Way To a Small Angry Planet," by Becky Chambers

I have Sam Maggs to thank for this fantastic read - she described this book on Twitter as a cross between Mass Effect and Firefly. That's one hell of a recommendation. This succinct and ultimately accurate review is what led me to give this book a try, and I am so glad I did.

The Long Way To a Small Angry Planet is the best book I've read all year, and probably the best hard sci-fi I've read ever. 

The book concerns the colourful and diverse crew of The Wayfarer, a tunnelling ship that builds transport pathways between stellar systems by literally cutting holes through space. They have enough work to get by, but not enough to get rich - until their captain, Ashby, secures a government commission to build a tunnel to a planet whose mysterious inhabitants have only recently agreed to an alliance. The job comes with a mind-boggling payday, but will take almost a year to complete, so the crew is in for a pretty long haul.

While the eponymous small, angry planet is the overarching plot, the novel unspools in an episodic format - quite a bit happens during the year it takes for The Wayfarer to reach the tunnelling point. Everyone on the ship will find themselves tested in different ways, and the aliens on the crew give Chambers a golden opportunity to explore some pretty bizarre and unique perspectives about the nature of humanity and its relevance to the rest of the universe.

And what a universe! Chambers crafts a fascinating galaxy populated by various cultures and species, and while Humans aren't exactly endangered, they have very little influence beyond their own territories. There are massive cities built to host multiple cultures, as well as isolated frontier planets where the locals have created their own. Best of all, the rich worldbuilding is all expressed through the characters and their organic interactions within the story. Apart from a few articles here and there, there is no info dumping. The reader is free to explore and discover everything along with the Wayfarer's crew.

The novel's strongest, most outstanding selling point is the characters. I loved everyone on this ship - from Rosemary (a shy Human clerk who's never been off Mars), to Sissix (a reptilian pilot), to Dr. Chef (the most lovable alien caterpillar SpaceDad ever). Here's where the Firefly influence kicks in - while there's plenty of drama, conflict, and cultural differences, these characters truly love and care about each other. While spending a whole year together on the ship might bring up issues and baggage, at the end of the day, they're family.

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet is a brilliant, rare science fiction novel that successfully explores vast galaxies and alien themes without sacrificing the warmth and empathy of character-based storytelling. Put down what you're reading and read this instead.
A+

HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Today's the Day!

My debut novel, The Duke of Snow and Apples, has just been released from Entangled Publishing TODAY.

Today was a good day. My mum sniffled over my dedication and showed a screenshot of her buying my book, my coworkers at My Paying Job threw me a pizza party, and my old stompin' ground Heroes and Heartbreakers posted a First Look of my novel!  

It means a whole lot to see the romance community that took me to its heaving bosom seven years ago now reading and talking about my book. I wish I could write more, but I don't think I have any words left, today. Too excited and happy and exhausted. Anticipation is exhausting!

Ah well. Back to Googling myself!

"The Duke of Snow and Apples" and the End of Aspiration

I've pretty much had the same dream for most of my self-aware life.

To be a writer. Now, being a writer is a pretty easy dream to fulfil. If you put a pen to paper, or set your fingers above a typewriter, and apply enough physical pressure to scrawl or type out words, you're a writer.

....or if you dictate it to your mum because you haven't learned how to write yet - so long you draw all the pictures!

And I did become a writer. I started this blog. I wrote for The Green Man Review, The Gateway, Heroes and Heartbreakers, and even The Huffington Post. 

My first published fiction piece happened in 2007, when my novella, "My Brother's Own Words," appeared in Cicada Magazine's March/April issue.

It was a professional magazine. They took almost a year to receive, read, accept, and publish my manuscript - and they paid 25 cents a word, which, for a 9,000-word novella, was not too shabby! 

Still, I couldn't quite kick the "aspiring" label off of my efforts. I wanted to be a novelist. Have my own book. My own Amazon and Goodreads page. My own cover. A book that was mine. 

Recently, I took The Duke of Snow and Apples - a novel I'd written a few years ago - out from under the metaphorical bed and gave it a dust-off. I realized that the time we'd spent apart had given me a better perspective on the novel and how to improve it. So, after polishing it one more time, I resubmitted it for the first time in years.

And it got accepted. 

ACCEPTED.

The Duke of Snow and Apples is going to be a reality, thanks to Entangled Publishing! It's going to have a cover, and eventually an Amazon page, and crappy 1-star reviews from people angry that it's priced too high! It's going to be a published novel, and it's going to be my published novel! 

It was almost anti-climatic how it happened. I received the E-mail on my Blackberry - a cheery little yellow envelope icon blinking up at me as I was having my afternoon break at work. I don't know what I was expecting - although I had harboured daydreams of my publishers turning up in a van, showering me in confetti and announcing their intent to acquire my novel by way of chocolate icing tastefully hand-written onto an enormous ice cream cake. 

But believe me, for the last couple of days, I've been happily coughing up accidentally-ingested confetti in my heart. 

The interesting thing is that this didn't really happen by focusing on accomplishing One Major Dream - but by gradually accomplishing smaller dreams that accumulated and granted me the skills and experience required to tackle the Big Dream. I wanted to be a writer - so I wrote. I wanted to be a published writer, so I volunteered for magazines and started a blog. Using the exposure I got from my blog posts, I turned to contributing to e-zines and literary blogs. And in the process of doing all that, I learned how the publishing world worked, especially in relation to the things I'd already written. 

During NaNoWriMo 2008, I landed on an idea for a novel. A romance novel. A retelling of Snow White - only this time, the damsel was the hero (a footman), and the Prince Charming a spoiled noblewoman. The setting would be very similar to Regency England, but set in a fantasy world where the importance of bloodlines and breeding had a very specific magical purpose. 

So I wrote it. I finished it. I polished it. And I critique-grouped it thanks to the RWA's fantastic Fantasy, Futuristic, and Paranormal chapter. I pitched it to agents (once in person!). I submitted it to contests. It appeared in Dear Author's First Page series. One agent request a partial. A publisher requested a full. 

But somehow, it never happened. There were a lot of critiques and the consensus was that it just wasn't quite good enough. I think the excitement of all the requests followed by all the rejections sapped my drive for the idea. I honestly forget why I gave up on it, but I think my brain was already churning out new ideas and wanted to work on a new project rather than waste the effort on a flagging former project that didn't measure up. 

But sometimes setting a project aside for a while can be a good thing. In the intervening years, the publishing world changed, readers changed, and I changed. For the better, I hope.

Now I can finally scratch out "Aspiring" next to my description. Elizabeth Vail, Aspiring Novelist. It has a nice ring to it.

I haven't heard back yet about a release date, but I'll be sure to keep you guys updated! For now - I'm off to work on another novel! 

BEA 2013, Day Three: Mission at the Exposition

The Book Blogger Convention was fun and interesting, but that was only the appetizer for the Big Show.

And Book Expo America is definitely a Big Show.

Thursday was the first official day of Book Expo America. The doors to the exposition floor opened at nine but excited people lined up in front of it long before then.

Inside, the exposition resembled an emergency shantytown built by creative but wildly impractical rich people. Walls of cardboard and plastic and wood and fabric divided the space into a complicated maze of stalls, booths, and pavilions. Believe me, no matter how tired you were, you could lean on nothing. No surface was trustworthy except for the ground - and even that was iffy. Depending on the financial solvency of the publisher operating on that particular square, the floor varied between concrete, astroturf, red carpet and deep shag.

Enormous signs, floating placards and even balloons (!) marked out the pavilions for the larger publishers, while the smaller ones had to make do with booths the approximate size and quality of a junior high science fair display.

Now, the first hour of the first day of Book Expo America can be fairly intense. The mental superiority that separates humans from animals wears especially thin at the prospect of Free Books - while most publishers spread giveaways and galley drops throughout the day, the highest concentration of Free Stuff is in the morning. I'm talking about literal piles of books, three to four feet high, with glossy covers and the future publication date printed in a bright ribbon on the spine.

When nine o'clock rolled around and the doors opened, you might have told yourself you'd be choosy. You might have planned to stroll casually into the area with your colour-coordinated Excel spreadsheet schedule and your printed map of the floor. You might have told yourself you weren't there for the books, but to calmly absorb the buzz and the information and the atmosphere.

But, let's face it, you didn't. At least I didn't. The glare of the florescent lights reflected in the posters for The Hottest Celebrity's Newest Vegan Cookbook combined with the smell of overpriced vending-machine coffee and the slap of my BEA badge against my chest triggered the predatory instinct in my brain and flooded it with adrenaline - for the thrill of the hunt, the spice of competition against my fellow bloggers, booksellers, and librarians. When those doors opened, I raced ahead with everyone else.

Sales reps handed out tote bags like cups of water to successful marathoners - while nervous assistants offered ARCs with outstretched fingers that retracted quickly, as if feeding starving predators who would just as gladly eat them instead. Flyers printed with the dates and times of galley drops flew off the shelves only to disappear and turn up wadded at the bottom of your fifth complimentary tote bag while you repacked your luggage back at the hotel. Business cards fluttered between hands. Publisher catalogues were snatched from displays in a frenzy of greed only to be covertly replaced once the attendees realized they weren't actually books.

The Hachette Pavilion served doughnuts. Several booths offered coffee. Pens. Candy. Lanyards. Bookmarks. Spencer Hill released a flock of Swag Fairies (for reals) wearing sparkly wings who distributed chocolates to the faithful. The pyramid-headed mascot of the For Dummies books wandered the aisles trying and failing to be Not Terrifying.

Yes, that first hour of Book Expo America is pretty much a real-life version of the Hunger Games - only everyone's a volunteer, nobody dies, and we're all going crazy over free stuff that has no actual market value yet.

Okay, so maybe we were more like the people who watched the Hunger Games and wore day-glow eyeshadow and threw up all the time so that we could eat more.

After that first hour, the feeding frenzy instinct died down and I resumed my intended schedule. This year, I intended to be a little more choosy about which books I grabbed and which lines were worth waiting in. Waiting in an enormous line for a book I was vaguely interested in by an author I'd never tried (Kendare Blake's Antigoddess)? Not worth it. Waiting in line for Alice Hoffman, one of my favourite authors of all time? Totally worth it. She has seriously written so many novels that I've loved - including two I would smuggle onto a desert island (The Ice Queen and The Probable Future), so it was such an honour to be able to meet her and abandon all motor function that didn't involve saying the most cliched of fan phrases, "I love your books."

For the rest of the day, I attended some more signings (Brandon Sanderson's Rithmatist, David Levithan and Andrea Cremer for Invisibility) and explored the different booths and publishers. Book Expo is exceptionally good at reminding you of all you take for granted about the publishing industry. Most people tend to think about it in regards to fiction or narrative non-fiction - but there are religious publishers, educational publishers, cookbook publishers, travel guide publishers, art book publishers, comedy publishers. The Bathroom Reader guys had a booth. Reader's Digest had a booth. There are so many types of books that we just forget about - but they all have publishers and editors and sales people.

The crowning moment of Thursday - aside from meeting the Utterly Awesome Alice Hoffman, that is - was meeting Mary Higgins Clark after waiting an ungodly amount of time in line. I've never actually read Mary Higgins Clark, but my Granny is a huge fan. She's as voracious a reader as I am and loves thrillers and suspense novels, so I decided to get her something really special.

As it turns out, the reason Mary Higgins Clark's line was so slow was because she took the time to speak to Every. Single. Person. Mary Higgins Clark was absolutely the sweetest woman and she took the time to tell me how much she loved Canada (especially when she visited Quebec while dealing with her French language publisher) while she signed a copy of Daddy's Gone A-Hunting to my grandmother. I really appreciated that someone who's been writing for such a long time, with a such an enormous fan base, took the time to speak to her fans instead of just handing them a free book and sending them on their way.

At the end of the day, I had two potential parties to attend - the Tumblr Party at Housing Works, or the Penguin Evening with YA Writers at the Barnes and Noble on Union Square. Instead, I wound up having a much more pleasant evening with my Magically Amazing Roommate Emily. We hit up a nearby deli for some quick eats and just chilled out in our hotel room, talking. I seriously cannot believe how well I lucked out with my roommate. Definitely a bosom friend of the Anne Shirley-Diana Barry persuasion!

BEA 2013 Day One: Party Animals

Yes, I know, I'm late to the Book Expo-recounting party, but I was so twitchy and exhausted and wired when I got home that I wouldn't have been a very good party guest. Instead, I've spent a couple of days resting and getting my bearings instead of taking a swing at the enormous Book Swag Post pinatas like the rest of my peers.

But it's time to get my party hat on!

I flew into Newark on Tuesday - despite my delight at having a direct flight to Newark instead of a host of transfers and connections, my nerves got the better of me and by the time I landed in New Jersey and boarded the train to Manhattan I was gulping and praying and wondering if this whole trip was a huge mistake. A conversation bloomed behind me between two strangers, stemming from a mutual complaint about a nearby sleeping passenger who was taking up two seats, and it led to a contest of oral autobiographies as each stranger catelogued the development of their lives. One was an employee of New Jersey Transit, an immigrant from Kenya and former NYC police officer. The other was a devout Christian, who had travelled the world and survived cancer, to boot.

It was pretty amazing how freely people were willing to share their lives on public transit to someone they would likely never see again, and listening to them calmed me down immensely and brought me back to reality.

I arrived at Penn Station and met my crazy-amazing roommate from Red House Books - Emily! Emily was seriously the best roommate. Every time my anxiety made me fizz and shiver and threaten to spiral around the room like a wildly deflating balloon, she was there to prod me into trying new experiences, or share a joke, or talk about how much we both love YA novels. I'm overjoyed that our meeting on the internet resulted in real-world friendship instead of murder.

After meeting at Penn Station, we cabbed back to our hotel - the Best Western Convention Center Hotel. This Best Western was good in itself - compact, spotlessly clean - and good in regards to its location to the Javits (a three-minute walk away) but rather disgusting in regards to its location in general. The hotel stuck out like a freshly-washed thumb on a particularly filthy hand whose other fingers comprised some greasy auto body shops, a strip club, the type of abandoned-looking brick warehouses that superheroes use as their secret lairs, and a mews for carriage horses. Because who doesn't want to watch some naked ladies while waiting for their car and/or horse to be fixed?

And I haven't even mentioned the train (the choo-choo kind, not the subway kind) that passed beneath the hotel at regular intervals during the day and night.

First on the schedule after unpacking everything was the SimonTeen Blogger Party. It was the first such publisher party I had ever been invited to at Book Expo, and I was excited. We walked to our destination, which turned out to be a lounge outfitted in My Little Pony shades of purple, red, and pink, where raspberry-coloured light refracted off of a giant crystal chandelier. The bartenders served pink cocktails freshened with chunks of watermelon, and over-enthusiastic waiters wandered freely, jabbing platters of sliders and chicken kebabs at guests as if trying to rob people with them. Your money or your juice cleanse! 

Shyer guests could always retreat to the fancy bathroom, staffed by an attendant whose primary tasks were to to hand you a paper towel and pretend you hadn't already dried your hands on the toilet paper in confusion after finding no dispenser in the stall, and gesture obliquely towards a table laid with the traditional American post-bowel-movement delicacies - mint Lifesavers, chocolates, and Tootsie Pops.

I spent the first half hour of the evening chatting with authors and SimonTeen staff - most of them gorgeous, bird-boned 24-year-old publicists and marketing reps with chunky earrings and horn-rimmed glasses who might as well have walked straight out of a Wednesday night CW drama about the New York publishing industry. I also ran into a hugely pregnant and awesome Siobhan Vivian and exchanged some complimentary words on her deft use of unlikeable and difficult female protagonists (I quite enjoyed Not That Kind of Girl).

After that, we all sat in front of a stage while Suzanne Young interviewed fellow SimonTeen authors Cat Patrick, Jason Reynolds, Jenny Han, Siobhan Vivian, Corey Ann Haydu, and Amy Butler Greenfield about their upcoming books. Suzanne Young was a lively and effective interviewer - allowing the authors to answer probing questions about the underlying themes of their works while also keeping the tone light and the pacing quick. The authors themselves were all hilarious, charming and well-prepared - I found myself envying Siobhan Vivian and Jenny Han's easy friendship as they discussed the collaborative process of writing Burn for Burn, the sequel Fire with Fire, and the final novel Ashes to Ashes (currently being written). Jason Reynolds was also ridiculously charismatic as he recounted his various financially-challenged adventures trying to become a successful writer in New York.

After the interviews - it was back to scintillating conversation! I met up with some truly awesome bloggers, including Amy from Good Books and Good Wine - she was worried that her voice was giving out and she wouldn't be able to speak at her panel at the Book Blogger Con the next day. But she still summoned enough energy to commiserate with me about bad author behaviour!

All in all, I would call the event a success - I left the party with Emily fully interested in nearly all the books discussed, which made it all the lovelier when our complimentary goody bags came stuffed with those very books! We got swag before the conference even started! How's that for thinking ahead?

Next up: Day two - BEA Blogger Con!

Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten Most Frustrating Characters

Now, I don't always participate in the Top Ten Tuesday memes going around, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. But this week's meme caught my eye - The Top Ten Most Frustrating Characters Ever.

Now that's an interesting discussion - because frustrating could be used to describe characters I hate, but it could also apply to characters I wanted to like more but didn't, or characters I still loved despite how difficult they were at letting me love them. So why not go for it this week?

These are, in no particular order, my Top Ten Most Frustrating Characters

1. Dobby from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels.
I am currently re-reading Chamber of Secrets and good Lord do I hate this annoying little shit. He takes an absurdly long time to get to his point, he's crazy-annoying, and he's perpetually almost-murdering Harry in his bone-headed quest to save him.

And then he tries to play on your sympathy by saying he gets death threats "five times a day" -  maybe the problem isn't them, Dobby. If you're the Taylor Swift of House Elves and every track on your album is about how your masters threatened to kill you because you were ironing your hands instead of the wizarding robes that actually needed to be ironed, maybe the problem is you. Constructive feedback, Dobby - learn how to take it! Then maybe John Meyer won't make you hit yourself with a lamp.

2. Bee Hassi Barahal from Kate Elliot's Cold Magic.
This is the Kate Elliott book that I almost put down after 100 pages. There are a lot of things that annoyed me about this book - the infodumping, the As You Know Bob Dialogue - but most especially the heroine's BFF Bee, who is the human embodiment of Nails on a Chalkboard. And to top it all off, she's a Plot Device character, so she'll likely be in future books, too. An insufferably unrealistic cartoon of a woman, she's basically used as an Emotional Yardstick - always present with FIERY RAGE or FLOODS OF TEARS or UPPITY INDEPENDENT WOMANHOOD to easily telegraph to the dimwitted reader how they are "supposed" to feel. I sincerely hope in the next book she's quickly dropped down a well so that we can focus on the characters who act like actual human beings.

3. Hannah Baker from Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why.
Yes, I know you committed suicide, Hannah Baker, and that's sad, but that doesn't erase the fact that you're a horrible human being who intentionally set out to psychologically scar a bunch of people for life for their petty emotional crimes against you. Sweet Fancy Cheeses, woman, you drew MAPS. You made a SCAVENGER HUNT. Couldn't you have applied that same energy and dedication to, I don't know, NOT KILLING YOURSELF?

Not to mention the fact that you kept the hero's nuts in a vice for three hours' worth of tapes even though he wasn't actually ON your horrifically vindictive list of people to torture. Yes I know your life was sad, but the minute you decided to intentionally blame people FOR YOUR OWN SUICIDE and then blackmail them from beyond the grave, you lost my sympathy. You're horrible and I hope you're burning in the Fictional Hell I read about in Sanctum for being a terrible Fictional Character.

4. Olympia from Laura Kinsale's Seize the Fire. 
"Stupid is as stupid does," my dear, and what this Stupid does is almost get the hero violently murdered approximately 1,449,974 times in this 538-page novel by being a flamboyantly incompetent crybaby moron.

5. Hyacinth Bridgerton from Julia Quinn's It's In His Kiss.
Regency England's Best Argument for Birth Control, the last Bridgerton child proved that the eighth time really isn't the charm. After Lady Bridgerton produced seven fully-fledged romantic protagonists, there weren't really any character traits left in her heroic ovaries except for Rampant Narcissism and Contrived Over The Top Wackiness. The result is a screamingly annoying heroine whose brothers are fanatically eager to marry her off to the first hero stupid enough to confuse her outrageous craziness for "Charming Self-Confidence."

6. Malta from Robin Hobb's Liveship Traders Trilogy.
Okay, so Malta's frustrating because I love her by the end of the trilogy, I do, but she spends a great deal of the first two novels as the most evil little brat in existence. Stealing money, lying, manipulating others to gain more attention for herself, and propositioning on her aunt's 25-year-old boyfriend - and she's only thirteen!

7. Margo Roth Spiegelman from John Green's Paper Towns.
Oh good, a selfish, entitled, pretentious manic pixie dream girl who runs off without any thought for consequences or the people she leaves behind. I'm so glad you emotionally bulldozed over so many people so you could teach us a valuable lesson about how People Are Not How They Seem. You're Holden Caulfield with boobs. GO AWAY.

8. Clayton Westmoreland from Judith McNaught's Whitney, My Love.
A walking cesspool of misogynist fail, this guy sexually assaults the heroine to punish her for insulting him, beats her with a riding crop to punish her for cheating at a horse race, and rapes her to punish her for cheating on him (which, surprise! She didn't do! Because he discovers she's a virgin mid-rape!). The frustration with this character comes from the fact that everyone in the book (and the thousands of readers who inexplicably loved this book) thinks he's such a misunderstood romantic charmer.

9. Ellysetta Baristani from C.L. Wilson's Tairen Soul series.
This just in: drop-dead gorgeous and magically powerful redhead who believes she's ugly, unloveable and worthless accidentally saves the world - while all the beautiful, confident, ambitious women in the book turn out to be conniving, promiscuous, shallow villains. Because apparently, real women aren't allowed to think they're worth more than human garbage unless a man tells them otherwise.

10. Burrich from Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy. 
Oh, Burrich. You are another character I am frustrated with, and yet I love. LOVE. You are kind, and selfless, and a wonderful father-figure to the hero - and yet you are also a stuck-in-your ways bigot whose prejudice against Wit-magic emotionally cripples the hero and drives your own son away! Yes, you frustrate me, because Robin Hobb makes you a wonderful person and yet gives you this BIG GIANT FLAW that does not magically go away!

The Importance of Being Nice

One thing I noticed being discussed at BEA Book Blogger Convention this year was keynote speaker Jennifer Weiner's statement that bloggers should focus our energies on "sprinkling fairy dust" on what we do like instead of blogging about what we don't like.

Given all the spats and arguments on GoodReads and Amazon, and the flamboyant author accusations of the existence of a YA Mafia or YA Opus Dei or the secret secret cliques of "Mean Girl" Bloggers ("her swag bag is so big because it's full of SECRETS"), a lot of people have been given to wonder about the relevance of everyone's mother's favourite saying, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."

Should bloggers all take a deep breath and just focus on being nice?

To that, I have to say: no. If as a blogger, you personally choose to only publish reviews of books you enjoyed, that's definitely your call, but I don't believe that's the mindset all bloggers should have to work by.

1. Book Bloggers are Critics, Not Promoters
This fact was definitely on my mind for much of the blogger convention, since a lot of what was presented in the speeches and panels I was present for dealt with how bloggers can serve publishers. Two of the authors who came to my table at the Networking Breakfast acted under the impression that if we liked how they pitched their books, we'd put them up on our websites. Amy Sohn (whose book I will, amusingly, be reviewing next) actually ranted about those "damn reviewers getting her book wrong" - entirely oblivious to the fact that she was speaking to a table of reviewers.

Because that's what book bloggers are. The cost-effective, positive promotion that publishers want from bloggers is only a by-product of what we actually do. If we like a book, we'll say so - and people will read that and take our recommendations accordingly (by the by, have you read anything by Cecilia Grant or Rose Lerner lately? Please do!). But I don't blog to promote books. I blog to read and review books - and if my positive reviews serve as free publicity, than it's a delightful happenstance! 

I know there are other book bloggers out there who do cover reveals and contests and memes now for books, even ones they haven't read, which can explain the confusion. There probably are bloggers out there who feel they are book promoters rather than critics. I can only say that from my personal experience as a blogger, who reads other book blogs, and who's discussed this matter with a fair number of other book bloggers, that the majority of us got into blogging to review and discuss books, not promote them. And honest reviews and discussions will naturally produce reactions both positive and negative.

2. Honesty Trumps Positivity
One concern I've heard come up in discussions with book bloggers is the notion of integrity and honesty. There was that whole kerfuffle in the U.S. a couple of years ago about whether bloggers should explicitly mention in their book reviews where and how they received the book - based on the readers' worry that a blogger would be more inclined to write a positive review of a book they received for free than a book they paid for themselves.

Now there's an interesting situation - readers distrusting a positive review! But shouldn't all bloggers just want to bake a cake with rainbows and sunshine in it so that we can all eat it and be happy? What about Jennifer Weiner's fairy dust?

Authors and publishers may worry about negative reviews, but to bloggers and, more importantly, to readers, their main worry is dishonest reviews. Did this blogger really like this book, or are they being paid to like it?

While I've read and enjoyed some "positive reviews only" publications (Locus magazine is one), I've noticed that readers and other bloggers tend to distrust them unless the blogger explicitly mentions that they choose not to review books they didn't like. I like to call this the "Paula Adbul Effect." That delightfully kooky former American Idol judge couldn't give a coherently negative critique to save her life - she was always sunshiney and supportive of all the performers. But because of that, her positive critiques had no impact on the audience or the voters. You could never tell if she really was physically incapable of disliking something, or if she was just too afraid of audience censure to really admit what she felt.

Simon Cowell, on the other hand, despite being kind of a prick, always gave really detailed critiques of the singers - so on those occasions when he did give an effusive response, you could tell that he meant it. Viewers felt they could trust that his opinions were honest.

That's not to say you have to be cruel to be kind - after all, Randy Jackson was far less of an ass than Simon Cowell, but his remarks still carried weight because he pointed out both the positive and the negative aspects of a competitor's performance.

What I'm saying is, positive promotion only works if the readers trust the source. There's a reason people fast-forward through the commercials on their DVRs - commercials and advertisements are nothing but positive. However, they're made by people with a financial stake in the product's success, and viewers know that. No one in the world likes every book they've ever read. Just like every contestant on American Idol isn't going to be a shining beacon of musical enlightenment. If you want to promote your book effectively, it's better to gamble on a positive review from a blogger known for their honest reactions to what they read than to hedge your bets with a literary cheerleader.

Well, then, you may ask, what's wrong with every blogger simply being transparent about only writing reviews of books they like? Why not just not post reviews of books you don't like, and let the utter lack of press speak for itself? See my final point:

3. There's No Such Thing As Bad Press
This is the kicker - even if someone is giving your book a negative review, they are also reminding people that your book exists. Its name gets brought up, its cover is revealed, it sticks in the human memory and consciousness, which translates to what jumps out at you when you go to bookstores. If no one is talking about your book at all, and no one knows about it, good or bad, how is anyone supposed to find it?

I can also ask you, as a fellow writer, which is better after submitting something to a publisher - a rejection in the form of absolutely no response, a standard "not for us" rejection letter, or a detailed letter explaining what didn't work for them? I can tell you I would rather have people telling me what they didn't like about my book than not talking about it at all and leaving me wondering whether they received it or even read it.

One of my personal rules of Blogger Etiquette is that if I accept an offer of a free ARC, I will review the book. Even if it's negative - because it demonstrates that I took the time to read the book cover to cover, took the time to analyze it, and spend hours thinking about it and writing about it. Even if I dislike the book, I respect the work that went into making that book, and I demonstrate that by crafting a detailed review of it.

It takes time and effort to write a review, even a negative one. It takes no effort at all to say nothing. So really, which response is less respectful?

This is my take on it. I'm not going to stop writing negative reviews, and I don't think you should, either. We blog because we like expressing how we feel about books. And some books are going to make us screaming, hopping, hair-pullingly mad - so we're going to express that. To Snark or Not To Snark is a different argument for a different time, but for now, let your Lit-Nit-Picking Freak Flag fly.

And Now, the Obligatory BEA Swag Post!

Soooo.... I got a lot of books at Book Expo America. I really did try to only pick up books that I actually wanted or sounded interesting, and I think I was mostly successful. Mostly. Either way, I managed to successfully pack everything into my two pieces of luggage without incurring overweight fees so I'm good on that score. Here's the list:

• The Vicious Deep, by Zoraida Cordova. YA. Swag bag at Book Bloggers Con. I've wanted this one for a while, so I was excited to find a copy of this at the convention!
• Origin, by Jessica Khoury. YA. Penguin Booth. The bioengineered-girl-escapes-into-the-Amazon plot intrigued me.
• The Darkest Minds, by Alexandra Bracken. YA. Hyperion/Disney Booth. Honestly, this was one of those "well it sounds vaguely interesting and it's free" picks. The back cover blurb is super-vague, yo.
• The Killing Moon, by N.K. Jemisin. Fantasy. Signed at the Orbit Booth. It was super lovely to meet N.K. Jemisin, and I'm over the top excited for The Killing Moon. I also got to tell her that I think she writes the best immortal characters.
• Kiss the Morning Star, by Elissa Hoole. YA. Picked up at the Amazon Children's Publishing booth. This story, about a teenage girl who discovers her sexuality while on a Kerouac-inspired roadtrick, has been at the edge of my radar for a while so it was lovely to find this copy!
• Moo, by Matthew Van Fleet. Baby Book. Book Blogger Con Swag Bag. A lovely baby book with fuzzy things to pet and pop up pictures - and guess whose BFF's little boy is having a birthday in a week!
• Kiss and Make Up, by Katie D. Anderson. YA. Picked up at the Amazon Children's Publishing Booth. Another interesting story - a girl discovers she can read the minds of any boy she kisses. So naturally she uses it to cheat on tests.
• Wake, by Amanda Hocking. YA. Honestly, I've forgotten. It has a lovely cover, plus I've always been interested in stories about sirens.
• Every Day, by David Levithan. YA. Signed at the Random House Booth. David Levithan is one of those writers I've heard hyped to the skies so much that I'll suggest him even though I haven't read any of his books yet. This one (about a nameless being who's a different person every day who falls in love with a girl) sounds like a good place to start actually reading him!
• Eve and Adam, by Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant. YA. Signed at the MacMillan Booth. This sounded interesting but also hella confusing (girl gets sent to lab, girl starts making boy in same lab, girl falls in love with another boy in the lab?). But it was fun to chat with Jessica in the line to get it! 
• The Wrap-Up List, by Steven Arntson. YA. Amazon Children's Publishing Booth (seriously, a lot of good stuff there). Sounded good - a girl gets a magical notification that she's going to die soon, so she works to get her affairs in order.
• Me Before You, by JoJo Moyes. Literary Fiction. Picked up at the Penguin Booth. Sounded like a legitimately sweet romantic story.
• Fathomless, by Jackson Pierce. YA. Signed at the author's Autographing Table. The idea of a darker, nastier Little Mermaid retelling definitely caught my eye, and the excerpt I read in Little, Brown's catalog looked amazing.
• An Abundance of Katherines, by John Green. YA. Signed copy given out at the Penguin Booth. It's John Green - and I'd like to try and enjoy more of his work.
• Son, by Lois Lowry. YA. In the Children's Book and Author Breakfast Swag Bag. I was only faintly aware that The Giver had continued as a series, but this book makes me want to read the other books in between.
• Cracked, by K.M. Walton. YA. Won in the Meet the Apocalypsies event. This novel, about a bully and his tormenter in the same psych ward, sounds a little dark and bleak for my tastes, but I decided to give it a try.
• Crewel, by Gennifer Albin. YA. Received last copy at the MacMillan Booth. This book was hyped UP AND DOWN Book Expo, y'all, but I have to say - the story (about a girl who can weave time and fate) sounded legitimately cool.
• The Miseducation of Cameron Post, by Emily Danforth. YA. Won in the Meet the Apocalypsies event. I've wanted to read this since forever, so I was super psyched to win a free copy!
• Starting from Here, by Lisa Jenn Bigelow. YA. Picked up at the Amazon Children's Booth. Sounded like an interesting romantic YA with a lesbian protagonist.
• Summer and Bird, by Katherine Catmull. YA (I think). Picked up at the Penguin Booth. Two sisters go on a mystical journey - it sounds freakin' weird, but in the best possible way.
• The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, by Cathrynne M. Valente. Middle Grade (sort of). Signed copy from the author's Autographing Table. Loved the first book - so of course I lusted after the second and waited in line for 45 minutes to meet the author.
• Mistress of My Fate, by Hallie Rubenhold. Literary Fiction. Picked up from the Grand Central Publishing Booth. A lush period piece about a possible courtesan? Sign me up!
• The Blessed, by Tonya Hurley. YA. Picked up from the Simon and Schuster Booth. I'm Catholic, born and raised, so the idea of three girls embodying three martyred saints? Kick ass! Had to have it!
• The Light Between Oceans, by M.L. Stedman. Literary Fiction. Picked up at a booth - forgot where! Firstly - pretty pretty cover. Secondly, intriguing story about a couple on an isolated Australian island who adopt an infant. Thirdly, upon opening it to a random page, the writing sounded great.
• Carnival of Souls, by Melissa Marr. YA. Picked up at the HarperCollins Booth. Another much-hyped book - I picked it up because the story sounded interesting, and also because my sister is a huge Melissa Marr fan.
• Colin Fischer, by Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stenz. YA. Signed at the Penguin Booth. I'd heard both authors speak on one of the YA Buzz Panels, and I liked the idea of a kid with Asperger's who has to clear the name of his biggest high school tormenter when a gun goes off at school, resulting in said bully becoming a friend.
• Time Between Us, by Tamara Ireland Stone. YA. Won at the Apocalypsies event. It sounds like a YA take on The Lake House. Plus, pretty cover!
• The Sweet Dead Life, by Joy Preble. YA. Picked up at the Soho Booth. A publisher I'd never heard of, but an interesting YA story about a girl who has to pre-emptively solve her own murder with the help of her dead-brother-turned-angel!
• What We Saw At Night, by Jacqueline Mitchard. YA. Picked up at the Soho Booth. Another interesting title about three kids who are allergic to sunlight and also common sense who practice nighttime parkour and witness a murder while doing it.
• More Than One Night, by Sarah Mayberry. Romance. Picked up at the Harlequin Booth. Everyone in Romancelandia has gushed about Mayberry at one point or another, and I felt it was time to see what all the fuss was about. 
• Darker Still, by Leanna Renee Hieber. YA. Won at the Apocalypsies event. I love LRH to pieces, yo, plus this book has a hot dude in an enchanted painting in it!
• Level 2, by Lenore Appelhans. YA. Won at the Apocalypsies event. Her book was much spoken of at the Expo for being the literary work of a former blogger.
• The Diviners, by Libba Bray. YA. Picked up at the Little, Brown Booth. Magical kids in the roaring twenties!
• She Only Wore White, by Dorthe Blinkert and Mel Foster. Translated literary fiction. Picked up at the Amazon Booth. Not sure why I picked this up - I think because it's a period piece that takes place on a boat. No way that can go wrong!
• Beta, by Rachel Cohn. YA. Picked up at the Disney/Hyperion Booth. Sexy clones as servants - could it be like The Island meets Downton Abbey? Or is that the book that I should write?
• What's Left of Me, by Kat Zhang. YA. Picked up at the HarperCollins Booth. I liked the idea of a body being born with two souls - most especially if they are played by Lily Tomlin and Steve Martin.
• Iron-Hearted Violet, by Kelly Barnhill and Iacupo Bruno. Middle Grade. Picked up at the Little, Brown Booth. You had me at the title! Yowza!
• The Land of Stories, by Chris Colfer. Middle Grade. Found in the Children's Book and Author Breakfast Swag bag, later signed. It sounds amazing - I'm a huge fan of fractured fairy tales and this sounds like a real labour of love for the Glee star.
• The Dirty Streets of Heaven, by Tad Williams. Fantasy. Found at the Penguin Booth. TAD WILLIAMS WROTE ANOTHER URBAN FANTASY! I had absolutely NO IDEA his book would be at Book Expo! He hasn't written anything contemporary since The War of the Flowers. Grabbed it!
• Hemingway's Girl, by Ericka Robuck. Historical Fiction. Found in the Book Blogger Con Swag Bag. Historical period, cocktail parties? Scandally scandal? Sounded vaguely good.
• Throne of Glass, by Sarah Maas. YA. Picked up one of the last copies at the Bloomsbury Booth on the last day of BEA. Sounded like a Cinderella-story mixed with The Hunger Games. Could be awesome, or awesomely bad.
• Then Came You, by Jennifer Weiner. Literary Fiction. In my Book Blogger Con Swag Bag. Sue me - I want to see if she writes better than she gives blogger speeches.
• Motherland, by Amy Sohn. Fiction. I got this in my Swag Bag from the Book Bloggers Convention, and even though the author ranted about "damn reviewers," she sold me on her pitch about frustrated wealthy New York moms and their exploits. I just finished reading it, and boy, let me tell you, it's going to make for an interesting review.
• Altered, by Jennifer Rush. YA. Picked up at the Little, Brown Booth. Girl's dad raises hot genetically-altered boys in her barn. Who WOULDN'T want to read this?

BEA Day Three: And Now We Say Goodbye

For the last day of Book Expo, I started it out with breakfast with my blogger friends Ana and Katiebabs. The place Katiebabs had suggested wasn't open yet, so we stopped in at a bakery instead, where Ana enjoyed her first soft boiled egg! Poor Katiebabs was so excited about the cover reveal for the next J.R. Ward book, but she didn't have internet access!

After that, we all cabbed to the Javits Center and parted ways. I, myself, was unsure of what to do at the Javits. If things were quieter on Wednesday than on Tuesday, things were downright silent on Thursday, and there was really only one book I was interested in, so I contemplated just skipping out and going sightseeing.

But as you can tell - I'm so weak.

I stayed until about 1:00 so that I could get David Levithan's Every Day, but also managed a few other finds - a Sarah Mayberry romance, Carnival of Souls, and Fathomless (which sounds like a really interesting and dark retelling of The Little Mermaid).

EDIT EDIT EDIT*** Ah! Mea culpa! There is more - I wrote this rather late at night and totally forgot - but there was a little more to my BEA tale. Due to pure luck and not actually knowing what was planned, I ran into a line of people at the Penguin booth in the afternoon who said they were waiting for John Green, so I got in line. As it turns out, John Green showed up to unveil the newest cover for An Abundance of Katherines, whose new design was chosen from a contest. The winner was there (she was from New Jersey, and it was also the day of her prom) and John Green handed out copies of the new edition, signed by himself. I proceeded to record the whole thing only to realize after he'd disappeared behind a curtain that I'd neglected to press the "Record" button. Ah well! END OF EDIT.

After that I went sightseeing - I decided to walk from my hotel all the way down Fifth Avenue and windowshop like no tomorrow. Didn't buy anything - not only because everything was astronomically expensive, but also because with all the books I'd grabbed I knew I had no room left in my luggage. But I took lots of pictures!

And after hoofin' it all the way down Fifth, I explored the glorious main branch of the New York Public Library.

I limped back to the hotel after that, but not before getting rained on and finding out that one should never take the availability of a New York cab for granted. I flew out the next day, but not before exploring Central Park and discovering that Children's Day is the absolute worst day to visit Central Park's tiny, rather sad zoo. 

And that was basically my Book Expo New York adventure! Would I go again? Um ... I'm not sure. Probably not, actually.

I mean, it was fun to get lots of free books - but I live near a library. I can get free books anytime I want. Honestly, I was looking for more of a social experience, the kind I got from going to writers' conventions like RWA National. I got a little of that from the BEA Book Blogger Con, but I was sick for half of that. BEA itself wasn't very social, in fact. It was a little isolating, particularly for a blogger. I think if I went as a publisher or a librarian or an author, I would be able to take something other than books away from the event, but as a blogger, I felt like a spectator.

But maybe I'll go looking for other conventions to go to. Ones that are closer to what I'm doing now (writing and blogging YA, romance, and fantasy), that aren't quite as expensive as RWA National, that have a great social element and opportunities for meeting new people. 

For now, I'll go back to my regular job (vacation's over, sob!) and start E-mailing the people whose business cards I received!

How were your experiences at BEA?

BEA Day Three: Fifty Shades of Green

Now with pictures! (Spoiler alert: I arrived home alive!)

So after a very satisfying sleep, I woke up bright and early on Wednesday Morning for the Children's Book and Author Breakfast. But first! I had to get in line for autograph tickets, since John Green was also signing that day and was a ticketed author!

Don't be fooled - I'm at the back of this line, which went beyond the camera frame and doubled back. Thankfully, I still got a ticket in time. Then I rushed to the event center for the breakfast. When I first learned who was speaking at this breakfast, I used some money I'd saved to buy a Reserved Premium Round Table Seating ticket. I'm a Gleek, and I'm becoming a bigger fan of John Green with every vlogbrothers post. And of course Lois Lowry's The Giver made me cry.

When I arrived at the center, I showed my ticket, and one of the organizers personally led me to the very front of the center, to one of the five red-tableclothed tables directly in front of the stage. AWESOME! Also, there was very impressive swag on all of the chairs:

 A special boxed copy of Chris Colfer's The Land of Stories...

...accompanied by a handwritten (albeit many-times photocopied) note from Chris Colfer...

...and a gorgeous totebag!

It also came with a Land of Stories poster, a copy of John Green's The Fault In Our Stars (which I gave away to another attendee as I already had a lovely copy) and an ARC of Lois Lowry's Son, the last book in the Giver series (which wasn't even present at her later signing - people who lined up for that got a signed cover flat).

After that came the speeches. 

Chris Colfer emceed the event and he was very charming. Through his speech, he related how The Land of Stories was very much a labour of love, not a ghost-written "celebrity novel." It was actually a project on which he's worked on since he was ten (he joked that reporters responded, "So you've been working on this for five whole years!"). He showed us a picture he'd drawn of the Land of Stories in third grade as well as a map he'd designed in junior high.

Next was John Green, who started in by saying he'd looked up the "Chris Colfer" tag on Tumblr to find something silly to embarrass him with ..."only I found fanfiction..." *awkward pause* "Of the two us."

After that, however, he gave a truly inspiring speech about how books don't need to be enhanced or have funny videos or "behind the scenes" details. He stated how reading takes focus and contemplation, and how everyone here is already doing what they're good at doing, and that we don't need to try and copy the techniques of people who work in other entertainment mediums because books engage the attention span in a fundamentally different way.

After that, Chris Colfer came up and jokingly apologized, admitting that he had written the nefarious John Green/Chris Colfer fanfic, and had titled it "50 Shades of Green."

After that came Lois Lowry, who made me cry again when she revealed that a lot of her relationship with her (now tragically deceased) soldier son inspired The Giver and most especially, the final book, Son. She got a standing ovation, and boy did she deserve it!

And then there was a final speech by artist and children's book author Kadir Nelson who painted the glorious illustrations for I Have a Dream, a children's book recreation of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's famous speech.

After that came more BEA and MORE BOOKS! I made it back to the Simon and Schuster booth just in time to snag an ARC of The Blessed, which has been on my radar since Kirkus' Big BEA Book review thingie arrived in my inbox. I'm a born and raised Catholic, and I've always loved the saints (even though my particular patron, St. Paul [writers, journalists, and bloggers] can be a mite creepy), and the story of three girls who embody three martyred saints, including St. Cecelia (patron saint of music), one of my personal faves? Yes!

As well, I actually ran into John Green in person on the BEA floor. I got to shake his hand and tell him how much I liked The Fault In Our Stars and even sniffled over it ("Ah, the single tear," he said). I sincerely hope I came across as a Mature, Composed Fan and not a very silly and loud fan.

Then I got in line for John Green's signing, when a woman came up behind me and put an envelope in my hand. She said it was her 15-year-old daughter's fan letter that she'd wanted to deliver to John Green. The woman said she'd also wanted to get John Green to sign a book for her daughter, since her daughter is an enormous fan who's read all of his work. Unfortunately, she hadn't been able to get a ticket. John Green was a ticketed author because he is understandably very popular and there was a limited amount of books - so only the people who waited in line for a ticket would get a signed book.

Now, I figured - I'd gotten to see him at the breakfast. And I'd actually gotten to meet him in person and tell him how much I liked his work (with photographic evidence), which was what I'd been looking to do when I went to the signing anyway. So I gave her my ticket.

And as it turns out, Karma paid me back twofold - firstly, because as I'll relate tomorrow, I managed to be at the right place and time for the unveiling of the new cover for An Abundance of Katherines and received a signed copy of it then, and secondly, because skipping the line for John Green's signing gave me time to get in line for Chris Colfer's signing.

Even though I arrived half an hour early, I was 104th in line! Crazy! Once it got moving, though, it really got moving. In the five seconds I was face to face with him, I told him I'd loved his breakfast speech and he said thank you.

After that, I pretty much just wandered around for a while more. It's interesting - Book Expo America doesn't really have that big of a social element. I mean, it's fun to talk to people in line and exchange business cards (and I'll definitely be revisiting and e-mailing the people I met), but I felt I spent a lot of time by myself. I mean, it's so big and there are so many people, that a lot of the social meet ups are sort of "ships passing in the night" stuff. Most of the socializing came from the Blogger conference, and I'd missed half of that. 

Although I did spend some quality time discussing just that with Jessica from Read React Review while in the line at MacMillan for Eve and Adam. She said that she'd heard the reason there was so much YA stuff at Book Expo is that the YA genre doesn't have its own major conference yet. There are writers' cons for Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Romance, Mystery - and yet not for YA. There's a lot of cross-promoting because YA can fall into the categories of sci-fi and romance, for instance, but no conference specifically for that genre. 

We also both expressed our disappointment in the BEA Book Bloggers conference. If I decide to go next year (and that's still a big, major if), I might go to the UnCon instead. 

All in all, Wednesday was a much lower-key day. All the frenetic running around, gawking, networking (giving my card and introducing myself as a blogger to publishers) and discovery happened on Tuesday. I felt separated from a lot of it - I'm not really in the industry, so I felt like more of a spectator. I left early to rest up before my Broadway show.

My total Wednesday swag:

While I wanted to join Katiebabs and Jessica for dinner, the insane New York traffic wouldn't allow it - I needed to have supper and get back in time to see the show, so I had the cute, flirty concierge suggest an Italian restaurant, which I ended up walking to after my (violent, profanity-spewing) cab driver landed us in a traffic gridlock.

It was called Becco, and it was a lovely restaurant. It was cozy, with warm colours, gold and red wall paper, well-lit without being too bright, with very friendly and attentive waiters. They set me up at a table for one, with a bread basket and a bowl of olives, and another bowl of olive oil-drizzled vegetable mash that was astonishingly good. I had a delicious Caesar salad and ordered the lamb - I wasn't able to finish all of it but I just wanted to mention it because while I was there, I had such a great time. Everything was delicious and all the staff were so attentive. It was nice to just sit there and people watch.

Then off I went to see Nice Work If You Can Get It - starring Matthew Broderick! It was wonderful and cheered me up immensely - although it was no Book of Mormon. The live performance and the jokes and physical comedy made this show - but the songs, while toe-tapping, well-performed, and appropriate for the show, were not at all memorable despite being apparently timeless Gershwin numbers

And then more sleep! More to come later!

BEA Day Two: Books, Books, Books

Day Two went much better - I went against my instinctual resistance against taking Pills For No Reason and swallowed two Benadryl the night before to ensure a good night's sleep, and woke up feeling much better.

So today was the Book Expo itself, and I was prepared. I took my purse, my water bottle, and the smaller, empty rolling suitcase I'd packed inside my larger rolling suitcase and took the shuttle to the Javits Center.

The place was enormous and they had special designated areas where you could check your suitcase for $3 and come back to refill it as much as you wanted.

There were two entrances to the Exposition Center - one had an enormous long line of people waiting until the doors opened at nine, and the other only had about a dozen people. I choose the shorter one - which really didn't make much difference. Apparently the right-hand entrance was more popular because it opened closer to the Big Six publishers' booths, but it was faster be the twelfth one in left-hand entrance and just walk over to the Big Six then wait around at the back of the right-hand line. And while I waited, I had a lovely chat with some librarians from Canton, Maine - one of whom got her Master's at my hometown university and was inspired by our School of Library Sciences to become a librarian.

But back to Book Expo! The librarian (whose name I shall remember once I paw through all my business cards at the end of this trip) gave me a lot of good tips - like how most of the free piles of ARCs are put out in the morning and how the Expo really calms down in the afternoon, which is a good time for socializing and networking.

So when those doors opened, I took off like a rocket! I found out the map I made was less than helpful in nearly all respects but it was really easy to find the bigger publishers because of their large banners and displays.

I have to admit, before BEA, I searched for pictures of the exposition center and never could find very many that weren't "official." I wondered if cameras weren't allowed on the exposition floor. Nope - rather, I found out that, at least on the first day, you'll spend too much time running around and dodging people and standing in line and looking at everything to even think about taking your camera out of your purse.

There is seriously SO MUCH to look at. The Big Six publishers (MacMillan, Penguin, Random House, Simon and Schuster, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins) all had enormous booths and lots of giveaways. I stuck mainly to YA but there were a lot of lit fic titles that looked excellent, too. Pretty soon, I definitely needed to secure my swag in my checked luggage - twice!

I also stood in line for about forty-five minutes to get an autographed copy of Cathrynne M. Valente's The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There! Definitely one of my must-have ARCs! And Cathrynne Valente was so nice!

Lunch was a hideously expensive and greasy pizza - not the wisest choice, I suppose, but it was delicious. Had a headache sometime after lunch, so I decided to head back with a cab - but I was in a much better mood. I was productive, I'd networked (I passed my card out to a lot of different publishers, saying I was a blogger who was interested in YA, fantasy, romance and literary fiction), and I'd gotten lots of free books.

After another nap, I felt well enough to return to the Javits for the Meet the Apocalypsies panel - where several authors whose debut novels came out this year assembled in one room to talk and sign swag for fans, while cookies and promotional doodads (bracelets, bookmarks, etc.) were served. And every fifteen or so minutes they'd hold a draw for prize packs of their books. Met Ana from the Booksmugglers there, and Janicu, and Jessica from Read React Review - and fangirled over two of the ladies from Forever Young Adult.

The panel was interesting - a good idea, and well-executed - except it might have gone better in a room without quite so many chairs. People had to squeeze around them and twist around while sitting in them and all in all it was very cramped and hot. At the same time, it was a great idea and I talked to a lot of cool authors - including Leanna Renee Hieber, who has ESCAPED THE DEBT-RIDDEN CLUTCHES OF DORCHESTER, PRAISE JESUS! She's now got new books with a far better publisher, even though Dorchester still hasn't fully paid up for her other ones!

And finally - I won one of the prize packs! Which included Hieber's Darker Still and Emily Danforth's The Miseducation of Cameron Post, which has been on my wishlist since forever. After lots of chatting, it was back to the hotel room for a delicious supper of Backpack Granola Bar, after which I cabbed it out to the Jefferson Market Library for the Teen Author Carnival.

The Teen Author Carnival was a fantastic event. While I'm sure the Book Expo facilitated the ENORMOUS number of YA Authors being all in the same vicinity, it was a separate event. Lots of cool YA authors were there - the fabulous Hannah Moskowitz, Tom Pollock, Kody Keplinger - I mean, hot damn, some of those authors are young. I need to step up my game with my novel already! There were a couple of very interesting panels and some nice prizes, and the Jefferson Market Library, in the Village, is gorgeous.

More posts to come!

Getting Ready for BEA

This year, I decided not return to the Romance Writers of America National Conference. I've gone for three years, had a great time, but genre-wise, I'm moving on. I still love romance, continue to read romance, and my books will definitely have romantic elements, but I'm broadening my reading horizons.

And so I became interested in Book Expo America. For several reasons:

1. It's about the publishing industry as a whole, and thus all genres of books are represented
2. It's affiliated with a Book Blogger Convention, which I will also be attending - along with several other talented bloggers of whom I am crazy-jealous.
3. It's in New York, currently my Favourite City in the World. Which gives me another excuse to explore the museums (like the Morgan Library), Central Park, and Broadway (Nice Work If You Can Get It this year!).
4. It is substantially, substantially cheaper than RWA Nationals. 

But it's also a very, very big conference, quite easy to get lost in, to get overwhelmed in, and quite honestly the Book Expo website is not always the most helpful or organized of internets. I'm frankly a little terrified. So I did some searching and digging and followed the #BEA12 hashtag on Twitter, and found a real gem of a blogger who handily gathers a host of other bloggers' tips and tricks into one easy post. I've also been asking around the blogo- and Twitterspheres for interesting tips. Given what I've learned, my plan is thus: 

1. The Soles of My Feet Are Reserved for Baby Ducks Only: One of the most unanimous tips is to wear comfortable footwear. The Javits Center is apparently 4 New York blocks long, so you will be frequently walking whilst carrying increasing amount of weight. Plus a lot of sightseeing in New York is more efficiently done on foot. I tried breaking in new sandals a few weeks ago and injured a tendon in my heel, leading to a frenzy of worrying and WebMDing. My $100 sandals were a bust, as were the $300 Beautifeel shoes (which I thankfully already had at the back of my closet), but I unexpectedly found salvation in a $37 pair of backless sandals from Payless.

2. I'm bringing extra luggage. I did a little research - I found out Air Canada's charge for extra luggage up to 50 pounds in weight is $35. I went to Canada Post and found out shipping a 50 pound box of books between New York and My Home Town is around $100 (I think, neither Canada nor US Post is very helpful about the cost of ground shipping). You do the math. In my case, to accommodate my expected loot, I'll be packing lightly, and I'll either bring an extra wheeling suitcase, or a collapsible dufflebag to fill with books and check in as extra baggage on the way back (this also means I won't be charged an extra $35 on the way there).

3. I'm bringing my own eats. I expected to do this anyways - as someone with a nut allergy, it's always good to have a least some food I can trust. And apparently the food at the Javits is crazy-expensive to boot. I'll also pack my water bottle.

4. I'll be checking my greed at the door. Or at least, trying to. Just because something is free, doesn't mean it's good - it's also not actually free. For every book I take, I'll have to haul it around in a heavy tote bag for a good portion of the day, drag it from the Javits Center, and pay extra to have it put on a plane. And then Customs! And then it'll take up valuable space in my teeny-tiny apartment! So I have to make sure it's something I want. As well, if I take a book just because it's free - it means there's one less book for the attendees who would really want it.

One blogger actually wrote (paraphrasing) "Nobody will be offended if you pick up a book, read the back, and then put it back down." I'm one of those people who needed to hear that. At conferences, I used to fear that publishers or authors would be hurt if I "rejected" their novel right in front of them. At BEA, they know it's just not your cup of tea, and that there are 100 readers behind me who are searching for exactly that cup of tea.

5. I've started using an eReader! One of the tips I've read is to bring an eReader instead of books to amuse myself on the plane. The rationale being - more room to bring books back! As it turns out, my mother received a Kobo Vox as a gift but realized she ultimately preferred reading on her iPad, so she lent the Vox to me to try out. I'll admit, there's a part of me that feels I'm betraying the beautiful paper books lining my shelves. But! I'm doing this so that I can bring more paper books back. As it is, I'll be the one reading Where It Began by Ann Stampler and The Famous Heroine/The Plumed Bonnet by Mary Balogh on the plane.

6. I'm putting my phone on Airplane Mode. I looked up a Data Roaming package for my Blackberry, but it's just a discount. So instead of my phone bill being eyeball-hemorrhagingly expensive, it would just be exorbitantly expensive. Yay? According to experts and previous Book Expo attendees - the reception in the Javits is infamously terrible and spotty. So what's the point? My hotel room comes with free internet, so I'll update after hours.

7. I'm going to continue talking to people! Yes, I said continue. I'm great at talking to strangers and exchanging business cards (mine are purple and pink this year), I am less so at continuing correspondence after the conference. So I'm going to talk everyone's faces off, write notes on the back of their business cards, then e-mail them to continue talking their faces off!

8. I'll be packing light, but right. All the tip pages I've seen are telling people to pack light, but a lot of them also emphasize that what you pack must also be nice. The unspoken dress code at BEA is business casual and a couple of bloggers have outright said that although jeans technically can be worn, you'll get treated better and taken more seriously in more professional clothing.

9. I'm bringing small bills. Past attendees have warned that a lot of the books aren't technically free - booths often ask for small donations in return. It's also nice to have ones and twos for tipping cab drivers and buying hot dogs (there's apparently an awesome hot dog cart right outside the Javits). HOWEVER, if you are like me, a native of a reasonable country with multicoloured and easily identifiable money (Canada), be extra careful when handing out bills because American money is ALL GREEN. I know! Stupid, right? One of my Canuck friends accidentally tipped a waitress with a fifty and was too polite to ask for it back.

10. I'm going with the flow. A lot of the tips have people making elaborate multi-highlighted spreadsheets and detailed calendars and ... I can't do that. There's just too much going on. There's apparently a list on Edelweiss of all the books to be found at BEA, but I don't know when or where they'll be given out - and besides, I'm not here (entirely) for the books. I have definitely entered my ultimate BEA experiences and events and autographings into my Blackberry Calendar, but I also don't want the experience to be like a grocery trip - making a detailed list of everything and then going and picking it up.

Me? I've decided I'm going to explore. Again, my ultimate Must Dos are in my calendar, and my fave publishers' booths will be marked out on my BEA floorplan, but I plan to spend most of my time walking around, looking, talking to people and publishers, and reading the backs of what books I find. All these books will be released eventually and the vast majority of them will wind up at my local library.

What about you? Are you going to BEA? Does it sound like I have the right idea, or am I way off my rocker? Any other tips and tricks?