BEA Recap: Day Three

Kiersten's Highlights

Day three of BEA was absolutely incredible! After waking up before dawn to go to day two, Marlon and I decided to sleep a little longer and meet up with Noor and Amrutha around 7 before we went to the Children's Book Author Breakfast at 8.

The breakfast was so much fun! It started with Nathan Lane, who is hilarious, talking about his career and the inspiration for his book. After that, Oliver Jeffers was also hilarious and generally awesome. He even did a little drawing demo for us, which was really cool. Next was the person WLABB was really there to see: Rainbow Rowell. Rainbow Rowell is basically one of the best humans and she was so funny. She talked about all her time working in journalism and the world's largest popcorn ball. She also talked about being a writer and eating cheese in a cave. She's just the best, and she also wants you to know she has this book called Attachments and that it's pretty cool. Lastly, James Patterson spoke. He was talking about all his philanthropic endeavors, his new imprint, and his experience with film and television people. I think my favorite thing he said was about how he had experienced being poor, middle class, and rich, and after sampling the three, he preferred being rich - I mean, why wouldn't you want to be rich?

After the breakfast, we headed onto the showroom floor and started the frenzy to get all the books! I was really happy because I got to get basically everything I set out for yesterday. Some of the best things I got are Soundless by Richelle Mead, Signs Point to Yes by Sandy Hall, Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, and Tonight the Streets are Ours by Leila Sales! I'd also like to give a special shoutout to Liza Wiemer for being the absolute sweetest person ever. I wasn't sure I'd be able to make it to her Hello? signing but I did and she is actually the sweetest and I'm not over it.

All in all, BEA 2015 was absolutely incredible and so successful! I'm so happy with my experience: from the books to all the great people I met, it made BEA 2015 the best BEA I've been to thus far! Hopefully I'll be able to go to BEA again next year when it's in Chicago (fingers crossed).

To see more of the fun the bloggers of WLABB had at BEA yesterday, and for pictures since words are sometimes boring, check out our BEA hashtag on Twitter: #WLABBtakesBEA!

Also, we'll be at BookCon for the next two days, so let us know if you're around and check out our BookCon hashtag: #WLABBtakesBookCon!

Marlon's Highlights

And on the third day of BEA-mas,

THERE WAS SO MUCH. My feet have left the building.

Amrutha's Highlights

Omg. BEA Day Three was INSANE. Like nevermind the fact that I yet again took the 4:27 train and stuck it out all day on my feet, let's focus on these facts:

1) I got like, every single book I realllly wanted. Like literally, everything. Shoutout to Kiersten and some hella good planning. Also shoutout to me for having really good line-standing skills.

2) I MET MY IDOLS FOREVER, MINDY KALING AND MEG CABOT. Loving everything tbh, those women are icons, whether they represent something that touches my life in a very real way now, or did especially when I was a young and angsty tween.

3) Did we talk about how I got everything I wanted and met hella people?

4) JLA remembered who I was/////recognized me///////whatever they're the same thing.

I'm like, 100% convinced I paid back all of this greatness in karma by talking to/taking a book from/standing in a nonexistent line for an author who wrote about composting (which is real interesting I'm sure, just not relevant to the blog).

Okay, so I have some funny and awkward and really hilar stories from today (also a rant or two) but I literally am so exhausted I might just fall apart at the seams, so I'll cover them and post pictures in our overall book conference post. Keep on the look out for me on twitter and come say hi if you see me!!!!

Noor's Highlights

Every day of BEA brought a different focus, and today's, for me, was signings. There were so many people there that I really wanted to see with conflicting hours, so prioritizing signings was rough for me, and I missed a few really desirable signings, but for some I will have the opportunity to see the person tomorrow, and for those that I won't, I'll live because the signings I did go to were the ones I cared about a lot personally.

Let's just start with the fact that I met Mindy Kaling and absolutely adored the few seconds I had with her. Standing on line for her signing took out a very large chunk of my day and I'm so terribly upset Felicia Day was signing at the same time because I want to meet her as well but I'm hoping to catch her at bookcon.

I was also crying internally over the rest of my signings, including David Levithan, Rainbow Rowell, and Meg Cabot. Everyone was just so cool. Meg Cabot wore a tiara so you already know we're on the same page and meeting her was so sweet and adorable. David Levithan made a face in our selfie. Also, Maragaret Stohl remembered me from the day before so basically I am #goals.

Overall, I think that even though I didn't get a huge book haul I'm okay with it because I was doing targeted signings and I know for sure I want all the books I got.

Oh, and the children's author breakfast was pretty cool. Rainbow Rowell was phenomenal as expected but Oliver Jeffers was there for The Day the Crayons Quit -- a personal favorite book -- and gave a spectacularly cute speech with lots of visual aids on the screen so that was pleasant.

Overall, I think all of BEA was successful and went very well and I'm ready for whatever BookCon throws my way.