BEA 2016: Day 3

      The third and final day of BEA 2016 began at 4:15am on the Friday, this is because I really wanted a ticket to the last Marissa Meyer signing/ Heartless drop. So at 5:30am I made it to the ticket line to wait with the others who had already lined up, the ticket drop was at 8am. I was roughly 20th in line, from what I had heard there was going to be 100-150 tickets, so I had thought that I'd be good to go. Once 8am came, and the drop line opened for business, the first 3 people in line got tickets then they were out. How could that be right? Well, apparently all the other tickets were taken when people paid for fast passes/first in line passes, something that had sold out when I finally bought my BEA pass. (Fast Passes, guaranteed you advance tickets so that you didn't have to wait in line. When buying the pass, you get 3 passes to ticketed lines of your choice.) When I finally got to the front of the line, not wanting to have gotten up super early for no reason I grabbed a ticket to Alexandra Bracken. Feeling super disappointed, I went to the entrance line to wait till 9:00am when everyone was let onto the floor. 

   Having a drop at 9:30am, Stephanie and I headed straight to the Random House booth for the drop of The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon. We didn't have to wait long until the drop happened. Right after the drop happened, Stephanie ran off to the Friday Three Dark Crowns drop, and since I didn't have anything until 10am I lingered a bit. And lucky I did, because no more than 5 minutes after Stephanie ran away did Nicola Yoon walk by. Being the sneaky girl that I am, I ran up to her to ask her to sign my copy of The Sun is Also a Star. From there I walked happily towards the Alexandra Bracken line.

Alexandra Bracken

   At the line a few great things happened, the first being that I met Asma, who was such a sweetie and delight to talk too! And second being that the other lady I was talking, overheard me talking to Asma about how I didn't get a ticket to Marissa, and offered me her advance pass to Marissa that she wasn't going to use, I started tearing up right on the spot. It was the nicest gesture, and honestly it made BEA for me.

Marissa Meyer

   Once Bayram, joined me in line for Alexandra Bracken, I could not shut up about how excited I was to see Marissa. Eventually we reached the front of the line, and were finally able to meet Alexandra. Having just read the first 2 books in her Darkest Minds series, we had a great little convo about it!

   From there I rushed to the Marissa Meyer signing line, where I almost cried again from excitement. I had to wait roughly an hour but in the end it was worth it. I was a blabbering mess when I finally got to the front of the line, my smile in the pictures that were taken, looks gigantic and I could not stop rambling on about how my blog was in the Cress paperback. I couldn't have felt anymore excited, I hope Marissa didn't just think I was a weirdo or anything ha!

    After the Marissa signing (11am), I had nothing planned until 1pm. So I wandered around with Stephanie, looking for trouble and more exciting things. This was after I started tearing up again in front of Stephanie and her mom about Heartless.

Veronica Roth

Leigh Bardugo

   With this aimless wandering we discovered a wild Veronica Roth, author of Divergent (We really just spotted her at her booth), a wild Leigh Bardugo, author of Shadow and Bone, (Okay, so actually she was having lunch with Alexandra Bracken, Kami Garcia, author of Beautiful Creatures, and Amie Kaufman, author of Illuminae, but we were too polite to intrude, that was until they were done eating of course;), and finally some *interesting* photos of each other were taken. Then I received a text, my friend Kristie, some of you already know her previously from Ohana Reads, knew that while in the states I wouldn't have any data, I would only have whatever wifi I could find, so she came to my rescue. Apparently Jay Kristoff had tweeted that the first three people to find him and tell him a secret password (Never Forget), would get a signed ARC of his upcoming release Nevernight. This particular ARC wasn't available or being featured at BEA. Stephanie being a super fan of his, we just had to hunt him down. So we spent the next hour or so looking for him. 

   Eventually 1pm rolled around, and I was off to the ARC drop and signing of Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco. And boy was she a sweetie! Debut authors when they're nervous about seeing their *children* sent our into the world is the sweetest thing. 

   Then rushing occurred, because my next signing was at 1pm as well, and that signing was for Eleanor Herman, Amy Lukavics, Keira Drake, author of The Continent, and Jennifer L. Armentrout for The Problem With Forever. Having already met Eleanor and Amy the day before, I was really there for Keira and Jennifer. I've been a huge fan of Jennifer since YALLFest 2014, so I just had to get an ARC of her latest book. I also had to go to at least one of her signings because I promised my sister that I would get her ARC of Don't Look Back signed for her! It was AMAZING getting to see her again!

Jennifer L. Armentrout 

   Finally, with only having one thing left on my schedule for the day and it being 1:30pm, I headed to my 3:00pm book drop for Gemina by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman. I was there a little early huh? Well, apparently an "unofficial" line had already started at 1:00pm. People really wanted that ARC. And so I, along with Stephanie and her mom stayed. Everyone taking turns leaving and going around places, always making sure we had at least one person saving our spots in line. I left only, perhaps 5 times. Twice, for random book drops that people around us told us about, once for a picture with Ransom Riggs and Tahereh Mafi, (Authors of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, and Shatter Me) and twice for two more special things. One being A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir.

Me, Ransom Rigs, Tahereh Mafi, Stephanie

Sabaa Tahir

   At 2:00pm the signing/drop for A Torch Against the Night began, but because it was a Random House/Penguin event, the tickets for the event were given out an hour before the signing, the same time I was at the Harlequin ladies signing. So I had no hope of snagging a ticket. Low and behold, I heard a whisper from someone while I was waiting in the Gemina line, a whisper that they had left over ARCs from the signing. So I jumped up and ran to the line, by the time I got there, there were a few people already lined up in front of me, but I made it. I didn't even realize that Sabaa was still there signing them, so along with the ARC, I was able to get it personalized. It was pretty great! I still remember that thrill of running to the line and actually making it.

Steph and Jay Kristoff

   The last special thing that happened was that while getting up to find Stephanie, I saw her with, guess who? Jay Kristoff, that lucky girl had found him and gotten one of the ARCs of Nevernight. I swear she was crying, she was so happy. Pictures were taken, and then tons of people started to crowd him. Apparently he had pre-signed the ARCs just in case he was going to be too busy to sign them later, but Steph was lucky enough to get hers personalized too. I will never forget the moment when he asked who to sign it to and she said Doodle, because right after she said that, he did a double take and replied, "Doodle? That means something totally different in Australia." I snorted a little too loudly after that, and continued to tease Steph about it for the rest of the trip.


   Then back to the Gemina line we went, and finally we were able to get those ARCs. (Here is Jay Kristof's video of the Gemina line) Two Kristoff ARCS within an hour of each other, I swear Stephanie was in Heaven at this point. My Marissa Meyer ARC was her Kristoff ARCs. It was the perfect end to a perfect day.

   And that pretty much concluded BEA 2016 for me, of course the next day BookCon 2016 was going to happen but as far as Book Expo America was concerned, it was over for me.

   Here is my book haul for BEA Day 3!

   An that concludes BEA 2016 for me!

 If you haven't seen my other posts from BEA you can see those here:

Maggie Stiefvater Signing

BEA: Day 1

BEA: Day 2
BookCon 2016
Sarah J. Maas Signing

   Until the next post!