Welcome to BEA Blitz!  Today I'm interviewing Hannah who runs The Girl in a Cafe!  Hannah is coming to BEA from Australia (my 2nd favorite country after South Korea) and I can't wait to meet her!  Don't know what BEA Blitz is?  Head over to my BEA Blitz Master Post to find out and see who else is being interviewed!

How did you originally hear about Book Expo America(BEA)?

BEA cropped up a couple of months after I first started blogging and at first I was like, "What is this Book Expo?" When people told me what it was (books, books, publishers, authors and books), it was like Christmas had come round again, and I vowed that one year I'd go!

What are you looking forward to the most? Dreading the most?

I think just the general atmosphere of being around other bookish people on a massive scale is a high in itself. Meeting up with both authors and bloggers I've only chatted to on Twitter etc as well will be amazing. And am I a bad person if I say books? I'm sure everyone is excited for books!

I'm dreading seeing how much it will cost me to send all my books back home, but I'm going to worry about that another time :D I'm also a bit overwhelmed with everything, but that will disappear when I'm there! I've got this mental image of that scene from Mean Girls, where the school goes crazy after the Burn Book is set loose in my head when I think about people and free books. 

Which author would you sacrifice a limb to meet at BEA?

I still haven't really digested the list of authors that are going properly, but when I heard that Veronica Roth was attending, I think I had a spazz attack. Definitely some limb sacrificing will go on there, I think! And on that note, checking out the list of autographing authors, apparently Cassie Clare is going to be there. Hell, I'm not sacrificing a limb, I'll be sacrificing my first child to breathe out a hi to Cassie. :D Ditto for Richelle Mead if she is there!

Is this your first time in NYC? What do you plan to do while not at BEA?

It's my very first time in NYC! And I am so excited! I've got tourist days planned for after BEA, so unless it's doing a bit of sightseeing with my BEA hotel buddy or people I meet up with there, I won't be doing much while I'm at BEA. However I am definitely excited to see the Statue of Liberty up close, as well as hitting up Broadway and the Empire State Building! Oh, and the bookshops :)

What has been the single most practical advice you've seen about attending BEA?

Comfy, worn in shoes and a bag that can withstand time. My bag is a Mary Poppins bag, but it's compartmentalized (I'm a bit of an organization freak when it comes to travelling), so I'm prepared! I think those are the two most practical things I've learnt so far, as well as be prepared to queue. I think if you are in the right frame of mind for these sorts of things (like being in a queue for a long time), then it'll be much easier.

Are there any books or authors you want to tell everyone about that you're REALLY excited for?

I think any author that I meet at BEA I'll be wanting to Tweet/Instagram/Shout at the top of my lungs about. I'm really excited about These Broken Stars by Aime Kaufman, Crown of Midnight by Sarah J Maas, The Fiery Heart by Richelle Mead, and RL Stine (just so I can tell him I traded my collection of Goosebump novels for a pair of Rollerblades. It's been a life long dream!)

Thank you so much Hannah for taking the time to be with us!  I met Hannah through the Book Expo America Goodreads group--but more then that she's my hero this year because she found me my Kylie Chan books.  Take note--there are perks to befriending book obsessed folk like yourself who live in the country you buy a good chunk of your books from.