Goals Accomplished:
- Met a new publicist!  Rowan of Tuttle Publishing, we talked about asian books (they have a fab-o lineup of kid's books to teach Korean, Chinese and Japanese culture and language)
- Met two new bloggers (three technically), Emilie of A Beautiful Madness and Katherine of The Lady Critic's Library.  The third Tegs met, Jessica of the Midnight Bookworm and then I got to hang with for a bit while Tegs was off being herself.
- I hit the Orbit Booth :D

Fangirl Moments:
- Met Eloisa James and Maya Rodale--two historical romance authors I adore!
- Got to chat for a lengthy bit of time with Maria V. Snyder*
- Stephanie Chong (Where Demons Fear to Tread), remembered me!!**
- Rachel Vincent remembered me!!!

Interesting Moments:
- Caught up with Darla and Sandy, which man we had a lot to catch up on (Darla moved to New Mexico!) cause I suck at that sort of thing
- Ran into Pam (of bookalicious), who its so funny we re-introduce ourselves to each other every year 'cause we never look the same as the previous year
- Swore a Blood Feud against Brianna (of BAM Book Reviews).  The details of which are secret.
- My ever loving sister Tegs got me a signed copy of Princess Academy 2: Palace of Stone.  She's grown up hearing how I met Shannon Hale my very first BEA and how special that was, so she knew how much I wanted it.

Books Picked Up:
This year I let my sister handle the galley drops and random publisher booth pick-ups and concentrated on the books that were either signed copies (to replace my home unsigned copies), wishlist books/ARCs or sounded interesting (not too many of them I didn't know about)



Finished Books:
- Blazing Midsummer Nights by Leslie Kelly
- Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder (signed)
- Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson (signed)
- The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey
- A Night Like This by Julia Quinn
- The Duke is Mine by Eloisa James (signed)
- Shadow Bound by Rachel Vincent (signed)
- A Tale of Two Lovers by Maya Rodale (signed)
- The Tattooed Duke by Maya Rodale (signed)
- Samurai Awakening by Benjamin Martin
- Partials by Dan Wells (signed)
- Jacob T. Marley by R. William Bennett (signed)
- Phantom Evil by Heather Graham (signed)

ARC's/Uncorrected Proofs:
- The Ugly Duchess by Eloisa James (signed)
- The Demoness of Waking Dreams by Stephanie Chong (signed)
- Mark of the Witch by Maggie Shayne (signed)
- Rift by Andrea Cremer (signed)
- Speechless by Hannah Harrington
- Prodigy by Marie Lu
- Feedback by Robison Wells (signed)
- The Dark Unwinding by Sharon Cameron (signed)
- Heaven Should Fall by Rebecca Coleman
- Venom by Fiona Paul
- Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale (signed)
- The Blessed by Tonya Hurley (signed)

You can ignore Blackwood in the corner, I had that from previously.  I of course also got swag, some bags and pins and stuff.  I missed a couple I was really interested in (Ten by Gretchen McNeil and Confessions of a Murder Suspect by James Patterson...I will trade my soul for either by the by), but by in large I made up for it in books I've wanted to read or authors I've wanted to meet.

* Little known fact--Maria V. Snyder is the first author I went to a signing for (I was a complete spaz, could barely say two words) way back in 2007.  For a few years I was able to attend all her tri-state local signings, like a stalker yes, and she remains one of my top ten favorite authors I've found in the last five years.  It was great catching up with her and getting to spend some time chatting :)


** No joke I got the first book (Where Demons Fear to Tread) and finished it in about a day.  Sent my review off and I enjoyed it.  Well Stephanie, upon seeing my name and hearing my blog name, remembered me!  That made me very happy to hear!


I didn't make it to Teen Author Carnival--first the weather made me not want to (raining on/off), then the fact I was massively hungry so the migraine I had building from allergies and the brightness of the Javits had my eyes blurring in pain.  So I went back to the hotel with my roomies, changed, and then we went to the Thai/Japanese place down the road for dinner.

I missed Karsten Knight (so of course my friend sent me a picture of them together :sigh: ) but I hope to see him at the Rebel Writers Signing at Books of Wonder Weds night.

How did y'all do for the first official day of Book Expo America?