BEA 2012 Book Blogger Convention Day 1

BEA 2012 Book Blogger Convention

Jennifer Weiner, Julie Kagawa, Ally Condie, Amy Sohn & New Bloggers

Today was the first day of BEA 2012!

I attended the BEA Book Blogging Convention and had an absolutely blast. I met so many awesome people: amazing authors, other book bloggers, and Twitter friends in the flesh! Could a girl ask for more?

The day started with checking in at registration and receiving ‘swag bags.’ These bags contained a random selection of books from featured authors that were at the convention. A huge thanks to publishers and authors for being so generous!

For breakfast, we went “speed dating” with authors. Different authors rotated tables and sat to talk for about fifteen minutes. One of the favorite authors I met was Amy Sohn.

Amy was discussing her book Motherland: “Rebecca Rose, whose husband has been acting aloof, is tempted by the attentions of a former celebrity flame; Marco Goldstein, saddled with two kids as his husband Todd goes on a business trip, turns to sex with strangers for comfort; Danny Gottlieb, a screenwriter on the cusp of a big break, leaves his wife and children to pitch a film (and meet young women) in Los Angeles; fallen sanctimommy Karen Bryan Shapiro, devastated by her husband’s infidelity and abandonment, attempts a fresh start with a hot single dad; and former A-List movie star Melora Leigh plots a star turn on Broadway to revive her Hollywood career.”

This book sounded so intriguing, and Amy is a complete breath of fresh air. She wanted to write a book about how people really act in relationships in the real world. It was so nice to hear because I hate when characters in books do things that no person in the real world would. It makes me want to put the book down. I will definitely be reading this book!

I hunted down Ally Condie because I just had to meet her! I was looking through authors that would be at the convention, and read the books that sounded most intriguing.

When I read the blurb for Matched by Ally Condie, I couldn’t resist her Dystopian novel: “Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her. So when Xander’s face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate… until she sees Ky Markham’s face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. The Society tells her it’s a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she’s destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can’t stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society’s infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.”

I definitely recommend everyone reading Ally Condie’s Matched, and I can’t wait to start the second book in the series, Crossed. She was so sweet, and it was awesome to get to talk to her.

After breakfast, Jennifer Weiner was the keynote speaker. Her presentation was absolutely hilarious. Jennifer is so funny and quirky, and someone I would love to hang out with. She was 100% her true self.

Jennifer was discussing how she has been blogging since 2001, and what happened along the way. The best advice that Jennifer had was that “No one can hurt your feelings without your permission… No matter what you blog about, there will always be someone there to smack you down.” If someone says something bad about your work, it’s only negative if you let it in and truly effect you. I thought this was absolutely perfect, and something everyone in the room related to.

The way you have to approach blogging according to Jennifer is to “Be as transparent as possible… Dance like no one is watching, sing like no one is listening, and Tweet like your mother isn’t online.” She had the room in an absolute uproar. Her speech resonated with everyone in the room, and was absolutely fantastic.

After Jennifer’s keynote was our lunch break. Which meant another round of awesome author speed dating!

And I got to hang out with Julie Kagawa! She was so kind and one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. She was so adorable I just wanted to take her home!

Julie was talking about how hard it was for her to get published. It took her years, and her first work to this day has never been published. It wasn’t until she switched genres that she was published. Fantasy YA fit Julie perfectly and she now has two series in the genre.

As I’ve never attending BEA before, I wasn’t sure what to expect. All of the other book bloggers I met were so awesome. It was great to be around other people who enjoyed the same things I did. You know who you ladies are ; )

As much fun as today was, I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!

New Blogs [for me, at least] To Check Out:

• JulzReads [follow her! this chick is awesome]
• Lazy Day Books
• Midnight Book Girl
• The Polished Bookworm
• Teen Lit Rocks