BEA 2016 Recap: Day 3 Friday!!

Hiya there peeps!

Back again with the final BEA recap post for Friday and my leaving on Saturday.

FRIDAY

Friday started as usual, waking up waaay too early (jet lag is getting old dammit) and it worked to my advantage this time since my plan was to go super early so I could line up at the ticked authors area to try and get tickets for the awesome Maggie Stiefvater! Nikki was 100% with me on that, so we headed early to the floor, leaving Katie & Angie to sleep in a lil after their late night.

After quite the wait, we got our tickets and joined the entry line where I once again chatted with my roomies, formed the plan, chatted with other bloggy friends and as soon as the doors opened we headed towards the Macmillan booth to ensure a ticket for Caraval's signing and as soon we got them, we headed to the line for Maggie's signing.

Meeting Maggie Stiefvater was one of my highlights of Friday itself and BEA, she's quite awesome and she was cackling with glee when I was telling her about my stress eating while reading The Raven King!

Once I got my signed hardcover of Raven King (damn, that means I need to collect all the US hardcovers now too, since I already have the UK paperbacks), I went to take a lil walk around here and there before heading for the line for Caraval!

Stephanie was absolutely lovely and she gave me a hug for my bloggy friend Kristen that couldn't attend BEA and for Roshani Chokshi! I got my ARC signed and I keep making all the grabby hands at it! Patience, I must learn patience! (and finish some eARCs I have started).

Then after that I had nothing till 1 PM for a drop of the Strange The Dreamer Sampler with swag, so decided to roam around.

And who did I meet while heading towards the Penguin booth to ask if Sabaa Tahir's signing would be ticketed? The ever so awesome and adorable Susan Dennard AND Amie Kaufman! Both recognized me and hugged me and we chatted a lil bit. I was so completely overwhelmed that I completely forgot to take pics with them both!! Photo proof or not, it's simply MADE MY DAY!!

I then returned to hang out with my bloggy friends while they waited for other books and it was the moment to TAKE ALL THE PICS!!

With Angie

With Sabrina

With Cassi, Nikki, Octavia & Michelle

With my dear Mel

Then my absentmindedness proved to be good for something because at what I thought was 20 to 1, I headed to the Hachette booth to see if they were forming a line for the drop and when I went to ask one of the ladies she handed me a ticket for the signing! My R2D2-with-no-numbers-watch had fooled me and it was quarter to 12! I got to be 4th in line, meet Laini Taylor and get my sampler & swag! Big thank you to the lady being me in line that was kind enough to take pics for me!

More roaming around happened, I went to check one of the  panels that were going on at the Downtown Stage and went to chat with Mel and she was chatting with David Arnold (author of Mosquitoland) that introduced himself and was super nice!

After that I went with Shelly to the hotel for a spell (it's so awesome to be able to just pop in and out like that) and then back to the floor, she went to Harlequin and I went to check the line for Sabaa Tahir that was already quite large! So I just sat there and prepared to wait for tickets first and then the actual signing!

I was lucky enough to have Cassi and Nikki dropping by to keep me company and saving my spot on the Gemina line that had already formed too! The wait was rather uneventful until I was getting quite close to the front of the line when I heard screaming coming from the other side of the Penguin booth, where the Gemina line had formed and I knew that Jay Kristoff had dropped by to visit!

So, once it was my turn, I met Sabaa, told her how much I had loved the first book, got my ARC of Torch Against The Night signed, Sabaa said she loved my leather cuff and I ran to the autographing area.

I had saved my First In Line Pass for the Kendare Blake signing of Three Dark Crowns, because I love her, she is awesome and I'm beyond excited for the book! I skipped the quite long line, hugged her, we made T-Rex arms, talked about the excitement for the book, got a pic taken and I smiled apologetically at the people waiting in line as I left.

And once again I power walked from the autographing area to the Penguin booth to the Gemina line and to meet Jay Kristoff! He's an awesome dude, gave me a hug and I told him I really had to get a photo with him because I had met Amie in the morning and had failed at that! He chatted with us people in the line, took pics and then made a video.

Yes, Jay Fucking Tall Kristoff!!

Then it was all a question of sitting there with roomies and bloggy friends to wait for 3 PM! While we waited my dear Britt said one of my most awesome things I've been told recently, she said "You make people happy, you make people smile" and she DID make me smile BIG! Miss you so much Britt!

Eventually 3 PM hit and I GOT MY HANDS ON THE BOOK I WAS NOT LEAVING THE COUNTRY WITHOUT!

After that most of my roomies were going back to the hotel but I wanted to go the panel with Susan Dennard, Kristen Simmons and Sarah Porter, moderated by Katie of MundieMoms. So I headed there and had an absolute blast! If I was excited about Vassa and Metaltown before, after the panel even more! And of course I'm bloody well dying for Windwitch!

After that back to the hotel to be absolutely lazy for a while and wait till it was time to go for the Blogger Dinner that Octavia and Whitley had organized!

The dinner was a lot of fun, spent time with my roomies (Octavia made me cry!!), chatting with Ironteeth Becca, drinking my beer and Angie's because for some reason she didn't want it. Then spent some time also chatting with Rashika, Mishma and Nori until I left with Cassi, because we both were pretty tired and needed to crash.

I'm not sure if it was a combination of me feeling a bit old lady-ish and the jet lag, but I never had the energy to try and make it to the later night fun!

And that was Friday!

 DAY 3 Haul

SATURDAY

Saturday I tried to sleep in and managed to sleep till 7 am and then gave up, so I got up to get ready to leave, even if I had already packed almost everything on Friday itself. 17 books, two samplers, swag and 3 more books and a yoga mat (that was NOT a BEA thing, it was a gift from my friends in Wisconsin!!).

 

Since Shelly and I had shuttles around the same time we went down together after saying goodbye to my most of my roomies (those that were awake at least), and once again Octavia almost made my cry my eyes out, dammit!

The trip to the airport was uneventful, I was lucky and the security line wasn't long and to kill time waiting, I started reading GEMINA!

It's the perfect read to wait because you get so immersed that time flies and you don't even notice! It's a brilliant read that caused me to cuss out loud during a flight startling both the flight attendant and my row mates and also caused a need for booze and extra chocolate... Page 505, you have been warned!!

Got home on Sunday, unpacked all my goodies and after having lunch with my parents I went to bed around 5 pm and woke up around 10 am the next day! ;)

Vacation over, pile of books that keep calling my name and missing my roomies so much!! I'm even more saddened because I'll be missing BEA 2017 since I'll be attending ApollyCon instead (and visiting Wizarding World & NASA since it's in Orlando).

BEA 2016 Recap: Day 2 Thursday!!

Hello there!

Continuing with the BEA recap, we're up to Thursday and the first full day at BEA, that was quite full from the very beginning for me, even if I had sacrificed a few signings to attend since I had got the ARCs on the day before!

I woke up ungodly early (again), tried to go back to sleep (again), for the most part failed (again) and ended up waking up to do some yoga! I made myself some tea on the coffee maker (thank goodness for hotel rooms with coffee makers, even if they lack kettles, at least it means there's no need of a do-over of last year's "shower tea") and waiting for the rest of the roomies to wake and get ready!

We went pretty early to the floor (7 am) and we started really appreciating the awesomeness that being in a hotel directly connected to the convention center is! We were really close to the front of the line, and the wise people at McCormick brought out the ropes to make the line orderly and nice! Something that never occured to the people at the Javits last year...

While we were waiting I met more of my bloggy friends and met Hafsah & Asma again and they had these super cute notebooks they were giving out if you had the word code they tweeted! I got me one and even if yellow is not my fave colour, the notebook is so perfect for me! (and any other bookworms that love tea!).

A bit more plotting and pondering happened while we waited and then at 9 as soon as the doors opened, we headed straight to the Macmillan booth to get the tickets for their morning signing(s).

There was a bit of a rush, but I refused on principle to run (after last year's RUN FOR TRUTHWITCH!!) but I managed to get my ticket for Metaltown and promptly joined the signing line. I was super lucky to meet Lori M Lee on said line and we spent the waiting time chatting!

While waiting in line I met again the lovely Patricia & Anasheh from FFBC Tours, both Patri and me are some of the rare Spanish bloggers and we've been chatting for a long time but we hadn't met yet till BEA, how crazy is that! Patri totally made my day when she handed me her Leigh Bardugo ticket because she had other signings she wanted to attend and didn't want the ticket to go to waste. Thank you so much Patri, I hope some serious good karma will go your way!

Then it was time to get Metaltown signed and to meet the lovely Kristen Simmons! I loved chatting with her and I'm really excited to read the book while listening to the soundtrack of Les Mis!!

Right after the signing I said bye to Lori and run to the forming line for Of Fire And Stars! Since I was very close to the start of the line of Metaltown, I was also very close to the front of the line for Of Fire And Stars and even a lot of people used their Front of the Line Pass for it (I really don't blame them, this a book we're all super excited for) which slowed the line quite a bit for us going regular, and the line ended up being cut because there weren't enough books. I was lucky enough to get my copy and to meet the so very lovely Audrey Coulthurst!

After getting the book signed and the lovely extra swag, I quickly headed to the signing line for Leigh Bardugo that was quiiiite loooong but luckily there were no issues since they had as many samplers as they had tickets! Meeting Leigh again was fantastic and the Macmillan people with her were lovely chatting with you and making sure they got pics if you wanted them! I'm probably not gonna read the sampler (TEASE!) but I so wanted to meet Leigh again!

After the Leigh signing I had nothing else until 1 pm when the drop for the afternoon Macmillan tickets would happen. And since I had nothing else in my list... I roamed around for a bit, spent time chatting with friends on other lines like the lovely Jenny from Supernatural Snark and her mum!

Then the wait for 1 PM started and there were some false starts at forming a line one both sides of the Macmillan booth, but they didn't allow any of them to become official and kept saying that they expected an orderly line to form at 1 PM, which anyone seeing the massive amount of people around the booth knew it was a clear impossibility... and it happened, what I call a MOB, and has been known as the Macmillan Stampede of 2016.

I was again refusing to run or push people on principle but I was moved along by the mass of people and ended up quite behind on the massive line, despite having been waiting for nearly an hour. Fortunately I managed to get the tickets for Marissa Meyer and Sarah Porter, so I have to thank my good karma for that!

After that rather messy ticket handing, the Macmillan people learnt fast and started organizing lines for all signings very early and very well, so big props there! I joined the line for Vassa in the Night and had my protein bars lunch while chatting with my roomies and other fellow bloggers that had survived the stampede.

Not only I got to meet Sarah Porter who is adorable and get my signed ARC but I also got to meet the awesome Ksenia Winnicki! Too bad we didn't take a pic together this time!

Once I got my Vassa I went onto joining the line for Marissa Meyer and Heartless and while waiting in line, my dear Britt came with a copy of Stalking Jack The Ripper and she told me that the lovely Kerri Maniscalco was signing them at the Hachette booth and there I run! I was so excited that I completely forgot to grab my phone so I could take a pic with her! She's so adorableee and lovely! I got my ARC signed and I'm still trying to restrain myself to read it right away!

Then I got my absolutely gorgeous edition of the Heartless ARC in a really fancy box and met the lovely Marissa Meyer again! No photo this time.

Then I went around a few booths, bumped into bloggers and roomies, grabbed a brownie at Harper and ended up returning there to wait with Jenny's mum for the 4 PM drop for Female of the Species, and after that... back to the hotel room!

My Day 2 haul!

 A bunch of my roomies were going to publisher parties but those of us uninvited stayed in one room, ordered food and ended up enjoying a lovely Hamilton singalong! There's video proof of that since Michelle seemed to be rather amused by our singing!

Most of my roomies were off to publisher parties, Nikki was the one that returned early and we ended up chatting books for a long while and she totally convince me that I needed to get Audible and listen to The Scorpio Races (and I'm doing just that next month!). ;)

BEA 2016 Recap: Day 1 Tuesday & Wednesday!

Hello there guys!!

Finally, my recap of my BEA 2016 trip is here!! It's been a few days in the making but BEA brain is a thing and if we add my vacation time, the blogging slump and coming back from vacation to real life and work... Well, it was bound to take a while!

Last year I did 3 recaps, one per day and this year it'll be the same format again! After trying to do all three days in one post and looking at the lenght of it and my overly verbose self... three posts it is!

All three of them filled to the brim with photos and my overly enthusiastic rambling about my amazing room mates, all the awesome peeps that I met, the brilliant authors I was lucky enough to meet and of course LE BOOKS!

TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY

On Tuesday I left Wisconsin where I had been staying with friends of mine to ride a bus to Chicago. Once I arrived at the hotel I met most of my bloggy friends and room mates doing the check-in already, which meant loads of squealing and hugging and happy noises to the surprise and moderate amusement of the Hyatt staff.

I've said it before and I will say it time and again, the best thing about BEA is always the people! I adore all my roomies and without them BEA wouldn't be a a tenth of how awesome it is! If you are planning to do BEA, make sure you do it with friends! I adore my BEA Duck Squad and I cannot wait till I can meet them all again!!

We're missing Michelle here!

So thank you so very much Angie, Becca, Britt, Cassi, Christina, Katie, Michelle, Nikki, Octavia, Rachael and Shelly!!

After getting settled in the rooms and a few lil hiccups, we all went on a walk to go shopping at Target. Yes, I'm always willing to go along for all that but I had no idea why we were going there, but people needed to buy some snacks and water... and we ended up filling our cart with that AND loads of booze... Adulting hard right there! Given that I had already packed snacks in advance, I settled for some water, boring one that I am.

I found this stand for sangría and that price hilarious!

After that we were all extremely hungry and wanted to go to Lou Malnati's for Chicago's famous Deep Dish pizza! We split in two groups, the ones that were so hungry (and a bit tired) that wanted to go now and the others that wanted to wait for a while. My jet lagged arse was hungry and tired so off we went! The wait at Lou Malnati's was looooong but holy smokes, the pizza was worth it!

 Om nom nom nom!!

Then back to the hotel room where we left Katie locked out of the room without realizing it... the stupid bolt fell a lil to the side and the door couldn't be open! Thank goodness for all of us rooming in the same floor!

Wednesday started with me waking up at ungodly hours (yaaaay jet lag!), trying to get some more sleep, failing, getting up and doing some yoga and then going for a Blogger breakfast at Yolk organized by the lovely Wendy from Book Scents where I had Potato Pancakes that were super yummy but couldn't eat them all (Americans, you have huge portions!!). From there we went to get our badges and then sat on the line to wait for the floor to open. The waiting time is always good to plan and see what drops might be and study the map to see where all the booths you want to visit are in relation to each other and , since I had no signings on my schedule for Wed.

As it happened there was a drop for Double Down by Gwenda Bond as soon as the doors opened so I went straight there! Then roaming around the booths to get their schedules and I ended up grabbing a few books that freed my Thursday schedule! I was quite lucky to get The Forgetting because right before the drop I had asked about it at the booth and they had no idea if there was gonna be a drop (WTF?!), also cheated a lil bit at the "roll the dice" game at Hachette because I really just wanted Blood For Blood, got my so very awaited A Shadow Bright and Burning (Penguin drop!) and asked about Ghostly Echoes at the booth and was so very lucky to be handed one copy! Harper's drop for Aerie was a bit of a mess, but no harm done (and they learnt from the experience!).

Also it was great that I met so many of my bloggy friends like Jenny, Mel, Hafsah & Asma, and many more!

Day 1 haul!!

 After all the excitement of the first day that wasn't as laid back as I was expecting but that was oh so very productive we all went for dinner at Shake Shack and oh boy CHEESE FRIES!! I understand why all my friends were so keen on it! Also, foreigner speaking here, those buzzers they give you so you can pick up your order when it's ready? Such a good idea!

Then after the food it was another trip to another Target, but on our way there we stopped at a souvenir store so I could get some shopping done and then we took an Uber back to the hotel and soon to bed for me because I was pretty much beaten and jet lag is a bitch!

US trip 2014: Chicago, the Windy City!!

Hello again guys!

Here's the second part of my trip to the US! I had started noticing that my suitcase was a bit small for ALL THE BOOKS and that I had to be very careful with my book shopping from now on! I already had 4 books and the suitcase was looking rather difficult to close!

I arrived in Chicago on Friday at nearly 4 pm but the traffic was quite mad and I was the last one in the shuttle to be left at the hotel. That also meant I had an interesting conversation with the driver, who told me that I shouldn't be surprised that people were nice to me when I go to places because I am a nice person. Context: I was telling him about how nice people were in Dublin when I went there 2 years back, and he said that it might not be that people are nice where I go, but that I'm a nice person and people react to that. All the conversation started when he was telling me about the river being dyed green for the St Patrick's Parade!

Checked-in and decided to have some dinner at the hotel restaurant and there and then I was reminded of how big the portions are in the US! Then I decided to enjoy my quite awesome room at the Holiday Inn and finish reading the latest Chicagoland Vampires book, Blood Games, to get in the right mindset to visit the Windy City!


Day 2: Meeting with Brooke & Sheika!

I had been communicating with my friends in Chicago via either Twitter DM or Facebook message, so happy that I got the room with wi-fi included! Brooke has been a friend of mine for over 6 years, I think probably 7! All since I started to fall in love with the handmade movement and became a huge supporter, and she's one amazingly talented lady that makes awesome bags! She's the one that made the bag that I always use as my cabin luggage!

Brooke picked me up at me hotel and she took me first to the Bean, cause that's the place to go when you go to Chicago according to one of the Haematology residents, so I decided to give it a try!

Then we did a bit sightseeing dowtown and then Brooke took me to a cool area up north where we had luch at an Irish pub, did some walking around and visited some really cool shops!

While we were having lunch, Sheika, another of our friends from the handmade forums that now lives in Chicago, said that she could meet us for dinner, so we returned downtown, got lost driving around trying to find a Lush shop and finally parked to meet up with Sheika for dinner and chatting!

It was seriously fantastic to finally meet these awesome ladies I had been friends for so long and be able to chat with them, talk books with Brooke because she's also a huge reader & book lover and talk art and photography with Sheika, that is an amazing artist and cartoonist!


Day 3: Meeting Sarah & Sharon!

My third day in Chicago started as usual with me checking Google maps in my room to make sure I knew where I was going, even if both NY and Chiago aren't all that difficult to navigate given their grid set up downtown!

I was meeting Sarah, a fellow book lover and Sharon, the author of A Mad Wicked Folly (a book that I highly recommend to everyone, but specially if you like historical books and or with a feminist feel to them!) to walk around Chicago, have some coffee, lunch and buy books!

We decided to go for lunch at the Artists' Cafe and before entering Sharon discovered that The Fine Arts Building was open to the public and we could see the theater that was undergoing renovations and also ride the hand-cranked elevator and visit all the floors on our way down, even the Venetian patio, and so we all went inside for a visit! Sharon has a lot of love for the building and had so many stories to tell, it was heaps of fun! And if she ends up putting the building in a later book, Sarah and myself will know how she was inspired! ;)

Lunch happened right after the visit and I decided to go for something very Chicagoan, a Chicago dog! That was rather yummy and that was big enough that I couldn't finish! But neither did Sharon with hers, so I don't feel as bad! ;)

After lunch, Sharon had to run back home but she signed our books before leaving! (mine had travelled all the way back from Spain!) and then Sarah and I took off in search of bookstores to complete my to-buy list! BUT not before she gave me the ARC of Liars INC that Paula Stokes had sent her to give me!! *ALL THE FLAILS*

So after all my flailing and squealing, we headed to the closest B&N to buy some books and I find all 3 I wanted right away, but Sarah didn't buy anything there so we decided to head to another B&N up north that would also be close to Sprinkles, the cupcakes bakery with a CUPCAKE ATM!!

I really need one of those nearby to where I live, no matter the time, you can always have access to a tasty cupcake! Seriously, Chicago WINS!!

And then back to the hotel! We totally forgot to get some pics taken with Sharon but Sarah and me took a pic of both of us with our Pivot Book Totes, but Sarah doesn't want her face all over the internet, and after the KH debacle, I truly do not blame her at all!!

And here are the three last books that I bought, because it was quite a game of tetris to pack the suitcase with the 7 extra books! B&N editions of Eleanor & Park and Ruin & Ruising and the new hardback of Throne of Glass with the pretty paperback cover!!

And the next day, early up to get on the bus that will take me to Wisconsin, my last stop on this US trip! But that will once again be a story for another day!