Friends!
One of the first things I remember people advising re: BEA is to get a hotel in NYC - don't deal with Port Authority in NJ, try to save money in NJ, etc.. But I happen to live and work in NJ, and can take the train, have that ride take about an hour and be good to go, without the costs (it's okay for me, too, because I'm used to this). Still... then there are the days when you want to get to Javits by 7:30 and are awake before 5 to catch a train you literally have to sprint to (we were late).
If you're not super motivated and have good transit into the city, that's another thing to consider.
Possibly one of the cutest (and truest) book covers I have ever seen. #BEA15 pic.twitter.com/4r0rYxk4DX
— Christina Burke (@chbreadsYA) May 28, 2015
TRUTH!
Things to learn from those PW Show Dailys!
Moving on, today we went to the Harlequin Teen Breakfast. The authors there were Eleanor Herman (LEGACY OF KINGS), Adi Alsaid (NEVER ALWAYS SOMETIMES), Jennifer Armentrout (THE WHITE HOT KISS), and Katie McGarry (NOWHERE BUT HERE). They were introduced first by an editor and then the authors and Harlequin Teen members cycled through our individual round tables to talk about various books and things.
Eleanor Herman was dressed up in a fancy white dress and golden crown and armband, and carried a Persian chalice along with her business cards. She's been on the History Channel and is known for her New York Times bestselling adult nonfiction SEX WITH KINGS. The prequel novella to LEGACY OF KINGS, VOICE OF GODS, will be releasing on July 15th for FREE.
- This series has been described as Alexander the Great meets Game of Thrones.
- It may be four planned books.
- Eleanor Herman may have royal blood in her family.
- "Very Game of Thrones for teens"
- Eleanor Herman said that she already had the right historical background for this book but she still really wanted to make sure all the details were right. Sometimes her editor would tell her to cut down on the details for her descriptions because she was using her historian's eye too much.
Adi Alsaid is the author of LET'S GET LOST, which was promoted heavily at the last BEA. This title, NEVER ALWAYS SOMETIMES, was also described as a quirky contemporary romance. Adi said that he wasn't functional unless he had at least two cups of coffee and told us about how he'd had a self-published title out before LET'S GET LOST was pubbed with the hopes of expediting the visa process. He pulled that title once he was traditionally published. He had also previously attended BEA once before when he was not yet published.
Katie McGarry is the author of PUSHING THE LIMITS series, which has been much lauded. Now she's promoting the THUNDER ROAD series about teens in the exclusive world of motorcycle clubs. She has six months worth of experience with a motorcycle club (that she used to write the book).
Jennifer Armentrout is the author of MANY series, but for HT, she writes the Dark Elements. In this trilogy, there was a vote for who the heroine should end up with from the love triangle. Book three is not out yet, and everyone is sworn to secrecy as to who won the vote. The girl has the ability to suck the souls of other humans with a kiss. I asked Jennifer about the vote - apparently, she'd turned in the draft of the second book and the Harlequin Teen team wasn't agreed on who the girl would end up with, so they came up with the idea to have readers vote. I believe Jennifer also mentioned in passing that her father had considered naming her Belle Star. Yes, that is the detail I remember from her round robin.
At Harlequin Breakfast
Harlequin is also promoting DAUGHTER UNTO DEVILS, their major horror title, which was Little House on the Prairie meets The Shining and Robin Talley's next book, WHAT WE LEFT BEHIND, about a couple - one lesbian, one genderqueer - going to different colleges, which is one factor pulling them apart, and about "growing as a person" and "identity." They will also have a feature on Facebook called Harlequin Teen's Inner Circle. You can get into that group, review titles and interact directly with their marketing team.
The breakfast was great. C.J. and I were early enough that we met people like Jamie from the Perpetual Page-Turner, Christine from Poland Banana Books (YT), Jesse from Jesse the Reader (YT), Kat from Katytastic (YT), and Reagan from Peruse Project (YT).
We left slightly early to get in the side line to enter the exhibition hall (the side lines are generally shorter than the main exhibition lines, which people line up in very early on). The exhibition hall opened at 9:00 a.m. and we zoomed to the Disney booth to get in line for PASSENGER by Alexandra Bracken. Despite being the fourth in line from our side entrance, we got to that booth as the fifty-third & fifty-fourth signees. Not as bad as Truthwitch was yesterday, but also good publicity for this book. I asked Alexandra Bracken who her favorite character was and she said Nicholas, the hero. She also really likes the heroine, Etta, though.
From there, we were able to get galleys of Lauren DeStefano's A CURIOUS TALE OF THE IN-BETWEEN (MG debut). We went over to Scholastic then, but they were out of THE MARVELS. The publicist gave us KILL THE BOY BAND, said something like "it's the book you never knew you wanted." I also asked for GEORGE, a Publisher's Weekly MG Editor Buzz Panel book. Afterwards, we passed through Abrams for ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL by Jesse Andrews - copies were being given away - and stood in line for the 11 a.m. drop of WOLF BY WOLF and HELLO, GOODBYE, AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN among others, with Ashley from the Quiet Concert (and later met Nichole from TQC at Lair of Dreams). I went to see if the Gregory Maguire signing of AFTER ALICE was reasonable. It wasn't. I waited until 11:30 and told Ashley she should take my place in line because I didn't want to miss Libba Bray, whose event was ticketed, tickets to be handed out at 12:30 p.m. There I ran into Monica and she and I kinda sorta started an unofficial line for the Libba Bray signing. Therein became the problem. Our line was then told that there was a line on the other side that was more legitimate. Then that line was no longer legitimate once Steph from Cuddlebuggery thankfully pointed out that the publicists were handing out tickets for the event and not to the line itself. Lines can get real hectic at BEA...
The breakfast was great. C.J. and I were early enough that we met people like Jamie from the Perpetual Page-Turner, Christine from Poland Banana Books (YT), Jesse from Jesse the Reader (YT), Kat from Katytastic (YT), and Reagan from Peruse Project (YT).
We left slightly early to get in the side line to enter the exhibition hall (the side lines are generally shorter than the main exhibition lines, which people line up in very early on). The exhibition hall opened at 9:00 a.m. and we zoomed to the Disney booth to get in line for PASSENGER by Alexandra Bracken. Despite being the fourth in line from our side entrance, we got to that booth as the fifty-third & fifty-fourth signees. Not as bad as Truthwitch was yesterday, but also good publicity for this book. I asked Alexandra Bracken who her favorite character was and she said Nicholas, the hero. She also really likes the heroine, Etta, though.
From there, we were able to get galleys of Lauren DeStefano's A CURIOUS TALE OF THE IN-BETWEEN (MG debut). We went over to Scholastic then, but they were out of THE MARVELS. The publicist gave us KILL THE BOY BAND, said something like "it's the book you never knew you wanted." I also asked for GEORGE, a Publisher's Weekly MG Editor Buzz Panel book. Afterwards, we passed through Abrams for ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL by Jesse Andrews - copies were being given away - and stood in line for the 11 a.m. drop of WOLF BY WOLF and HELLO, GOODBYE, AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN among others, with Ashley from the Quiet Concert (and later met Nichole from TQC at Lair of Dreams). I went to see if the Gregory Maguire signing of AFTER ALICE was reasonable. It wasn't. I waited until 11:30 and told Ashley she should take my place in line because I didn't want to miss Libba Bray, whose event was ticketed, tickets to be handed out at 12:30 p.m. There I ran into Monica and she and I kinda sorta started an unofficial line for the Libba Bray signing. Therein became the problem. Our line was then told that there was a line on the other side that was more legitimate. Then that line was no longer legitimate once Steph from Cuddlebuggery thankfully pointed out that the publicists were handing out tickets for the event and not to the line itself. Lines can get real hectic at BEA...
— Christina Burke (@chbreadsYA) May 28, 2015
So cool though that Libba's title has so much hype over it! I also asked Libba Bray who her favorite character was and she said that it changes depending on the scene that she's writing. She also said that Theta gets some "good lines" in this series. Also, the publicist who I was standing next to in line said that she thought that thrillers and mysteries (though just "everyone appreciates a good story") would be the next big thing.
At some point during the day, I wandered into the Penguin booth and found THE ACCIDENT SEASON and WILD ONES. One early morning and the other later. I also specifically sought out the EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING galley drop at 4:30, the 2:00 drop of THE MARVELS, the random drop of THE THING ABOUT JELLYFISH. The best thing was getting to talk to everyone while being in line, like Kel at the LOIS LANE lane and Monica at the Libba Bray line and older friends like Lili and Kristin. Also hanging out again with Summer.
But, now, the worst thing is that I am way too tired to continue writing. Toooooo tired. After that train and the time of night it is now...
BOOK HAUL:
if you're really looking forward to any of these titles, and we're friends, you can definitely borrow these books. let me know!
- Passenger by Alexandra Bracken
- A Curious Tale of the In-Between by Lauren DeStefano
- Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray
- Hello, Goodbye, and Everything In Between by Jennifer Smith
- The Wild Ones by C. Alexander London
- Legacy of Kings by Eleanor Herman
- The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle
- George by Alex Gino
- Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
- Lois Lane: Fallout by Gwenda Bond
- The Thing about Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin
- Kill the Boy Band by Goldy Moldavsky
- Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin
- The Marvels by Brian Selznick
- Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
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