Last year, I went to the Book Expo of America (BEA) as a now extinct power reader. As it was my first time, this was an amazing, eye opening experience for me. I learned more about the industry I want to be a part of, got free books, and became a book blogger the next day because of a great woman I met (a fellow book blogger. You all know the romantic story by now).  After weeks and months of anticipation, I finally got to attend my first Blogger’s Convention, the day before the day–BEA.

The first person I met was Shelia from Book Journey. How apropos that I meet the woman responsible for making me a blogger first before anyone else. It was so nice to see her again. Especially under these new and exciting circumstances.  The first new blogger I met, through Shelia was Beth at Beth’s Book-Nook. It was nice to hit it off with a fellow blogger almost immediately. Hi Beth 🙂

 

The first event was the keynote with author Maureen Johnson who was very, very funny. If you haven’t read a novel by her, read Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes. It’s really good. There’s a great sequel, too. I couldn’t stop laughing at her speech. She was funny, genuine, and had some good, somewhat profound things to say. I really enjoyed it.

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She even stripped for us!

The first breakout session was all about designing the perfect blog. Ashley at Nose Graze was one of the speakers. She did a fabulous job! I learned so much from her. I need to look back at my notes to get working on a new layout. I unfortunately forgot to take a picture for that one.

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Here’s a picture from the 101 Best Blogging Tools session which was one of my favorite of the four sessions. The women were really funny and helpful. I took a lot of notes. And joined twitter!!!

 

The best part of the day, of course, was when we got to fill our BEAUTIFUL DK tote bag with books. BOOKS!!! There were three huge, long tables piled high with books. There were around twenty books offered and I took one of each. Hey! Free books! My prized possession though..

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Look how pretty that cover is! So pretty. A magical sort of take on Sherlock Holmes. Count me in. I’m very excited to read this.

There were some really good ones that other people were excited about, but Jackaby was my highlight of the takeaway.

Afterwards, I spent the day with blogger Christina from You Book Me All Night Long as we strolled through Bryant Park and went to the NY Public Library. It was so lovely.

That was my day. How was your first day at BEA or Bloggers’ Con?

Stay tuned for my BEA Part One coming soon.

Happy reading and thanks for stopping by!