Last Week (BEA!) & Next Week (Tour!)

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Fair warning: This is going to be one of those lonnnng updates where I post a bunch of pictures from other people’s (and a few of my own) tweets and instagram feeds.

I got to New York on Wednesday, after serendipitously running into Carrie Ryan on the same flight and sharing a cab, and retrieved my Lois Lane t-shirt from the front desk at the hotel. When I showed it to the staff, they went crazy because they all love Lois Lane and Superman and gave me a free room upgrade. Lois author perk, awww yeah. 😉 I promised the manager I’d bring her a signed copy as thanks (this is an important plot point for later in the post). Then I managed to navigate across town with only one phone call to Christopher back home for directional help to meet fabulous old friends I see too little of Justine Larbalestier and Scott Westerfeld, and their friend Amber Benson (absolutely lovely), for dinner. We had a marathon, epic, wonderful evening with not one, not two, but three dessert courses.

The second of three dessert courses from the tasting menu last night. #yum

A photo posted by Gwenda Bond (@gwendabond) on

As some of you probably know, I’ve written many, many articles for Publishers Weekly as a contributor over the past decade — and I’ve also written many, many short profiles and articles for the PW Show Daily, a free publication distributed daily during BEA. (Because I know a few non-publishing industry types read this *waves to family*, BEA is Book Expo America, the giant annual trade show where publishers show off new and forthcoming books to giant masses of booksellers, bloggers, press, librarians, and readers. Plus, there are Scientology pirates.) So it was a little surreal to start Thursday, my first-ever day at BEA to do official author stuff, with this:

Also fun to talk to Sally Lodge, who wrote the story. You can read it online, if you’re interested.

And I knew to expect this:

(!) (Apparently people kept taking the display copies. I get it, it’s a beautiful book. I also got to meet the wonderful designer Bob Lentz — who does the wearable books with Don Lemke and was there to sign too.)

The day was a whirlwind of too brief hugs with friends (Holly Black, Sarah Weinman, Shana Cohen, I’m looking at you!), a nice diner lunch with my divine agent Jenn and some of my favorite literary people (Leila Roy, Jackie Parker, Liz Burns, Pam Coughlan, etc., aka The Gang, who I managed to find several times, yay), meeting lots of people in person for the first time (WNDB team all-star authors Ellen Oh and Marieke Nijcamp! PR and Muppets maven Beth Parker!), and drinks to toast Lois with the Capstone/Switch Press gang followed by a fancy author-illustrator dinner with same. The insane highlight of the day was my signing though,  which I seriously told someone earlier in the day, “Well, I’m sure some people will show up, even if only e-bay hounds looking for copies to sell, right?” Remember: I’ve been to BEA before, just not as an author. I’m a realist. SO I got pulled into an interview with Carrie Ryan (fun) and then when it finished it was getting closer to time for my signing and I noticed I had a text from my agent and people were retweeting something and it was this enormous surprise…

I mean, seriously, what? People who I knew that came through the line asked how I felt and honestly, I’m still not sure I have fully processed this. Weird, but great weird. Overwhelming, but in the best possible way. THANK YOU so much to all of you wonderful people who came and stood and waited and were so excited about Lois Lane: Fallout — whether you’d already read it, been sent by friends who had, or were just hearing about it. I had so much fun meeting you all. Not to mention, I got to hang with my wonderful editor Beth the whole time, who valiantly hung in there flapping books.

 

(I am a huge nerd, check.)

Oh, and yes, we all had Lois Lane t-shirts.

It was a complete treat to get to meet in person and hang out with all the people at Capstone (Beth, Ashley, Shannon, Kay, Bob — everyone, truly) and their PR team (April and Linda = heart). I feel beyond lucky and grateful to work with such amazing people.

So that was Thursday. Whew. Friday was more relaxed by comparison. I met up for breakfast with Genevieve Valentine, who I try to see whenever I’m in New York. I am OBSESSED with this toast (we’ve made it once already since I got back).

I am going to move into Le Pain Quotidien and live here and eat only this.

A photo posted by Gwenda Bond (@gwendabond) on

After food, we went to Midtown Comics, where I stealthily purchased a copy of Fallout for the hotel manager I mentioned at the top (I told you that was a plot point!). The booth was out of books after the signing, and the new ones being shipped up for BookCon weren’t there yet, and I felt I must keep my promise. Then I had a little time to kill before my lunch meeting and so Genevieve jokingly proposed we ride the Ferris Wheel inside Toys R Us. And so this happened…

Bet you never thought Genevieve and I would ride the Ferris Wheel in toys r us. A photo posted by Gwenda Bond (@gwendabond) on

I even purchased us the commemorative photo. Good times!

Then I had lunch with my other amazing editor, Courtney Miller from Skyscape, meeting her in person for the first time. We ate pizza and talked circus and the magic book and many other things. I really do feel so, so lucky to work with such great people on books I couldn’t be happier to be writing.

Then it was back to Javits with baked goods in tow to meet up with Comic News Insider’s Jimmy Aquino for an interview and make one last pass. This was great because I got to see a few people and sign a few books people had schlepped with them but also TO MEET MY HERO SHANNON HALE and thank her in person for blurbing Fallout:

After a last meet up with The Gang, it was off to the airport — well, post-presenting the hotel with the signed copy for Vickie, of course. So, yeah, a great trip. I did a couple of interviews while I was there that are already up:

And I also found out that Fallout made the LA Times summer reading recommendations for YA, among some truly fabulous company. Oh, and that I earned out my initial advance for Girl on a Wire (thank you all). It was a GOOD WEEK. That’s what I’m saying.

Other new interviews and a giveaway I haven’t shared here yet:

I can’t believe this post is still going. I bet you can’t either! I’ll do a separate one about next week’s tour, but in the meantime a reminder — next week is the tour. Near Cincinnati, Lexington, Nashville or Asheville? Come see us: me, Renee Ahdieh, Megan Miranda, Carrie Ryan, and Megan Shepherd.

I will also be paneling on young adult literature with David Arnold and Sarah Combs at the Carnegie Center’s Books-in-Progress conference, Saturday morning. So if you’re going to that and interested in YA, come see us.

For now, fare thee well.

2 thoughts on “Last Week (BEA!) & Next Week (Tour!)”

  1. Pili @ In Love With Handmade

    I’m so glad I decided to swing by the Capstone booth early! Your signing was one of my MUST-BE-THERE’s for Thursday and I was thrilled to finally get to meet you and get a signed copy!! Too bad my stupid phone wasn’t being nice so I couldn’t get a photo with you!!

    Thank you for being amazing Gwenda!!

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