I Went to BEA!

Yes, indeed. That IS Gayle Forman, the extraordinarily talented author of gorgeous fiction for young adults. And I met her this past week at BEA in New York City.
She was just one of many authors at Book Expo America. She was there because she was being honored at the Celebration of Bookselling lunch at the Jacob Javits Center on Wednesday. She received an Indies Choice honor award for her young adult novel, IF I STAY (now available in paperback from your local indie bookstore). But she's so modest, she didn't tell me that's why she was there. (That honor would be given about an hour after I took this photo). Nope. She said she was just hanging around!


Most authors were there to sign either ARCs of forthcoming books or hardcover copies of their newest book, including Rick Riordan (which we all now know is pronounced RYE-er-den, not ree-OR-den -- I actually overheard him telling several starstruck booksellers how to pronounce his name correctly. He must get really sick of people mangling his name).

Yes, that Rick Riordan, the author of the mega-selling PERCY JACKSON series. He was there to sign his new book, RED PYRAMID, first volume in the new middle grade series, THE KANE CHRONICLES.

And here's Melissa Marr,
the talented author of my favorite urban fantasy novels, the WICKED LOVELY series, concentrating as she signs a copy of RADIANT SHADOWS (Harper, pub date April 20, 2010). This is actually the third time I've met Melissa, and she's amazingly friendly.

And I now have my very own personalized copy.







This debut author is Inara Scott. She was a lot of fun to talk to. Watch for DELCROIX ACADEMY, Book One: The Candidates, coming in August from Disney/Hyperion.


And here's one of my favorite middle grade authors of all time:
Wendy Mass!


She was super sweet, and after talking to her briefly I felt as if I'd known her forever.
She's the author of FINALLY (which I reviewed here), ELEVEN BIRTHDAYS, and JEREMY FINK AND THE MEANING OF LIFE, among many others.

She was there to sign ARCs of her newest, THE CANDYMAKERS.



Last but not least, here's another debut author:

Kody Keplinger, author of the highly-anticipated YA novel, THE DUFF, coming this fall from Poppy, an imprint of Little, Brown.

I was lucky enough to attend the YA Editors' Buzz panel in the afternoon, and Kody's book was one of the five being touted by the big-name editors.

Isn't she cute? She's only 18 years old!





The other new books being talked about by their editors were PLAIN KATE by Erin Bow (Scholastic), MATCHED by Ally Condie (Dutton/Penguin), INFINITE DAYS by Rebecca Maizel (St. Martin's) and FIRELIGHT by Sophie Jordan (Harper).

Coolest cover?

MATCHED

It's a dystopian fantasy, but Julie Straus-Gabel, Associate Publisher of Dutton, described it as not the kind of world where you're dirty and sweaty and on the run (Hunger Games, ya think?), but a perfect world where everyone is healthy and happy, and everything is arranged, including marriage. Cassia is fine with this, until she falls in love with the wrong guy. Sounds intriguing and I can't wait to read my shiny new ARC.





Probably the most interesting part of the day was talking about books with other booksellers and librarians, and even some very young bloggers. I'm now following Kelsey at The Book Scout, Eleni at La Femme Readers, and Sherry from Flipping Pages For All Ages, simply because they were behind me in Inara Scott's signing line. I turned and asked them out of curiosity how they'd heard of her. These adorable girls are all book reviewers -- and they're even younger than the FNC girls. These three read a lot! I was impressed.

Feeling rather old, I headed for the train at 5:30, loaded down with free books and with my head buzzing from all the noise and excitement. The noise level inside the Javits Center was a little hard to take at times, and Wednesday was one of those 90 degree days, so I was exhausted by the time I got home to Pennsylvania. Come to think of it, I was still exhausted the next day!

Have you heard of or read any of these books? What did you think?