#OMG, #BookCon19 Some thoughts on this... #books #bookbloggers #booklovers #booknerds

As you know, I got to go to #BookCon19 with my daughter and sister in law! 

First, let us start off with how we got there. 

FERRY!!

Yes, I am a dork!!

 THE INTREPID!!!

I totally LOVED going this way. My daughter on the ride over was a nervous MESS. I felt terrible but then as she saw me and her aunt enjoying it, she started to relax. By the end of this trip, she was a sea lover! =)

Next, getting to see the Javits center! YAY, that was exciting and OMG HUGE - like there were 2 or 3 other conventions going on that day. HUGE!!

Next up, the lines to get in - this is shameful but I imagine this is the way of most of these conventions like Comic-Con and Barbie, etc. These lines were huge. I hate them tho and after LONG periods of time not moving on my feet, waiting to move, the hot air, the stuffy confined space - it hurts and hurts bad. I really didn't take a picture of the crowd but it was huge. We were in the back as we had gotten there late and did hear that people showed up at 5 am to line up. Not me... No way - I am just not that "hardcore" for any author - that might be my age tho. We are all just people - right?

WE CAN GO IN!!!

Here is where we have complete chaos. 
COMPLETE. 
As the VIPs got to go in 10 minutes early (these tickets were sold out when I went to get them). So all the ARC drops were gone before we could even walk in the door. That is ridiculous to me. Like, give me a break! Then I see pictures of people with 3/4 copies of multiple ARC books? WHAT THE HECK!!! They are selling them on eBay too? 

I am not sure I am a fan of these conventions.

I heard from bloggers at these conventions that they are not blogger friendly. In fact, I hear BookExpo is mean to bloggers that want to come to it. Like really? Cause I don't usually buy a book that I haven't seen a blogger blog about or at least very rarely. Well, what can be said? 

Don't go for free books cause people will push you, curse you, kick you, knock you over, and downright hurt you to get it first and I am not about that. These people have systems to get the most books to sell, horde, trade, or whatever they do with them. They work the system to get these ARC's. Also, these big name publishing companies aren't giving away as many books anymore. 25 ARC's?? There were THOUSANDS of people - THOUSANDS!! In fact, my sister in law and my daughter were in line for over an hour for a YA drop of 4 ARC's and they were two away from getting it cause they "ran out". What can you do? Nothing - tough luck. Luck of the draw. You try and that's it. You get what you get and you don't get upset. Are there things we would do differently? Yes. Will we go again? Maybe. 

Let us not even DISCUSS the lines ... Lines... LINES... EVERYWHERE....A LINE... As far as the eye can see. For everyone and everything. It was like next to impossible to get an ARC of a book that we wanted so we gave up...and just did whatever. We had the most fun getting to meet authors!

--- BUT ---- BUT --- BUT ---

There are some pluses to all this! 




Autographing sessions:

AMAZING!!!

Every one of these authors was/were amazing. There are a few that stood out among the crowd and I will let you know why. There was even one that I wasn't crazy for!



My line up: (these are NOT in order)

Susan Dennard, this lady is sweet but you can tell she is shy. If you don't have anything to say - well you might not get to talk. Super sweet and as she was going by the crowd she waved and said hello to us. A big plus for her! This, of course, is not just her fault as I didn't know what to say to her either! =)










Jennifer L. Armentrout is super sweet too. The deal was one personalized book but she did both of mine plus some swag I wanted to be signed. I had the idea to get covers from the #BookCon19 program signed by each author but missed out on getting Susan Dennard's! 



I will show you that picture at the end of this post. 

Joe Hill is a really, REALLY nice guy. This was our first in-person author signing - ever. I didn't know what to expect, neither did my daughter, so I can honestly say we were pleasantly surprised by how down to earth and approachable Joe Hill was! Plus, I could talk to him about his book. I read it and loved it and now it's a series on TV!! I didn't even know that till this convention. They had a huge - HUGE display of Christmasland for NOS4A2! I loved it but didn't score a license plate. Which was a total bummer. I recommend going to a signing for him, he was just that nice!

James Murray, 

now "Murr" was one of the reasons I went to #BookCon19! When he came out, he came down the aisle where we were all standing and slapped each and every one of our hands and said hello and talked to each of us. Then a lady that was in line before me to get her book signed asked him if he really had that Ferret tattoo. He came out to show us all! He's funny and nice and I fangirled. 

YES, I FANGIRLED HIM!! 

My daughter was so embarrassed but I didn't care! I talked to him about his book, seeing him on his tour with the other Impractical Jokers and really just teenage-girl-crushed on him. I just couldn't help it! I even SQUEEEEED when I saw him! He also took the picture! I thought that was soooo cool. He even took a selfie with my phone for me...Oh, Murr, you made a fan for life!

Thank you, Murr!! 

V.E. Schwab - ok I didn't get a ticket to get her autograph sessions but she was super cool and was walking around at #BookCon19 and I got a chance to snag her and asked to take a picture! That made my day! I look like a dork and it's a bit blurry but I was soooo super happy! 

Nic Stone, super lovely lady. My daughter loved her at first sight. She is super pretty and has a very amazing personality. We got her books so they could be signed to my daughter and Nic seems to be really good with kids and was asking her all kinds of questions AND my daughter was talking back (not the normal). I was so happy Nic took the time to do that, I think my daughter has a girl crush on her now! 


It turns out that I won the Romance Candy Crushers for Sunday 3pm-5pm. They give you a bag that has 8 tickets to use to get a book from an author of your choice. There are about 10-15 authors, I can't remember the exact amount, but you don't have enough tickets for all of the authors. You can, however, have them all sign a poster that they give you in your bag along with the 8 tickets. You can talk to each and every one of them too. Take pictures, etc. I was in a bit of a hurry to get going, to be honest. At this point, I had walked all day, for two days (don't forget I am heavy), carried an ENORMOUS amount of books (had to carry my daughters too) and was standing on lines for 2 days. I was done by 3pm. DONE. I did want to use the tickets that they gave me and I did. I also forgot to give an author a ticket (I can't remember which one) and so I got an extra book. I forgot to take two authors pictures on my way out. So I only have some. This event was awesome. As it wasn't super crowded and everyone got a chance to talk to the authors. Here is where I met the most authors and it's a genre I love - (mostly historical) romance! Also, they said in the beginning of the event that if you stayed till the end you could basically get any/all books from the authors you might have missed. I didn't. WHO the heck was carrying that anyway? NOT ME!

Sabrina Jefferies was VERY nice and we chatted - like chit chatted. I can't even remember about what but we chatted for a while. Like I was talking to a bestie. Super friendly and easy going. I would love to have coffee with her! She was the kind of author you wanted to have cake and coffee with and sit in a nice comfy chair and talk about life, love, and romance! Hats off to Sabrina, she's a very nice lady.

Julia London is another author that you would want to have tea with. She was friendly and easy to strike up a conversation with. In fact, we were laughing about something. She is really nice and I enjoyed meeting her. Plus, I have read her Devil in Tartan book and really enjoyed it. I found it super cool to have done a blog tour for this author and now to have met her. We got to talking about her Highland Grooms series and I learned that the last one is out. Now I have two and plan on reading them all! There are 6 in the series.

Tessa Dare another sweet author and easy to talk to. She has the cutest giggle too. It really was. We were all laughing and talking as we made a circle around her table. Really awesome meeting her. I loved the dress she was wearing. I loved this event and so happy I got to meet so many awesome romance authors! I took a bunch of swag from all of them. 








Sarah MacLean was - I am not sure how to say this... Not - non-nice but not nice either. I got the feeling that she didn't care for me at all. The lady before me gushed over her, as did I, and asked if she had the next book in the BareKnuckle Bastards Series. I wanted it to as I didn't have it and I already had the first in the series, Wicked and the Wallflower. Anyway, the lady in front of me asked and she gives her the new book and the old book signed to her and was sweet as pie and I was talking with them both - the lady and Sarah - the whole time too, about the books with them. Then my turn came so I asked for the new one too and she said ok and then kind of didn't say anything else to me. It was really weird and made me feel like she was done with me. I don't know, she just wasn't as nice as she was to the girl in front of me and we were both gushing over her. I guess it was just weird. 




Maya Rodale I knew the name as I have read A Tale of Two Lovers by her and really enjoyed it. For the life of me when I got to her table I could not remember what she wrote so I was tongue-tied and didn't really talk much. That was a shame tho cause she was very nice. I just didn't have much to say! =(

Jasmine Guillory here is an author I know nothing about - zip, zilch, nada but I remembered the book cover as being one that I wanted to read. I was lucky I got to her table when I did as I was the second to last to snag a copy! This author was also very nice but we didn't talk much either. I think she was feeling bad about not having enough books for it. What can you do? She was still nice.  

Joanna Shupe, Alisha Rai, and Abby Jimenez were all very nice. 


They all would be fun to have coffee with. I wish I would have taken a picture or two. That was dumb of me. I am however spotlighting the books from them that I received. 

I totally enjoyed this little Romance Meet and Greet. This by far was one of the best parts of #BookCon19!

We also went to a little morning thing on Sunday that Fae Crate was hosting. Low and behold one of the workers/helpers for them had books she was carrying and I asked if I could have one. I grabbed a historical romance. My daughter, on the other hand, asked for Hating to Love You by Erin Rylie. The worker/helper told her that she was in luck and that the author was here today! So my daughter got to meet the author and got her to sign the book! It was really cool but we didn't think at that time to grab a picture. 






C. Toni Graham 
this one we got to meet the author as she came in to do a book signing and was really cool. I had never heard of the books and the author had them as a buy one get one free, plus SWAG!! My daughter and I both thought we would like to read it, therefore we grabbed them! I am glad we did. We also didn't get a picture of the author which was dumb. What can you do? 



Do you remember in the beginning somewhere in this post that I was going to show you a picture of some of the #BookCon19 programs with the author's signatures on them? Well, I managed to snag Joe Hills, James Murray, Jennifer L. Armentrout, and Nic Stones. I thought we had gotten more but we didn't. 

So here are the books:

A few that I left out by mistake. I am not sure how I ended up with so many copies of On Thin Ice. Obviously, my daughter and I have our own copies of these books but On Thin Ice was weird to have four....Ughh, I don't even want to talk about it. 

AUTOGRAPHED!!!!

Just some odds and ends: 

You should love the Fur you are in! That is me kissing my SIL...

Sumo Kitty Author David Biedrzycki and Neil Patrick Harris signings...

Scythe walking around....They gave out pins and some got books but not us. Brigid Kemmerer signing her book A Curse So Dark and Lonely. 

 NOS4A2 Giveaway Booth - HUGE display they gave out notebooks, cookies, license plates, and ornaments. This was a lady (wish I would have gotten her name) on line with me to see MURR, we were girl crushing on him, taking our "selfies" getting ready to take one with him! =)

My SIL and me in Times Square. My daughter sandwiched between us in her first ever taxi ride in NYC. What an experience for her! 

Who doesn't love a BLUE M n M? 
The second picture was in the Hershey Store in Times Square!

This was a Gay Pride display, my daughter really wanted the picture. I am not sure why I took this second one. But I am glad because I got the Truly Unforgettable message. =)

Another Scythe! 

This was my breakfast Sunday morning. How can you come to NYC and not get a cannoli? I can't. 

Some goodies from the NOS4A2 Booth! There were a bunch of authors doing autographs I didn't know them and I think you had to have a ticket and I did not. 

Here is the one thing I especially grabbed for myself - guess who's phone it is on? 

My daughters...

Oh well, better luck next year.

Maybe?

I am undecided if I will attend next year or not. 

We shall see.

There you have it! 

#BookCon2019

Happy Reading Everyone!

Just so you know, I lost a few pounds that weekend! =)

Mary