Ah, the last day of BEA! And I guess that can be interpreted as both ‘ah’ relief and ‘AH!’ panic, because, well, it’s the last day of BEA! Lots of people had multiple, huge must-have books come out today, so there was a madhouse rush in the morning. On the other hand, after three days, even I was starting to get tired!

We started off mobbing up early at the entrance, you know, as one does. About half the crowd was planning to race for Margret Stohl’s Black Widow, and the other half were going for Leagh Bardugo’s Six of Crows, plus there were several drops going on first thing in the morning. There were groups of people making assault game plans. “You take this route, grab that, I’ll go this, you get in that line, she’ll do this, and then we’ll all switch!” Honestly, it was kind of impressive how coordinated people got. And yet, although I’ve heard a few stories of line drama, on the whole people were pretty polite. They would hold your spot in line if you had to go to the bathroom, or even hold your spot if you had to “go to the bathroom” (i.e., hit up another line/drop). We were an excited mob, but a fairly cordial one at the same time.

I enjoyed a leisurely morning jog over to Penguin’s booth to grab Soundless, and then headed over to the autograph lines to line up for Scott Westerfeld. While he didn’t have the same utterly frikkin massive line that Bardugo had, we amassed a crowd about an hour before the signing started. I, frankly, only wanted to be first in line so I could immediately switch to the Katherine Applegate line, since she was signing half an hour later. The absolute highlight of my day was when she recognized me, squealed, and hugged me. (We’ve met a few times, but that was years ago.)

My whole day today was lines. I wanted things signed, so I couldn’t wander as much as I have on previous days. I did try for a few book drops, but since I wanted my signed, must-have books more, I was only able to get one. (One booth gave me candy instead of the book I missed, so still a win?) But today was oddly on point for meeting strangers. I wound up sitting next to the absolute friendliest people on earth everywhere I went. I also saw Dawn Metcalf (author of The Twixt series) in all the same signing lines as me, and it was neat to see her being just as much of a fangirl as the rest of us. She even gave me a fistbump in honor of our similar tastes.

Alas, then I had to leave early and write this wrap-up post while sitting in the airport, waiting for my flight home. Next year’s BEA is in Chicago, which I absolutely cannot wait for! After all, I live (very near) there, so I’ll have all the advantages. 😀