Guest Post: BEA Day 1

It’s that time again!  BEA is upon us!

I thought today would be an easy day.  There wasn’t much announced, so we thought there wouldn’t be anything to rush and hurry over.  I figured I would spend most of my time at the blogger’s conference, maybe casually stroll through the show floor and get the lay of the land, then go back to my room early.  “Oh, I can wear heels,” I said to myself. “I’ll spend most of the day sitting in panels, if ever there was a day to wear heels it’s today.”

HAH!

I was wholly unprepared for the reality of the day.  Had none of my lists, no tote bag to carry things in, and of course, those shoes.  (They were adorable, though, I have no regrets.)  Within five minutes of being on the floor, I somehow had five books that had attached themselves to me.  That’s the only explanation, I certainly didn’t pick them up. >.>  All in all, even though it was a bit surprising and overwhelming, it wasn’t too stressful.  A good day.

Morning blogger con panels had some good topics and advice, including how to make publishing contacts (don’t be afraid to give them your cards, follow up afterwards because they’ll forget, keep ARC request emails short, well-formatted, and informative) and how to deal with blogger burnout (walk away when you have to, don’t do things because you think they’re “required.”)  I will admit, the ‘creative ideas’ panel mostly focused on what the bloggers on the panel did personally over advice, but it was still an interesting conversation.

Some of the books I received that I’m most excited about:

• The Thousandth Floor by Katherine McGee – Set 100 years in the future and in a building that’s a thousand stories tall, the summary for this book doesn’t give a lot of info about the plot.  But someone gets pushed off the roof on the first page, so can’t really go wrong with that!
• The Graces by Laure Eve – Three individuals with magical powers, and one girl who would do anything to become one of them.
• The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis – The first sentence is “This is how I kill someone.”  Yeah, I’m in.
• A Deadly Affection by Cuyler Overholt – A female psychiatrist in turn-of-the-century New York seeks to clear her client’s name of murder, it’s the first in a mystery series.

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