Fancy listening to the BEA buzz? Oh and **spoiler alert**

Yes! The Book Expo America YA Buzz. The picture is a bit dodgy but the audio is good. Be warned this contains LOADS of spoilers. So if you want to be surprised by what you find in Carrier of the Mark, probably best not to watch. LOL! Thanks, oh fabulous editor, Erica Sussman. And if you do fancy watching, Erica starts talking at around 10 mins on the counter.

The BEA Experience – Part 2

If you haven't read part one of the BEA experience click here before you read this.

So yeah, where was I. Oh yes, in the ‘green room’.  This is the uber swish place that authors get to hang out before they’re escorted to their signing table.  We were entertained by Rick Astley getting his groove on while sipping pina coladas complete with umbrellas… I swear… honest *wink*.

My signing table

At my signing table I sat down and gazed out on the gathered masses.  Seriously, I did NOT expect that many people.  Apparently the queue had been forming for nearly an hour before my signing was due to begin.  I looked out on the sea of faces thinking to myself ‘who are you guys, and how on earth did you hear of me?’   As they opened the barrier and the crowd surged forward I started to recognize all the twitter and blogger faces. Aw man… you’ve got to love the bloggers and the devout.  You guys rock.

Anyway, after all the signing and exchanging of business cards, I headed off with my agent to find a cab back to my hotel.  Well, hobbled off to find a cab, but we walked for blocks before we could get one (nasty gits) and then when we did, he only took us half way as he was changing shifts. Grrrrr.

Jocelyn Davies (A Beautiful Dark)

Back at the hotel it was another wonder woman whirlwind change and an aggressive search for yet another cab to book it back across town for the HarperCollins CEO cocktail party. It was very swish, held at the The Park (of SATC fame).  Here I swilled wine and hobnobbed it with all the royalty of book world.  I get a chance to namedrop BIGTIME here, but I’ll resist and only drop a few.  There was CA Moulton (Angelfire) who helped me get my crab balls (thanks, Courtney), Anna Carey (Eve) who tried to drag me off to a party in Soho (I so regretted not going, but I was knackered), Jocelyn Davies (A Beautiful Dark) who hailed me a cab (with such ease… how did she do that?), Lauren Oliver (Delirium) who towered over everyone (who knew she was so tall?), and so so many more, including of course all the editors and agents that a few short months ago, I’d have lusted after for just a business card.  It was all frightfully civilized, relaxed and fun.

Amy Garvey (Cold Kiss)

After a blissful night’s sleep and a little breakie in the room, I headed off for day two at BEA.  It was a much more relaxed affair for me as I had no official 'engagements'.  So I browsed the stands, collected hoards of books, and got loads of autographs.  Of course I then had to lug all the swag with me, but it was worth the aching shoulders.

Then, back into another friggen cab (I’m definitely better and demanding their attention now) I get to Penn station to discover that due to some electrical lines down in DC all the trains are either delayed (severely) or canceled. Yay!

Maggie Stiefvater

I settled into a mammoth wait in the Acela lounge, resenting myself for not bringing my laptop with me and playing incessantly with my iPhone which refused to play ball with me.  When they finally called our train the skirmish was crazy, it was an every girl for herself moment.  Knock over that granny or you’re standing for the next three hours on an overcrowded hot and sweaty train. 

After a four hour train ride and another hours drive, I finally rolled up outside my house. I was wrecked, knackered, exhausted, and aching all over.  Would I do it again? Hell yeah.  It was amazing.  But as I said in The BEA Experience – Part 1, there are some lessons to be learned.

Lessons learned – Part 2

1. Bring a spare pair of high heels with you, so when your agent drags you halfway across town to hail a cab, you can give her them to wear, so she can feel your pain.

2. Always travel the night before the main event.  Then when cool people want to drag you off to awesome parties you will be able to say… ‘Hell yeah, where does the conga line start?’.

3. When drinking wine, aim it at your mouth and not your nose, it is for drinking not for snorting, especially in front of well-known editors (long story… actually, it’s not really, it’s just embarrassing).

4. When you smell a funky smell that is sort of reminiscent of gone off cat food, don’t say it while standing beside the buffet of crab balls surrounded by hungry authors.

5. If you get cornered by an over enthusiastic party goer, be sure to have an escape excuse, like ‘oh, you’re like really weird and have the strangest eyes, I don’t want to talk to you anymore.’ Or at the very least have an amazing agent who will whisk you around the room making sure everyone gets piece of you.

So that’s it from me and BEA.  I’ve posted a little video that HarperCollins put together, it kind of covers the highlights.  Enjoy.

The BEA Experience - Part 1

The chipping of my French polished nails and the lifting of my heinous overtiredness signals that it is time to do the long awaited BEA post. There is so much to tell that I’m going to do it in two posts.

Firstly, BEA was AWESOME.  Awesome is a word that is thrown around quite liberally when the letters B, E, & A are mentioned, but it truly is worthy of the title.  My two days at BEA were crazy.  Day one started at 5am, and an hours drive.  When I got to train station and the doors had already closed on the Acela Express.  I begged the guards’ men to open the doors for me.  After much eyelash fluttering and mini pouts, they re-opened the doors and I jumped on.  Three hours of being wedged against a window by a large man with protruding elbows and listening to a woman scream corporate espionage into her cell, I arrived in New York.  I managed to flag a cab with ease (nice surprise) and got to my hotel for a change of clothes and makeup application that would even challenge wonder woman (wish I looked that good hot pants).

I ran from hotel room to get a cab to the Javits Centre (this is where I lose all my love of anything yellow).  No cab would take me! I was just beginning to think I smelled or something, when I realized I was doing it all wrong.  You don’t tell these horrible gits where you’re going until you get in and firmly close the door behind you.  Then they have to take you.  You see, they find it hard to get a cab fare back from Javits, so they’d rather give you the finger (or grunt in their case) rather than pick you up.  So because I walked half way across town before I figured this out, my feet were killing me before I even got to BEA.

I got in, and went to the HarperCollins booth where I met with some amazing Harper Authors and of course all the lovely editors, publicists, and assistants who showed me the ropes.  I set off to discover all the delights of BEA while trying desperately hard not to keel over from agonizing pain in the foot department and the sheer exhaustion of my day so far.  I snagged some select books and some signatures, then went to the YA Buzz panel where The Carrier of the Mark was being ‘buzzed’.

I’d arrived on time, but this was not early enough.  It appeared that people had been queuing half the day to get a place inside the very much anticipated Buzz Panel.  I took one look at the huge line and promptly walked pass it up to the door, to furious waving and calls from the lined up masses informing me that there was a queue.  The door was closed and they were not admitting anyone else.  I explained to the door man that I was one of the authors and he let me in, much to the disgust and astonishment of the massive line of people I’d just passed (sorry ladies).

Inside, I had to stand as there were no seats available, which suited me fine.  I kicked off the heals that were drawing tears, leaned against the wall for support, and enjoyed all the excitement and pride of the Buzz.  All the books looked and sounded great, it was a very exciting and special moment for me.  Afterwards, I finally found my agent and editor.  We had a great auld chin wag, did some interview stuff, grabbed ourselves a coffee from Starbucks (we had to queue for 30 mins), and made our way to the greenroom.  The Green room is where all the authors hang out and do ‘authorly things’ before their signings.

I’m going to stop here as this post is getting long.  But what I’ll do at this stage is tell you a few crucial things I’ve learned in part one of my BEA experience.

Lessons learned.

1. Wear LOTS of mascara.  Fluttering eyelashes and coy smiles still work on male rail employees *lavish wink*

2. Be obnoxious to taxi drivers.  Winks do not work with them. Always slam the door hard once you’re seated in your cab, then and only then, grunt your desired location.

3. Wear sneakers.  Seriously, all those people telling you to wear comfortable shoes were not lying.  BEA is all about long walks and queuing.  Remember, trying to smile and be nice to everyone is pretty difficult when your feet feel like they’ve been soaked in a vat of battery acid.

4. Bring your laptop (not to BEA, but to your hotel).  Javits has no free Wi-Fi, and the networks are hopelessly over capacity.  Iphones are useless when nothing works. You will need to do all your updates and admin when you get back to the hotel.

5. Make your appointments BEFORE you arrive at BEA.  I had all intentions of catching up with my author friends and bloggers. Do lunch with them, or perhaps go for a coffee.  Forget it.  You will NOT find them. They will NOT hear their phone.  You will NOT hear your phone. They will NOT get emails, tweets, or texts, and neither will you.

6. If you do end up alone for lunch, get out of Javits.  The food is awful, horribly overpriced, and you will eat it with someone standing over your shoulder breathing on the disgusting sandwich you are trying to eat, while sending you telepathic messages to get up get up leave leave leave! Yes, seating is at a premium and hungry, tried people are intimidating.

I’ll have loads more ‘lessons learned’ in part two, so be sure to check back.

Later my lovelies.

Leigh

The Wednesday Whinge - BEA & Driving Tests

It is Wednesday and I should be whinging… big time!  I do have one little whinge, I’ll come back to that in a second.  Firstly I want to tell you guys the good stuff.

Yay! Reviews for The Carrier of the Mark are starting to make their way into my twitter feed.  So far I’m ecstatic about how things are going. 5 out of 5 stars all around, now that’s not a bad start. 

Just in case you missed my BEA post, here is the low down.  I’m going to be at BEA this year. Double Yay!  I wasn’t expecting to be there, but then The Carrier of the Mark was picked as a Buzz book.  I just have to be present to hear the powers that be discuss my book at what is traditionally one of BEA's best-attended events.  The YA buzz panel is on from 2pm to 3.15pm on Tuesday May 24^th.  If you are going to be at BEA, make sure you pop by! Oh and I’ll be doing a signing from 4 – 4.30pm at Table 9 in the signing area. Make sure you stop by and say hi, oh and grab yourself a signed copy of The Carrier of the Mark while you’re there.

Now, back to my whinge.  I was recently informed that I had to do the Massachusetts Driving test before I could renew my insurance here in the US.  I have to admit, this filled me with terror.  I did my driving test when I was eighteen, back in Ireland.  I passed it first time.  I’ve spent the last twenty years driving all over the world, and not once have I had an accident (knock on wood). Now I’m faced the prospect of having to impress a grumpy driving tester and my confidence is giving way to horror.  I went into the DMV (that’s what you guys call the test center right?), got a form, filled it in, took a ticket, waited for 45 minutes, got called to a desk, had to give them all manner of background info and proof of identification, I think I might have given away the rights to my first grandchild too. Then horror of horror!! They took my photo. I wasn’t expecting a photo and hadn’t brushed my hair or put on makeup so basically I look like a troll. Then an impromptu eye test *gasp*, I hand over my credit card to pay a fee (can’t remember how much, I was still panicking over my horrendous headshot). Then I’m led off to a little room to take a test.  Now I know the rules of the road better than anyone. But these questions weren’t the rules of the road!

I don’t know how marijuana affects your eyesight, or how much you are charged for killing someone while operating heavy machinery while under the influence of alcohol, or where to store my weapon while I’m driving a car! I means seriously! Wouldn’t it be more beneficial to simply tell people you can’t get plastered, totally baked and carry a gun while you’re driving.  Why should I be tested on what the penalties are if I do? I mean, people who are going to do all of the above won’t give a toss what the penalties are in the first place. GAH!

Anyway, I passed my test through the process of elimination.  I can’t say I learned anything enlightening during the process, other than not to drive at night if you’re completely stoned on pot, oh, but you should be fine during the day.

Next up, the driving test, compete with grumpy driving tester, and horrible flashbacks of that movie License to Drive with Corey Haim (RIP). I’d love to video it for a vlog. I’ll see if I can hide my camera for you. LOL.

Later guys.

Leigh

Fact meets fiction (exceptional) Friday

I’ve had a great day today.  You’ll have to forgive the cryptic nature of this post; there are lots of things going on behind the scenes, each one more exciting than the next.  There are a few things I can mention. 

The Carrier of the Mark has been picked as a Buzz book for BEA (Book Expo America) This is HUGE for The Carrier of the Mark and will put it in the spotlight, giving it some much needed exposure at one of the biggest book events in the world! Eeek.

I’ve just done an interview for the Kirkus Reviews! This is so cool.  The Kirkus Reviews is a publication that's been on the go for years.  It's famous for it's cantankerous grumpy reviews.  No doubt I'll fall victim and be chewed up and spat out one of these days, but that's what I signed on for.  Yikes!  I’ll let you guys know when the interview is posted.

On the inkpop blog today, The Carrier of the Mark ARCs are causing a stir, and there’s a fab giveaway going on over there if you fancy getting your hands on one of those precious babies.  Inkpop have also posted my little ‘scare the UPS man’ video.  At this rate it will get back to the poor man and I’ll have to pay him an appearance fee.

Phew… it’s been a hell of a Friday.  Fingers crossed for an excellent weekend.

Have a most excellent one guys.
Oh, and if you haven't already filled in my Author Tracker, it is over on the right=====>

Leigh