so BEA (or book expo america, for all y’all literary n00bs like me) was last the other weekend. may 30th - june 2nd, to be exact. what i never realized was this: BEA is to book nerds as comic con is to, well, nerds. i was so overwhelmed by my looming signing for i love geeks at my publisher’s booth that I completely forgot to do the logical thing and see who was also signing. or what educational panels were taking place (not too many, as it turns out.) i totally missed my high school goth literary icon, anne rice, signing the same day as me. but i DID happen to accidentally catch ben templesmith, and got a custom vampire on my 30 days of night title page out of the deal. also saw the line for william shatner…galloping around the cosmos is a game for the young, indeed, so i kept on walking.
so. um. my signing? well, i was almost derailed when the shuttle taking me from the hotel to the l.a. convention center decided to take this strange, roundabout way (really, it wouldn’t have been proper for me to tell the driver that there’s olympic and then there’s pico, and never the twain shall meet), leaving me running to my booth with one minute to spare. imagine my shock when i discovered….a line? i am not often serious with my emotions, but by gosh, i just about teared up from gratitude that the booth was surrounded by actual PEOPLE instead of crickets (a.k.a, how i pictured it). big ups to the japanese gentlemen who had me pose for pictures. the one who referred to me as a “small child” will always have a special place in my heart.
there are pictures up at ijustfinished’s blog and ijustfinished’s interview with me on youtube, which i haven’t watched because i am quite sure i made some sort of an ass out of myself at some point. or was just boring. which is worse. anyway! thanks renee - my first press.
oh, and why is l.a. still horrible? tune in next time for the first installment of carrie’s soap box, which will include such topics as “$43.00 parking - legend, myth or fact?”, “the 7-11 on santa monica and las palmas sucks”, and my favorite NYC diatribe, “what do we want? affordable housing! when do we want it? NOW!”
good day.