Armchair BEA: The Best Week Ever!

Look! It's BEA!

This has been such an incredible week! So incredible that it has sucked the life completely from me. I'm exhausted, so I apologize ahead of time for any syntactical inadequacies in this post.

The end of last week I sat at home kicking myself for not registering for BEA. The end of this week I'm skipping about on a cloud of soft, fluffy books. I couldn't be happier that I participated in Armchair BEA, and as fate would have it, even got to stop by BEA for a few hours on the last day! So many books, so many new and old faces, so many great conversations, (and so much beer).

What did I learn from all this? Well first, it really is a small world after all. For all those who participated in Armchair BEA, I hope the people you met this week become great friends (I have a feeling that they will). The people you meet in person and online will end up featuring in your lives in unexpected ways. I think it's really easy as a blogger to become emotionally distant at times. As we sit in our different homes, at our different computers, scattered across the world, we may feel disconnected from one another. But really, we are so much closer than we realize. That's something to remember both when we are feeling great and feeling terrible.

Thanks to my unknowing
benefactor: Pat Hendrickson

For when you're feeling down: there are so many of us here for you! We love you! For when you're feeling great: try to remember the ways in which our actions can effect others, both for good and for bad. Being involved in publishing has helped me with this a little because the distance between myself and every book person out there feels smaller as a result. I'm not saying you need to adopt my policy and not review books you didn't enjoy, but just remember that these people are seeing your words and being effected by them. If you keep on keeping on in the book world, more than likely you'll end up meeting them in person (and wouldn't it be super embarrassing when you realize you said something dreadful about them in the great public domain that is the interwebs? And that they probably saw it?)

But that's just what I think. As you may have learned from Tuesday's post, Armchair BEA: My Life Changing Decision the people that I met casually in an unexpected place ended up being the same ones who employed me later. In fact, a wonderful person that I met at a conference across the country two years ago was the very same person that texted me late Wednesday night asking if I wanted to use her guest pass to BEA the next day. It seems like crazy chance, but things like that happen all the time.

But anyways... Here's a wrap up of my BEAlicious week!

Look! It's Nicole from Paperback Princess

Monday Blog post: Armchair BEA Intro!

Tuesday Blog post: Armchair BEA Giveaway: Signed Summer trilogy by Jenny Han! (Two days left to enter!!)

I go down to Books of Wonder and see multiple authors speak on a panel! There is a signing, and I almost overheat from being in proximity to the awesomeness that is Jenny Han. Then I come home and have a great time during the #ArmchairBEA twitter party. (Holla to all my new friends!)

Wednesday Blog post: Armchair BEA: My Life Changing Decision

I decide that pulling an all nighter would be fun. After all, I'm an adult, I don't technically have a bedtime, so since no one is stopping me, I might as well!

5 am: Kelsey collapses in the wake of a Britney Spears dance party.

Thursday Kelsey unexpectedly travels to BEA thanks to the COOLEST PERSON EVER, Jennifer! Her publishing friends laugh at her for being so doe-eyed and overwhelmed. Her badge says Pet Hendrickson on it, which she finds riotously funny.

For those who haven't been to BEA: it's massive. To self-quote, "I never knew there were rooms bigger than Super-Walmarts. This is, like, airport HUGE." More laughing (at me) ensues.

I meet Nicole from Paperback Princess in line for a signing. She gives me an ARC of Fathomless by Jackson Pierce out of the kindness of her heart. She replaces Tahereh Mafi as my favorite person ever.

These four hours are a blur, but I am given multiple totes and they are mysteriously filled to the brim with books. (It should be noted that since I went on the last day, I got a lot of the "leftover" books. People--I kid you not--were rolling out of there with full sized suitcases, so my AWESOME pirate booty looked pitifully small compared to others. Welcome to BEA, Dorothy!) I meet so many incredible people, and I eat a lot of free candy. Adrenaline/coffee/candy/books/giddiness cause me to walk into a wall as I leave BEA, but my unfettered happiness renders me invincible.

My BEA booty!

That night I go to the Soho Press party with Libba Bray, Jenny Han, and other rockstar book-folk. (For any who don't know, Soho Press is launching a teen imprint in January 2013, so be on the lookout!) I proceed to *ahem* take advantage of the open bar. There is much swag, and I may or may not end up at a bar with Soho Press afterwards. Mayhem and PBR Best times ever ensue.

Friday I spend the entire day recovering, rolling about, reading my ARC of Dust Girl, and wondering what in the heck I had been thinking the night before.

Saturday Blog post: Armchair BEA: The Best Week Ever!

To all the wonderful people that I got to know this week: it has been such a pleasure. To all the ones I have yet to know: I'm looking forward to the chance at meeting you! Thanks for sticking with me, even through this post in which I inexplicably go back and forth between first and third person without any particular reasoning.

Best week ever Sponsered By: