Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus More


Jun 11

30

BEA and BBC, Part 2

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on June 30, 2011
Posted in BEA 2011  | 6 Comments

Sorry for the lateness of this post, better late then never, right?

So, when people who have been to the BEA before you give advice, listen.  The best advice I received was, wear comfortable shoes.  Actually, even with my most comfortable shoes my feet were killing me by the end of day 1.  The Javitis Center in NYC is HUGE!
On the first day of the BEA I just wondered around and got my bearings.  I also meet some really nice people and got a few books.  Actually, another blogger had told me before I went, to really limit the number of author signings I attend because I would miss out on a lot of other stuff.  I thought I could just go to the publishers and request the books I wanted, without having them signed.  However, that certainly wasn’t the case this year.  To get most of the books I wanted, I had to line up at the signings.  I missed out on some books I wanted because I didn’t figure it out until late in the first day.  Don’t cry for me though, I got plent of books.  LOL!
I spent a lot of time networking with various publishers about So Many Precious Books and Premier Virtual Author Book Tours.  I met some really cool people that way. I handed out tons on business card and received tons back.  I am way behind in following up with people via email.
I didn’t take many pictures, I somehow kept forgetting that I had a camera in my purse.  My bad!  I only got pictures of two authors.
 Teddy with a current Marine and author Barry Fixler, author of Semper Cool
Jane Fonda, promoting her book, Prime Time
I have to admit that the only reason I lined up for Jane Fonda’s autograph was because I wanted to meet the movie icon.  I don’t usually get so star struck.
I also attended the Harper Collin’s Cocktail Party on Wednesday night at a bar by Central Park.  It was so crowded that the minute I saw a familiar face I planted myself down at a table and pretty much stayed there the entire time.  It was too many people in a very small space.  I’m not very good at “mingling” but I really enjoyed the company of the other bloggers I sat with.  We even went out to dinner together when we left the party.  Another, I wish I would have taken a photo moment. (:
Now for the Book Blogger Conference:
The keynote speaker, Sara Wendall of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books was awesome.  She came across as a professional speaker.  It was a great start to the conference, actually one of the best parts!  
After the keynote speaker, the morning and afternoon sections were broken into two and you could take your pick.  I attended Ask a Publisher or Publicist, Author Speed Dating, Technology for Blogging.  
My favorite was the author speed dating.  I only knew one of the authors the, M.L. Malcolm but I met some really interesting authors.  I added books I hadn’t heard of before that to my TBR.  The only thing is I didn’t get to meet all of the authors there.  I think there were two factors, not enough time and dis-organization.  I’m not saying this to be mean, after all, this was only the second evetr BBC and first ever author speed dating.  I don’t think organizers stuck to the same amount of time for each set of authors.  Also, you had to pick which side of the room you were going to be in, the one for adult authors or the one for YA.  I would have loved to attend both but I chose the Adult side.  I wish they could have have the author speed dating broken up into two different times so you could attend both.
Because I’m a vegan, I special ordered my lunch.  I want to thank the BBC organizers, especially Michelle to making sure it was there for me!  I can’t tell you how many times I have ordered a special meal for a conference or other event and it wasn’t there.  Thanks again!!
During breakfast and lunch there were tables with books and swag to build your own swag bag.  Initially, I only took one book but after meeting a couple of the authors, I grabbed a couple more.
I also want to thank M.L. Malcolm for the margaretta at the BBC cocktail party, the night before the BBC Conference.  It was great chatting with you and I love your hats!
So how many books did I bring home, do you wonder?  I went to the post office after the BBC ended with all the books that I received over the week and they weighed, drumroll please…
45 lbs!  Thanks goodness for the media rate in the U.S.A. it only cost $20.00 to ship them to my brother’s P.O. Box right across the boarder.  Once they arrived I only had a 45 minute drive to pick them up and a 20 minute wait time at the boarder.  So what do 45 lbs of books look like and what books did I get?
Sorry, I’m just not up for listing them all individually.  I guess you could say I got just a tiny, tiny bit carried away! LOL!  I still have no idea where I’m going to put all of them.  They are still sitting on the same table in my office where I took the photo of them.

I had a great time but was exhausted after the trip.  I hope to do it again but to be honest, next year may be too soon.  Even a month after, I am still having problems with my feet and ankles swelling.  ( See my first post, BEA and BBC (Book Blogger Expo) New York City- Edition # 1)

 Perhaps I will decide to do the armchair BEA next year. Time will tell when I will be back to NYC. Thanks again to Al for putting me up in your beautiful place, I couldn’t have made the trip with out your very gracious offer!
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Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Jun 11

9

BEA and BBC (Book Blogger Expo) New York City- Edition # 1

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on June 9, 2011
Posted in BEA 2011  | 7 Comments

Many of you are probably wondering why it has taken me so long to post about my first trip ever to New York City, the BEA and the BBC.  Well, the last day I was there, my feet swelled and by morning, flight day, I had to stuff my feet into my shoes. My legs blew up like balloons on the flight home and my husband and I spent the evening in the emergency room of the hospital because I have a high risk for blood clots. That had never happened to me before. They gave me blood thinners as a precaution but it turned out I didn’t have a clot, thank goodness. I had never had my feet or leg blow up like that. I seriously wondered if I put a pin in them if they would pop. LOL! It was much better for two days and now it came back again but not as bad.  I have had to keep my legs elevated this entire time, which hasn’t been very conducive to blogging. 

Now that I have explained my absence and how I have fallen behind in my blogging, lets get to the fun stuff!

I spent nine days in New York City.  Like I said above, I had never been there before, so I wanted to get some sightseeing in.  I was able to go  four days before the BEA started because I had a free place to stay, thanks to Allen, my brother’s best friend.  Seriously, I cannot thank him enough!  I wish I would have taken pictures of his place!  OMG, so much nicer than any hotel.  He has traveled all over the world and has an art collection to show for it.  I thought I was living in a museum.  His place was stunning and quite spacious for a New York City zip code. 


My 19 year old niece, Rachel went with me.  She had been there a couple times before with her parents, so she was my tour guide for the first couple days.  Thanks to her, I didn’t get totally lost on the subways.

 Rachel and Teddy in Times Square
On our  first day, we spent the morning in line to get discount tickets to plays.  We then walked around Wall Street and saw “Ground Zero”.  I was very excited when I saw a street vendor with pretzels because I wanted to make a point of buying a pretzel off of a street vendor in NYC.  Crazy, I know!  It was so big that I could only eat a quarter of it but I enjoyed every bit.  Rachel refuse to help me out so I had to toss what I couldn’t eat.  It was a bargain though, for $2.00.  We also went to Filene’s Basement where I got a bargain on a new pair of walking shoes.
On day two I decided to go have brunch on my own since Rachel didn’t want to go.  Before the trip I was given all kinds of recommendations for vegan friendly restaurants.  I went to Curly’s Vegetarian Lunch.  It turned out that they are not strictly vegetarian but mostly.  They claim on their menu that they can make any of their items vegan.  I had the lumberjack breakfast, which included vegan pancakes, scrambled tofu, curly fries, and fresh fruit.  To be honest, it was nothing spectacular, in fact I didn’t like the scrambled tofu at all.  I just skiped the toru and ate about a third of the rest of the plate.
After brunch I met up with Rachel and we saw the musical, Billy Elliot together.  It took me about a half hour to get into it but then I really enjoyed it.  Then we went our separate ways again. We had heard that some theaters had rush tickets at a discount so I walked around from theater to theater inquiring.  The play I really wanted to see Good People only had rush for students.  But then I asked about Bengal Tiger with Robin Williams.  They have a draw nightly for 21 tickets.  I got lucky and won!  Rush tickets were only $27 and they were for the front row!  I found myself face to face with Robin Williams and all the actors.  The play was great.  It was a serious play that took place in Baghdad.
On Sunday we went to Times Square again, to try to get rush tickets to see Wicked.  There were about 200 people there and they only drew 12 names.  I really wanted to get a ticket for Rachel to see it but there were not even discount tickets to be had and I wouldn’t pay full price.  They was a fun market there, where some of the streets were blocked off so we went shopping.  We got five tee shirts for $20.00 and some other gifts and then we ran into the Naked Cowboy.
Then we went to a create your own burger place.  You choose the patty and the toppings.  I was in luck, they had a veggie burger.  We also shared just a few fries.  LOL!
On Monday I went to get my BEA badge and then took the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty.  I wanted to take the boat ride to the statue and Ellis Island but I didn’t have 3 hours to wait in line.  It was a grey sky day and a bit foggy so the photos didn’t turn out very good.
After that, I made it just in time for the Random House Tea.  When you walk into the lobby of Random House, you are greeted by many first editions of their books.  That was very cool.  Once inside the room for the Tea, I ran into my friend, Amy of The Girl From the Ghetto.  

Soon after that, an author in attendence saw my name badge and acted like I was a rock star.  It was Ellen Meropol, author of House Arrest.  I had given the book a 4.5/5.  She was so kind and gracious. 

Lisa See was there and talked about her new book, Dreams of Joy.  After we were all given copies to have her sign.  After, it was time to grab our swag bags.  They had a table full of books and canvas bags and you just took what you wanted.  Of course for me, I felt like a kid in a candy store!  I only took books that were on my TBR, which just happened to be most of them. LOL!  I then put my bag down to visit with others in attendence.  When it was time to go, I realized that someone had taken off with my bag by mistake.  I felt bad for them, because they ended up with a Lisa See signed to Teddy.  LOL!  I was also crushed because I was so excited to have met her.  All of a sudden she reappeared and I had her practically by herself!

I was also invited to replace the swag bag!


On Tuesday, the BEA officially started.  I will write about it more in my next post.


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Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.

May 11

17

BEA or Bust

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on May 17, 2011
Posted in BEA 2011  | 6 Comments

Who’s going to the BEA?  Please comment, so I can look for you there!
Last year I attended the first ArmChair BEA.  We had a lot of fun and this year it is suppose to bigger and better.  If you can’t go to the BEA I highly recomend The ArmChair BEA.
I put away money all year so that I can attend this years BEA in New York City.  I is amazing how it came together for me.  My brother found out that I wanted to go and called his best friend who lives in NYC and he offered his keys to his apartment as he will be out of town.  Accommodations was going to be my biggest expense, so I then had no excuses not to go.
Not only will this be my first time at the BEA and Book Blogger’s Convention but it will be my first time at NYC.  I am excited and overwhelmed all at the same time.
I am going to NYC early, May 19th so I can get my bearing and get some sightseeing in.  My 19 year old niece, Rachel is going with me, although she won’t be attending the BEA.  I’m looking forward to doing some sightseeing with her and taking in a show.

There have been some tips for the BEA from bloggers that have been there before.  I have been reading them over and thought it would be nice to post links here, for everyone who is going this year:

Post BEA: What I Learned by Caribousmom

Beyond “Wear Comfortable Shoes!”—Tips You May Not Have Thought of for Book Expo America by Book Blogger’s Convention

20 Tips to Survive BookExpo America & the Book Blogger Convention by The Girl From the Ghetto

Do you have any tips for the BEA?   If you are attending and want to make sure we meet up at some point, email me at teddyr66 at yahoo dot com.  

 

Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.