An introvert went to BEA (final BEA post before launching into a mad whirl of reading and reviewing)

I am home, and aching more than some what--I cleverly (?) and deliberately self-sabotaged myself at BEA this year by not bringing a suitcase with wheels, so that I would only take books that I really truly wanted. There were thirty seven of them--one more would have made it intolerable to stagger from the bus to the train--and so I am happy on that count.

My final tip for introverts at BEA is to go for a second year! It is so much more comfortable to be in a familiar setting, and though my spot outside where I could be alone was off-limits due to construction, I found a nice secluded doorstep that I had all to myself. Knowing what you are doing, in a purely practical, physical sense, makes any situation easier for an introvert, and, you know, probably for extroverts too! (Waves to extroverts).

My confidence as a blogger increases every year, and I engaged in several meaningful and interesting conversations with not only fellow bloggers and line-mates, but with publishers, which was pleasing.

It was lovely seeing all of you who I saw, though I am sad that there were people I didn't see who I wanted to.

I saw no signs of bloggers behaving badly this year, perhaps because there weren't that many piles of arcs! Every line that I was in behaved well, and the only person I saw doing something naughty was a quite old man, not a blogger, who jumped with surprising nimble-ness over one of the chains that had closed off a signing line.

Here is a useful thing that I learned at the Book Blogger Convention that I will apply to my blogging:

When tweeting a review, tweet at the publisher. There's a good chance your tweet might be picked up by them, increasing your review's reach, and it's a nice way to make sure the publisher knows about it (especially if you don't have an email address for them that you are confident about).

The question then becomes--is there a Master List of publishers and their myriad imprints with twitter handles???? If so, could I get it?

And here's the book that made my children happiest: Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers (coming August 2012), which was the last book I took, as I passed the Scholastic booth on my way out the door:


And here's the book that I had never heard of before that I was happiest to get an ARC of--Passion Blue, by Victoria Strauss (November 2012, from Amazon Children's Publishing). Here's the blurb:

"When seventeen-year-old Giulia, the orphaned, illegitimate daughter of a Milanese nobleman, learns she’s to be packed off to a life behind convent walls, she begs an astrologer-sorcerer for a talisman that will secure what she’s certain is her heart’s desire: true love and a place where she belongs. But does she really know the compass of her heart? The convent of Santa Marta is full of surprises, including a workshop of nuns who are creating paintings of astonishing beauty using a luminous blue mixed from a secret formula: Passion Blue. As Giulia’s own artistic self is awakened she’s torn: should she follow the young man who promises to help her escape? Or stay and satisfy her growing desire to paint?"


And on the back there is this: "A lovely read." -- Megan Whalen Turner. If MWT told me a Captian Underpants book was a lovey read, I'd believe her.

Did you know that the Marshall Cavendish line of books has metamorphosed into Amazon Children's Publishing? I didn't. So there, along with forthcoming books, were old friends like Chalk, and Amazon books like Zetta Elliott's A Wish After Midnight, and the Cybil's first shortlisted self-published book, available first only as an ebook, but now "officially" published --Angelfall, by Susan Ee.

Whoever is doing their covers is doing a bang up job!