BEA Friday

Well, it turns out that there is no free wi-fi access in the exhibition hall of BookExpo America, so I wasn't able to do any liveblogging of the event, which is probably for the best, because it's so gigantic and overwhelming that it's unlikely I would say anything other than, "Wow. Lots of people. Millions of books. Wow. Lots. Huh. Wow."

I'm here with Jeremy Lassen of Nightshade Books, helping him convince passersby that trading their contact info for a free copy of a Nightshade book is a good deal. This has not been difficult, because the current crop of Nightshade books are beautifully designed and produced, making them quite attractive even in the sea of books that is BEA.

We've been up since 6.30am and attended both the LitBlog Co-Op party and the Small Beer Press etc. party tonight, so I am utterly and completely exhausted, but I did want to note here that I've met a bunch of my fellow bloggers for the first time -- Gwenda Bond, Mark Sarvas, Sarah Weinman, Ed Champion, Wendi Kaufman, Max Magee, Lizzie Skurnick, Kassia Kroszer, Carolyn Kellogg, Ron Hogan, Bud Parr, and probably at least one person I'm temporarily forgetting. I'd met Kassia, Carolyn, and Ron at the AWP conference earlier this year, and it was fun to see them again, but everybody else was new to me. These are marvelous people: intelligent, fun, friendly -- I want to marry them all. (Heck, Ed -- in his obnoxious Bat Segundo persona -- even kissed me.)

I've gotten advanced copies of some great books, but they're sitting in a bag at the other side of the hotel room right now, and so will need to wait a few days for me to write about them. Tomorrow I'm taking a digital camera with me, and so tomorrow night, if I haven't collapsed, I'll post some pictures...

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