Armchair BEA: If I was in New York today

Before I start my post proper, I wanted to let you know that not only can you read my thoughts here today, I have also guest posted over at Beth Fish Reads, talking about one of my favourite Australian authors.Now that that is out of the way on with my post!

It's probably a good thing that I am not really at BEA. Even in my imagination I can't avoid schedules clashing!

My starting point today would be at 9.30 am with signing by either Brunonia Barry or Robyn Carr. I enjoyed Brunonia Barry's debut novel The Lace Reader, and Robyn Carr's Virgin River series is one I definitely want to read more of.

Because the queues would be completely non existent just for me, at 10am I would arrive just in time to attend the book signings by either Justin Cronin (author of The Passage) or by Mitchell Kaplan for By Fire, By Water.I haven't read either book, but I am really excited in particular by the prospect of reading The Passage! I have heard such good things about it from bloggers I really respect.

I was tempted to see what was going to said at the 10am session called You're Reading That.  The blurb for the session -

• How can booksellers and librarians supply the interests of their teenage customers yet stay connected with that crucial 18-35 year old demographic—the ones who still read and buy YA titles in great numbers? The recent success of Little Brown’s Twilight Series highlights the need for industry professionals to be proactive in supplying fresh and fascinating titles for this burgeoning market.

Another YA session at 11am - this time about YA Author's Crossing over. My main reason for wanting to be at this session - Jennifer Donnelly. I have loved all of her books, especially her Victorian saga which started with The Tea Rose and continued in The Winter Rose.

• Melissa Marr, Wicked Lovely series and GRAVEMINDER; Jennifer Donnelly, REVOLUTION and THE WINTER ROSE; Stephanie Kuhnert, BALLADS OF SUBURBIA and I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE; Michele Jaffe, ROSEBUSH, BAD KITTY (young adult), STARGAZER, BAD GIRL (adult); Jeri Smith-Ready, SHADE (YA), BRING ON THE NIGHT (Adult)

At 12 noon the queues would magically clear so that I could attend a signing by Maria Snyder! I really liked the books of hers that I have read, although I really need to hurry up and read the third book in the Study series and move onto the next books, and then I am thinking New York style pizza, and then New York baked cheesecake for lunch! All the walking that we will be doing will more than compensate for all those calories! And I would definitely be planning to catch up with some blogging friends as well!

Nelson Demille is an author who I used to love reading in late teens and early twenties. I don't know why I haven't read one of his books recently, but I would love to meet him regardless! Having said that Justine Larbalestier is also signing at 3pm, and given that she is one of the few Aussies at BEA I would like to go and say hi!

Of course at the same time there is also the Steampunk session. I haven't read a lot of Steampunk myself, but I would have to attend because one of the authors on the panel is Catherynne Valente who wrote the awesome The Orphan's Tale. I have read and loved Vol 1, and would love to read more from her.

And at 4pm, I would love to go and drop by the signing by Anna Godberson because all of her covers would look so pretty all lined up on a desk!

The next thing I would do is based on a number of assumptions:

• I would not be completely exhausted after a full day of BEA walking around, carrying bag loads of books (excess luggage....pah!)
• There would be a game on
• There would be tickets available

I would go to a major league baseball game. Before I started travelling years ago, there were two sporting events that I really wanted to attend. One was to go and see soccer played at London's Wembley stadium, which I managed to do while I was living in the UK, and the other was to go and see a Major League Baseball game. Unfortunately during the time that I was in the US, there was a baseball strike, and so instead we had to go to a second division ice hockey game. It was loads of fun, but I still would like to go to the baseball.

I don't think I would necessarily appreciate the game itself all that much, but I would love to drink up the atmosphere!




Of course, I would be hoping not to see any crying because there's no crying in baseball.