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Wednesday, July 3, 2013

ALA 2013 Adventure

I decided to head to ALA 2013 because it was in Chicago! Of course I live in Illinois and I took the train downtown. I attended ALA 2013 on Saturday and Sunday just for the exhibits only. I hopped the train as it stopped at every stop. Then of course my brother lives downtown so he picked me up and went to his place for some breakfast. It was fun. After we ate, he dropped me off at McCormick Plaza which is not far from his place at all. I did have a list this time to be prepared. Sadly I did miss a few books I wanted but got that made up later from walking around. I saw many lovely publishers such as Penguin, Little Brow, Flux, Hyperion (Disney), Sourcebooks, Macmillan, Spencer Hill Press, Zondervan, HarperCollins, Harlequin, Bloomsbury, and so on. The place was huge. Of course there were artists and business companies for the library field was so neat to see! I loved seeing the shelving units and tables and chairs and even book drops were there. There were business companies such as 3M, Family Research, Baker & Taylor and so on.

After getting some books here and there and meeting with some people from the publishing company, I had to get lunch. The food was pricey! I spent 20 bucks on lunch there..the sandwich alone was $17.00. The joys of going into the city! After I ate, I headed back out. It does help to have a list. The one thing that was different was that ALA had their numbers on the floor, where BEA had their numbers up on top. Plus I didn't see a map in the ALA handbook that they gave us. So I basically went around in circles quite a bit! Oh my feet were fine but my shoulders ached so from carrying those books. It's quite a work, good for the soul! I saw so many different people there and met some great librarians! It was packed.

I also learned that 'Teardrop' by Lauren Kate would be handed out on Sunday morning so that was a new thing to add to my list! Plus I got an extra copy of 'Teardrop' for another book blogger named @heatherkkilpatri who did not know if she could go or not. I believe you can go. I saw children there which made me smile! Then I saw a tweet from another book blogger named @Sash_and_Em who had to leave early and wanted to get Shannon Messenger book signing as I did get a copy for her. I just like to help others out. Plus I also got some books for my two teacher friends as well. I came back with tons of books!

I did get to meet Colleen Gleason who I have been a fan of since 2007! There's another blog posting about that. Then I also met Shannon Delaney where I got a copy of Weather Witch, then some other authors I met were Julie Berry, Simone Elkeles, S.J. Adams, Geoff Herbach, Amanda Sun, C.Y. Lyons, Marissa Moss, and a few others. It was exciting and fun.

One thing I did get to have was dinner with my brother and his girlfriend at Hugo Frog Bar which was amazing. If you like seafood, then you need to go to this place! It was amazing!!! We shared an appetizer of Mussels! I had a bowl of clam chowder soup and then some shrimp for dinner. I was full afterwards. We did eat outside and it felt great. There was a heater outside too. It was fun to watch people go by. Later that night we headed back to my brother's place since I was crashing the night there (nice brother to help his older sister out)! We watched the movie 'Gangster Squad' - it was a good movie but a little violent. I did sleep pretty damn well since the train does go by his place.

Sunday came and my poor shoulders were already sore from Saturday. Sunday I ended up with more books. Holy cow! At the end, I went to Flux publishers to see what they had and the one lady there was so nice, she gave me a copy of this one book that I wanted to read since I would not be there on Monday. Thank you soooo much to Flux Publishing!!

Now I have all these books to read...I'm pretty much set for a while! Heading home..I had to walk from State Street to Michigan Ave to get a taxi cab to get to the train station to get home! I barely made it. Once I got on the train, it was packed. There was no place to sit! I ended up standing the entire time until about the 3 or 4 stop before I got off the train. The Metra train runs every two hours on Sunday. My kids were happy to see me when I arrived and so was my husband! I have the best family. A wonderful husband who lets me geek out at books.

If you are thinking of going to ALA, do it! It's worth the fun. Just like BEA..it's fun. A great way to see the whole world of books and people! I believe 2014 ALA is in Las Vegas and BEA 2014 is in NYC again. If you got any questions for me, ask away. :)

Photos below to check out:


Chicago ALA 2013




Sourcebooks Ladies hard at work! Such fun.



Marissa Moss Signing!




Flux Publishing Company with lovely ladies. I had a blast checking their books out.

Macmillan Publishing display



Found Spencer Hill Press! They were awesome at BEA and at ALA!



3M display!


View shot from the Cafe I sat upstairs




Amanda Sun signing at Harlequin!


Veronica Roth signing posters!


Shannon Greenland signing!



Star Wars!


Front of McCormick Plaza for ALA2013



Book Pile first set!


Hugo Frog Bar outside!! Yummmmmmmm



Geoff Herbach signing!




NASA stop! Great for kids!!


S.J. Adams




The lovely and amazing Colleen Gleason




Shannon Delany signing!


Simone Elkeles signing..stood in line for an hour for it and was #4 in line.




Julie Berry Signing!


Jonathan Maberry talking and signing at ALA 2013


Shannon Messenger talking and signing at ALA 2013




The whole set of books I got! Plus others that I didn't post since I couldn't get them all home..

























Monday, July 1, 2013

Finding It Cover reveal by Cora Carmack






Finding It (Losing it #3)
Author: Cora Carmack
Expected Publication Date: October 1, 2013 by HarperCollins

From GoodReads:
Most girls would kill to spend months traveling around Europe after college graduation with no responsibility, no parents, and no-limit credit cards. Kelsey Summers is no exception. She's having the time of her life...or that's what she keeps telling herself.

It's a lonely business trying to find out who you are, especially when you're afraid you won't like what you discover. No amount of drinking or dancing can chase away Kelsey's loneliness, but maybe Jackson Hunt can. After a few chance meetings, he convinces her to take a journey of adventure instead of alcohol. With each new city and experience, Kelsey's mind becomes a little clearer and her heart a little less hers. Jackson helps her unravel her own dreams and desires. But the more she learns about herself, the more Kelsey realizes how little she knows about Jackson.

Put this book in your to read pile today!

Colleen Gleason at ALA2013








I finally got to meet Colleen Gleason! I've been a fan of hers since she wrote The Vampire Gardella back in 2007! I've read the whole set of that and then I heard she has a new spin off of The Vampire Gardella, I had to have it! The next book I read was Roaring Midnight (review coming soon) which was amazing as well! I was excited. Then I heard about her young adult book called The Clockwork Scarb (Stoke & Holmes #1) which she was signing at ALA2013! You bet I was going to get to meet her and get books signed!

She and I have chatted through Facebook and Twitter which I love. She's just a friendly person! She signed the arc of The Clockwork Scarb which was at ALA 2013, Roaring Midnight (which I brought from my collection, order it online if you are interested!!) and then the first novel she ever wrote The Vampire Gardella (once again from my own collection & find it online if interested)! Plus I got a snapshot of her with me too. I look awful in the photo, don't I? Ugh. Anyways that made my day! She had tons of people lined up to sign and hope many people are aware of her awesome writing. She rules.

Check her links out below:
Facebook

Twitter

Website

Shannon Messenger speaking at ALA 2013








The lovely Shannon Messenger talking about her book Let the Sky Fall! It was a blast listening to her speak about her book and how she got the concepts for it. I was glad I went to it!! Check her out at these links:

Blog

Instagram

Twitter