Obligatory BEA week conversation

Last week in New York was crazy.  I made a point this year of trying to do more fun things.  Touristy things.  Basically, I just wanted to cram as much fun into the time that I had. Leah Clifford, Courtney Moulton and I drove out from Ohio, and it was a super easy drive, actually.  Only about 10 hours including breaks to get into the city.

We arrived in New York on Sunday to find that our apartment had been double rented.  The nice South African man who was staying there was really sweet about the whole thing, but it was an aggravating couple of hours when I think all the three of us wanted to do was put our things down and freshen up.  After we got everything settled, we went out to dinner with the always fabulous Laura Whitaker.

Monday was a touristy day for us, and we tried to hit up Central Park but it was raining so we only did that briefly.  However, I did get a lot of ideas for this kind of epic NY book I want to write some day. Then we had lunch with the hysterical Aimee Carter at Bubba Gumps, and she was the official spokesperson for our table every time the waiter wandered our way.  I’m not really sure how that happened, but it ended up with all four of us writing our names and novel titles on the back of our check…so I guess it was a win?

The most random part of the afternoon was Leah turning to me and going “Is that the West boys?”  I mean, two extremely tall redheads walking together…it’s either that or they’re the Weasleys.  But sure enough, we just happened to run into the Jeremy and Jeffrey randomly.

Then I headed out to dinner with my editor, Brian Farrey, and a group of Flux authors, including Crissa-Jean Chappell, Suzanne Lazear, Tom Pollock, and agent Amy Boggs. The cheesecake at Junior’s was insane, for sure, and the conversation skewed from growing up Mormon to American Girl dolls (yeah, I’m not really sure how that happened either).

Then I ran over to another dinner, which I mostly just crashed, with Leah, Courtney, Aimee, and Sarah J. Maas (who might just be the funniest person I met the entire time in New York). I literally walked in as someone was leaving and I stole their chair.  So it all worked out.

Tuesday was the only day I really spent at BEA, and it was kind of nice to do it as a Muggle.  I got to wander around and stand in line for books.  Myra McEntire made me hug her — actually, a lot of people made me hug them this week.  I’m not a hugging kind of person, but I try to be accommodating.  Someday, the rule is going to be “no hugging the Scott.”   Anyway, it was especially cool because I got to stand in the line for Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven Boys, which was epic and amazing and everything I wanted it to be and more. I started reading it on the drive home and finished it that weekend.

The thing that’s weird about conferences and events like this, where there are a whole lot of people I ‘kind of’ know is that I’m really quiet when I’m uncomfortable, and I’m uncomfortable until I’m not.  So if I was quiet or serious around you this week, it wasn’t anything personal! It just takes me a little while to warm up.  So wandering around the convention was a little weird because I get nervous about just walking up to groups I don’t know, or if I only know one person.  Maybe it has something to do with being holed up in my room working on projects for the last couple of months.

That night was the Teen Author Carnival, and I spent my time on two panels: the first being about writing paranormal stories and grounding them in the real world, and the second one was about boys.  The coolest part of the TAC, for me, is getting to see authors I never get to see anywhere else, as well as the fantastic bloggers I get to talk to on Twitter but only see once or maybe twice a year.

Twice in two years, I’ve gotten to have a single moment with Michelle Zink, where it’s literally her shouting “Scott!” and then I shout “Michelle!” and then we smile and hug and get pulled away for the next panel or something.  One of these years we will actually get to have a conversation in person.  Maybe.

My goal anytime someone puts a microphone in front of me is twofold: “Try to be funny” and “OMG get this thing away from me!” You know that game you play when you’re a kid?  “The floor is lava?”  I’m like that, except it’s the microphone that’s made out of lava.  Anyway, I’m far from the most eloquent person, so I try to at least be amusing.  Or at least sarcastic. Or at least sarcastically amusing.

The highlight for me was getting to sit between Hannah Moskowitz and Michelle Hodkin.  I mean, you can’t go wrong in between the two of them.  Mostly because Michelle makes everything sound so smart, and Hannah makes everyone laugh.  Sitting in the middle kind of makes the best of both worlds.

 Wednesday I had lunch with my agent and we talked about upcoming projects, and the appropriate number of people you can murder in a novel.  So, I mean, it was the usual.  Then I bummed around with Gretchen and Zoraida Cordova (another of the funniest people I met in New York) before our signing at Books of Wonder.  Which was ALSO epic, and again, I spent most of my time going “Oh god, get this microphone away from me.” Which was especially fantastic when they asked us to explain what our books were about, and I NEVER ACTUALLY ANSWERED THE QUESTION.  #sigh

Then the Blogger/Author rooftop cocktail party.  You guys.  You guys.  It was INSANE.  The view was stunning, and the event was so much fun.  The bloggers who put this together did an amazing job – when I tell people about my trip in New York, it’s one of the first things I talk about.

I got to mingle with a lot of people I’d seen around New York that week, catch up with some other Flux authors like Char Bennardo and Alissa Grosso, and drink wine with my new best friend Lizzie (she just doesn’t know we’re biffles yet).

And then on Thursday I went back to Central Park as it was gorgeous, then hit up MoMA with Gretchen, who’d planned to head that way and just happened to invite me along.  Which was really weird, because I’d turned to Courtney that morning and mentioned wanting to go to MoMA.  Gretchen has weird psychic powers, y’all.

Things that happened to me that were crazy:

When I was heading over to MoMA to meet Gretchen McNeil for an afternoon wandering the exhibits, I stopped for a minute on a street corner to check my phone, check Twitter, etc.  Some woman walked up to me and said, “Scott?”  I had no idea who this woman was, but figured it must have been someone I met at an event this week, so I was like “Yeah?”  And then she realized that I wasn’t the Scott she was looking for, but she WAS meeting at Scott at that exact street corner at that exact time.  He walked up about ten seconds later.  But still, what are the odds?

I got to talk about writing with Holly Black, and she gave me amazing advice about revisions.  Seriously, I adore her so much anyway, but in person she’s like a thousand times more awesome.

Jeri Smith-Ready asked me to sign a copy of Witch Eyes at Books of Wonder, and when I opened the book up, it was one of the copies I’d already signed for their stock, so I was really confused.  And she looked at me, smiled, and was like “Can you make it out to me?”  And for a minute, I was really confused, because why would she want my book and my signature.  So…yeah.  Not my finest moment.  I’m a bit of an idiot sometimes.

I didn’t get lost once, and only took a cab a few times (when I was on my own).  That is a huge improvement over last year.

Tentative plans to hang out with Michelle Hodkin and Gennifer Albin turned into a working date for the three of us where we all got together and worked on our projects that were due soon.  I mean, I go to New York for a week and spend part of it working?  Of course I did.  Side note, I got to learn a lot about Cain and Abel from Michelle, and she reminded me of something from the Bible that would make the creepiest short story ever (and I kind of want to play with now).

All in all, it was a fantastic trip.  Everyone was so nice and it was great to see so many people I haven’t seen since LAST year.