My trip to New York (BEA, Grumpy Cat, Spencer Hill and more)!

As many of you know I headed out to New York a few weeks ago for Book Expo America. I also stayed extra for other events and some quality time with friends and family. The city itself was amazing and while I have been there before, there is always so much more to see and my previous trips have almost always been 3-5 days. This time I got an entire 2 1/2 weeks and LOVED every minute of the experience.

Let us start with our cast of characters: Keri
Sydnee
and of courseMe
 We start out our adventure at Book Expo AmericaLet the fun and learning commence! Here we are on the first day, you may notice a character not in the cast list. His name is Quillbert and he is the literary overlord of Quill Café which just happens to be Keri's blog.http://quillcafe.blogspot.com/ At one point we were then mustached thanks to https://www.facebook.com/thelostimperials?directed_target_id=0  and I got to have random people take pictures with my chest thanks to 3:59. Which at first was unnerving but then awesome. Gretchen McNeil is such a sweetheart and I have started the novel, it is amazing so far! I have a feeling it will be a 5/5 stars!https://twitter.com/GretchenMcNeil  Thanks to a couple of mustache wielding steampunk faeries we headed over to the Spencer Hill Press booth and grabbed copies of Extracted! I also ended up meeting my editors from Holiday Magic which was amazing. I ran into an abundance of other Spencer Hill Press authors I love including Dan who wrote Masters of the Veil and Kendra Saunders who is a fellow Holiday Magic author and happened to look amazing in her specially designed LBD. We ran into each other at the Spencer Hill Author Breakfast as well. Shout out to Trisha who happens to be one of the nicest people I met the entire trip - YOU ROCK!  As our adventure continued we made a friend in the Grumpy Cat line (https://twitter.com/jesseratops) and thus a guide to posing with grumpy cat was born. First off... Practice your grumpy face. Some of us are better at it than others but the grumpier the better. Now here is why: Here is what happens if you succeed in your grumpy face-ed-ness...She looks RIGHT at the camera... and may or may not have fallen asleep. YEAYAH! A-Mah-Zing!Now lets try this again smiling... See that!She bolted for it! Alas... my smile hath scared off 'leh grumpeh cat'.
We happen to have a secret weapon while at BEA

BEA can be the most exhausting few days of your life if you let it. The trick to our high energy excursion? A nice easy going break partway through the day that includes food, a crazy sugar high from amazing cupcakes and a break for our feet.http://burgerscupcakesnyc.com/It is only a few blocks away and features very affordable pricing. Plus, a nice cold milkshake on a hot day is a fun treat.
 We returned to Book Expo and continued our adventure. The panels I ended up deciding to go to were mainly geared toward the learning tracks. I learned a lot about new social media, search engine optimization, 'out-of-the box' forms of marketing and the overall industry and I plan to put that information to good use in the near future. It was amazing to learn from top notch professionals who work in the field and get to hear their personal thoughts and expectations for the future.  To anyone to goes to BEA or might in the future, I would highly suggest attending some of the learning tracks. The information they give you goes a long way. It was truly inspiring! 
After BEA I ended up going on an adventure to a friend's house and her roof had these amazing views.
Amazing right?I was almost tempted to just lay out on the cement and write for a while but took these pictures as mementos instead. Plus... sun.... so much... sun. Also headed to the Natural History Museum (life changing), Spencer Hill Press breakfast (during BEA), Max Brenner, The Strand, Forbidden Planet, Dave & Busters and more. All time favorite New York restaurant from my stay:The Headless HorsemanWhich just happens to be on Irving street...I fangirled... These pictures may not be the best but they give a general idea of the atmosphere.
 While there was more adventure and excitement this post is already nearly picture book length so I will go ahead and bring it to a close. However, feel free to ask anything you would like and more photos are posted on my personal facebook! https://www.facebook.com/emma.michaels.90It is likely I will end up adding them to my like-able page later on this week! <3 Thank you for reading and happy adventures!