BookBuzz 2014: Hello NYC!

Most of you have probably seen that I was in New York City last week, for the fabulous BookBuzz event. I think I am correct in saying this is the third BookBuzz, one was in May last year, one was in Toronto in November, and then again in NYC. I attended the Toronto event, and had such an incredible time that I knew there was no way I could miss the NYC event. And again – what an amazing night! To be able to meet with authors and bloggers face to face is such an experience. I was there for over four hours, and it felt like it had been twenty minutes. It makes me to so insanely happy to be a party of the wonderful community, and a big special thank you to Francine LaSala, Samantha Stroh Bailey and Meredith Schorr, who put together these events and make them run so smoothly. Some of my highlights were: getting to see Cat Lavoie again (Go Marching Ink!), meeting the super adorable Brenda Janowitz, meeting new authors and bloggers such as Glynis Astie, Sheryn MacMunn, Julie Valerie, Melissa Amster, Francine LaSala and Marlene Engel, finding two random men to buy my books, being praised for wearing flip-flips versus heels (dressy ones, of course!) and catching up with those I met in Toronto such as Heather Wardell, Lydia Laceby, Samantha Stroh Bailey, Chantel Guertin and Meredith Schorr. Oh – and seeing blow dryers in the women’s bathroom. That was a first! All in all, such a successful and fun night with so many memories made. I can’t wait for the next BookBuzz!

My husband accompanied me to New York, and the following day we took the subway to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. The Memorial is really quite powerful, overwhelming honestly, but I was sad that we didn’t actually get to go into the museum. A tip for if you plan to visit – buy your tickets ahead of time if you can, and note that they say it takes an average of two hours to get through it all. We were there at 1:00 and the next tickets were for 4:00, and we had tickets to a Yankees game at 7:05, so the timing didn’t work out for us, unfortunately.  We ended our quick trip at Yankee Stadium (selfie to the left), to catch a game versus the Minnesota Twins. We are both Chicago fans (Cubs and White Sox – house divided!) but it was awesome to see the stadium, watch Derek Jeter, and see three home runs – can’t complain about that!

I’m not sure where the next bookish event will take me, but I eagerly look forward to it!