Believe it or not, twelve hours ago, all I wanted to do was curl up in bed for the rest of the weekend, but apparently after 48-ish hours of convention-ism, I'm so wired I can't even sleep. Tragic, tragic irony.

Here's how the BEA-extravaganza went down, in a nutshell:
On Thursday morning, I woke up bright and early to meet a lovely woman from my alma mater, Tufts, about possibly scheduling a SO PUNK ROCK event with the alumni group here in NYC. From there, it was back home to field a phone interview with my brill Flux editor, Brian Farrey, for his Flux podcast. Brother Dave and I told tales. Keep an ear out. After that, Dave and I headed down to Tribeca to check out a gallery space in which we might be hosting our So Punk Rock release party, if things fall into place.
Afterward, it was on to the Teen Author Carnival! Dave and I were on Team Funnel Cake, which is good, since deep fried and sugar are two of my most vitalest food groups. Many, many, many amazing peeps were in attendance, but just to name a few:
Taylor Morris: former Media Bistro student of mine, fabulicious author, shiny, shiny hair
PG Kain: won bonus points for liking my brother!
Sasha Watson: I met Sasha when we both took Kristen Kemp's Young Adult Writing course through Media Bistro (the same course I now teach). Her book, VIDALIA IN PARIS, was great then and has only improved since those early pages. International art thievery--and first love!
Michelle Zink: and I have an editor/friend in common. And she travels with her family. Insta-entourage!
Jessica Burkhart: would be easy to hate if she weren't so fab (young, cute, talented? NOT FAIR).
Sarah MacLean: has been a devout supporter of Bradford since day one. <heart>
Aimee Friedman: my Popular Vote editor, and the sunniest person I know. Instant mood-booster.
Melissa Walker: knows the value of a good tiara--among MANY other useful secrets!
Jenny Han: her book, Shug, is a favorite among my students, which I finally had the chance to tell her in person. And I learned that one of her favorite procrastination technique is baking! Can you EVEN? Here I've been wasting my time on Twitter!

I'm sure I'm overlooking many divine and lovely people, but it has been a bit of a blur. My brother summed it up nicely re: Five Awesome YA Fans, the geniuses behind the whole event:
"Kids today are way more industrious than I was!"

True dat.

Friday I spent some time at BEA with another former student/current friend, Katharine Sise, who has a nonfiction book coming out with Running Press and who will rock your world with her YA novel, I assure you. We walked the floor with Lynn Weingarten and--literally--bumped into many fine bookish folks, including the Bloomsbury bigwigs (looking forward to Leslie Margolis' next book!), my S&S family (they were nice enough not to make TOO big a fuss over looming deadlines--espesh after I pointed out the computer I was toting in my bag), and a handful of awesome agents and rights folks. Much ado was made over Carrie Jones' GORJ book (cover and content), NEED, and Justine Larbalestier's LIAR (how did I not get a galley?), and I somehow got my hands on the coveted MAZE RUNNERS (I'm 50 pages in already).
Kidlit drinks included appearances by VCFA-friendlies Michelle Knudsen and Linda Oatman High, but I turned in early.

This morning I spent some time on Bradford 3, which--I swears--is SO ALMOST DONE, YIPPEE, and then headed out to meet some S&S people for a cocktail or two. I met Mr. Maze Runner himself, James Dashner, and busted out the galley I was carrying in my bag like some sort of deranged fan. Fortunately, he took it in stride. Then it was off to a friendly gathering sponsored by Bennett Madison and Robyn Schneider, whereupon exhaustion overtook me and I collapsed in a corner until Coe Booth was kind enough to seek me out for chit chat. And Michael "Gentlemenhead" Northrop and I swapped fave horror movie titles. Because we share the dork gene.

I returned home to discover that my dog has, in fact, not forgotten who I am, and ALSO, that SPR received a starred review from Booklist, who had some very nice things to say to us, and in particular:

“A rollicking, witty, and ultra-contemporary book that drums on the funny bone and reverberates through the heart."

All in all, an exhilerating (if exhausting) weekend. I'm excited to get back to the tappity tap tomorrow and will be posting the SPR TRAILER as soon as I get the hang of embedding. 

G'nite, people!