New York Comic Con 2015 Recap

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to go to New York Comic Con this year, for the first time ever. Although I was only able to go for one day due to college, it was still quite awesome!

I caught an early bus on Friday in order to come to the city (thankfully my fall break fell the weekend of NYCC), and I was so tempted to go pick up my badge at the Javits Center before I went home but I was super tired and figured I'd just go early on Saturday. 

On Saturday, as soon as I stepped onto the subway, I saw a bunch of people in cosplay and I knew right away they were going to NYCC. This was my first time so I was so giddy and excited! I was immediately reminded of BEA/BookCon (except with a lot more people, as if that's possible) as soon as I stepped into the Javits. My first stop, obviously, was the publishing booths and the first thing I did was play the Epic Reads Endgame treasure chest where we selected a random key from a jar and tried to open the lock - and I was the first winner of the day - I got a gift card! I wandered around the other publishing booths but honestly, there wasn't much going on around them. It was completely different from BEA in that everything was being sold and all the giveaways were for swag/samplers/etc. and the publishing booths didn't have a lot of traffic.

The Shadowhunters Team

After wandering around some more, I ate lunch and then headed to the Shadowhunters press junket, which was the main reason why I was there. I participated in a round table interview with the fabulous (and gorgeous!) cast, Cassie Clare, Showrunner Ed Decter, and Executive Producer McG. I was so nervous as this was the first time I've done something like this, but everyone was pretty friendly. Although everyone was hilarious and extremely pleasant, I'd have to say Alberto Rosende (Simon Lewis) had the biggest personality - he's just so fun to be around! (FYI - you can check out the interviews on TheFandom.net)

After the interview, I again just wandered around the show floor, checking out random booths and all the cosplay and costumes. The last thing I did was the NOVL dice giveaway and won an ARC of The Witch Hunter even though this book came out three months ago - I guess they had extras? 

The one thing I wish I did was branch out a little bit and visit more booths other than publishing ones, and I also wish I could have gone for more than a day, but hey, it was quite an experience to remember.

BookCon 2015 Recap

So all of us here at Wonderland Novels were able to attend BookCon this year! It was an extremely packed day and it seemed like there was so much to do and not enough time for it.

Sarah, Yiling, and Raisa. (Sadly Alice left already before we could all get a picture together.)

Show Floor

Lois Lane!!

Yiling: I spent most of the day by Penguin Random House because there was so many activities going on in their booth from giveaways to signings. When we got to BookCon in the morning, we immediately went there to pick up a copy of one of Sarah's most anticipated arcs- Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. The book is HUGE and honestly one of the most creatively designed books I've ever seen.

Another one of my first stops was to the Capstone booth to spin their wheel! I was so excited because they published one of most wanted books Lois Lane: Fallout. When I span the wheel, I landed on the spot to get a free pen but the people at the booth were kind enough to also let me pick a book of my choice. (Of course I picked Lois Lane!)

There were so many activities going on in the show floor but thankfully the space was not as crowded as last year although lines were so long. I wished that I could divide myself up so I could be everywhere at once!

Alice: After seeing BookCon lines, I no longer think the BEA lines were bad (except maybe that line for Black Widow, haha). There were lines for literally everything! The line for Penguin Random House's book drop was literally never ending. Go in at 10? The line was there. Come back at 1pm? Still a line. But I think most people can agree that Penguin Random House had the best drops for BookCon. I actually left early since I was still tired from BEA and didn't want to wait in any more crazy lines.

The Show Floor right before closing

Raisa: In comparison to last year's Bookcon, I'd say I got a lot more out of it. I knew what I wanted and I wasn't going to pick up every free thing I saw and not use it (I have so many posters and pins from last year). I also went to Penguin Random House for the free drops; unfortunately they ran out These Shallow Graves while I was waiting on line for it. The Show Floor was more organized than last year, but there were still many lines. I wish I could have divided myself so I could be in several places at once - I really wanted to get more books, but I couldn't be everywhere.

Sarah: Although it took a while for me to actually get in, I really enjoyed this year's Bookcon. The aisles were much wider than last year's so I didn't feel crushed in the crowd and had a much easier time viewing all the exhibits. I also really appreciated the schedule letting us know what and when each of the Penguin Random House giveaways were. The first thing I did was get a HARD COVER advanced copy of Illuminae by Amie Kaufman. The entire book and cover is so creatively formatted, its made  to look like a collection of censured documents. I can't wait to read the story inside! Some publishers were really creative with their giveaways. If you whispered "discreet" to someone at the HarperCollins exhibit you got a free book. Alice noticed these instructions printed upside at the bottom of their pamphlets. I just wish I could have went Sunday as well for even more cool books.

In-Booth Autographing

Yiling: I attended the autographing sessions for Carrie Ryan and Jennifer Niven at the Penguin Random House booth. I got to Carrie Ryan's autographing pretty early so I didn't have to wait on line for that long. I loved Carrie's The Forest of Hands and Teeth series so I was so excited to meet her and get a copy of her latest book Daughter of Deep Silence. I also got to meet the lovely Jennifer Niven and get a copy of her book All the Bright Places. I arrived half an hour early with Sarah and the line was already so long that it wrapped around the entire booth!


Alice: The only autographing I went to at BookCon was Cindy Pon's signing at the Month9Books booth since I had a front of the line pass. I can't wait to read Serpentine and Cindy was sweet!

Autographing

My personalized autograph!

Raisa: So I was under the impression I had to buy Meg Cabot's book in order to get an autograph, and even though the BookCon app (and my friends) warned me about the long line at the Word Bookstore, I went anyway. The line did have many people but it moved more efficiently than I thought; probably only was there for 20-25 minutes. Next I went on line 45 minutes early for the signing - there were already a lot of people lined up! Luckily, I ran into my college friends and ended up sitting with them. And even though I didn't need the book (thought I wasted money), Meg Cabot actually asked me if I wanted a personalized autograph so that basically made my day. She's so nice!

I also went to CinemaSin's autographing session. The line was much shorter and I got to take a photo with them (with Ms. Cabot I couldn't) and they were really cool about photos. Didn't have to buy Jeremy's book but I bought it afterwords haha.

Panels

Renee Ahdieh, Marie Lu, Aisha Saeed, and Sabaa Tahir: Faraway Lands

Sarah:  So I had the awesome opportunity to see a panel with so many talented authors. Although I was only familiar with Marie Lu's Young Elite series and Sabaa Tahir's An Ember in the Ashes, I still was able to enjoy the panel. In only an hour they each touched upon a variety of topics, everything from character development and world building, to female characters and diversity in books. Did you know Marie has to draw her characters before she can write a word because she used to be graphic designer for videos games (so cool)?! She also feels super awkward when writing romance scenes. And Sabaa actually feels guilty towards her characters and is jokingly called the "Commandant" by her mom.  One of my favorite quotes from the panel came from Marie Lu however, when she was answering a question on her Russian-Mongolian character, Daniel Altan Wing, from the Legend series. She told us of all the emails she's received accusing her of "hiding his heritage" by giving this half Asian boy blond hair and blue eyes. She was very saddened by this until receiving an email from a mother thanking her, "because that's exactly how my daughter looks". She went on to say that even though there are comparatively so few diverse characters, one character can not be a representation of an entire group because there are so many different kinds of people within that group, "and that's why we need more diverse characters".

 Leigh Bardugo and Marissa Meyer: Truth or Dare

Marissa Meyer standing on one foot
while Leigh Bardugo answers a question.

Yiling: Me and Sarah both attended the panel with Leigh Bardugo and Marissa Meyer where they played Truth or Dare. It was such a fun panel! Leigh and Marissa were both so funny and interesting. For one of the first dares that Marissa got, they reenacted a scene from Cinder (when Kai and Cinder first met). Leigh did a freestyle rap about her books (I was SO impressed that she came up with a rap so quickly and it was actually really good! She also showed off her Russian accent and even did a remake of "I'm a little teapot" where she turned into a sugar bowl instead. Marissa Meyer revealed that she would glamour herself into Meg Ryan (pre-plastic surgery), impersonated Thorne (Would you like to see my spaceship later?), and even made up a Lunar anthem!

Marissa and Leigh doing a Lunar waltz!

They also talked talked about more serious topics in relation to their books. Marissa Meyer got a question asking her about her diverse cast and if it was intentional to which she responded both yes and no. She talked about how when she was younger and she went to anime cons with her friends, one of friends told her about how she didn't know who to cosplay because no characters looked like her and how that always was stuck in the back of her mind. Leigh talked about the YA genre and how she found that people to shame people about reading genres like romance and YA because both of those genres are primarily created by and consumed women. They both discussed their strong female characters and Marissa talked about how one thing that she hopes that her readers got from reading her books was romance and love and she hoped to bring that to readers.

Overall, it was such a lovely panel! I laughed so much through out the whole thing and one hour was not long enough. The people sitting next me even remarked that they thought that it was the best panel ever and I wish that I could see them doing a panel together again.



BookCon was so much fun and I'm sadden that we aren't able to go next year. (Why is Chicago so far?!) Hope that you guys enjoyed our post! Were you able to go to BookCon this year?

BookExpo America 2015 Recap

BEA 2015 Recap

This was my first BEA and I was lucky to have had the opportunity to attend before it moves to Chicago in 2016! It was definitely a memorable experience for me and I met so many awesome people, from bloggers to authors. Prepare for a really long post!

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Virginia Boecker

Day 1 (May 27): The show floor opened at 1 PM, so I arrived slightly before to pick up my badge. The first day was supposed to be my most relaxing day (though it ended up being the most tiring - don't know how that happened). The line looped around the Javits center and I was in awe at how long it was. However, a few minutes before 1pm, they allowed people to start entering and then everyone entered really fast so I didn't actually have to wait very long. I made a beeline for the Disney booth since they were doing a drop for A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston, which was on the top of my list. There was only one book left when I got there, and a nice guy and I reached for it at the same, but he let me have it! :D (Thank you to all the wonderful generous people there<3)


After, I wandered the floor a bit and got some interesting looking ARCs and headed to The White Rose signing with Amy Ewing around 45 minutes early since I didn't really have much to do between that time. I then when to a scheduled galley drop, wandered around the show floor again, and lingered until The Witch Hunter signing with Virginia Boecker, who is super sweet! This was, again, one of my most anticipated signings of the day since I've been looking forward to this book for some time now!

The last thing I had in mind for day 1 of BEA was HarperCollins' Walk on Earth A Stranger & Newt's Emerald Drop. Once the line started, it went by really, really quickly.

Overall, the overall trend for BEA day 1 was: sort of long lines, but they all went by pretty quickly once it actually started. It was also about 5 times less chaotic than BookCon last year, which gave it major bonus points in my book.

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Day 2 (May 28): I sadly had to miss BEA on the second day even though I had fully planned on going! :-( Sad that I missed HONY's Brandon Stanton and Passenger by Alexandra Bracken, but I did manage to see most of the other authors I had planned on seeing originally on the second day on the last day.

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Day 3 (May 29): So the third day was by far the busiest for me. The very first signing I went to was Margaret Stohl's Black Widow! I bumped into Angela, with her gorgeous book dress (check it out on her twitter) on this line! This was by far the slowest moving line at BEA; usually, after the line starts moving, it goes pretty fast, but I waited around 45 minutes even after it started. I didn't anticipate that it'll take so long, so I missed Six of Crows (noo). I also saw a drop of A Whole New World at the Disney booth, much to my excitement. I then took time to wander around and eat lunch.

Eleanor Herman (in costume!), Adi Alsaid,
Katie McGarry, and Kady Cross 

My afternoon was much busier and at around 11:45, I headed to the Harlequin Teen power hour signing with Kady Cross, Katie McGarry, Adi Alsaid, and Eleanor Herman and there was a line forming even though it didn't start until 1 pm! However, I met Jessica @ Bookish Serendipity  and TJ @ We So Nerdy in line and had a lovely conversation with them, so the hour went by fairly fast.

Richelle Mead & her gorgeous hair

Right after the Harlequin Teen signing, I rushed to the 2:30 signing of Richelle Mead's Soundless, another one of my most wanted ARCs. The line was long, but not as long as I had expected it to be. I also met Sajda @ Across the Words on this line, and managed to also catch Marissa Meyer signing Fairest, which was a relief since I had originally planned to see her on the 2nd day! Marissa is probably one of the sweetest authors I met at BEA and I managed to get a photo with her. I then went to my last BEA 2015 signing, which was Erin Bow's The Scorpion Rules, which was quite spontaneous since I don't even think it was on my schedule. I also met Nichol @ Stacks Waiting on this line; I had been talking to her on twitter throughout BEA so it was great to see her in person! :-).

Although I was sad that my first ever BEA had come to an end, my body was tired and I was ready to head home (and come back the next day for BookCon ;)).




Summary: My highlights/"favorites" of BEA 2015 were:
- A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston drop
- The Witch Hunter signing with Virginia Boecker
- A Whole New World by Liz Braswell drop
- Soundless signing with Richelle Mead
- Fairest signing with Marissa Meyer
 & of course, meeting all the wonderful authors and bloggers!