Whew....

Okay, so BEA was exhausting! Really insane and loud and colorful and full of interesting people, but by the end of the day on Friday I was ZONKED!


Highlights included meeting Ron Hogan, sharing a booth (totally by accident) with Jamie Allen, finally getting to see Paul Morris' face, and introducing myself to the folks at Ten Speed (they're putting out my next project, a picture book!)


Most of all though, BEA reinforced my belief that Soft Skull Press really is the best press in the universe, and that the Soft Scullery is full of the best people in the world. Met a new SSP novelist, Delia Falconer, who was lovely... and hung out with Kristin and Jodi, and had a ball.


My best-friend-of-all-time, Susan Gray (who is a doctor as of 4 days ago) met me in DC and together we tromped around the Expo, drinking cheese soup, eating candy, and collecting free books for Mose. It really was a lot like when Susan and I used to trick-or-treat as kids...


Except that then we met my friend Heather for a Malaysian feast where we drank beverages ending in the suffix -tini (Heather just started working at the NIH!) before the doctors and I (how weird that my friends are doctors???) skampered off to the BOMB/A Public Space party... where I found an Iowa friend, Aviya Kushner. (She'll be rocking your Jewishy world next year with a book from Doubleday!)


Whew!


Not sure what other people go to BEA for but for me it was a par-tay! Not to mention that I had the opportunity to apologize in person to some folks-- Bookslut Jessa Crispin and agent Andrea Cascardi-- that I've over-harassed at different manic points in the PR frenzy that has been the last year ... and now feel a little bad about.


Live and learn.


BEA was fun, but I was mostly there as an observer. Can't imagine what it'd be like if I were "in the business."


Glad I'm not!


It's nice when you don't really have anything you're selling.