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| The Javits Center - image credit here |
The first panel discussion on my wish-list didn't start until 10am so I headed for the main exhibition floor to look around. Oh. My. God. It was like Macy's on Christmas Eve in there. People were going in all directions, grabbing fistfuls of free stuff off the display tables and not even taking the time to speak to the exhibitors, or to even see what they were grabbing. As a friend suggested to me later, it was very reminiscent of the "Candy Man" scene in the original "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" movie, where the greedy kids basically loot the candy store. I was Charlie Bucket.
Being so short, I couldn't see up ahead either, so I got stuck in human traffic jam after human traffic jam. And everyone around me was carrying backpacks and tote bags that were getting steadily fuller, heavier, and more painful each time they slammed into my guts. I spent all my time trying to navigate through the crowd and I literally did not stop - indeed, could not stop - at any of the display tables. There wasn't any space to take the time and see what was on display, or ask the amazing array of exhibitors whether their books were old, new, free, for sale - nothing.
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| How I felt about my morning Image credit here |
Somehow I emerged back into the main foyer of the Javits Center, giant glass nightmare that it is. Compounding the disastrous start to my day, Starbucks was the only coffee for sale and the line was almost out the door (though rather amusingly merging with the line-up for people trying to come in). Don't even get me started on the lines for the restrooms. I was on track from a 10am nervous breakdown.
Grisham has a new book coming out in October, but this panel discussion was more a conversation between two authors about their writing process and the discipline required to churn out a well-researched and successful page-turner. I have been a Grisham fan for a long time but up until today, I'd never heard him speak a single word. I've never seen him on TV, or heard him give interviews, nothing. But then that amazing southern drawl came out, and he talked about being a lawyer in Mississippi, and I could have listened to him for days. One thing that has always struck me about Grisham's characters, particularly the lawyers, is that they always seem to start their workdays insanely early. But that seems to be a throwback to Grisham's own professional life. As he said this morning, he started writing A Time To Kill while he was practicing law, and every day he made the deal with himself that he'd get to the office at 5am, and he'd have to have his coffee and first word written by 5.30am. He's slackened off that discipline now of course, but that was his routine for many years.
Grisham and Hiaasen (whose work I have not yet read) talked about the challenges of finding names for their characters - apparently obituaries and baby names books are popular sources. They talked about the role of their wives and their editors in helping to "surgically remove" irrelevant plot lines or unnecessary characters from an unpublished manuscript. And one thing I found really interesting is that in the past, they have both been involved in charity auctions where you can bid to have yourself written in to one of their books. I had never heard of such a thing before. Hiaasen learned the down side of this though, when a lady who won such an auction approached him 6 months later while he was at dinner with his wife, and demanded to know when they were going to start collaborating on his book about her. Good grief, can you imagine?!
After the Grisham panel concluded I headed into the food court for a Diet Coke. Of course, it was a cash-only enterprise, and when do I ever carry cash? I asked the Javits Center employee whether there was an ATM on the premises and she looked at me like I was nuts. Or maybe that was just her face. If you want to see what hell looks like, Google the Javits Center during BookCon.
But one thing I really liked about this panel is that the lady you see on the left there is from Australia - her name is Courtney Collins and her first book "The Burial" has just been released in the US (but under the title "The Untold"). Apparently it has done very well in Australia and her attendance at BookCon today is part of an 8-city US tour to promote the book. The panelist in the middle is Yelena Akhtiorskaya, whose book "Panic In A Suitcase" is officially released in bookstores on 31 July, and finally Celeste Ng who wrote a book called "Everything I Never Told You" which will be formally released this month.
I was particularly interested to hear what these women had to say about their experiences handing over their manuscripts to an editor and putting their faith in an agent, who would steer them through the murky world of publishing. I liked what they had to say about the benefits (or not) of studying creative writing formally (such as a MFA at Columbia). And I liked the reality check that these women gave me (and all of us) when they talked about just how long they'd been working on their books. In Celeste's case, she had worked on 4 drafts over 6 years, and Courtney had written hers over 7 years. I'd like to read all their books of course and even if I don't enjoy them (for whatever reason) at least I know that they worked really hard on them and to a large extent are still finding their feet in the industry.
We were supposed to all receive free copies of the books after this particular panel discussion, but of course all the vultures got to them first and I missed out.
As I wandered dejectedly over to the next panel discussion, it was also my time to stand in the wrong queue, so I couldn't get in to hear Cary Elwes talk about his new book, "As You Wish: Tales from the Princess Bride". I was really frustrated about that, but there were so many other people turned away too, so misery definitely loved company.
I bravely made one more circuit of the still-crowded expo floor but strayed into the children's books section by mistake and that was way too perky for me. I did pick up a sheet of stickers though, full of presumably famous characters from FarFaria. I have no idea what that is, but I believe it's a free app you can download that teaches children how to read. I could never be grumpy about kids learning how to read.
When I finally found the exit again, I took it as a sign to leave BookCon. I walked away from the Javits Center and never looked back. A sheet of stickers was my only free gift for going to the convention this year and although free stuff wasn't the prime motivation for me going, I have to admit I was disappointed that I didn't come home with at least a few new and exciting books to read.
But the Javits Center hasn't beaten me; I'm not giving up. Perhaps next year I'll be able to scam an invitation to the industry days during the week, and take my time to peruse all the displays and actually talk to the exhibitors. And I'll even bring cash for Diet Coke. What a treat that will be!
