ALA Day 2 Recap: Signings, Sightings and a Giveaway!

After a nice evening out, it was time to regroup and devise a plan of attack. This was our first full day at ALA, with loads of awesome signings and certain MUST HAVE books being released. Advice: If you attend any sort of conference whatsoever, make sure to work in teams. If I didn't have Jen, Cynthia and Christin, I don't know what I'd do. We had each other's backs! Word.

Doors opened...and? PANDEMONIUM!

We grabbed as many books as possible, unloaded at bag check, then headed off to our first signing with Laini Taylor, author of Lips Touch Three Times and Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Laini had awesome pink hair and is just such a sweetheart. And guess who we ran into? JAY ASHER!!! I couldn't believe it. Jay Asher waits in lines, too! He also said he saw my tweet about almost peeing myself when we ran into him the first day. How embarrassing!

Then, we headed off to our next signing:



JULIE KAGAWA!!! Cynthia and I were lucky enough to be first in line, so we had a nice little chat with Julie and the publishers, discussing amazing new releases, what we're looking forward to the most, as well as a sneak peak at the cover of The Iron Knight WITH the synopsis! Sadly, due to prior commitments and sheer torture, we were not allowed to read the summary. *tear*

Next up, more books and unloading. We were all pretty exhausted and very much looking forward to another signing, so we decided to ask the awesome (VERY AWESOME) Penguin reps if there was a line for the signing yet. There wasn't, so yet again, first in line for...



BRENNA YOVANOFF! If you ever have a chance to go to one of her signings, please do. She is an angel!

Moving on, we got our copies of The Replacement and The Space Between signed and asked if there was a line for Lola and the Boy Next Door yet. The Penguin rep looked stunned yet pleased, especially since it was just for a book, not a signing, AND another hour and half till they released the ARCs. It didn't take long till this line was so long, you couldn't see the end. Don't believe me?



While we waited, every now and then, one of us would get up, scout the book scene and grab copies of various books. Sadly, while we were waiting, we missed the Cassandra Clare and Ellen Hopkins signings. Ahh, the price of Lola!

I had to use the little girl's room at one time and ran into David Leviathan and Maggie Stiefvater. Again, would've peed myself had I not just used the restroom. I hugged them both, was told of Maggie's sore throat (poor dear) and went back to my partners in crime to recap the story.

More time passes and...



SUCCESS!!! :D

We grabbed a quick lunch, rested a little more and then stormed the conference. We walked by the Simon and Schuster booth to see if they put out anymore goodies and look who we ran into:



ELLEN HOPKINS!!! I love her! She even offered and was kind enough to sign our books. During the whole fangirling blackout, I noticed a line was forming behind me. I felt so bad because she just finished her signing, just to do another signing, lol. But she said she didn't mind. Ellen, you're awesome and a trooper!

After that, we were walking around and ran into Maggie Stiefvater and Brenna Yovanoff! I wanted to hug Maggie again (I have some serious problems), but she was busy talking to one of the publishers, so I ended up chatting a bit with Brenna. We talked about books we're looking forward to and New Orleans in general. Then, Maggie joined us, we hugged it out, and she asked me if I grabbed a copy of The Scorpio Races yet. But of course, new best friend! That was the first thing we asked for, lol. Apparently it's her AND Brenna's favorite book that she's written so far. Umm...totally excited about The Scorpio Races now! :D

After this, we walked over to the Egmont booth, where our new Egmont BFF was preparing for Mette Ivie Harrison's signing. Tris and Izzie looks like an amazing book and Mette is a doll. She even gave us these awesome necklaces. Giggidy!

More walking, more scouting, more books, and finally, the day was over. Tis was an awesome, exhausting but fantabulous day. We ended the night with amazing drinks and food at Deanie's Seafood. YUMMY!!!

Check out my day 2 stash:



And now, it's GIVEAWAY TIME! For those who could not attend ALA, this giveaway is for you. One winner will win this little prize pack right here:


*an ARC of The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab
*an ARC of Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (Jay Asher waits in lines, too!)
*Beads I caught on Bourbon Street (easy there, I didn't show anything or do anything to get them!)

Rules:
*Comment below about anything I've mentioned. Be sure to leave a way for me to contact you (i.e. email address)!
*Since I'm very poor right now, this giveaway is only open to US participants. If you are outside the US, but have a US mailing address I can send the prize to, feel free to enter.
*Giveaway ends July 12th.

Good luck, everyone! Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go pass out now!

*dies*