On Saturday, May 31, I went to Book Expo America 2014 for the first time. The Javits Center is a huge place, and the experience is a bit overwhelming. Thus the only picture on my phone is this one:

Spencer Hill founder Kate Kaynak took this of me with Laura Diamond, author of The Zodiac Collector, before our joint signing.

But through the magic of social media, it is not the only photo of me. I show up, Where’s Waldo-like, in the background of quite a few other photos. For example, Laura was more diligent about recording the event for a post on YAtopia, and she took this:

You can see how much fun it was to sign books — a huge honor to meet so many blogger and readers who attended the BookCon, and wonderful to connect in person with my editor Jennifer Carson and publicist Damaris Cardinali.

And here’s one of my favorites, taken by Karen Chaplin @CapChapReads:

That’s me in the middle of the huge crowd at the #WeNeedDiverseBooks panel — such excitement in the room. I finally met some of the originators of the campaign. The event has been covered widely and well, and I managed to live tweet some of the event, covered in a separate post.

Thanks for the great experience to all I met.