This past week, I hopped a snow-delayed flight from Salt Lake to New York for BEA--North America's largest annual book show. I had a great time learning more about the publishing industry while meeting with authors, agents, librarians, booksellers and publishers.
You can't walk away from the show without an armload of books. Publishers, in an effort to promote their upcoming titles, print advance reading copies and pass them out to whoever is lucky enough to grab one. They also have author signings where you get to meet some of the heavy weights like Rick Riordan (his wife helped out at the ticket booth), Rosemary Wells (graciously got a signed book to me across author lines), Mary Higgins Clark (friendly face) and celebrity authors like Bernadette Peters (absolute sweat-heart) and Sarah, Duchess of York (a little miffed by the media attention given her royal influence-peddling scandal).
One of the books I picked up is by Dee Merian, a former flight attendant for TWA in the 1950's. During a break at the show, I was reading "The Best Years of Flying: A Memoir of Howard Hughes & TWA" on the lower level promenade. Sparked by my recent visit to the Spruce Goose in Oregon and his contributions as an innovative entrepreneur I am really into Howard Hughes these days.
Between chapters, I would look up and people watch. There was a girl running around in circles with a huge smile on her face, her mother watching from behind. The girl was enjoying herself so much she burst out laughing. When I went back to my book, I got the sense that Dee enjoyed that time of her life so much--her enthusiasm bleeds through the book's pages as she fully took advantage of the unique opportunity to fly during the hey day of commercial aviation. These moments helped me see clearly how a passion, sharing talents and experiences with each other are the real secrets to happiness.
Other highlights include:
--Thursday Author Breakfast with Jon Stewart, Condoleezza Rice, and John Grisham. I sat next to Karen Long, the book editor for the Cleveland Plain Dealer--she was extremely kind and we shared a good conversation.
--Getting a signed copy of "The Best Years of Flying."
--Meeting so many enthusiastic authors, book fans, smart booksellers and kind librarians.
--Participating in many of the classes to become a stronger participant within the publishing industry.
--The insane SUV ride to JFK airport with a motion sickness causing, stop and go pedal driving chauffeur who demanded a bigger tip after we already paid him for the trip---I really wasn't a big fan, but grateful we made it to the airport on time.
On our lightening delayed flight home, as we were somewhere 35,000 feet above Wyoming, I looked out the window to see midnight stars above a wispy cloud line with a mirror reflection beneath the clouds--the effect created an awesome sensation of momentarily traveling through space. It was a great ending to a fun week.
You can't walk away from the show without an armload of books. Publishers, in an effort to promote their upcoming titles, print advance reading copies and pass them out to whoever is lucky enough to grab one. They also have author signings where you get to meet some of the heavy weights like Rick Riordan (his wife helped out at the ticket booth), Rosemary Wells (graciously got a signed book to me across author lines), Mary Higgins Clark (friendly face) and celebrity authors like Bernadette Peters (absolute sweat-heart) and Sarah, Duchess of York (a little miffed by the media attention given her royal influence-peddling scandal).
One of the books I picked up is by Dee Merian, a former flight attendant for TWA in the 1950's. During a break at the show, I was reading "The Best Years of Flying: A Memoir of Howard Hughes & TWA" on the lower level promenade. Sparked by my recent visit to the Spruce Goose in Oregon and his contributions as an innovative entrepreneur I am really into Howard Hughes these days.
Between chapters, I would look up and people watch. There was a girl running around in circles with a huge smile on her face, her mother watching from behind. The girl was enjoying herself so much she burst out laughing. When I went back to my book, I got the sense that Dee enjoyed that time of her life so much--her enthusiasm bleeds through the book's pages as she fully took advantage of the unique opportunity to fly during the hey day of commercial aviation. These moments helped me see clearly how a passion, sharing talents and experiences with each other are the real secrets to happiness.
Other highlights include:
--Thursday Author Breakfast with Jon Stewart, Condoleezza Rice, and John Grisham. I sat next to Karen Long, the book editor for the Cleveland Plain Dealer--she was extremely kind and we shared a good conversation.
--Getting a signed copy of "The Best Years of Flying."
--Meeting so many enthusiastic authors, book fans, smart booksellers and kind librarians.
--Participating in many of the classes to become a stronger participant within the publishing industry.
--The insane SUV ride to JFK airport with a motion sickness causing, stop and go pedal driving chauffeur who demanded a bigger tip after we already paid him for the trip---I really wasn't a big fan, but grateful we made it to the airport on time.
On our lightening delayed flight home, as we were somewhere 35,000 feet above Wyoming, I looked out the window to see midnight stars above a wispy cloud line with a mirror reflection beneath the clouds--the effect created an awesome sensation of momentarily traveling through space. It was a great ending to a fun week.
