Life is BEA-utiful

I thought I’d take a break from the final stretch in writing FAKETASTIC (the second book in the FRENEMIES series—did you not know that?) to tell you all about my fancy, publishing industry weekend. You see, I was a very special guest at Book Expo America (BEA) at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Saturday. Uh huh. They invited me to sign copies of FRENEMIES for anyone who wanted ‘em. But wait, there’s more! After that, I was invited to a HarperCollins cocktail party hosted by none other than Jane Friedman (president and CEO of Harper). Yes, I’m just that important.

Okay, so I wasn’t exactly expecting much at BEA. I mean, I was told I’d be signing books for a half-hour, but with people like Kirk Cameron, Jamie Lee Curtis, Blair Underwood and Kevin Nealon—among many, many other bona fide CELEBRITY authors on deck—I was kind of thinking I'd be sitting at my table all alone. Imagine my surprise, then, when I wound up with a nice long line of people—all wanting me to sign a copy of FRENEMIES for them! How did these people know about the book, let alone about me? Who cares?! I signed my little heart out for the full half-hour and as the last person made her way up to shake my hand, I was told time was up. I didn’t have any photos taken with MY camera during my 30 minutes of fame (sorry!), but one “fan” did ask for a picture with me, taken on her camera…so maybe she’ll send that in and we can all re-live the magic again and again. Or maybe not.

Anyway, after that, I met up with my fabulously stylish and awesomely talented friend Rebecca Woolf, author of Rockabye: From Wild to Child, who was there at the event with her equally fabulous friend Rachel Fershleiser. I was super excited to meet Rachel because she’s the co-author of this little book you may have heard about called Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure. Not only that, but Rachel is working on a TEEN version of the book. I don’t know if she was just being kind, but she even asked if I’d like to contribute a memoir to the book. How cool is that? Almost as cool as Rachel and Rebecca themselves! And almost as cool as these pictures of us, hanging with a Storm Trooper and R2D2, who were there at BEA promoting one of the Star Wars DK sticker books (too bad they weren’t giving away said books, ‘cause my kid LOVES him some DK sticker books):

Then it was off to the Harper cocktail party! Interesting stuff, this party. It all went down on the 20th Century Fox lot—on an outdoor set. They’d actually set up a little red carpet with a bunch of actors pretending to be old-school reporters. They even made these actors ask us questions and demand autographs and take pictures with giant-flashbulb cameras (that's the technical name for them, right?) as we arrived. Not to be uber-negative, but I was a little weirded out. I mean, maybe it sounded like a good idea in theory, but in practice? Lame. (Sorry, Harper! Everything else was awesome. Really.) I did try to play along, I really did. But I just felt silly.

As if that weren't enough, guests were then ushered over to a receiving line of random Harper executives. After introducing myself to my old pal Jane (aforementioned Harper CEO)...and then some other random...and then some other random, half-hoping at least one of them would say, “Ohmygod! ALEXA! We've been DYING to meet you! FRENEMIES is the best title we’ve published EVER,” I realized they had no clue who I was. (Shocker, I know.) So, I decided to just let my husband introduce himself to the rest of the receiving line, and I pretended he was the author and I was the wife-of-Mr. Fancy. The Harper people didn’t know the difference.

When we finally made it through Awkward Central, the real fun began. First, I ran into a guy I used to work with at HITS magazine, who has also since become a Harper novelist himself (albeit for a slightly older audience). Cooler still, Kevin Nealon and Jamie Lee Curtis were there! So were some other celebs, including Mariel Hemingway and a woman with a whole lot of makeup and frosted hair and a mint-green polyester pantsuit. I definitely knew her from somewhere, but I couldn’t…quite…place…her. Then, my HITS friend's buddy recognized her as Gloria Allred, super-attorney to downtrodden people everywhere. Or something.

That’s when I decided I needed photo documentation that I’d hung out with (okay, NEAR) these people. My husband got annoyed with me for busting out the camera, but I was having fun! (And really, was I being any lamer than the pseudo-paparazzi on the faux red carpet? Seriously.) Look, I’ve lived in L.A. for fifteen years now and, not to be obnoxiously boastful, but I’ve totally seen (even hung out with) my share of celebrities and never once, not once, have I asked if I could have my picture taken with them (except when it was part of my job to do so). I’ve never even interrupted them to say, “Hi, I really like your work.” But I think seeing Gloria just set something off inside me. I had to have a picture. And no, I didn’t ask her to pose with me. I didn’t ask Kevin Nealon to either. Instead, I got myself in the frame with them oh-so-stealthily:

Cute, no? Sadly, I didn’t manage to get a shot with Jamie Lee before she took off. But there’s always next year. Hopefully my husband won’t threaten to divorce me if I keep up this behavior at future events. Then again, if he does, I bet I’ll get even closer to Gloria! Are you with me on this?

Everybody needs a pooper, that's why we invited you, Joel Pooper. (JK! LOVE YOU!)

XO