All Hail All Hallow's Eve: Getting Back into the Swing of Halloween

It's been a while since I've been into Halloween. As an adult you either go with the flow of the masses, try the tiniest bit, or don't even bother. Being in New York City and working in Manhattan (particularly downtown Manhattan) you're at risk of running into the crowd of overzealous costumed men, women, and children for the Halloween Parade if it lands on a weekday. My husband and I happened upon the Halloweeen Parade when we first started dating and I had a celebrity sighting (Patrick Renna from The Sandlot). That year we saw a man dressed as then President Bush carrying a cage with someone (a living someone) dressed as Osama Bin Laden inside. Now that was a costume that got a lot of attention, not just because of the timing being after 9/11 but because it was really cool and inventive. Also, one man carrying another during a parade would be killer on one’s back. Just this past weekend New York Comic Con happened and many were decked out as their favorite superheros/heroines, supervillains, comic book and manga characters. If you see some of the photos people went all out to properly present a realistic image of a character they put a lot of thought into.

So, after a pretty tumultuous year with my husband being unemployed, becoming the sole breadwinner for our home and helping him with school costs as well as taking on our entire standard of living, after moving twice in 33 days (once unnecessarily thanks to a certain mother-in-law), and dealing with finding a new apartment and shelling out boku bucks in two weeks time, working full-time and freelance to make extra cash, and trying to get my own writing and writing residency applications in I decided I deserved a bit of an escape. This escape came in the form of a Facebook invite from a co-worker for a Halloween party where costumes are a must. I considered dressing up as a character from True Blood or doing an angel costume or just reusing the Spartan cheerleader costume I purchased the year before for a murder mystery game at a friend’s home, but then realized I was still reeling from an awesome YA series I just completed and wanted to be the heroine for this series. This character had been through the gamut and still survived and if after a hellish year for me I could portray the strength of her than my bad year couldn’t be so bad in retrospect. And what better time than Halloween to put myself full force into being this character and leaving my troubles behind while I contemplated the transformation. So, I decided I would be Katniss Everdeen for my friend's Halloween party and thus also prompted another friend to have her own Halloween party where I could wear my costume more than once. Sweet!

Side note: If you don't know who Katniss Everdeen is (and I have a feeling I'll be doing a lot of explaining at these parties) she is the narrator and protagonist of the wonderful YA dystopian series The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. All I can say is Ms. Collins is a talented and kind and lovely woman and the books are awesome so read them...ASAP!

In planning this costume and going on eBay, Overstock.com, the Scholastic store, and searching clothing site after clothing site I realized I was going all in for this. Something I hadn’t done in years. I’ve been an onlooker come Halloween, admiring the costumes of others, ohing and awing at the adorable children’s costumes (and yes even some animals, who doesn’t like to see a Dachshund dressed as Superman?). I haven’t invested time or money in Halloween since I was a kid and even then it was mainly my family doing the work to make me what I wanted. It always seemed so fruitless, you’d be something one year and something else the next. What’s the fun in that? What if someone doesn’t get the costume or I just don't do the best job of getting all the elements together?

My earliest memory of Halloween was being Snoopy. I was probably five or six years old and went out with my cousins around the block in Uniondale, NY on a family friendly block. I remember being quite hot in the damn mask and a lot of condensation happening when I breathed into the plastic. I also remember people constantly saying how cute my costume was and inviting me into their homes to display to others. This was the 1980s in Long Island in a relatively safe community so my chaperon gladly let me parade around some strangers homes so they could see my "oh so cute" costume. When looking back on that night I remember seeing the world through two small eyeholes, much like the beginning of Halloween (the original one that is).

Skip to a few years later when my arts and crafty aunt made me a Crayola crayon box complete with crayons sticking out of either side of me and a hat (made from one of our cereal bowls and construction paper) that made my head a red (if memory serves) crayon. This costume was ingenious and looked amazing! I only wish someone had pictures. My aunt made the box incredibly vibrant yellow and it was an exact replica of the Crayola box. Of course, this box did not fare well when being taken to an elementary school where everyone wanted to know what the heck I was carrying. I needed a teacher to help me put it on and by the end of the day the crayons sticking out of my box became casualties of child curiosity. I was a big hit in our school's parade though. Years later I was a baker (makes sense huh?) swathed in white with an apron, professional looking baker's hat, and a decorated cake my aunt lent me. This is the same aunt who did the Crayola box and was prone to decorating cakes in her spare time, so she lent me one of her lovely creations a white cake with pastel coloring trim and roses. (She was really good at making roses.)

From then on costumes became a rarity. Since my mom and I no longer lived in Long Island, and my aunt lived elsewhere, Mom being a single working parent meant costumes were purchased, not made. I remember getting a ballerina costume later than I expected for Halloween and by the time the holiday rolled around the following year I had ballooned and was unable to fit the outfit, plus it's sequins around the edges chaffed. And those dear readers are the few times I participated in said “holiday.” As one gets older it becomes more like a day for kids, much like Christmas (and Chanukah as I've been told). You lose the energy to invest time and money into a costume and frankly after a full work day you just don't feel like being creative! Hence many costumes where someone is in street clothes with simply plastic fangs and some blood in their mouth claiming to be a vampire or someone decked out in solely cat ears portraying any array of animals in the cat family. Or women purchasing all this thin and barely there “sexy” clothes from Ricky’s chains around the world (just this past week I saw a sexy skeleton costume which was just a black tube dress with some white bones painted across the front). Since when were skeletons sexy? Since when did we lose our creativity? I’ll tell you when, once we hit the threshold of adulthood that’s when. Once we started being all responsible and whatnot. Once we forgot how fun it could be to dress up and play pretend because we had to focus so much on what was in front of us that’s when. Well, I decided that this year I would put that stuff aside for a bit. I decided that since I was inspired and highly entertained by Ms. Collins’ books that I’d go all the way, or at least as far as my wallet would allow, and get decked out as an adolescent lady made a symbol of rebellion and thrust into a war!

I have to say that finding elements to make my costume whole was pretty fun and daunting at the same time. After Googling images I see that I may not have been as precise as I wanted to be and as some fans did (one lady bought a jacket from Korea to match the one from the first book), but all in all I think I got the majority of it. I mean, I bought a wig for crying out loud! It was fun searching for bow & arrows, a top, the mockingjay pin, and such for a decent price. It was cool trying to pin down the right hue and style of pants that would convey a young woman in an arena to fight for her life. And the wig was the coolest thing to buy. I was quite picky on St. Marks when I spoke with a guy in a wig/tattoo/piercing store trying to find the exact color and style that would fit and make a nice braid in the back. "No, not the golden brown, the dark brown," I insisted. Once I had that everything else came into play pretty easily. And I'm excited to see how it'll come out and am even more amped when I tell people who I plan to be and then quickly direct them to the book's website and character's Wikipedia page for more information. The thrill I see some of my friends have as they plan their costumes or that I used to have when preparing for Halloween has re-emerged to give me a break from the craziness of life and just enjoy not being me and personifying someone else for a day (or days) when people can just enjoy being wacky and let loose and not be judged for how they look or what they represent but can just be.

Halloween is a pretty cool "holiday" after all and I think everyone should remember that child-like feeling of playing make believe. So, let the Games begin....

Book Expo 2010: Still in the Big Apple, but on a smaller scale.

This was probably my fifth or sixth time at Book Expo of America (BEA) at the Jacob Javits Center. I first heard about Book Expo when I was in college and got the opportunity to volunteer in the autograph area where I met many authors of various genres. It was my first time being exposed to the largest book convention in North America, and I liked it. I volunteered through my Alma matter a couple more times in the autograph area as long as BEA was being hosted in New York City. (It used to change its location every year rotating between New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.) As of 2009 it was announced that Book Expo would remain in NYC until 2012, which made me extremely happy that one of the largest conventions would continue to be in my backyard, so to speak. As of late I've been part of the press attending Book Expo and am glad not to volunteer. While I enjoyed the busy-ness of BEA and being part of the staff and having access to areas many others didn't, I also realized that not working allowed me more time to browse and see what the conference was actually about.

Book Expo has always been about introducing new authors & titles to a wide audience as well as garnering additional press for established/best-selling authors. Sometimes illustrators are also present. Librarians come to Book Expo to learn of the new titles they may want as do booksellers. Educators enjoy Book Expo for the opportunity to find new literature to stimulate students and themselves. Book lovers come to BEA because, well, BOOKS! And the exhibitors of big and small/international and domestic publishers,  typesetters, digital publishers, literary agents, Newspapers, and new writers come for contacts and to bring notice to what it is they do.  Book Expo has always been a great place for those with a strong love of books and realize how much they can inspire and entertain.

This year, Book Expo wasn't as I remembered it. And it made sense that in economic hardship one would notice how much the publishing industry was affected as well as the convention itself. Last year, Book Expo was the way I always experienced it, bustling; filling two floors with most publishers around and hawking as many galleys, ARCs (advance readers' copies), published titles (successful and new); food samples for cookbooks; samplers as intros to their books; beer & popcorn (just cause); and so on and so forth. Yes, we were in a recession, but apparently people hadn't been hit hard, yet.

This year BEA was condensed to one floor; there were less giveaways of books, galleys, and so forth and the giveaways that were available were timed early on. Many co-workers I saw in late morning or early afternoon expressed disappointment at the slim pickins. I informed them that had they been at Jacob Javits at 9:01 am they might have gotten some choice stuff.  The autograph area and in-booth signings have always been a key source of getting some nice titles, but many people aren't keen on spending most of BEA standing in line. The press room last year was bountiful with food (muffins & bagels in the morning, cookies & brownies in the afternoon) all the while having coffee and tea readily available. This year the press room had limited offerings. Only a pitcher of coffee and tea respectively that did not get refilled and also a plate of brownies and cookies and a large serving of lemonade in the afternoon, these "amenities" also did not get refilled once supply dwindled to nothing. In exchange for less treats the press did get internet access and computers to use to constantly update their news wires, but I did miss the snacks to nosh on in the midst of running around from booth to booth, talk to talk, or meeting to meeting.

Some big name publishers, like Scholastic Inc., didn't have booths just meeting rooms and were not giving away galleys or ARCs to the public from a booth and had limited author signings in the autograph area. Last year Macmillan went that route, but this year had a small booth and did a limited number of signings. Many publishers had smaller booths which accounted for the available space on one floor.

The autograph area of about 30 signing tables or so was brought upstairs to the main hall, as was the Children's publishing pavilion (section dedicated to children's publishers solely). Because of the newly condensed conference this made for some heavy traffic throughout. Add on the limited amount of giveaways and people churning for anything they could get their hands on (title, subject matter be damned), in addition to long lines for in-booth or autograph area signings and you had yourself on heck of a traffic jam! The space between the autograph area and booths was smaller, causing the booths closest to the autograph area to be blocked off for their own signings or advertisements and patrons to just be all-around confused as they tried to find their author of choice. For some big ticket items like Melissa Marr, Kate DiCamillo, Sarah Dutchess of York, Mo Willems, Louis Gosset Jr., and so on and so forth lines started early and so you had a growing line behind a line extending to the exhibitor area and blocking who knows how many tables.  I've had the pleasure of working in the autograph area and with Dave Holton who manages this section and it can get pretty hectic when people want to make sure they see James Patterson or Carol Higgins Clark or Teresa Giudice from The Real Housewives of New Jersey or just want a really nice cookbook. Some people get snippy, others full-on irate, some give up and just ask if you can give them a copy of the books sans signature, others may see a friend and skip the line thinking no one the wiser. And you have to be the one to try and keep the peace and maintain order. Not always easy on a summer day in a packed conference hall.

One of the big themes at BEA this year was Going Digital! There were many talks about the future of e-book publishing, how publishers can try and garner more interest in e-books, and authors being more open to the possibility. Some authors, mainly Scott Turow (author of Presumed Innocent and the recently published sequel Innocent) was vocal about worrying about the copyright and safety of the author's work when it came to e-publishing. How safe are e-books anyway? This is kind of the same position musicians first took when their music was available online. How can one monitor where your music is going and if you'll get compensated for it? The truth is no one has a good answer for that one. So it seems this debate may go on and on and on. After reading a review of this talk from Publisher's Weekly daily review of Book Expo it was interesting to learn that publishers wouldn't necessarily make all books they published available in e-book form, mainly high profile authors (aka guaranteed bestsellers) and mid-tier books they have high hopes on. Indie publishers can't even think of going digital right now what with their book lists being small in general as well as their budgets. So knowing that some obscure authors or new authors may not even get a chance at having their books available online kind of hammers home the point of how important print books are as well as libraries and heavy promotion by the author.

The daily review from Publisher's Weekly also noted that international companies were not too fond of the shorter week. Before, the conference was Thursday-Sunday. With Thursday being a day of press events and the keynote address officially marking the beginning of the conference, as well as set-up for exhibitors. The conference would officially be open to all Friday-Sunday for meetings, exhibitions, giveaways, and formal talks to the public about the theme as well as more pavillions dedicated to various genres. Last year had an African-American pavillion which also offered around-the-clock meetings and one awards ceremony in celebration of this specialized genre of literature.  Whereas this year there was no advertised celebration of African-American literature or Spanish literature per se beyond a talk or two on the meeting floor. This year Tuesday was the day for press events, leaving Wednesday and Thursday for meetings and the official opening of the exhibitor floor. International publishers/companies were upset that they lost a day for meetings as not everyone was allowed on the exhibitor floor on Tuesday. Many wanted a refund for the day lost. Some booksellers weren't keen on the new format because Monday-Wednesday tend to be big days for signings in their stores and attending Book Expo took away from their availability as well as authors and, potentially, attendees who may be at BEA and not want to visit bookstores after a full day of books, books, and more books (in addition to achy joints from standing in line for all those tomes.)

While I was disappointed this large conference was on a slightly smaller scale and in the middle of the week rather than on a weekend, I did enjoy my time there. I didn't mind standing in line for books I was really interested in and in the mean time met a lot of nice authors and  patrons. I was big on story collections this year and every author I met was interested in starting a conversation and was glad to hear how excited you were about their book. Some authors like Kathryn Stockett, whose book The Help became a NY Times best seller, basically signed and smiled to keep the long line moving. While waiting in line for her book we did get a nice caramel cake straight from Mississippi where the novel takes place. I got to tell Scott Turow how much my mother loved Presumed Innocent. I got to let the authors of Going Rouge know how intrigued I was by their book after reading about it in Entertainment Weekly and learning that one was on "The Insider" and how much we found the show to be a bit disconcerting. I got to learn more about the background of  Tony O'Neill author Sick City and a genuinely nice guy. In the midst of waiting for autographs I got to meet a woman from the Midwest who loves The Hunger Games series as much as I do and a bookseller from New Jersey who kept referring good books to me by saying: Holy shit that was a good book! I met a teacher who was basically asking every publisher if they needed a lawyer for her daughter a new graduate from law school while collecting as many collectibles as she could. And I met author Lutishia Lovely, who also had a penchant for cookbooks as she and I met in line after line for certain titles.

Next year Book Expo will retain the current format of a shorter conference, mid-week from May 24-26, 2011 in NYC. While I see the ups-and-downs I cannot foresee ever not enjoying a conference that celebrates books so intensely. Each year I feel an immense sense of luck at being exposed to so much in a few days.