Well, BEA ended on Sunday. I'd like to give the kind of chatty detail-filled report that I enjoy reading, but the truth was that for me the whole thing was a giant blur thanks to the fever that raged in my brain and continued until sometime yesterday. But I do remember a few things:

• Dashing Dave Kellett acted as our virtual host. He picked us up at the airport, helped transport many boxes of books, and held a cartoonists BBQ that I sadly had to miss thanks to the Black Plague. He went far beyond the call of duty, and we continue to owe him big. Please help us express our thanks by signing up for email delivery of his great comic strip Sheldon.
• We were in the less-attended corner of the less-attended exhibit hall of a less-attended BEA, but still we met lots of great folks. And a few not-so-great folks that we put in the category of "L.A. People."
• Publisher Book Slam was much much more fun than I expected. My favorite moment was when Michael Rockliff from Workman said, "this is like being interviewed by the Car Talk guys." We'll be getting our recordings processed and posted starting next week. I think you'll find them both useful and entertaining.
• We presented our third workshop of Surviving the Public, our new talk about customer service, to a surprisingly big audience. The talk has come a long ways and it's starting to gel. One participant even hired us on the spot to give the talk at her conference next year!
• We were going to write and draw a comic strip in front of a live audience, but instead I went back to the hotel and tried to breath. Maybe next time.
• Guest cartoonists Dave Kellett, David Malki!, and Jorge Cham did a signing at our booth. The last two hours of the last day of the show isn't the ideal time for a signing, but we still got a few fans showing up and the five of us had a great time talking business. The new Wondermark book is one of the best-designed comic strip collections I've ever seen, and one of the weirdest.
• At one point Gene and I were just steps away from William Shatner.

Will we go back next year? I think we will, with some adjustments. It's back in New York City, for one, and I can't resist a visit to the city of my birth. Meanwhile we're already preparing for ALA, just one month later and one town over in Anaheim.

If you've been waiting to order our new book Frequently Asked Questions for your book store or library, you should be able to do so now through most major wholesalers. If not please let me know (please provide details) and I'll have a chat with our distributor.

Key ordering information:
Frequently Asked Questions
an Unshelved collection by Bill Barnes & Gene Ambaum
ISBN-13 978-0-9740353-5-2
US$17.95
136pp Paperback 8.375"x10.875" B/W and Color

Of course our five previous volumes are all available as well. Again, let me know if you have trouble finding them. And if your library, especially, doesn't stock all the Unshelved collections, for heaven's sake why not? That's a serious question, I'd like to know.