Dinner with Beth Hoffman

So tonight starts my BEA posts. I'm starting with Tuesday, the night I arrived in NYC, and the night of my dinner with the lovely and talented Beth Hoffman, author of Saving CeeCee Honeycutt (If you have not read it yet, you must! I will give away one brand new copy to the first person who leaves a comment requesting it, and that hasn't read it yet. Just leave me your e-mail addy too. This can be international, as I will order from the Book Depository. That's how much I love this book!).

Ahem. Moving on.

When I gave CeeCee a rave review last year, I got the kindest, sweetest e-mail from Beth. It made my day, and made me feel appreciated and important as a book blogger. She was extremely grateful and this is when I first started to realize what kind of a person she was - incredible!

Shortly after, I found Beth on Twitter and immediately began following her. I felt like I was chatting with an old friend, not a New York Times Bestselling author (though I always proudly state that she is indeed a NYT bestseller!). We started by talking about her book, then we grew to be friends. She asked me about my dog when he was sick, and was always concerned about him. This was further proof that Beth was a special person. She also made me feel special by caring about me as a person, and not solely as a book blogger.

When Beth asked me to a blogger dinner during BEA week, I was delighted. I knew this would be the highlight of my trip and I told anyone who would listen. An author, asking me to dinner, and a bestseller at that?! How would I even act? What would I say? But Beth put all of us at ease.

Tuesday arrived and I headed down to Soho to a nice restaurant called Mercer Kitchen. I joined Beth and about a dozen other women bloggers for an amazing night! Beth gifted us each with a big long hug, a beautiful handmade bookmark and an adorable "What Would Oletta do?" notepad. She told us about her new novel. She thanked us all profusely. She made us all feel special and important.

I made new friends in Sheila from Book Journey and Mandy from The Well-Read Wife, who were sitting next to and across from me. This proved to be huge for me, as I ran into both of them again during BEA, and got to sit with Sheila at the author speed dating event at BBC. I am painfully shy, so it was awesome to meet some bloggers on my first night in town. Now, I have two great new blogger friends who I can't wait to see again next year.

Beth made her way around the table and spent time talking with each of us individually. The woman is a JOY, I tell you. And while I was shy, not saying much, I had a wonderful time with wonderful people.

Beth, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for writing an amazing story, my favorite of 2010. Thank you for being grateful, gracious, and just all around lovely. Thank you for caring and having a heart of pure gold. Thank you for giving me a night I will never forget. But mostly, thank you for being my friend.

I am truly honored, humbled, and delighted (adjectives, adjectives!) to be able to call Beth Hoffman a friend.