Sourcebooks is planning some big changes for FANGIRL! First I got the news that they were pushing back the release date in order to include interior artwork (Yay!) and then I found out they'll be changing the cover image (Yay?) and now I've gotten word they're running a contest over on Teen Fire that will help determine what the new title will be. Yes you read that correctly. New. Title.

As much as I love my cover and title (not to mention that earlier release date) I'm seriously thrilled by all of this. Of course there are huge FEELINGS HAPPENING about all of the changes (*hugs old cover*) but I'm just so excited for readers to meet Blaze in whatever form, at what ever date, and with whatever images she comes wrapped in. The story and characters are what matter most and I trust that they will absolutely find their way. Besides, I think I'm in good hands. Sourcebooks is known for creating super-cool covers for their amazing books.

Head on over to Teen Fire to help them name mine! Plus you'll be entered for a chance to win an advance copy of The Book Formerly Known as FANGIRL! Vote wisely. Her name is in your hands.

If you live in the Northeast that high-pitched squeal that made your windows rattle a while back was me Squeeing when I got the news: FSG/Macmillan is publishing my YA book ADRENALINE!! I mean, seriously, F!S!G!! Squeeeeeee!!! For those of you keeping track, yes, that makes three books sold in under six months!! And for those of you who have followed my journey, no, arriving at this juncture did not happen overnight. This is the result of years of sweat and tears, working on my craft and enduring rejection and in the end being really super blessed to have amazing doors open for me. I am so grateful and humbled to be where I am.

Since this news was more of a surprise, I did not catch my reaction to awesome, amazing super-agent Joan's phone call on video like I did here. BUT, I did get The Girl to tape the Best Mate's reaction when I told him the news. I was away when I got The Call and texted instructions to my sweet almost-twelve-year-old. She of course texted back with a 'Wait. What?!' and called me right away and we squeed together which was enormous fun. She was at a friend's house but promised to set up the covert video and text me when she got home. So for a number of hours just The Girl, her good friend Natalie and Natalie's whole extended family knew about my good news.

Here's the video that resulted from all our planning. Watch for The Boy in the background calling out, "Darn it, we're out of knives," in the middle of it. Um... what was my eight-year-old doing with the knives? O_o Nevermind. I'm sure The Best Mate was all over that. I've learned it's best not to ask and besides... I'm much too busy celebrating my New Book Deal!




As always, I apologize for the high decibel squeals. My voice gets impossibly high when I'm happy.
I said to The Best Mate at the end of that call, "Now I really feel like a writer." 

In case you haven't seen the fun happening over on facebook check out the KidLit Beauty Tips page!
I couldn't resist poking out of my writing cave to make my own BEFORE and AFTER contribution:

I signed my first-ever book contract yesterday! Woot! The book is already available for pre-order on Amazon, so this seems more like a formality than the huge event I've been dreaming of, but it still felt pretty damn good to scrawl my name on the bottom line. A reasonable person would've given up trying to get published years ago. But I've never been accused of being a reasonable person. And here's a little secret: I always knew this day would come.
I celebrated with a nice six mile hike with the family to Rainbow Falls.Nothing quite like enjoying hard-won victory! I'm thinking this year is going to ROCK!

I made a video about my visit to Sourcebooks plus I share some FANGIRL release news! You should click play and check it out.

I posted my first-ever VLOG over at Emu's Debuts - woot! Or should I say SQUEEE - because that's the sound I made when I got the call from Joan that FANGIRL was going to be published. And there's an actual clip of that SQUEE in my vlog - so you should definitely head over to check it out:

THE VLOG OF SQUEE!

Also, in case you missed it on facebook or couldn't hear me shouting it from my windows - my book is now available for pre-order on Amazon and B&N - Double Squee! 
What a fun way to jump back into work after a week off with the kiddies in the country. We had an awesome time and Bonus: We got to experience numerous seasons! These pictures were literally taken less than 24 hours apart.

The Bantam Jeep celebration we went to over the summer has been made into a DVD and there's a brief clip of us rolling through the mud with the kiddies in the backseat. That's our Jeep in the still shot! In the video you can see the girl and boy ducking in the backseat, dodging clumps of flying mud. Nice evidence of what cool parents we are. And by cool I mean terrible. 
    

Friday night we went to see Spiderman and it was freaking Awesome. We had SO much fun! The tickets were a Christmas present from my dad and I was pushing for Blue Man Group but got outvoted. So happy I was! Kiddies got hit with flying 'web' streamers and liked that much more than having clumps of mud flung at their heads. 

The best mate and I went to a Valentine's dinner dance to make sure we've still got moves like Jagger on the dancefloor. We totally do. At least in our minds we do anyway. We probably looked like a couple of spazoids, but had a blast so who cares? Too bad the kiddies weren't there to be mortally embarrassed by their parents' dancing. Would've made a great night even more perfect. I'm wearing heels, but have perfected the subtle 'knee-pop' so as to not appear taller than my date. It's an art.

1) I hit 10K on the WIP over the weekend - woot!!  This is the point when the steaming pile of words I've been churning out starts to feel like a book. Or, like it will eventually become a book someday... after lots and lots of hard work... I mean lots and LOTS of hard work and perhaps a bit of crying. But still: Future Book! Yay! I need to take some time to do researchy stuff this week, but am really excited about the direction this story is headed. 

2) I realized I never posted a picture of my new short haircut. This is what I look like right now sitting in my office:The corkboard behind me has the WIP all laid out in four acts a' la Blake Snyder's SAVE THE CAT. This is the most pre-plotting I've ever done on a novel. Not sure if I'll stick with it, but I did have oodles of fun buying office supplies and writing stuff out on index cards. 

1) Happy Groundhog Day! I hear Punxsutawney Phil is predicting six more weeks of winter, which is cool because I'd really like a chance to wear the new snowboots I scored at the thrift store back in November. I blame the lack of snow on how much everyone complained about it all last winter on Facebook and Twitter. That'll teach us.

2) I'm thoroughly enjoying my signed copy of Robin Mellom's DITCHED that I won. Awesome fun! It arrived the day I got to reveal my FANGIRL cover. It's such a funny, fast read that Robin had better be working on her next book because I want it now! Plus, I'm thinking I should maybe enter more contests.

3) Things are flowing really well with the WIP and I'm reaching that place where I'm excited to work on it, instead of whimpering over BIC time. This is a very good thing, especially since this baby has a deadline attached to it.

And one bonus fourth thing: I'm getting my hair cut short today. Well, it's actually already pretty short due to my trim-gone-horribly-wrong. You know how it is when you cut one side a little shorter than the other, and then try to even it up and seesaw up and up until  the inner voice that has been screaming at you to "put down the damn scissors" finally penetrates and you find the strength to step away? Yeah, that. Well, lets just say I've been wearing hats. But my lovely, beautiful, perfect sis-in-law is coming over later to give me choppy layers that will make the whole thing look like it was done on purpose. Right now it looks like I had The Boy cut it. With safety scissors. While he was distracted by spinning Beyblades. I'll post a picture AFTER the fix. Right now I look sort of like this:

After attending SNL last Saturday night, (You know, the one with Harry Potter as host? Yes, that one.) the rest of the week was fairly quiet. 
Except that The Girl did get to skip school Wed. and we went into the city on a cool field trip with Kidsday New York. She had a free cooking lesson but more importantly, got to kick around the city with her mum afterwards. We hit four (yes, 4) bookstores plus a library and shared a cupcake at Books of Wonder. It was a very good day.
Oh, yes, plus I did cut a good portion of my hair off this week. But other than that, pretty quiet.
Except that... I finished my final pass on FANGIRL and handed it in to my editor - woot hoo! I'm free! I mean, sure, I'm obsessing over every tiny nuance of the finished book, but really, nothing to be done now. So, (in theory at least) I'm free.
Whew, fun week - wonder what this one will bring. 
 
Why yes, that is the authentic Winnie the Pooh crew - on display at the NY Public Library.
Me and my fabby new haircut at The Strand. My hand is holding FANGIRL's place.

Best Mate and I heading in to watch SNL. I'm wearing one of the cool buttons I made of my awesome book cover. 

Who wants one??