A New Author Has Entered The Room

Please, please, no applause. No applause.

Well...okay, maybe a smattering.

If it sounds like I've lost my mind, perhaps it's because I have.

That's about as close as I can come to describing what it feels like to go from, "Gosh, I wonder when my book will sell. IF my book will sell." to having three publishers seriously consider it before a fourth comes in and konks me over the head with their big ol' check and drags me back to their publishing lair.

I've done this for free (reluctantly, but did it to build up my clips four years ago), for peanuts (blah on all those pubs who think paying a writer .02 or .05 per word is actually PAY)and now and then for some fairly decent cheese (Sweet 16, Girl's Life and Upscale, some of my most steady and well-paying freelance gigs).

But now, someone is seriously going to pay me real money to do what I LOVE doing - making up stories!

I tell you, only in America can a little girl from Kansas grow up to become the Queen of Oz...oh wait, sorry. Wrong story.

I meant to say, only in America, can a grown woman re-live her teen years over and over through characters that only exist in her head.

Ahhh...I love this country.

Yes, it's official. Kensington Books has offered me a two-book deal and will use my books to help flesh out their new YA line.

SO NOT THE DRAMA, my first book, is tentatively scheduled for a Spring '07 release. Hoping that won't change...but, ya' never know with these things.

I am tap dancing on clouds, right now.

Insanely euphoric.

One of those, it should be a crime to feel this good, kind of vibes.

Even Bad P is grinning sheepishly, mea culpa-ing because she was freaking last week about having to wait on word.

2006 is shaping up to be a not so shabby year.

Keep this momentum up and I may lose my head and go all "I'd like to thank the Academy" on you.

Nah, I'll save that for the acknowledgements page.

Forgive my nattering. Clearly, I'm still shell-shocked.

But there's nothing like my 9-5 civil's servant job to put life back into perspective. Give me a much-needed reality check.

Let me go let some resident tear me a new hole because the bus was ::gasp:: three minutes late, today.

That'll teach me to think I'm some hot shot author!