I'm Officially Official!!!

We interrupt our normal broadcast of The Dark Divine Play-list/Soundtrack to bring you a very special announcement . . .

Actually, before the announcement, I would like to direct your attention to the header of my blog. It used to say, "Yep, I'm an aspiring YA author (status pending)." But if you look at it closely, you will notice a couple of small changes that make a huge difference--as in, the "aspiring" part has been removed . . .and the status is no longer pending. Do you see it? Do you? Huh? Huh?

Okay, just in case I'm being too subtle for anyone out there, I'll just go ahead and say it:

I SOLD MY BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'M A REAL AUTHOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A PUBLISHED AUTHOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you believe it?

I almost can. It's almost sunk in. I've almost convinced myself that I'm not asleep and having the most amazing dream ever.

And not only did they buy my book, they bought a second one from me. One I haven't even written yet! How freaking cool is that?

They like me! They really like me!!

Dude, all I can say is that Agent Ted seriously rocks the casbah! (Which is the term we use in our house for the highest form of praise.)

In fact, I think we should all have a moment of silence in honor of Agent Ted's awesomeness. Starting right now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Okay, that's enough. We don't want Ted to get a big head.

So how did it all go down, you ask? Well I'll tell you.

1. I got an agent. (To read about how that went down, click here)

2. Agent Ted had me do revisions for about a month (for more on this, click here)

3. Agent Ted gave the manuscript the green light and sent it out on submissions. He also banned me from talking about the submissions process on my blog . . .so, sorry I haven't been a fount of juicy tidbits lately.

4. One month later, on December 18th (which has been an extremely important date in my life for the last 6 years, so the fact that this phone call came on this day is the absolute most perfect form of karma ever--and if you don't know the significance of this date to me, then click here) Ted called me out of the blue--and I didn't answer. Seriously, I thought he was a telemarketer so I let one of the most important calls of my life go to voicemail. To be fair, he was calling from a totally different phone number than usual (with a totally different area code). So anyway, when I listened to my voicemail a few minutes later and heard Ted's voice telling me to call him back right away . . .I completely freaked out and almost lost all ability to press the little digit buttons on my phone.

Ted answered but he was on the subway so it was kind of hard to hear him when he said in an oh so somber voice, "Oh, hey, so I called you because I have some really bad news."

Right then my stomach attempted to fold itself inside out. No joke. And I was like, "What?" And my mind was racing, trying to think of what could possibly be so bad that he would have to call me in person instead of email (our normal form of communication). Did he decide to drop me as his client because he realized that my manuscript was unsellable? Did someone accuse me of lifting ten whole pages from someone else 's novel and inserting them into mine? (Not that anyone would ever actually do that.) Did he decide that his true calling in life was to be a go-go dancer so he's dumping all of his clients and moving to Las Vegas?

So then Ted says, all serious, (did I ever mention that he's also an actor) "Are you ready for this? Because the reason I called is to tell you that I can no longer call you one of my. . ."

Me: Crap, crap, crap! He is dropping me as his client.

Ted: " . . .unpublished authors!"

Me: "You big dork!!"

Okay, so that's not what I actually said. I was more like, "Seriously?!"

And then Ted went on to tell me about this really awesome offer that we had just received from Regina Griffin from Egmont USA, while I tried really really hard to stay all calm and professional and not start screaming like a 13-year-old-Jonas-Brothers-fan.

5. (Yeah, cause remember this was a list way back up there) Ted told me that the offer was good, but that there was still more negotiating to do, so I'd have to sit tight over the holidays. (Because the entire publishing industry shuts down from the week before Christmas until after the new year.) Oh yeah, and he told me I wasn't allowed to tell anyone (other than close friends and family) and especially no blogging!

6. I tried to stay sane over the holidays. Tried not to blurt out the news to every friend I saw at every party. Tried not to check my email every 5 seconds just in case something new developed on Christmas Eve. Tried not to have nightmares that all of New York City had imploded over night, sucking Agent Ted and Egmont publishing into the center of the earth--therefore rendering the publishing offer null and void. And even tried out how it would sound to introduce myself as an author on a couple of random strangers.

7. Negotiations reconvened on Jan 5th--and Ted called me again on the 7th with an even better offer from Egmont. He told me to "sleep on it" and contact him in the morning.

8. Attempted to "sleep on it," but no actual sleeping happened.

9. Emailed Ted with my answer at 5:00am and went back to bed. (Actually slept for about two hours until I got up and started an all-day vigil in front of the computer, waiting for Ted's latest update.)

10. Realized my back was killing me, so I decided to pull myself away from the computer in order to go to my chiropractor appointment. Arrived home an hour and a half later and discovered that I had forgotten my phone--and had missed a call, and an email from Ted, saying I needed to call him back asap.

11. After a lengthy game of phone-tag, Ted and I touched bases at 7:00 pm New York time--when it was now too late to finalize things with Regina.

12. Had another sleepless night, and an all day computer vigil (even checked the news a couple of times to make sure NYC hadn't imploded) until I got the email from Ted saying that everything was official--and that I was finally allowed to tell the world.

13. I started calling, emailing, and blogging in order to let everyone I've ever met know that I am officially a published author!!!

So anyway, thanks for sticking with me through this LONG post. But you can't rush a girl who has been waiting 9 years to tell this kind of news. I am basking. I am glowing. I'm so happy, I just might puke. . . or that might be from the fact that I ate my weight in Massaman curry at our celebration dinner. Mmmm . . .

Anyway, here are the details I'm able to share at the moment:

I have a two book deal (the second book still to be determined--it might be a sequel) with Egmont-USA (who is the brand new US branch of the European powerhouse publisher Egmont-UK) and my editor is the amazing Regina Griffin (who has edited many YA greats including Walter Dean Myers and Cynthia Voigt). If you would like to learn more about Egmont-USA, their publisher, staff, and forthcoming books, click here.

More details to come (I promise). And for those of you who came here looking for a new song from the play-list, I'll double post songs tomorrow.

And THANK YOU to everyone who has helped me get to this wonderful day: Agent Ted, Editor Regina, my writer peeps, my parents, my siblings, my many teachers and mentors, my kids (for being patient--and yes, now we can go to Disneyland), and most especially my super freaking awesome husband (who puts up with all my neurosis, and is my #1 cheerleader).