BOOK DEAL NEWS

It's been an age since I last blogged, I know, and there's actually kind of a good reason for that.  Adventure!  Intrigue!  I had to have surgery!*  By the time I was back into the swing of things and feeling up to blogging again, everything I could've posted about paled in comparison to the information I've been sitting on since just before Christmas.

I HAVE A BOOK DEAL!  MY LITTLE BABY BOOK IS GOING TO BE A GROWNUP!  I HAVE TO RESIST THE URGE TO WRITE THE REST OF THIS POST IN CAPS, BUT CAPSLOCK IS HOW I FEEL INSIDE, YOU GUYS!

Offers, it seems, can sometimes be a little like buses.  You wait and you wait and then a couple come along at the same time.  After a crazy week in mid-December, SuperAgent Meredith** and I agreed to a deal with Running Press Kids, a division of Perseus Books, and my new editor, Lisa Cheng.  ('My editor' is going to take as much getting used to as 'my agent' - in other words, I might never get used to it.)  I can't tell you how excited I am to be working with her, or that this book I've loved, slaved over, occasionally hated, stayed up all night for, gnashed my teeth at, and was finally so proud of is going to see the light of day.  Every character I've ever written or will write is close to my heart, but the ones in this book live inside it, drinking coffee, playing their music too loud (<---whatever this means), putting their feet up on the furniture and refusing to clean their rooms.

From the little I've shared here, you might know it's science fiction, or that it's about music.  It has a male protagonist whose appearance in my head (and subsequent hostile takeover of same) is really what started the whole thing off.  There's a love story, but it's not a romance.  There's valid science and extrapolations of current science and things I invented at three a.m., high on caffeine and sleep deprivations.  There are parts I struggled to write and ones where I didn't stop writing except to rub my hands together in evil glee.***

At least as things stand now, it's called CODA and will be released in spring 2013.  Between now and then there will be all kinds of fun.  Editing!  Cover art!  The first time I hold it in my hands, when I will probably bawl and scream and dance around to Animal Collective****  like I did the day I first typed The End.


So many people helped me get here; you know who you are and I hope you know how much I love you.  All my thanks and embarrassing squealing noises and every cupcake I can ever lay my hands on to Mer, who believed in this book from the day she read my query, and to Lisa for loving it, buying it, and turning me into a REAL LIVE AUTHOR WITH A BOOK.

I can't wait for everything ahead.  AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! :D :D :D

Stick around, this is going to be a good year.

xoxo

Em

*One of these things is true.  I'm totally fine now.

**Now complete with gold lame cape!

***For which at least one of my friends still hasn't forgiven me.  B, I'M SORRY, OKAY? <3

****Summertime Clothes, dude.  Oh, yes.