Still Taking On Oxygen

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted here! Time tends to slip away like sand, and although there were many occasions where I thought about posting, something else would inevitably call my name and I'd be off in another direction. Also, I've had some eye-opening experiences over the past year with a relative who has chosen to use her blog as a platform to defame and denigrate other family members, which has left me with a rather bad taste in my mouth about blogs in general. Nevertheless, my Flux editor says I must blog, so blog I shall!

Continued great news on the writing front: THE OTHER SISTER continues to sell far beyond expectations, and the Lucy book, now formally titled REMEMBER THIS, will officially hit the shelves in September 2008. REMEMBER THIS had some last minute cover issues: specifically, one of the models on the original cover couldn't be located to sign a release, and, unbeknownst to me, a horrible substitution was made. I didn't find out about it until I stumbled across the pre-order version of the book on Amazon.com, at which point I emailed Andrew Karre and asked, “What happened to Nana Lucy?!" (BTW, despite the fact that I did admittedly use the words 'horrible substitution', I mean no offense to the interim cover model; you just weren't my vision) Thereafter followed many weeks of breath-holding and fingernail-biting while Andrew finessed the situation and generously called in all the favors in his arsenal, and the end result made it all worthwhile (for me if not for Andrew!) I would venture to say that the new-and- improved version of Nana Lucy on the cover is an improvement even over the original, and the fact that she's related to Sandy is simply icing on the cake!

Speaking of Andrew, he and I are currently negotiating revisions for CATCHING AIR, with the hopes that it will land somewhere on Flux's 2009 list. SUMMER ON LAKE TULABY is still floating around in the NYC publishing pool, but I've decided that I'm not satisfied with its current manifestation and am secretly working on a revision that will take it closer to its original form (shh, don't tell my agent, it's a surprise and I'm not sure whether he'll think it's a good one!) Meanwhile, RETURN TO LAKE TULABY insists on taking shape in my mind, begging for attention ever since Michael Collins told me that publishers get really excited if you can hand them a ready-made series. And Andrew wants a YA book on concussion...

Otherwise, family, work, pets, friends, summer, sports, life ... endlessly unpredictable, amusing, and fulfilling!

Ready to Push the Button

G-L-O-R-Y B-E!!! I never thought I'd see the day, but tomorrow my beloved agent, David Forrer, is sending out Summer On Lake Tulaby to editors at seven publishing houses (William Morrow/HarperCollins, Grant Central/Warner Books, St. Martins, Pocket, Ballantine, Putnam, and Bantam.) He said that he 'doesn't want to send it to too many,' since the London Book Fair is coming up in April (although seven still sounds like 'many' to me.)

And because this is the most delicious thing anyone has ever said to me, I must shamelessly repeat it: I was asking him about the process, saying, "So, you just print out 7 copies of the manuscript and send them to these editors?" and he replied, "No, I'll probably send them via email. I know these editors well and they're fine with me emailing things if I think it's something important."

Well, gentle readers, I'm sure I don't have to tell you that that one should carry me for awhile!

And on Friday Night, She Rested

It's Friday night, and I'm reflecting on a productive day: dementia evals and therapy clients, a two hour tele-conference conducting oral exams as a member of the ND Board of Psychologist Examiners, emailing my revised 460-page manuscript for Summer On Lake Tulaby to my agent in NYC... the evals went smoothly, the therapy was productive, the licensure candidates passed their exams, and the agent emailed back to say he was going to begin reading the manuscript immediately.

The older kids are at the hockey games with their friends, and the youngest is having a sleepover. My darling husband, who installed every light fixture in the entire first floor of an apartment complex today, is making popcorn for the movie we're about to watch.

Seriously...who could ask for anything more?