A year in review...

I’m taking a page from my fellow Lucky Press author Sarah Martin Byrd (wonderful lady that she is) and musing back over last year to this. I must say, what a violent difference a year can make. I mean, I have the same job, but from car to house to family, very little else has stayed the same.

Clearly, there have been the bad changes, bad being the biggest understatement I can think of. I lost my mom, and therefore everything else just feels a little bit empty.

I turned 30 and lost my youth J. I know that is an exaggeration, but it really did feel like a fundamental change.

And then there is my writing. A year ago, publication of Max and Menna was this nebulous concept that made me smile but still seemed virtually impossible. And now… now it is a book. A real book that I can hold in my hands, and something that makes me feel more and more every day that my voice is relevant, that I am a “real writer,” and that maybe there is a future here.

Which is why I am very excited to announce (drum-roll please) that Max and Menna is a finalist in the Foreword Book of the Year Awards, Young Adult fiction category. To those of you, like me, who have always thought it hokey when Oscar nominees say “it’s an honor just to be nominated,” let me assure you, it isn’t hokey. Just to be a finalist, combined with lots of great reviews (and thanks to all of you that contributed), have made me feel more and more like a “real writer.”

My publisher Janice should change her business cards to read “I make it happen.” Because she helped make it happen for me, and has introduced something so good in my life that it has helped to overshadow a very tough, transitional year. I seriously owe her big!