It’s almost time for the 2nd YAmazing Race with MGnificent Prizes!!! The race starts on May 2nd at noon EST and runs until May 8th. I’ll be a pitstop on the race, but to start at the beginning and find out the rules, be sure to head on over to the APOCALYPSIES web site for all the details!!!

I have an official release date!!!! TOUCHING THE SURFACE will hit the shelves on…

October 30, 2012. That means I have 243 days to get everything ready–8 months. Insane! I’m secretly (okay–not so secretly–because I’m telling you) very excited with this new date. October is one of my favorite months of the whole year. I absolutely love it!!! And if you want to get a jump start on your holiday shopping…

Guess what? TOUCHING THE SURFACE is now up for pre-order at Amazon!!!! Off to pinch myself. I promise to be back with more news soon.

Since I last updated you, I got a surprise in the mail!  I received my very own ARCs of TOUCHING THE SURFACE .  It is the strangest, most surreal thing to hold your book in your hand. My favorite part of having the ARC, is getting show people their names in the acknowledgement pages. A book is written alone, but it doesn’t come to life by itself. I love sharing this moment with the people who have supported me along the way.

I’ve been getting quite a few requests for ARCs and can I just say–thank you so much for taking an interest in my book.  Every time someone asks I get heart palpitations.  It is a very nice feeling. Here is the information that I have so far.  TOUCHING THE SURFACE will be on Net Galley. I promise that as soon as I have that link–you will hear about it.  As for those lovely paper ARCs that are so pretty, I have no say in who gets to pet them. As soon as I have a point of contact for those, I’ll also let you know.  But all requests must go through Simon Pulse.

I’ve also been asked to join the group YA Outside the Lines.  I’ll be blogging over there on the 8th of every month.  Feel free to stop on over, there are so many fantastic authors sharing their stuff–it’s a group of YA Novelists Pushing the Boundaries of the Genre and Writing from the Heart ♥.

I’m back from the New York SCBWI Conference and ready to dig into my WIP full force. I’ve blogged all about the conference and you can check it out on my blog.  Thanks for stopping by–more updates soon.

It’s 2012!!! I can’t tell you how far away that seemed last February, when my amazing agent, Michelle Wolfson, sold my book to the spectacular Anica Rissi at Simon Pulse. Unbelievably, my debut YA novel Touching the Surface comes out THIS YEAR! I know that September 4th is still far off on the horizon, but every day something new and exciting seems to be happening. For starters, I have this beautiful new web site built by Emily Carlin of Swank Web Style. It’s like she jumped inside my head and pulled out pieces of my imagination to weave the site together. I love it as much as my cover—which is saying a lot.

More good news—I also got my first-pass pages in December. Silly me, didn’t realize what they were until I ripped open the big envelope. Yes, that squeal of delight you heard—it was me. What an amazing holiday surprise. *hums a song and does a little dance* It’s such an incredible feeling to see my words in print. It’s also a little scary. This is my last opportunity to make changes to the book, but it also means that Touching the Surface is at the printer. Some day soon there are going to be ARCs. More information coming soon…