May Update Amid the Chaos

I figured I should do a May update while it is still May. Things have just been so busy lately, I've barely had time to breathe, so I'm taking some time to get caught up on things tonight. Here's what has happened in the last month:

In my writing world:

1. Riding the Board comes out in a few days. June really has crept up on me and I didn't even realize it's less than two weeks away. I haven't even really told very many people about it. Sometimes life just gets in the way of my plans. It's actually quite annoying.
There's still time to take advantage of the discounted Daily Dose and get a whack of great stories from some amazing authors for a pretty low price.
You can see the list of stories here: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3838&cPath=63_854

2. I've decided to go to the Gay Romance North-West Meetup in Seattle. If you're from the area and can make it, you should come. Registration is really affordable (only $15 if you register early, and $25 if you don't), and they've got a good lineup of authors going. I believe the venue only holds 275, so register early if you can. It's going to be a blast!
Here is the link for their website where you can register: http://gayromancenorthwest.wordpress.com/


3. While I was in Disneyland (already the Happiest Place on Earth), I received an email from Dreamspinner Press letting me know that they were contracting my Hope Cove series. I can't tell you how excited I was. I danced (which is totally acceptable in Disneyland). There are three novels in total, and the first one is due to hit shelves in November of this year, the second in December and the third in January. It's going to be a very busy summer/fall, but I am so looking forward to it.

4. Skylar M. Cates and I have begun working on a co-authoring project. We intended to write it over the summer, but once we got started talking about it, we were too excited to wait. So... less than two weeks into it, we're almost done!
The novella follows the two main characters: Trey a punk rock star who comes from an over-privileged family, and Liam, a classical violinist and teacher. I will have more details to release soon, but for now I think it's going to be pretty good!

5. I am the luckiest little writer in the world because I get to beta read some really amazing stories. I will keep you updated on which ones as they become available, but let's just say that there are some pretty awesome stories that are going to be coming out in the next year.


In My Personal World:

1. I'm a vampire. Okay, not really, but I am getting pretty good at phlebotomy. I started my practicum at the lab and hospital. I am living with my aunt for a month while I'm here, and so far things have been going really well. I wasn't entirely sure I would like my new job (because nobody likes hurting people and even fewer people like needles), but I am finding that I am really enjoying it. Not so much stabbing people with a 21-gauge, but the talking to people and interacting with them. It's nice to be the person that gets to make a painful experience maybe just a little less awful.

I'm also finding the science-y side of it really interesting. I've always liked biology, but getting right down into it has been good. And fun!
There are some downsides too. I've only been on the job for two weeks, and have already seen some pretty sad stuff. I almost lost it the other day with a mom who was crying because the doctors were trying to decide between two pretty horrible diagnoses for her little boy. That was hard.
There have been some surprises along the way too. When I walked in there I expected that there would be some people who would feel nervous or maybe faint (my sister is one of those people), what I didn't expect is for them all to be big, muscular, tough-guys. I had a guy yesterday that almost collapsed on me (although, this guy, I wouldn't have minded so much ;) )

2. My sister is back in Canada. I can't tell you how happy I am not to live on the other side of the continent from her. She's only a 45 minute flight away now, rather than a 7 hour one, so I am a pretty happy camper, but am hoping that she decides to move to Vancouver so we'll be even closer! A girl can dream.


That is all the news I can think of for now... Although my brain feels pretty scrambled, so there are no guarantees that I didn't miss something really important.

It's Release Day!

I can't believe it's actually here. Release Day. It feels like it took forever to arrive, and at the same time was here before I knew it. I am completely over the moon excited and have already had a few people tell me that they bought a copy, which is both extremely thrilling and terrifying at the same time. Being that I live in Canada, it'll still be a little while before I can hold my books in my hands, but it's one more thing to look forward to. There has been so many great things that have happened to me this week, I feel like I should be buying up lottery tickets. 


List of great things:

1. My book came out and I became a real, honest to god, published author (duh). 

This has been a life-highlight. I will remember this forever. The epicness of this is unbelievable. I am running out of descriptive terms.

I sat on the Dreamspinner Press website refreshing the page over and over until it moved from the "Coming Soon" page to the "New Releases" page, and then I saw this on the side and nearly lost it completely with excitement. (And yes, I did screencap that to commemorate the event. What?) And then when it actually released I may have screamed just a little bit and my mom called to congratulate me. Then my  husband called and we had this conversation:
Me: Hey, do you remember when I first got my contract and I wouldn't shut up about it for weeks and it was really annoying?
Him: Yup.
Me: This is going to be sooooo much worse than that.   

2. This amazing review on Mrs. Condit: http://mrsconditreadsbooks.com/index.php/?p=11064  that I was absolutely thrilled to read. Lucky gave it 4 1/2 sweetpeas and I couldn't be happier. (and P.S. there is a giveaway on there too, so many sure you stop by!)

3.  I am attending GRL as a supporting author: http://www.gayromlit.com/author/cate-ashwood
I am really really looking forward to going and have already been incessantly planning in my head. Those six months are going to crawl by, I just know it.

4. For a long time, Will Parkinson was the only person to review Sweets on Goodreads, (and it is a really great review) so for a while I was able to say I had a five-star rating on Goodreads.
You can read it here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/535838147

5. Monique from Monique's Musings posted this on facebook:

See that in the upper right corner? That is my book. The corner of my book is touching the corner of J.R. Ward's book. Not to mention being in the company of some other very well-know, very talented authors. The caption, which is far too small to read, states that these are some of the books she is excited to read in March.

She is excited to read my book!




6. The week leading up to release day was a stressful one for me. I have gone back to school and March 9th and 10th were final exam days for me. All I wanted to do was spend endless hours on the internet, but instead I was memorizing and studying and generally being a complete basketcase about the whole thing. I was super nervous for them, as I am used to giving the final exams, not taking them, but you know what? I frickin' aced them. Both.

7. My blog tour stars tomorrow (and I am giving away two copies of the e-book)! Here are the stops and topics:

March 12th: All about Sweets @ Kim Fielding
March 14th: Setting the Scene @ J.R. Loveless
March 16th: My Coming Out Story @ Charlie Cochet
March 18th: An Interview @ Chris. T. Kat
March 21st: Breaking the Romance Rules @ Andrew Q. Gordon
March 23rd: An Interview @ Skylar M. Cates
March 26th: What I've Learned This Year @ Jana Denardo
April 1st: It's About the Sex @ Anne Barwell
April 3rd: An Interview @ L.J. LaBarthe


8. I have even more to look forward to, because my birthday is at the end of the month and my family is coming out to celebrate with me. It's going to be the best month ever.


To top it all off, this is the graphic Google used today:

DON'T PANIC. Fitting, doncha think?



And here, in case you wanted to read it, are some of the links for buying Keeping Sweets.

Dreamspinner Press:
E-Book: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3620
Paperback: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3621

Amazon:
Ebook: Coming soon
Paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Sweets-Cate-Ashwood/dp/162380406X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363034368&sr=1-1&keywords=cate+ashwood

Barnes and Noble:
Ebook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/keeping-sweets-cate-ashwood/1046224271?ean=2940016268088
Paperback: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/keeping-sweets-cate-ashwood/1114813099?ean=9781623804060

It All Begins Tomorrow

This year has been the most exciting year of my life, and just when I think things can't get any better, they do. I got a bit of news a couple of days ago that I am not 100% sure I am allowed to share yet, and it's been killing me because I want to tell everyone. Getting away overnight to the Glen (a place my husband and I escape to every once in a while where there is no internet or cell phone service) helped with the temptation, but now that I'm home, I just wanna spill.
A few more days and I'm sure I will be able to share.

In the meantime, the casting couch interviews begin tomorrow (or in a few hours if you wait up until midnight), and I am so excited to be hosting so many amazing authors here.

Grace R. Duncan is up first, so stay tuned!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

To celebrate, since Xto is away this week, I spent my day studying the heart for my electrocardiography class, and writing about two men falling in love.

Fitting, isn't it?

It was a really great day though despite being by myself for most of it. Dreamspinner was giving away free books all day, and I managed to score copies of Plan B by SJD Peterson, Reflections of Love Valentine's Anthology, When One Door Opens by JD Ruskin, and World on Fire by Hayley B. James.


I am so excited and can't wait to read them all. Things have been so busy lately though and I have been sick for over a week, so I am way behind on my reading. I started reading Andrew Q. Gordon's The Last Grand Master last night, but passed out before I could get very far, which was a shame because so far I really like it.

So besides having a really great Valentine's Day, the rest of the weekend is going to be pretty awesome too. I have a ton of new reading material, my cousin is coming to town tomorrow and I get to see him play hockey, then Saturday, Xto and I are doing something really romantic for our belated VDay... we're going to see the new Die Hard movie.

Ah, the sexy and exciting life of newlyweds.

Baby, What's Your Number?

Just over a month left until my first book is on shelves all over the place. With so many exciting things going on in the next month, I wanted to take a step back and look at everything coming up. So let's see the numbers:


Three
The number of days until Keeping Sweets should (theoretically) show up on the Coming Soon page at Dreamspinner Press. I am embarrassingly excited about this. I've been periodically checking the page just in case they decided to put it up early. I won't tell you how long I've been doing that, because it would be far too humiliating.

Nine
The number of stops on my blog tour

I will be visiting:

Kim Fielding on March 12th
J.R. Loveless on March 14th
Charlie Cochet on March 16th
Chris T. Kat on March 18th
Andrew Q. Gordon on March 21st
Skylar M. Cates on March 23rd
Jana Denardo on March 26th
Anne Barwell on April 1st
and L.J. LaBarthe on April 3rd

I'm not completely sure on the topics for all of them yet (nothing like leaving things to the last minute), but there will be a couple of interviews, I'll be chatting about what went into writing Keeping Sweets, and there will be a giveaway!


Eleven
The number of days until the Casting Couch interviews start. I am really excited about this. Stay turned on February 19th for the first one.
If you'd like to read Evan and Bran's casting couch interview, click here for an excerpt from chapter two.

Nineteen
The number of authors participating in the Casting Couch interview. We have Grace R. Duncan, Jana Denardo, Jacob Flores, Talia Carmichael, Isabelle Rowan, Jamie Fessenden, Andrea Speed, Andrew Q. Gordon, Zahra Owens, Matthew Lang, Faolan Kurayami, Eden Winters, Anel Viz, Skylar M. Cates, L.J. LaBarthe, Charlie Cochet, Jessica Skye Davies, Anne Barwell, and Lex Chase.
They will be answering questions about their writing process, their favourite books and their guilty pleasures.

Thirty-One
The number of days until Keeping Sweets is released. I have been counting down the days for this since I received the email with my release date. It's been pretty much all I can talk about lately, much to the annoyance of those close to me. :D
Six months ago, I thought that it would take forever for March to arrive, but looking back it has gone so quickly that I really can't complain. It's been filled with a multitude of brand new experiences, and I am brimming full of new information. I have learned so much through this whole process and I can't wait to apply that knowledge and do it all over again!

A Good Day

Today was a really excellent day for a lot of reasons.

First, I got to sleep in, because this was the first Saturday in a long time that I didn't have to work. Sad for my bank account, but happy for me. Also, Xto was home, so we were able to spend the day together.

Andrew Q. Gordon was doing a chat on the DSP facebook page this afternoon. I stopped in and chatted with everyone for a while. I really enjoy the author chats. It's a great place to get the inside scoop on the story and personal little tidbits about the author. Andrew hosted a giveaway, throwing everyone's names into a hat, and having his adorable little girl pick one... and she chose mine!

I am really looking forward to getting my copy of The Last Grand Master. It sounds really interesting, and I can't wait to read it. Plus, it's even more exciting because I actually won something. I think that is the first time I've ever won anything. Ever. Pretty exciting stuff.


After that, Xto and I went out for a walk. We just went down the road to the urban forest again where we usually walk, but today did three laps instead of the usual two. It was a beautiful day, but my hips were cursing him by the time we'd finished. I was one sore little girl.

Then we got home and I received an email from DSP saying that my bio was up on the website. I actually squealed... out loud. Loud enough that Xto came out of the kitchen where he was cooking me dinner (another plus for today) and asked me if everything was okay. I lifted my laptop up and proudly showed him what had me so excited.

I'm up there. I am officially (at least according to the internet) one of DSP's authors. I am over the moon happy. I immediately spammed everyone I knew with the link so they could share in my joy. Lex Chase, whose novella is coming out two days after my novel, checked the website, and lo and behold, there was her name too. We were both so excited, and she made me this to commemmorate the event.

Isn't it great?

An Exciting Start to 2013

We are only one week into the new year and life has already been interesting. Busy, but interesting.
In my personal life, I am finishing up the last part of my course, and so will have a limited online presence for the next couple of months. The course is fairly intense and as much as I would rather be writing, school has to come first.

For Keeping Sweets, I have received a comp for my cover and have been working with Paul Richmond and Brooke Albrecht towards my perfect cover. So far, things are looking good and I can't wait to see the final product! The manuscript has entered editing and I should have the first round of edits in the next few weeks. I know I still have a while to wait, but I keep checking my mail. I really am impatient.

In the meantime, I have been working on writing my dedication, which was more difficult than I thought it would be. There are several people in my life who have been my cheerleaders when it comes to writing and I'd love to mention them all, but I think I'm supposed to keep the dedication to less than twelve pages!

Also, fellow author Lex Chase and I will be doing reciprocal guest blog postings in the next few months (both out books come out around the same time). She will be taking part in my casting couch interview series (check back for updates) and will be interviewing me about Keeping Sweets and writing in general. The interview is tentatively scheduled be to posted April 13th. My very first interview as an author. I am so excited.

The Hope Cove series is going almost exactly as planned. Installment Brokenhearted and Wholehearted are both finished and Brokenhearted is in beta editing. I am currently about one fifth of the way through the third installment, Ironhearted. I've set a deadline for myself of the end of January for completion of the series, but it may be a little too ambitious with the overload of school work I have looming. I will do my best to finish on time, but sometimes, life gets in the way, and that's alright. Lots of time to write once I've finished all my final exams.

So that is the update of what is going on so far this year. 2012 was so amazing for me and 2013 is shaping up to be even better. A banner year, and the year before I turn 30. I think that's something to be pretty proud of

Happy New Year!

I had a serious pair of grumpy pants on earlier today. I mean the really, really tight ones that pinch and rub in all the wrong places.

This year, I spent New Years Eve alone. First time ever. Xto is away working and my family went to Maui. Now, before you get to feeling all very sorry for me, I was invited out to a party, but I chose not to go. I wanted to stay home and get some work done. That didn't stop me from throwing my own pity party though.

All sorts of little things went wrong today. Getting ready for work, I ran out of eyeliner (complete disaster), I was at work on New Years (horrible tragedy), I forgot the right pen (cause for meltdown), etc etc etc.

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Now there is just under an hour left until midnight -- the joys of being the second to last time zone to change over -- and I am feeling much better. Know why? I thought about all the amazing things that have happened to me this week alone. There have been too many to count over the last year (some of the highlights were: I got married, my first novel was contracted, I began the process of changing careers, I traveled to some really amazing places, and I met my new niece Isabelle), but three of the highlights from this week:

1. I got my cover comps from Brooke Albrecht, who is amazing, and they were everything I could have hoped for. I had a hard time choosing, but I think I've picked one and I should have the final copy soon. Of course the moment I have it, I will post it here because it needs to be shared. So gorgeous.

2. I finished the first book in the Hope Cove series. It took me a lot longer than I thought it would, but I was working on a few other projects at the same time. I actually finished it, did a happy dance, went to bed, and then at 5:00 the next morning, woke up to the realization that I had written the ending all wrong. So I rewrote it in my head, went back to sleep, then got up and rewrote it for real.

3. I finished the second book in the Hope Cove series. You know those other projects I just mentioned? This was one of them. And I finished it about an hour ago.So yeah. Two books in one week. It was my goal to have them both finished by the end of December, and I did it with two hours to spare! So those are done. One more book and the series is complete. I've started the third and hopefully it will be done by the end of January, which makes February the Month of Epic Edits before I can submit it in early March.

There have also been a host of other, smaller accomplishments this week, like, for example, me flying all by myself without completely losing my shit during takeoff and landing (I am not a good flyer), and making it through Ikea during boxing week without being trampled to death.

So looking back on 2012, some really great things happened, but I am hoping for even better, even greater things from 2013.

Happy New Year!

Home for the Holidays

I am officially home for Christmas and it's great to be here. My parents give Martha a run for her money every year with holiday perfection.
This is their tree. Gorgeous, is it not? I'm hoping this shows up properly as I am posting this from my phone (a first for me).
It is nice to be home, even if the roads were a little scary. Family is always good, especially at Christmas and this year was especially good because my sister didn't know I was coming home so it was a fairly emotional homecoming (we don't get to see each other often).
Anyways, hoping you all have a wonderful Christmas and enjoy all sorts of Christmas themed stories (which are always so nice to read this time of year).
Merry Christmas!!
xoxo
Cate

Merry Early Christmas

There is officially less than a week left until Christmas. Life is hectic for everyone everywhere and our family is no different. We leave tomorrow morning to spend Christmas at my parents' house. I am so excited to be going home, but there is so much to do before I leave. I haven't even started packing yet. In fact, I haven't even started writing my packing list yet.

Instead of actually starting on that list, I'm updating instead. I just can't help it. Too many exciting things happened this week. So here it is, the list of all the totally thrilling stuff that happened to me over the last seven days:

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1. The editing department from DSP contacted me to fill out my blurb questionnaire. So effing exciting. I was completely over the moon until I actually tried to fill them out. I've never felt so brain-damaged in my life. Those questions were hard! Questions like "what is your book about?" Huh? What? Who knows? I sure don't. I managed to get it filled out and sent back, although embarrassing detail: my friend Lex Chase (hilariously talented author) warned me that spell check doesn't work on the form for some reason, so I went over that thing six times looking for errors. Satisfied that there were none, I fired off an email with the attachment and in my haste I left the subject line of the email as "blub questionnaire". Fingers crossed that the editing department doesn't retroactively cancel my contract for being a dumbass.

2. The art department from DSP contacted me to fill out my book cover spec sheet. The email was from Paul Richmond, who I adore (not that we've actually met, but he is seriously talented and hilarious to boot -- if you haven't seen his video about his bootlegging revenge escapades, you need to watch it now). I got that all filled out too and I really can't wait to see what they come up with. This whole thing is starting to feel more real for me now, and I think once I am able to see the actual cover for the book, it'll feel like I'm a real author. It's pretty much the most exciting thing that's ever happened.

3. Xto came home early from work on Monday. He scared the shit out of me, because I thought someone was trying to break into our apartment, but then I realized that a burglar wouldn't use a key, so I stopped being scared and got happy instead. It's so nice to have him home, and so rare. We had a glass of wine, stayed up watching Tosh.0 for a while before bed.

The next morning he took me for breakfast in Fairhaven just outside of Bellingham. If you're from the  area and you've never visited the old part of Bellingham, you need to go now. Today. Do it. it's beautiful. Breakfast was at the Skylark Cafe, which I recommend. They have banana bread French toast. What more could you want in a breakfast food?

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4.Yesterday, I got to open my Christmas presents from Xto early. I am a very lucky girl and got completely spoiled this year. He bought me a Canon printer that I so desperately needed and (drumroll please) my new KINDLE PAPERWHITE. I am completely in love with it. This is technically my fourth Kindle. Xto teases me that they are just burning out from overuse. In reality I am clumsy and keep breaking them. The Paperwhite though? Epically good. The thing glows. GLOWS.

5. Last night, Lex Chase (previously mentioned hilarious & talented writer extraordinaire) sent me the second installment of her Pawn Takes Rook series to read through. Granted I am only on page six, but so far it is completely amazing. She makes me so jealous sometimes with how funny she is. The first book comes out in March from DSP, so in three months, go buy it.
Here is her "Next Big Thing" blog post for the first book to tell you all about it.

6. Today, I hit 60,000 words on my WIP Brokenhearted (the first book in the Hope Cove series). It's officially a novel! I only have a couple of scenes left to do and then some heavy editing before it's ready to submit. I've set a deadline for myself of the end of February to have all three ready for submission. It might be a little overly ambitious, but shoot for the stars, right?

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

It has been two weeks since I've posted anything. They have been two frickin' hectic weeks. I started back to school and my husband turned 30. To celebrate, I decided to throw him an 80s themed party. He was born in 1982, so I thought it would be fitting. It was a costume party. The men seemed to head to value village and come out with a plethora of graphic t-shirts fitting for the decade. The women, however, all bought their outfits. New. At the mall. I bought an off-the-shoulder hot pink sweater, hot pink fishnet stockings, black legwarmers, hot pink lightning bold dangly earrings and hot pink leopard print glasses with a bow. I looked like a neon slut, but it was a blast.

I went way overboard with the food, but it means we'll be in leftovers for a week, and the leftovers will be damn good because there was melted cheese in almost everything...and cheese makes everything good. There was drunken twister in the basement, Michael Jackson to dance to, Nerds and Fundip, and I made PacMan cupcakes. How often do you get to make PacMan cupcakes? Everyone got neon slot glasses and jelly bracelets.

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The husband hooked up his Atari 2600 to the 80" plasma TV (it was so terrible, but oh so good). Everyone had fun. I had fun planning it. At one point one of the guests said, "have you decided what you want to be when you grow up yet? Because you should be an event planner." which is the same thing my wedding photographer said when he saw my wedding. What can I say? I love planning parties. If I could plan events and write smutty romance all day, I would be one happy girl.

Knocked on my Ass

After working with kids (a.k.a. germ mongrels) for years and being married to a guy who spends more time in hospitals than anywhere else, I would have thought that by now I'd have contracted and subsequently developed an immunity to every cold/flu virus on Earth, but those bastard viruses keep mutating and attacking.
And I am not one of those people who handles being sick well. I don't get little sniffles and carry on. My eyes water and swell until they're red and half-shut. It's hot. Really.
So that's what happened and I've been a whiny, drippy mass of ick for the last few days and not been productive at all, which makes me angry because I really really wanted to finish the first Hope Cove book by the end of this month. Looks like that probably won't happen, but c'est la vie.

A Little Inspiration

I started an account with NaNoWriMo yesterday. What was I thinking? November is going to be the busiest month ever for me. I will be starting school through distance ed, and wanted to get the course finished as soon as possible. I was counting on doing a large portion of it in November. November is also the husband's 30th birthday. I'm throwing him a party. A big one. Which I am also catering, and hostessing, making the decorations for, and there is a ton of prep needed too.

It's also right before Christmas. Oh fuck, Christmas. The time of the year where I run around like my ass is on fire. I usually try to get most things done in November because December is so fucking hectic.

I am on the cusp of finishing my second book right now, and was hoping to wrap it up before the end of this month so I can start early planning my NaNo if I ever hope to finish by the 30th, which means I need to get my ass in gear and get writing.

Home Alone Again

My husband is a paramedic and works at a station that is about 2 hours away from where we live. He is only home a few days a month, and he spends the rest of his time sleeping in cramped quarters with five other guys (or girls) in an ambulance station in a somewhat remote area.

This is probably one of the reasons I chose to be a romance author -- being alone so often leads me to have a rich fantasy life. I really do enjoy it though. As brief as my writing career has been up until this point, I have yet to meet another author who does this for any other reason than pure enjoyment of writing. It's therapeutic, cathartic, fun. I just feel so lucky that someone thinks my writing is good enough that other people might actually want to read it.

He'll be home in a few days though, and in the meantime, I want to try to get some decent progress on my next book before life gets too busy again. Luckily (for me anyway) the weather is starting to turn. Yesterday was foggy and cold -- the perfect day for my favourite hazelnut hot chocolate -- but I love the dreary weather. My darling husband teases me that it's because it's in my heritage to be drawn to rain and fog (my whole family is from England). Maybe, maybe not. All I know is that I love fall, and it's beginning to feel decidedly like fall. Perfect weather for cozying up inside and indulging in some seriously hot fantasies.

A Good Month

The past six weeks have possibly been the most exciting weeks of my life. I got married to a wonderful man in one of my favourite places on Earth. It was beautiful, magical, and for once after a big party, I didn't have to clean up the mess! The next day we jetted off (after a four flight delay in a crappy airport) to beautiful California to spend a week in honeymoon bliss at one of the nicest hotels I have ever seen.

We got back a couple of weeks ago and were just beginning to settle back into the mundane when I received an email from Dreamspinner Press. They want to publish my book! I am over-the-moon excited. I think my friends and family are a little less so, as I haven't shut up about it since.

This is my first experience with the publishing world and I'm not entirely sure what to expect. All I know is that I can't wait to get started, and that the six month road to publication will be exciting, nervewracking, way too long, and way too short.

Wish me luck!