There are good people in the world!

Today I lost my cell phone. It fell out of my pocket while I was walking on campus. I realized just moments after it fell out that it was gone, and turned back to look for it, but someone had already picked it up. Frustrated and convinced that it had been stolen by someone who was going to call across the world on my dime and then replace the simcard and steal the phone (an iPhone), I rushed to the AT&T store to have it turned off.

Later, I logged onto facebook, and a friend of mine had sent me a message. She had my phone--someone had picked it up just after I'd dropped it, and scrolled through my contacts for someone to call. He knew my friend, and called her and delivered the phone to her so she could give it back to me.

It's always nice to know that there are good, honest people. Especially since my mind went to the worst possible scenario immediately. The scariest part was that at the AT&T store, they told me that there had been a lot of stolen iPhones on campus in the past week.

This almost trumps the time I left my wallet in the backseat of a cab in NYC--I got it back about a week later WITH THE CASH STILL IN IT. I was amazed.

In my mailbox: THE IRON WITCH

My copy came in the mail today! And it officially releases in the US today, so you should be able to find it in bookstores! (Go get it, what are you still doing on my blog???)

Lucy likes THE IRON WITCH, too!

Happy book release to Karen Mahoney!

My awesome author friend Karen Mahoney's book The Iron Witch came out over the weekend in the US and the UK! I just ordered my copy (silly me, I was gone all weekend and didn't realize it was getting a release a couple days early) but Amazon Prime will ship it in two days (and if I'm lucky, it'll get here tomorrow--last time I used Prime shipping the book came the next day!)

Anyway, happy book birthday to Karen, and I really encourage all of you to go check out The Iron Witch!!!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/073872582X/ref=ox_ya_os_product

:D

Woohoo! I just finished rewriting my YA urban fantasy manuscript! Back in the fall, when I decided to re-do the whole project, I didn't think I'd be completely starting from scratch. But the more I worked on what I wanted to change, the more ideas I got, until I realized that keeping anything from the old manuscript would just slow me down.

This was the first time I had an actual outline typed up in Word as I was writing. It was easier for me to make an outline for the project because I already had a VERY BASIC idea of where the story was supposed to go (and I did get to keep a lot of characters) because of the former version(s) of the manuscript. Of course, by the end I was already changing things from how I'd done them in the outline, and I already have so many ideas for revision.

I'm so pleased with the way it turned out! I'm so pleased to have finished in just a couple months, and to have something I think is a lot better than the former version. The fantasy world, in particular, is so different it's unrecognizable. I already have revision notes for several of the beginning chapters that I made for myself when I got stuck.

But I think I'll take a week off and do some CP reading, some outlining for my next idea (YA romantic fantasy based on a myth--but I won't tell you which one unless you guess! The only hint is that it's a Greek myth) and some straight up READING FOR PLEASURE! (I have so many good books sitting on my shelf, I don't know where to start! I may post a poll so you guys can pick for me).

It's a nice feeling :)

11 books I can't wait to read in 2011

I feel like every other day I find out about a book that's coming out this year that sounds AMAZING. Or, I realize that it's the year the next book by a favorite author or in a favorite series comes out!

Here are 11 books, in no particular order, for which I'll be counting down the days until they come out!

1. DARKEST MERCY - Melissa Marr

2. EONA - Alison Goodman

3. WOLFSBANE - Andrea Cremer

4. GRAVEMINDER - Melissa Marr

5. WITHER - Lauren DeStefano

6. THE IRON WITCH - Karen Mahoney

7. CLOCKWORK PRINCE - Cassandra Clare

8. RED GLOVE - Holly Black

9. ONCE EVERY NEVER - Lesley Livingston

10. STEEL - Carrie Vaughn

11. RAGE - Jackie Morse Kessler

What are you looking forward to this year?