All Grown Up

So YouTube is totally not helping me today, but I love this part in the movie Mulan (well, I love the whole movie, but this one part is relevant today ;)) where Mulan is running out of the tent because she's late and Mushu calls, "Wait! Wait! You forgot your sword." *sigh* "My little baby, off to destroy people."

That's how I'm feeling.

My ARCs are out. (And yes, I will be having an ARC contest here. Just as soon as--yanno--I get permission to actually show a picture of the ARC.:D) Up until now, the only people (other than agent, editor, etc.) who have read WINGS who are not family are . . . well, close family friends who are basically family. That's pretty much it. I've kept this one pretty close to my chest (and book two is even closer!) So now, all of the sudden, people I don't know are reading it. People who I know but aren't close to are reading it. Complete strangers who I am never going to know, are reading my book!

It's a little terrifying.

I have never been the clingy parent. When my daughter started first grade (she didn't go to kindergarten) I sent her off to her first long day of school (minutes before leaving to catch a plane, actually) with full confidence that she was a brave, bold, strong girl who could take school by storm! And having watched her knock a boy two years older than her down for killing her caterpillars, I knew there was an aggressive side to her that would come out if she got in some kind of extreme situation.:) I was very confident in my baby's ability to conquer the challenge of school!

I'm not quite so confident in my book-baby. Not because I don't think it's the best book I've ever written (thus far!) because I SO do! But reading books is so subjective. There are people who will love it, there are people who will hate it. There's nothing I can do about that. I haven't had any haters yet, but I will. Everyone does. And I just have to deal with it.

Luckily, I get to put that particular challenge off for one more day.:) I recieved my first official review this week from a staff member at Borders! You can find it here. (You'll have to click on the little "Customer Reviews" tab.) And here's the text:

"Stephenie Meyer is nuts about this book, and it's easy to see why. Like the Twilight Saga, Wings mixes mythology with high school in a pleasing blend of romance and action. Aprilynne Pike uses botany and homeopathy to create a fresh twist on the tired idea of faeries, with northern California as her backdrop. If only the Cullens made a guest appearance. ;)"

And she gave it four stars. At first I was a little dissappointed to not get five stars (we all dream big, right??) but my friend Carrie pointed out to me that her book only got four stars as well. And if my book can be rated as high as the fantastic awesomeness of The Forest of Hands and Teeth, then I'm not doing half bad. I'll take that as a major compliment!:)

Oh, and my brother's best friend gave WINGS my first non-family male thumbs up as well. And that is a hard audience to catch with a teen romantic-fantasy.:D

Yay WINGS!!:)

Ciao!