Four To HarperCollins!

Sorry for being so quiet the last ten days or so. It hasn't been easy! But the announcement is official!


Aprilynne Pike's AUTUMN WINGS, four-book series about an ordinary girl who discovers that she is a faerie sent to guard the gateway to Avalon in the mortal world, and when she is thrust into the midst of a centuries-old battle between faeries and trolls, she's torn between a mortal and a faerie love, as well as her loyalties to both worlds, to Tara Weikum at Harper Children's, in a significant deal, in a pre-empt, by Jodi Reamer at Writers House (World English).


I'm a professional author!!! I have been bouncing off the walls since I got the call that Tara was interested in my book. There have been tons of calls between Jodi and me and I even got a chance to chat with Tara. She's so excited about my series and that makes me really happy.

Janet Reid mentioned on her blog a few weeks ago (and I'm paraphrasing) that as a whole, the publishing industry moves at a glacial pace, but that individual transactions move at the speed of lightning. That was certainly the case with me. We sent the book out on October 29th. We received our first rejection less than 24 hours later from an editor who just didn't think faeries would work for the YA audience. Well, to each their own. :) Twelve days later (which seemed like an eternity to me, but was actually remarkably fast) Jodi called to let me know that Tara was interested and would be taking my book to her acquisitions meeting two days later. I was cautiously elated.:) The next day Tara called with her offer. That was surprising to me; I wasn't expecting to hear anything for two days! It was an excellent offer, as far as I was concerned, but Jodi didn't think it was excellent enough to take the book off the table. I was just thrilled to know that one way or another, my book was going to be . . . well, a book! The next day Tara called back with her pre-empt offer. Within hours, the deal was done.

It was--and still is--so strange to go from just another aspiring author, to a professional author in a matter of hours! (That and recognizing that HarperCollins basically owns me for the next five years!:)) It has been such a roller coaster the last few weeks and I'm so grateful for those of you who have held my hand through this and offered encouragement and support. A book truly is the work of a community, and I'm so glad to have all of you in mine.

Ciao!!