Best Surprise of the Week!!!

I really didn’t think this week could get any better, but this morning at work the DHL guy came to my desk and while signing for the usual packages for my boss, I noticed a box from Simon and Schuster. My heart leapt, stomach flipped over, and my voice and hands got all shaky as I tried to sign and then spell my name for the DHL guy. I knew that box was for me and I just wanted to run into my friend Kathy’s office to open it. Finally DHL guy went on his way and I stumbled into Kathy’s office with my package, screeching for my cube-mate Sharon to join us as she got of the phone. Kathy helped me open the box and there they were: early finished copies of my book. Unfortunately I didn’t have a camera on hand at work to capture the moment. And tonight I’m all in a rush to get to Summer Fest, so I will have to update this entry tomorrow with pictures of the finished copies.

Of course they are basically the same thing as the ARCs but without that whole “Uncorrected Proofs” thing written across the top. And the back is different. It has my photo and the blurb from Melissa Marr added in with the other blurbs. But this is the book as it will look in bookstores, I believe. Very cool and totally unexpected. I knew I’d get copies because they are the prizes for Melissa’s contest (which ends today, so go enter now since it’s your last chance!) and for my contest (which ends in a week, so get moving on that one, too!), but I thought they’d come next week sometime and I also assumed they’d come to my house like the ARCs had. And I figured my editor would warn me. She didn’t warn me about the ARCs either though, so either she’s really busy and forgets to give me the heads up or she likes surprising me. (It’s probably the former, but since I like surprises, I kinda hope she keeps it up.)

So that was a nice way to start my Friday and a nice addition to my week of surprises. Now I just have to hope my luck holds and the weather is bad for my outdoor events this weekend.

If you are in the Chicago area, please contribute to my streak of pleasant surprises and come to one of my events this weekend. Tonight at 7 pm, I’ll be spinning the soundtrack to my novel and reading from the first chapter around 7:30 at Forest Park Summer Fest in front of Old School Records at 7446 W. Madison. Then Sunday I’m reading at noon at Printer’s Row Book Fair in the Columbia tent and handing out IWBYJR swag at the IL-SCBWI booth from 1 to 2. (You can get exact directions and a map to those two things on my gigs page.) And I will be raffling off one of my last ARCs and you can enter to win it at either of those events or all day Saturday at Old School Records.

Okay, pictures tomorrow, I promise!