Big News! 11/9/11

Posted Nov 10 2011, 1:05 am in author, book deal, fiction, Patty Blount, Sourcebooks, YA

Many years ago, after a particularly bad day, I cried to my mother that my life sucked.

Her reply?

“Go write yourself a life.”

And I did. I began a novel called Postpartum Deception after that conversation. It never sold, but it showed me I had what it takes to conceive and finish a novel.

Here we are, about fifteen years later and TA DA!

My Young Adult novel, SEND, is going to be published! *cue celebration* Aubrey Poole from Sourcebooks offered a two-book deal with SEND coming out next year and the second book, whose working title is TMI, coming out in 2013.

Here is the official announcement on the Publishers’ Marketplace website.

 

I’m bouncing with glee and beyond excited to get this chance to work with Aubrey. The truth is, I’ve been sitting on this news for weeks until it felt like a pregnancy well past its due date.  Aubrey first expressed interest in SEND last summer but wanted a tighter ending. I sent her a revised manuscript in September, but Sourcebooks prefers to build authors’ careers, and wanted more than one project. That’s when Evan came to the rescue to brainstorm TMI (Too Much Information). A few weeks after that, he told me the good news – Sourcebooks wants both projects!

SEND:

When Dan Clements was thirteen, he did something so bad, a kid committed suicide. He served time, moved a bunch of times and even changed his name, but the kid’s revenge-obsessed dad keeps finding him.

When he breaks up a fight on his first day at a new school, Dan learns there are other things more important than his secrets… things like protecting Brandon, a boy who’s the target of everyone’s jokes… and avoiding Julie, a girl with secrets of her own… secrets that could not only reveal Dan’s, they could get him killed.

TMI:

Meg Atkinson has been taking care of her best friend, Bailey Grant, since kindergarten. Bailey falls for Ryder West, a boy she met online, and Meg’s concern for Bailey’s safety compels her to forge her own online friendship with the same boy. The girls are quickly drawn into a competition for a boy they’ve never met in a dangerous game of one-upmanship that risks their reputations and severs their friendship.

That’s when Meg discovers Ryder West doesn’t exist.

My birthday is Saturday, so this news is the best possible gift. But even better? My mom, who is terminally ill, has a good strong chance of living long enough to see my stories come to life.

There’s no gift better than this. Besides Aubrey and Evan, I need to thank three more people, without whom this day would not have come – Jeannie Moon, Kelly Breakey, and Bill Cameron. Big hugs to you all.

Please raise a chocolate bar and celebrate with me?

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