In Which I Become A Fan of Polish Sausage Over Bacon

Believe it. And in order to understand how something like this could happen, let's go inside a day in Elana-land. This you can survive that? Well, let's go for a ride people.

How about a Tuesday? Sure, let's go with an average Tuesday in Elana's life:

Tuesday, February 8:
7:00 AM: Wake up. Sort of. Midnight came too late, and 7 AM comes way too early. This might be 7:10 or 7:16 or something.
*get ready for work, get kids ready for school*
8:30 AM: Leave for school.
9:00 AM: Arrive at work, frantically check to see which typing lesson to do, erase board from last week, write today's assignments, open Firefox, Safari, and Remote Desktop, log in 37 computers, check gmail.
9:20 AM: 4th grade arrives. Begin typing lesson!
*repeat four times*
*check gmail forty thousand times*

11:35 AM: Lunch
*eat while writing a million+one emails*

12:15 PM: 3rd grade arrives. Begin typing lesson! Sooo exciting. The students are thrilled, trust me.
*repeat for a second time*
1:15 PM: Get email from agent
Subject: possession pierogi!!

Now, I have no idea what that means, but exclamation points in an email from your agent are always good.

The news?

POSSESSION sold in Poland!

1:24 PM: See email and freak out. Reply to agent, even though I'm late to switch classes.
1:25 PM: Switch second grade classes.
1:30 PM: Teach typing! My life is so glamorous. You know you're jealous.
1:34 PM: Text husband.
1:35 PM: Freak out.
2:05 PM: Finish teaching for the day.
2:25 PM: Drop off tax papers at the accountant's office.
3:00 PM: Arrive at girl kidlet's school to switch out the home-reading books for her Kindergarten teacher. Yeah, I volunteer at the school once a week.
3:30 PM: Arrive home. Feed girl kidlet. Hound her to change her clothes.
4:00 PM: Take girl kidlet to dance.
4:30 PM: Take boy kidlet to work.
4:40 PM: Arrive home. Alone.
4:41 PM: Freak out.

I could go on with my night, including a few more taxiing moments, and lots of visiting to people in my neighborhood. I finally got home around 8:30 PM, wherein I changed into my pajamas and...
8:45 PM: Watch Chopped.

Ahhh, Tuesday's are good days. Let's all have some of this:

Or these, which are pierogies, in case you didn't know. (I totally didn't.)

Good news? I know people who've gotten their first full request this week! I know people who have signed with agents. Yay! I know people who have had news from publishers. What have you got?

And I just want to give you a visual of what next week is going to be... One word: EPIC.

The Last 12 Months

Holy brown cows, people. Believe me when I say that I know how lucky I am. I am extremely thankful to look back over the past 12 months and see the road I never thought I'd travel.

A little picture recap for all those of you who are new here, which is about 1400 people.

November 11, 2009: I sign with the most fabulous Michelle Andelman.

February, 24, 2010: My debut novel sells to the amazing editor Anica Rissi at Simon Pulse.

In the ensuing months, I help organize an online writing conference,

edit my novel, change the title, get the cover image,

receive ARCs,

see my book go up for preorder online, make a new author website, a dedicated novel website, and think, sleep, eat, dream marketing ideas with my insane besties (Christine, LiLa, Beth).


November 5, 2010: I receive word that my YA novel will be cross-promoted in the adult catalog at Simon & Schuster. I don't think life can get any better.


I am wrong. Here're some hints...

Ideas?

How about now?

Guess, you know you want to...

It's not just food, people.

One last chance...

November 8, 2010: Possession sells in France. That's right! Michel Lafon (who will also publish Alyson Noel's and Ally Carter's books) will be publishing Possession in French--and the French Canadian market.

Later that day, I cry. And it's the good kind. The thankful kind. The holy-cow-how-did-I-get-so-lucky-and-wow-I'm-overwhelmed kind. And I think I want some of these:

So my message to you today is to be thankful for wherever you are in the process. Just starting. In the middle. Almost there. Wherever. You'll never be in this exact spot again. Enjoy it.

Look back over the last year. How far have you come? Have you been thankful for the journey?