Thank you YA Community!

I had a hard time falling asleep last night I was so excited. Everything is coalescing as my book birthday looms in front of me, only five days away. I had lunch with new friend and neighbor Katie Davis the other day. She asked me what my book was about, and I faltered in the telling.

"Why are you hesitating?" she asked.

"Well, people don't think that alcoholism and recovery are very sexy," I said.

"Says who?" She challenged. "You've got to own this. It sounds AWESOME. And it hasn't been done before."

Yeah. My book IS awesome. Thanks Katie! Katie not only writes amazing kidlit and YA, but also does a weekly podcast and is a social media/twitter maven. She told me about twitterbookbday.com and I struggled through the signing up, but I did it! (So hopefully a lot of people will be tweeting about Edges next Tuesday.)

And more thanks go out to Judy Blundell for her endorsement of Edges and for her friendship; Sandra Jordan for being with me through the long haul:  Courtney Sheinmel for her adamant insistence that I have a book birthday party; Rebecca Stead, Daphne Grab, Deborah Heiligman, Lucy Frank, Elizabeth Winthrop, Jeanne Betancourt, and Carolyn Mackler for their support and encouragement during our monthly lunches. (Happening TODAY! Must train to the city with Judy in mere minutes!)

And to you, dear readers, and the community we are building through Facebook and through this blog, your support means everything to me. Thank you so much for reading and for reaching out your hands in friendship - I am reaching back and holding on - you're coming with me!

Addendum: I have to also give a shout out to fellow debutantes Lish McBride and Jen Violi, who both live as far west as you can get in this country, and whom I never get to share a real plate of french fries with, but who have been crucial partners in crime, traveling the zig-zag road of YA Lit and publishing! I heart you guys!

Writers 4 Writers

Okay, I admit it. I am a lousy photographer. My hands always shake like crazy and everything looks grainy. I never do anybody justice. Maybe that's why I practice writing instead - I want to understand and see the world through words.

Yet today these awesome women, writer ninjas, gracefully acquiesced to me chronicling evidence of our lunch together on the Upper West Side of NYC. From left to right are Rebecca Stead, Daphne Grab, Deborah Heiligman, and Jeanne Betancourt.We have been meeting for lunch the first Thursday of the month for about a year now.  Not everybody can always make it (for instance, today we were missing Elizabeth Winthrop, Lucy Frank and Carolyn Mackler) but we appear at the restaurant in various constellations. I haven't been able to see these friends for the past two months, and was almost afraid that these lunches had been a figment of my imagination, and the relationships I had begun to forge dust in the wind.

But they were still there. You all know that I have been freaking out about the upcoming publication of Edges. You know that I have planted the seeds in so many ways and I am waiting for things to sprout. (Edges, Writopia in Northern Westchester, the FREAKING house stuff, my WIP . . . did I mention the freaking house?)

Yes, these women were still there. All of them, down to earth and real, with their own ups and downs. "You've got to put on your suit of armor," Deborah said to me. "You have to balance between between being excited, but also not caring so much because," she paused again, staring into my eyes. "You'll be writing other books."

Yes! We lingered for over two hours, and I can't tell you much else for BREACH of friendship contract! I am  only allowed to spill MY guts on here after all, not others.

EDGES Available for Pre-Order on Amazon!!!

And I need to sub title this: SHAMELESS NAME-DROPPING & SELF-PROMOTION.

I've been pondering how much more pro-active I can be about marketing EDGES other than blogging, and beating down the doors of my publishers. I've been worried: am I doing enough? I've been insecure: but so and so blogs 5x a day and has 3000 followers! I can almost hear my Gran quoting John Donne as she was wont to do in these times of self doubt: "Comparisons are odious", and I try my best to heed her advice.

But I know I need a swank and hip website, and Elizabeth Winthrop sees my need for career control and keeps telling me to make a teaching guide and a workshop around EDGES - she is so write! I mean, right . . . I've been getting antsy about the whole promoting angle, and resolved to do most of it myself.

So . . . last night when I should have been sleeping - now, I may embarrass myself - I googled "Léna Roy", out of curiosity, not expecting anything earth shattering, you know, maybe a couple of links to this blog, when I found a link to Amazon, and to EDGES! Mon Dieu, it is seven months away from publication, and already available for pre-order. I don't know what this means, but suffice it to say, I am VERY excited, and had energy to bring to this months' Writers 4 Writers lunch with Rebecca Stead and Elizabeth, Carolyn, Lucy and Jeanne. Rebecca had other "promoting" news for me - she had just come back from the International Reading Association convention in Chicago, where she was very busy presenting, but had taken a picture of an ARC of EDGES being displayed next to my Gran's AND BOTH WERE YOUNG! How's that for exposure?

And my friends tell me that they never know anything either until it happens. Or it doesn't - we have to be prepared for that too. (Buy oy! Worry can be crippling!) Suffice it to say that I couldn't get a hold of anybody who knew what was going on today, but at the same time, what this shows me that I need to have a little more faith, and that just because I am blind and naive about this process doesn't necessarily mean that I'm going to fall on my tush. And if that happens, as it certainly has on numerous occasions, then I need to pick myself up and redouble my efforts! (After wallowing in chocolate for a week or so of course!)

AND . . . if anybody decides to check out Amazon to see if it's TRUE, (or maybe even pre-order the book? I told you I would be shameless - ah, but you are waiting for my book launch party on December 7th, maybe, yes?) there is no information about the book yet, and I don't have an author page. (Have signed up, but they need verification from the publisher.)

More from me on . . . Saturday!