I don’t know if anyone remembers me venturing outside my safe zone last April to start a manuscript in a new genre. I made a lot of disclaimers, saying I didn’t know what I was doing and I didn’t know if I could pull it off. I even whined about the climax so much my husband took me to Mexico and let me climb a pyramid.

Well, sometimes, taking a risk pays off.  Here’s my news, straight from PW Children’s Bookshelf. I’ve been in a fog for several days now, just trying to take it in:

Barbara Lalicki at HarperCollins has bought, in a pre-empt, three books in a new middle-grade series by Dianne Salerni, author of the YA historical novels We Hear the Dead and the forthcoming The Caged Graves (Clarion, spring 2013). The Eighth Day is about a mysteriously orphaned boy who discovers a secret day hidden between Wednesday and Thursday, and the beautiful girl he finds next door, who only exists on the eighth day. Sara Crowe at Harvey Klinger brokered the deal for world English rights.