My cousin Barry Abernethy posted this one.
You guys rock.
I can’t believe the number of bloggers who helped me celebrate the release of The Eighth Day last week. I felt … popular. It was a totally new feeling for someone who’s been a wall-flower since elementary school.
Thank you, everybody – to Writer Unboxed who hosted my guest post about Franken-drafts, to Michael Gittel-Gilmartin who not only gave me the release day to talk about antagonists at Project Mayhem, but surprised me with a reprisal of his review and interview later in the week. There were three wonderful bloggers hosting reviews or interviews along with a giveaway (still going on, btw): Eli Madison at Tweens Read Too, Robin Hall, and Susan Kaye Quinn. Robin at Your Daily Dose surprised me by highlighting one of my posts in her A to Z series, and Julia Tomiak at Diary of a Word Nerd wrote a lovely review! (I hope I didn’t forget anyone. The week was such a blur!) And the blog love continues today, because Natalie Aguirre is offering another giveaway at Literary Rambles, and Susan Kaye Quinn let me take over her blog for the day to discuss trusting your writing process.
Sheri Larsen’s copy is floating!
Then there was everyone who Tweeted about my book or posted pictures of The Eighth Day in the wild or – thanks, Sheri Larsen – apparently floating in the clouds! Co-workers, friends, and family members shared the Facebook announcements and/or went out to buy the book during the release week (or had it delivered on the day of release by Amazon.) I was overwhelmed by the generous show of support from everyone.
Back in 2010, when I attended an event celebrating the joint launch of We Hear the Dead and Picture the Dead by Adele Griffin and Lisa Brown, I had an interesting conversation with author/illustrator Lisa Brown (also the wife of Lemony Snicket). She said that publishing was a strange business in that by the time your book finally hits the shelves, you’ve usually written a couple more books and have your head mired in a completely different project.
I found this true last year when The Caged Graves released at the same time I was hip-deep in major revisions for The Eighth Day. (I barely remembered who Verity and Nate were at that point!) And this time, I find it hard to wrap my head around the fact that, for the reading public, Jax is only beginning his journey – when I just turned in the third installment of his adventures to my editor.  It makes me wonder: When Book 3 in this series hits the shelves, what will I be working on?

I have no idea, but I can’t wait to share the journey to find out with all you wonderful people!