I’M GOING TO BE PUBLISHED. TWICE.

Permit me this one moment of unabashed pride: I GOT A BOOK DEAL. FOR MY VERY STRANGE, VERY QUEER FANTASY BOOK. MY FIRST BOOK. MY ONLY BOOK. AND SOMEHOW, THE DEAL IS FOR TWO BOOKS. I HAVE TO WRITE ANOTHER BOOK??? OH NO!!!

Here, look. Proof. Here’s a copy of the nifty lil’ Publishers Weekly announcement. If you want to read more about this book, check out the full page here. And don’t forget to add it on Goodreads!

Below, I’ll break down some of the cool details that make up this announcement and then end with some pretty sentimental Thank You’s that wade into some sad territory. Eventually I’ll do a longer post about submission (book submission, guys, come on), but for now the fun stuff:

SOME COOL DETAILS

1.     ANNIE BERGER! From Sourcebooks Fire! Annie has been on my radar for a bit, but shot to the top of my list after she acquired the debut novel of my friend, idol, and obsession: Kosoko Jackson. She got me right away when we spoke. She understood this book, me as a writer, and wanted to know what I wanted to work on next. I am incredibly excited to work with her.
2.     TITLE CHANGE! Lots of people have been my posting about this project, referring to it as DREAM CRUSHER. I do love that title, but it was always going to need changing. I wanted to keep something fantastical, but simple, and so the title has been changed to: REVERIE. This fits easier with the series naming scheme I have in mind, too. More on that muuuuch later.
3.     TWO BOOKS? Yes! But not two books in the REVERIE series. I do want to turn REVERIE into a series, but I’ve got another project that I’m developing first. No title yet. No details. Although I might mention it in the Write or Die Podcast interview I did with my friend Claribel Ortega. Hehehe.
4.     QUEER! This book is so, so gay. The hero uses rainbow magic. The bad guy is literally a drag queen who fights using bewitched, kitschy accessories. I cannot believe I am getting it traditionally published.
5.     #OwnVoices! I am so, so gay. I cannot believe I am getting buy-in from a top 10 publisher to be my gay self and do my gay work and warp my own gay adolescence into books. Life is so strange. I am so excited. I am so lucky.
6.     VERONICA PARK! Freaking bad-ass roller derby lady. What an agent. What a person. I had some outright strange questions for her during this process, and she was not only patient but exceptionally fun to work with. I don’t know how she does both.

THANK YOUS

And lastly, thank you. To my family, my friends, my boyfriend; to my agent, to my editor (!!); to my coworkers, past and present; to my nemesis, even though you’ve been underperforming recently; and to all the people who have helped me in even small ways as I fought to get this book sold. Thank You. I’m grateful to each and every one of you.

I am especially grateful for the people who have helped me through these past two months, which have been the hardest of my life. It has been a strange to watch my dreams come true while also losing my sister suddenly. Sometimes the pervasive sense of unreality this has created has put a distance between me and this dream. For instance: when I got the news that I was going to acquisitions, I was leaving the hospital after saying a final goodbye to my sister. When I got the news about this book deal a few weeks later, I was at a memorial event for my sister. When I got my final contract, I was with my parents on Mother’s Day, playing the game of determined animation that is so familiar to the newly bereaved.

I have been trying my hardest to celebrate and feel victorious, and at times I do, but fortune has found me not as I thought it would. I can’t hold it like I’d like to, but I’m getting there. And all of you—everyone who has helped me, been kind to me, laughed at my very bad jokes on twitter—you have kept me together and focused and forward facing. So thank you for that.

REVERIE is a book about a boy fighting to save his sister from the nefarious things that lurk in the dark gaps of the human mind. An unreal story that becomes realer to me every day I go without my own sister, who bravely faced her own brain cancer, and who chose to become an organ donor so that others could live on.

I love you, Julia; this book is for you.