Publisher’s Weekly Fall Preview

I was surprised and thrilled to discover that Simon Pulse included Compulsion in the Publisher’s Weekly Preview of hot fall titles. I couldn’t possibly have a better publisher! Here’s the link for all the great fall reads.

Now pardon me for a moment while I fangirl out. Whatever his politics, Orson Scott Card has won the Nebula, the Hugo, and the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement from the American Library Association for his work in Young Adult literature. The film adaptation of Ender’s Game was just in theaters.

As for Scott Westerfeld? His Uglies series was one of the first series I read when I decided to seriously pursuing writing for Young Adults. Not only did I share the series with my daughter, I gave it to several of my nieces for Christmas.

And there’s my name in the same paragraph.

But no pressure, right?

I love that the team at Simon Pulse has so much faith in Compulsion. When you’re on deadline rushing through the publication process, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that “publisher” isn’t a single entity, but rather that it means a group of people who have all read the words and characters I’ve spilled onto the page from out of my imagination. It’s awe-inspiring to think how much they have to be behind the book to read it as many times as they do by the time it ever reaches print.

I’m not going to lie. It’s a little scary too. Because I don’t want to let any of those people, any of those readers, down.

So I’m celebrating about being there in Publisher’s Weekly. Of course I am. But I’m also hoping that I’ve done enough with Compulsion to do justice to Barrie, Eight, Cassie, and all the other characters, that readers in general will see them the way I hope they will.