Snow-covered, Windblown, and Busy

Windblown me.

I was in Florida last week with my family. 

We got a whopping two days of sun :( out of the five we were there, one during which the winds whipped 30 miles per hour.

Still, I lay at the pool, 

grateful to soak in the sun and relax 

dreaming of the open water swim season that is 

just around the corner.

Right?

It IS just around the corner?!?!

I mean, you guys know that I need two things:

water and sun.

And, instead, THIS is what I had left behind in New York:

my husband's car is under there somewhere.

Yes, indeed. The New York weather gods had the good graces to dump nearly 3 feet of snow on us the week before.

Anyway, I'm back now, and behind and have a sh*tload of writing stuff on my plate.

"Frankie Sky" is finally on it's way to copy edits (btw, my new publishing home Algonquin Young Readers has a lovely new website and facebook page (as does my TPoG publisher, Farrar Strauss Giroux Books for Young Readers, finally!) and I am in the throes of doing all the behind-the-scenes stuff on that one -- getting permissions, fretting over my author photo ;\ , and mulling over new titles (not sure if I'm allowed to share the front runners here. Maybe next time).

Next will come cover ideas and the dreaded, dreaded jacket copy. How can that be so hard?

In the meantime, I had submitted a potential option book -- if you follow me here, you've seen bits of it, called In Sight of Stars, and while my editor says she liked a lot of things about it, she didn't think it was a best "next" book (she gave me some reasons and I must begrudgingly admit she might be right) so that one's going to simmer on a back burner.

Which means -- horror of horrors -- I need to get going on another book. I do have another completed rough ms that I haven't picked up in two years... and my agent is looking at that, but I think that may suffer the same issues as Stars, making it not a good NEXT book. Also have another one in the works that might be better, but all it is right now is a big old pile of mush. :\

In the midst of this all, I've started work on a high-concept YA collaboration with another writer friend which is a HUGE departure for me, and will probably be something I work on in between projects, AND also got a bit of a bite on a piece of my beloved women's fiction which is requiring me to try to do a rewrite. 

So, my writing plate is full and let me just say that, THIS WRITING GIG IS HARD WORK!!!

As far as The Pull of Gravity goes, it is now out EVERYWHERE in paperback and I would surely love you to go out and grab a copy from Barnes & Noble or your local indie bookstore. It's also got a spiffy new trailer that was made by a 15-year-old kid, Jude Bourke.

He's the son of a friend and his dad, Karl, did the amazing original drawings. If you like it, leave him a note, and please, please, please pass it on. 

Anyway, that's it for now. 

Back soon!

xox gae