Happy Birthday, Twenty Boy Summer!

Today is the official release date for Twenty Boy Summer. Though it snuck into many bookstores early, today is still a special, exciting, amazing day, as it marks the fruition of a dream come true. To celebrate, I’m taking a trip down memory lane with some of the retro posts that highlight my years-in-the-making TBS publication journey.

Retrospective

6/26/06: Introduction: Barbie Says “Writing a Book is Hard”: Almost exactly 3 years ago, I started this blog with a single post, hoping it would help me focus on writing (and finishing) my YA novel that was then already in it’s 3rd year of draft development, Twenty Boy Summer.
7/11/06: In Er… Is This Thing On? I talk about signing up for my first public reading and a bunch of workshops and writer business stuff through Lighthouse Writers Workshop’s 2006 Summer Litfest. BTW, if you’re in the Denver area, the 2-week long 2009 Summer LitFest starts this Friday!
7/12/06: Speaking of Useless Boobs, in which I restart chapter 1 and delete a bunch of other stuff, again and again and again.
10/2/06: Money Isn’t… and 10 Reasons I’d Rather Be Writing speak to my growing desire to leave the material comforts of corporate life and write full time, no matter what the salary.
4/15/07: Now Can I Say I’m a Writer? marks the official completion of Twenty Boy Summer! Well, the first round, anyway!
5/30/07: In The Long and Winding Road to Publication, I answer the oft-ask question, “So when will your book be on the shelves?”
6/29/07: Celebrate the official agent-find (and dramatic retelling of the process) at The Agent Search is Over.

And finally…

9/17/07: Authors, Celebrities, & Book Deals talks about meeting authors and quietly announces the big news that Twenty Boy Summer will become a published novel.

TBS Birthday Plans

Other celebratory activities today?

Baking and decorating heart-shaped, TBS-themed cupcakes from scratch for tomorrow’s family book launch party, which will be another fun time in what’s quickly becoming a month-long bookfest.
Chatting with Nadine-Stella in 21 Questions on Starry Night and sharing the first ever sneak peek of Fixing Delilah Hannaford, my second novel, which comes out next year. Nadine-Stella is also giving away hardcover copies of Twenty Boy Summer to 5 lucky commenters!
For the first stop on a 10-day Traveling To Teens blog tour, learn more about the inspiration behind Twenty Boy Summer at Lauren’s Crammed Bookshelf.
Awesome Sarah MacLean, author of The Season, hosts TBS main character Anna Reiley on Inside the Character’s Studio.
I might even take a nap later. 🙂

Feel the Love

Parties aside, I wouldn’t even be blogging about this if it wasn’t for the love and support of so many friends, family members, writing buddies, my amazing agent, and the whole team of people working hard at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. There are so many wonderful people who helped me along the way, and this celebration is as much theirs as it is mine. I’ve thanked many in the pages of Twenty Boy Summer, but there are a few more who deserve a virtual hug today!

Sarah Dessen. Without even knowing it, YA author Sarah Dessen inspired me to write for teens way back in 2004. Today, I get to thank her publicly as part of The Sarah Dessen Diarist’s Sarah Dessen Celebration.
The 2009 Debutantes. The Debs is a wonderfully supportive community of fellow debut YA and MG authors who are made of awesome. We laugh. We cry. We send chocolate.
The Word Ninjas. The Word Ninjas is a new collaborative of debut authors and YA book bloggers working together to introduce new YA reads to the world. The bloggers working on Twenty Boy Summer and the other ninja books are incredible and passionate and excited and it’s really been an honor to work with them. Watch for more fun ninja TBS stuff throughout June!
The YA Book Blogging Community. I have met so many amazing readers through the YA book blogging community that to name them all would take about a thousand separate blog posts! Every Friday, we introduce one of these bloggers on fLiP iT fRiDay, but in the mean time, I’d like to thank ALL of them for their viral-like support of TBS and other debut YA books. They’ve read and reviewed, hosted contests and interviews, shared books with their friends and family, stalked me in NYC (okay, I encouraged the stalking!), and honored me with things like Jordyn’s 2-week-long TBS Countdown, taking tons of pictures of TBS in the wild, and kicking off my release day with this heartwarming surprise:

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Thank you to all of the readers, librarians, booksellers, teachers, bloggers, publishers, and all those with whom I share my love of books and reading and storytelling. I’m overwhelmed by your support and encouragement and enthusiasm for Twenty Boy Summer and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate this day than with all of you.