Class of 2k9

My fellow Class of 2k9ers and I are getting ready to launch our website soon and I'm very excited. Like the classes before us, we're a diverse group of middle grade and YA debut authors whose books are coming in - obviously - 2009. I'll be posting more, soon, and adding links to their individual websites at my www.joypreble.com but I wanted to take a second to tell them all how fantastic they've been as we've felt our way through this publication thing. Most of us have day jobs and families as well and all of us have a myriad of other obligations, but slowly, we've become a crazy family of our own. Writer = neurotic some days and what better group to share the crazies with? Personally, I've had the weirdest fall in a while - between hurricanes and abcessed tooth and the election stress and the economy (okay only one of those happened just to me but still) and agent change and some other family health concerns and a little travel thrown in for good measure, plus, oh yeah, that pesky full time job. Add in work on three plus books in one stage or another and I'm a little nuts most days. So how absolutely amazing to have 20 other people who know exactly what that's like? (okay, minus the hurricane for most of them but whatever)

Best of all, I am thrilled to be able to talk about all their upcoming books!! That's the best of all. Some days I have to pinch myself to check if this is really happening. ARCS and cover art and a twenty or so wonderful, amazingly passionate and hard working new friends to share it all with. Because that's the other best thing - I get to talk every day with so many writers who share my passion for story telling, for people, and for telling stories for children and teens that get the heart of what it means to be human, who care deeply about getting that right. We may disagree on some little things, but we agree on our committment to our audience and to the craft. I can't ask for any better, braver group of humans to share things with.

Bravo fellow 2k9ers. You inspire me each and every second of the day.

Til next time...