After all this time, it's almost here

That's what's popping through my head this morning. That September 1st is really almost here and Dreaming Anastasia will be on the shelves. Okay, other things are banging around my brain, too - like how proud I am that I did indeed force myself to clean the bathrooms right now and even windex the mirrors! And wow, these Rainer cherries I'm eating are really tasty. And crap, I think my sinus infection might not be fully gone. And of course, hey, I really better finish the WIP before 9/1 - is that really a possibility?

Have updated http://www.joypreble.com/ so if you go to News, you can see the events/appearances that I've got set, with more to come. Particularly thrilled to announce that beyond my launch event at The Woodlands Barnes and Noble north of Houston on 9/12, I'll be signing at the absolutely delightful Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston on 10/20 at 7 PM! And we're in the planning stages for Chicago, which is where Dreaming Anastasia is set, so yes, some time in the fall I will be back. Will announce where and when once that's all inked. Plus some book festivals and conferences. Check out the link and see for yourself!

Speaking of the launch, I'm pondering swag! Those rubber bracelets (you know - the livestrong type)? Pins? Magnets? I want something cool and fun to give away beyond bookmarks and cake and Starbucks beverages. If you've got any thoughts on this, I would love to hear them! Everyone likes a good giveaway, don't they? But I want it to be snazzy and not lame...

Getting geared up for SCBWI LA. Am totally jazzed to get to hear Sherman Alexie, Holly Black, Ingrid Law, Richard Peck and more. Plus! My favorite cowgirl and agent extraordinaire, Jen Rofe is on staff this year, presenting with fellow ABLA agent Jamie Weiss Chilton.

Speaking of Jen - check out the http://www.classof2k9.com/ blog later this week, when Kathryn Fitzmaurice (The Year the Swallows Came Early), Lauren Strasnick(Nothing Like You, October 2009) and I present our four way interview with mutual agent Jen! You will learn exciting secrets!Crafty tricks of the trade! What Jen is looking for!

My little twitter following is growing. Okay, I will never be Ashton Kutcher (who am I totally following and who should really follow me back if he knew what was good for him), but if you want the up to the second updates (until I'm back in the classroom and my up to the moment updates would begin to consist of "Got Madison to put her cell phone away." "School cop just took ____ out with his backpack. Hmm" and other scintillating tidbits that I honestly couldn't really post without being sued) come follow me at @joypreble Yes! Be one of the cool kids. @joypreble Did you get that?

And finally - just finished Sarah Dessen's Along for the Ride and once again, I'm in love with your world, Sarah D!! Your characters are perfectly and utterly real. If Auden (the MC of Along for the Ride) walked up to me on the street, I would totally know it was her. (it was she?) I've been completely sucked in as Auden stretches and grows and learns that there's more to life than academics, that snap judgments of people aren't always accurate, that maybe she's braver than she thought. And as she falls in love with handsome and enigmatic Eli Stock. If I am some day even a teensy bit as skilled at this craft as you are Sarah Dessen, I would a lucky girl.

Til next time...

I heart Sarah Dessen

In my summer reading post the other day, I did not mention the book that I've been pining for, which is Sarah Dessen's newest, Along for the Ride. It comes out on June 16th, I believe and I will be grabbing a copy as soon as I possibly can.

If you are not a Sarah Dessen fan, well, you should be! Just Listen is my favorite, followed by The Truth About Forever, but honestly, I love everything she's written. Her characters speak to me in ways that no one else's do and I think it's because I'm by nature a perfectionist who has trouble with change but still courts it because I know it's good for me or simply because the fates shove me toward it. I live in Texas, nowhere near where I grew up and where "my people" are, and so I've had to cobble together new family with friends and neighbors. I know what it is to have my world change in an instant, and not always in a good way. And Sarah Dessen's fiction speaks to these things. Characters whose lives are disrupted; who are forced to reckon with the hard truths of their situations, who find love in unexpected places and people. Who have to be pushed out of their comfort zone into something they never expected to love. Not all of what happens results in perfect happily ever afters. But every word, every description feels real, authentic.

If you ever read this post, Sarah Dessen, it was your writergirl live journal that I stumbled upon a couple of years ago when I was still an unpublished author with huge dreams and a messy life. I still make sure I read your Friday Five. I can only wish that someday I can master the craft as you have! I read about your love of those deviled eggs and basketball, and just today about your tangerine purse and trip to BEA and I'm encouraged. Of the many writers who've inspired me, whose way with sentences has awed me, you have always been top of my list. One of the things I try to do as I move from debut author to author - hopefully - of that second and third book - is to find the truth in the human story, the truth as I see it. Dreaming Anastasia is in part about imperfect people who make mistakes and then have to deal with the aftermath, as I guess we all do.

So here's to summer and here's to Along for the Ride. I can hardly wait!

Til next time...