HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANASTASIA FOREVER

Book 3 enters the world today.

I'd contemplated writing about my crazy publishing journey again -- the 4 editors and three publicists, and two agents and endless orphaning. The struggle that has sometimes felt harder than it needed to be. But if you read this blog or follow my career and books, mostly, this is old news. You know that despite it all, ANASTASIA FOREVER is on shelves today from Sourcebooks Fire and in digital form, and people are buying and downloading and reviewing and finding out what happens in the end to Anne and Ethan and Tess and Ben and the witch Baba Yaga and all the rest.

If you're new to the series, let me quickly catch you up. This way, you can dive into book 3 and then go back to the others, which I totally know you want to do:

DREAMING ANASTASIA series synopsis: The DREAMING ANASTASIA series is the saga of Anne Michaelson, a sixteen year old Chicago girl who discovers that she is connected through both line of descent and destiny to a complex mystery of love, betrayal and revenge. Her own family in turmoil from the recent death of her brother David to cancer, Anne finds herself dreaming repeatedly of a girl trapped in a room, who in turn is dreaming of her family’s murder. When Anne collides at school with handsome, mysterious Ethan, everything sets in motion. Dark powers of elemental control rise in Anne. Ethan tells her that she’s been dreaming of Anastasia Romanov, kept captive all these years by the Russian witch Baba Yaga.  Anne is somehow the one who can free her. And Ethan – well, he’s a member of a secret Brotherhood and he’s been immortal since Anastasia’s capture. Free one. Free the other. But Anne discovers that there’s a lot more at stake. Russian fairy tale figures come to life: rusalki and witches and Koschei the Deathless. People who will stop at nothing to keep their power and eternal lives. And a blood line connection to everyone and everything. As Anne works first to free Anastasia and then solve the mystery that has held part of her family captive for decades, she finds herself falling for Ethan, who may or may not be someone she can trust. The series travels backward and forward in time and place, in the real world and in Baba Yaga’s forest as Anne and Ethan race to uncover long hidden secrets and darkest of magicks before it’s too late.  In this thrilling tale of secrets within secrets and truths within lies, the reader quickly realizes that history never tells you everything.

I am truly excited for people to read. There's a happily ever after, but it's hard won. And I think for this story, that's just the way it needs to be.

Beyond that this morning, I am filled with buckets of gratitude. So many, many people are solidly in my world now that I did not know or dream of just a scant few years ago. It has truly taken a village -- and not just because of my editor revolving door! This I think is the greatest and fullest miracle -- that my world has cracked open wide in the best of ways.

I'm just back from SCBWI LA and many of them were there: editors and agents and so many, many author friends both new and old. The artist community here in Texas -- in Houston and Austin in particular: critique partners and my fellow alums of the Class of 2k9, who have for the most part remained my dearest of friends. Booksellers of all stripes and sizes and here I will mention a specific: the generous and gracious Valerie Koehler and Cathy Berner at Blue Willow Books who have helped launch my career in ways both big and small.

And bloggers. I thank my blogger community a lot. Because their devotion to books and literacy and authors is fierce. And my life is enriched by their passions and support.

Do you get it, dear reader? We're all in this together: the storytellers and the readers and illustrators and those who sell and promote and design our books. The first time I met Laurie Halse Anderson and told her I had my first book coming out, she autographed my copy of Catalyst with "Welcome to the tribe."

One of the ongoing conceits of the DREAMING ANASTASIA series is the Russian matryoshka doll -- those nesting dolls that fit one in the other, the same figure over and over, only smaller. In metaphor, it is stories within stories, the oldest type of storytelling that there is: the frame story. This has become my metaphor, too. My own story within the stories of all these wonderful people who are now in my life, all tucked inside each other, linked, repeated. Wonderful.

If you're in the Houston area, come on over to Blue Willow Bookshop on Memorial at Dairy Ashford this Saturday, 8/11 at 2PM. Check here for more info.  Join me in celebrating ANASTASIA FOREVER. Eat a cupcake.

Cheers, my lovelies!!