Tales of Christmas 2010

Our tree on Christmas Eve

-My twenty-year-old brother shoved me while I was taking the picture. Then he made me forward him the photo, because it looked "artistic." *gives bro stern elder sister glare* Actually, my sister - who looked over my shoulder just now - agrees with him.

Our tree after I told my brother what a punk he was

-So cute, right? It's roughly five feet tall. We needed one that would fit inside the car. (The other option was strapping a tree on top of the car for a hour-long winding drive through the mountain highway during a snowstorm.) My brother and my father weren't here yet, so I sawed off the end of the trunk and screwed it into the tree stand myself. *proudly flexes handy-woman muscles*

-I knitted my sister a quilt for Christmas. I knitted three pieces of it in front of her, and she was STILL surprised when she opened it. (Yes, I'm v. v. v. proud of myself.)

My great-grandma and another quilt I knitted her for Christmas.
My grandmother took this pic and sent it to me this morning.

-I debated on whether or not to mention it in this post, but after last night's shoving, the debate was over - embarrassing stories can be told. My brother and I made my great-grandma's infamous eggnog. (Yes, the same great-grandmother pictured above. Her eggnog is infamous, because of how much whiskey she puts in it.) Because I beat the egg whites, I let Clint beat the cream. I thought it was cute, so I stood back and took a few pics. BIG mistake. 'Cause he whipped the cream into butter. Luckily, we had extra cream on hand, so nobody was too unhappy about it. Then the eggnog turned out great, so that made us pretty cheerful too. :-)

-Last night, after the rest of my family went to bed, I stayed up late reading my most recent B&N purchase, Isabel Wolff's A VINTAGE AFFAIR (yeah, I'm sure you're completely shocked - it's totally out of character). On page 75, I read "it's lucky to find a nail, to eat an apple on Christmas Eve, and to accidentally put a garment on inside out." I paused (mainly because it was warm under my covers and NOT warm out of bed) before deciding that it was too much of a coincidence. Besides, with my own book(s) coming out soon, I could really use all the luck I could get. So, I climbed out of bed, snuck into the kitchen, and groped around in the dark until I found the fruit bowl. I must say that green apples make fantastic late night snacks, even on Christmas Eve, but I'm not totally sure it gave me any luck: I woke up with a cold this morning...but then again, I'm sure staying up late didn't help my immune system much. :-P

- (See if you can follow the family tree in this one.) My grandmother - ie. my father's mother - gave MY mother a cookbook for Christmas. Not just any cookbook, but a local one from Louisiana. (Both sides of my extended family live in or near Texas, so this isn't as random as it sounds.) Leafing through the cookbook this afternoon, my mom discovered a long lost recipe for "Condensed Milk Pie," submitted to the cookbook by Mom's father's brother's wife. BUT, Mom says, this recipe was actually invented by her grandmother, ie. Mom's father's mother. Scandal! (P.S. If you followed all that, you deserve so many point. Also, believe it or not, the story could've been a lot more complicated: my mother has four siblings, which gives me eight cousins on one side. But my mother's FATHER had TEN siblings, which means she would have to sit down with pen and paper and a family tree to figure how many siblings SHE has.)

- We had turkey for our big Christmas meal, which means that everyone was too sleepy to reach for their computers right away. Which meant that I had enough time to sneak onto the internet and throw a blog post together.

I hope everyone's holidays have been as fun, silly, and random as mine!!

XOXO!!
SB

GUESS WHAT?!? (Hint: It's totally SQUEE-worthy.)

Gah, I can't believe that I get to write this post.

(I can't believe I get to write this post so quickly.)

But look what Jo did! Ahem, I mean, what Publisher's Marketplace posted at some point while we were all sleeping:

Children's: Fantasy
Shelby Bach's EVER AFTER SCHOOL series, about how an eleven-year-old discovers her destiny in a world of magic and fairy tales, pitched as Percy Jackson meets The Sisters Grimm, to Courtney Bongiolatti at Simon & Schuster Children's, in a two-book deal, by Joanna Volpe at Nancy Coffey Literary & Media Representation (World English).

I kind of still can't believe it!!! My first book-baby! Jo found EVER AFTER SCHOOL a home!!

In case you were wondering...

The offer came a week and a day ago - on my great-grandmother's ninety-sixth birthday.

Morin (that's my great-grandmother) and I were just hanging out at the time, waiting to go to her b-day dinner party, and then Jo called.

I really wish I could tell you more about the call, but I actually don't remember much. My brain stopped processing. Actually, a lot of things stopped processing. All I remember is Jo talking really fast and me trying to take notes, which really didn't work, because my mind was screaming, "OMG! OMG! OMG!"

It was all surreal like whoa. I was sure that I would wake up and discover I had dreamed it all.

Then I started dancing around after I hung up the phone and told Morin (who sweetly said, "What great news! Now my birthday's really special"). I started tearing up when I told my mom and she said she was crying. Then Morin started telling everybody who called to wish her a happy birthday before I got the chance.

And every day since then, I've been freaking out more and MORE as it gets more REAL.

I mean, I've got an editor. Named Courtney. She's real - I know, because I got to talk to her on the phone. And she really loves my book. She said so. And she said that I should know that it's not an empty compliment, because she bought that book (plus the sequel!).

And that publishing house - Simon and Schuster? I know it's real. I used to walk by it all the time when I lived in New York (it's right beside Magnolia Bakery).

And deadlines! That will go in a contract! (Actually, the deadlines are what makes this feel the most real. Because I probably wouldn't imagine deadlines if I was dreaming. :-P)

Also, I've got this pretty new announcement that makes the news public. Ready to see it again? Ready? (Because I don't think that I'll ever get tired of looking at it.)

Children's: Fantasy
Shelby Bach's EVER AFTER SCHOOL series, about how an eleven-year-old discovers her destiny in a world of magic and fairy tales, pitched as Percy Jackson meets The Sisters Grimm, to Courtney Bongiolatti at Simon & Schuster Children's, in a two-book deal, by Joanna Volpe at Nancy Coffey Literary & Media Representation (World English).

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But seriously, y'all - the more it sinks in, the more I realize how incredibly lucky I am, and how many people I have to thank.

Like my parents, who - when I told them that I wanted to quit my steady job in New York and write for real - told me to "go for broke," as Mom says. And definitely, Joanna at NC Lit, my lovely sweet talented agent, who pulled EVER AFTER SCHOOL out of the e-slush pile and loved it like whoa, who believed in it and me, who helped me polish it to submission-worthy shape with the patience of a sage. And Courtney at S&S, who loved it too and worked hard to get it to the right meetings, despite having lots of other things going on last month. And Maria, who let me brainstorm in her office last year and then laughed in all the right places, who read it this summer and still loved it. And Colby and Clint (my siblings), who never made fun of their big sister, even though I made it easy plenty of times. And Team JoSVolpe for just being a wonderful, warm, supportive bunch of writers. And a great group of friends, some fellow writers and some not, who read either this manuscript or past ones, and asked, Cool, can I read another one you wrote? (Always always a great compliment.)

I am truly lucky and truly blessed.

And so SO excited!!!! :-D