a multitude of me

THE QUEEN’S BASTARD is out today. Fine bookstores everywhere should be selling it.

I talk quite a bit about the nerve-wracking aspect of this book over at Magical Words today, and Joshua Palmatier invited me to participate in his author introduction series…where, it turns out, I talked about the nerve-wracking aspects of this book, albeit in a *slightly* different way. :)

I should be less nervous, maybe. It’s my tenth book, which you’d think would settle my nerves some in and of itself. It’s gotten some really nice reviews (money shot from Booklist’s starred review: “…the first of what promises to be an outstanding series featuring a masterfully intricate dance of politics and intrigue in a world with parallels to the Elizabethan era., and Kate Elliott said it was really good, which means more to me personally than Booklist, because ZOMG Kate Elliott! o.o). It has, in fact, already gone back to print, thanks to a big library supplier order, which, y’know, bodes well.

Still. Nervous. Excited. Hopeful. Very hopeful.

I’d love to astound my editor by having the book go back to print again by the end of May. It only (only!) needs to sell about 15,000 copies to do that. So send people to read the excerpt and to drool over the cover and help me make a little noise about this one, please? *looks charming and hopeful* :)

My editor at Del Rey sent a couple copies of THE QUEEN’S BASTARD ahead of the contracted author copies so that I could see them soonest. Oh my god. This is a beautiful, beautiful, *beautiful* book. Ted, in awe, said, “This is *hot*,” and it *is*. I cannot *wait* for this to go on the shelves so people can get it, because oh my GOD it’s gorgeous. I ran around the house shrieking and doing the beauty queen thing and being all tearful. It’s *so* pretty.

And it’s the mark of a couple pretty freaking significant landmark for me. First, it’s my first non-Harlequin book. Second, it’s my TENTH FREAKING NOVEL! ZOH. MY. GOD.

And third, I now have one million words in print.

Not too damned bad for somebody whose first book came out in June 2005, eh?

*beams like a fool*

Email from my editor at Del Rey indicates I ought to be getting copies of THE QUEEN’S BASTARD pretty soon here. TQB is my tenth (including the novella, which I do) published novel. I feel like I should do something celebratory! But I don’t know what. I’d like to run a good contest, and…I donno! Ideas?