Hey everyone!

I distinctly remember where I was at this time last year: editing and writing like a fiend. I was also majorly freaking out. See, I was about to attend the Willamette Writers’ Conference and my manuscript wasn’t finished and something appeared to be wrong with my nose since the frigging thing wouldn’t stop running and I had to keep telling people that I had no back up plan if this whole “writing thing” didn’t work out!

Every now and then I would consider my chances of finding employment at the local frozen yogurt place.

Skim to none.

And here I am one year later. I’ve got a rock star agent, a four book deal with Kensington Teen and people don’t ask about my back up plan anymore. I’ve traveled to Thailand, Cambodia and Australia. I’ve even discovered the wonders of allergy medication!

But in the summer it feels like my life has stayed the same.

Which I actually find quite comforting. I’m still spending it pounding away on my latest manuscript. I still babysit for the same family.

The kids still make fun of me.

I even dogsit for the same pooch!

Norm an’ Bates!

So much has changed for me and yet it’s only when I start rattling them off that I find myself nodding and thinking, oh yeah, I didn’t just imagine that. It really happened. To me. Wow!

You might remember in my last blog I mentioned that I was anxiously waiting to hear something? Well, I’ve heard.

I’m going to keep things nice and vague so that I won’t get in trouble.

Basically there was a big opportunity I was hoping to get, but it’s not going to work out right now.

The funny thing is that I’m not even upset. At all. Technically, what I got was the nicest sorry-we-can’t-do-it-right-now/rejection a girl could ever hope to receive. I had sort of expected that getting turned down would put me in a week-long funk that might involve copious amounts of raw cookie dough.

Instead, I’m actually enjoying that right now that project is one big question mark filled with possibilities. And some of those very real possibilities are the stuff that Marni fantasies are made of. Best of all, I have a sneaking suspicion that next summer (while slaving over yet another manuscript) I will ponder all that has happened since this blog post and shake my head in disbelief.

As my agent Laurie McLean put it: onward and upward!

~Marni