Thanks!

This year, I sat around a Thanksgiving table and couldn't help but think about what a strange and rollercoaster of a year this has been.

A year ago, I worked days as an administrative assistant, and wrote nights and weekends. I barely made ends meet, I didn't have health insurance, I was falling in love with someone who lived over half the country away from me, and I thought I had given up the idea of ever being published.

This year I got an agent, was diagnosed with cancer, sold UNRAVELING, had surgery, quit my job, helped my amazing roommate move back to California, went into remission, and spent Thanksgiving with with my boyfriend and his family. There's been more--but those are the highlights.

When I first read I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings back in tenth grade, I was struck by a line at the end of chapter 28, after Maya is thinking about a teacher who made a huge impact on her. And I've never forgotten it. She says,

The allegiances I owed at this time in my life would have made very strange bedfellows: Momma with her solemn determination, Mrs. Flowers and her books, Bailey with his love, my mother and her gaiety, Miss Kirwin and her information, my evening classes of drama and dance.


This year, I owe my allegiance to a number of amazing and wonderful people. People who made me strong enough to get through some of the tough times, people who recognized things in me I didn't see myself, people who were there every step of the way no matter what time it was and no matter what they were doing themselves.

My wonderful friends, my amazing boyfriend, my patient loving mother, my brilliant sister, my fierce and sharkly agent--UNRAVELING owes them its allegiance. It wouldn't be a book without them. But I owe them my allegiance as well. It could have been a very different year without them in my life.

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Liz Norris briefly taught high school English and history before trading the southern California beaches and sunshine for Manhattan's recent snowpocalyptic winter. She harbors dangerous addictions to guacamole, red velvet cupcakes, sushi, and Argo Tea, fortunately not all together. Her first novel, UNRAVELING (Balzer+Bray April 2012), is the story of one girl’s fight to save her family, her world, and the one boy she never saw coming.

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Giving Thanks

I've been spending a lot of time reflecting lately on how my life has changed in 2011. Maybe that's what we all do when the holiday season rolls around. But this has been a big year for me and I'm thankful for every moment.

Barring the Apocalypse, by this time in 2012, THROUGH TO YOU will have been on bookstore shelves for two days. It will have been read and reviewed by a number of early readers, but I honestly just can't wait until it's *out there* for anyone who feels like picking it up. Reviews are cool, but I wrote this book for young adults and I'll feel best when it's finally theirs, no longer just for me.

The number of people I'm thankful to for making this happen is long, and I'm not going to list them all here for fear of spoiling my Acknowledgments page for you. ;) But I think, like all writers, published or un-published, I'm most thankful for those closest to me: My husband, parents, and best friends, who have stood by and watched me pursue this dream, and never tried to discourage me.

My life has changed in ways I couldn't have imagined a year ago, but none of that would have been possible without an amazing network of people. This Thanksgiving week, I'm thankful for each and every person who has helped me on this journey. And in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I'd like to share the one writer's resource that probably helped me the most: Verla Kay's Blueboard  (http://www.verlakay.com/boards/index.php), a community of children's writers come together for the sole purpose of educating, informing, and supporting other writers. I knew little about the world of YA before I found the Blueboard, and so I'm passing it on now, in thanks, and hope that another person will find reason to thank them again soon.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

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Emily Hainsworth is the author of THROUGH TO YOU, (Fall 2012 Balzer+Bray / HarperCollins), a sci-fi novel about a seventeen-year-old boy grieving for his dead girlfriend until he discovers she's still alive in a parallel reality--one where he's the one who died. For more information, visit her website.

Getting a Book Deal

2011 has been a super bizarro year for me, for a lot of reasons that I won't go into here. Truth be told, it's been a pretty dang rough year. But the best of the bizarre reasons is at the top of my To Be Thankful For list: getting a book deal.

I know, I know, I should say all the altruistic answers first, that I'm thankful for my family and friends. And I am thankful for those things, but let's see, is there a way I can say this without seeming too dramatic? The book deal literally changed my life. Or at least my path for the next three years, which is as far as I can handle thinking ahead anyway ;)

Getting a book deal (after a LOT of failure and rejection, writing-wise over the past few years) was unexpected--like actually catching the carrot you thought you'd spend your life chasing. It was a validation of this quiet side passion I'd been steadily fighting for. Now that passion gets to take a central place in my life: I get to spend my days writing. As a job. This is quite insane and surreal.

And I guess, more than the book deal itself that I'm thankful for, is the journey it's propelled me on. The experiences I've gotten to have, like talking to my editor for the first time, getting an Edit Letter, working on one book until it was kick-butt instead of stopping and moving on to another project when it got hard. And then writing book 2, which was just plain hard (because here's the thing most new author's don't expect you first finally catch that shining carrot--there will be new carrots, more books to write, and these under contract, under deadlines). Not that I'm complaining! I know what a blessing, what a lucky thing it is that I was able to get an agent, and then an editor! I'm quite aware that there are so many good books out there overlooked for one reason or other: lists too full, too like something else they're represented, too niche, voice didn't catch. I got lucky to break into the publishing gig, and now I'm as determined as hell to make my book shine and be brilliant.

At the end of the day, that's what this journey is about, both within my books and outside, in my real life: touching the magic of feeling deeply moved. That mystical thing about a good book that moves you emotionally, all the way down to the center of your sternum. To feel passion. At the root, that's what I'm thankful for--the ability to participate in magic.
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Heather Anastasiu is the author of GLITCH (St. Martin's Press/Summer 2012) Glitch in three words: Dystopia, Superpowers, & Love :) Check out my website for more news and updates.