Introducing . . .

The newest client of Laurie McLean, of Larsen Pomada Literary Agents, Sarah M. Anderson!

It's official! Contracts have been signed, names and links have been added to websites and blogs, and editing of multiple manuscripts will commence in three - two - one - GO!

I'm deeply excited about working with Laurie. She's having an amazing year as an agent - and did I mention how excited she was about my work? She's already added me to her list of clients on her own blog, Agent Savant. It's alphabetical, so I'm second from the top. Who knew marrying a guy who's name began with A would come in so handy?

I'm looking forward to meeting Laurie, too. That'll happen at the RWA National Convention, being held in Washington, D.C. in mid-July. Hopefully, by that time, we've gotten at least two books edited and ready to shop around to publishers. I'm aiming for all three, but I'm sort of brand-spanking new to this side of the business, so we'll all find out together.

And you know who's going with me to Nationals? Dedicated readers have already guessed - my mother. She's a little hyped about touring D.C. while I do author things. I know we're going to hit the (relatively) new National Museum of the American Indian together (of course). I think she's going to do everything else on her own, frankly. That woman around historical monuments? Unstoppable.

Anyway, back to Laurie. She also organizes the San Francisco Writers Conference, which will be in February of 2010. I mentioned this to my hubby, and I think he's already set up the hotel, car, and activities for him and the kid to do whilst I schmooze. Something about riding a 'duck,' perhaps? Anything to break up February in Illinois, apparently. So those two are on board, as well.

Did I mention how crazy this week has been? I got So Excited about the whole signed-by-Laurie thing that I upset my tummy and couldn't eat a thing - for a week. On the plus side, I lost like seven pounds . . . but still, I'm glad things have settled down a bit. Warrior, Lawyer was in the top three for the Chicago-North RWA Fire and Ice contest (apparently, the world's worst title didn't deter them one bit). I get to go to a reception and awards ceremony for that in D.C., too. Have to find out if I can bring Mom to that one still.

And last Friday, I dumped 22 chapters of what is now being called No Man's Land, aka the bull riding book, on Mom and the Lovely Mary, Grammar Goddess. Usually takes Mary about 2-3 weeks to remove all the 's' I stuck on 'towards' and add back in all the 'the' and 'of' I glossed right over - but not this time. She read 437 pages in less than three days - and then had the nerve to demand I finish it RIGHT NOW so she could know how it ended! (To which I said, Um, about that - how do you WANT it to end? And this is one of the many, many reasons why Mary is so Lovely - after talking to her for 20 minutes or so, I have a much better idea of how everyone is going to ride off into the sunset.)

Tuesday was also insane. Less than a week after I got The Call, Craig, my web czar, completely redid my website. Part of that is so I don't bug the heck out of him when I want to tweak things - I can log in myself and change the font if I'm feeling like it. But the main reason is because now I'm writing New Westerns, and I needed to shift the focus to cowboys and Indians. That was my entire Tuesday. Took 30+ emails to Craig, all day of wrangling uncooperative computer programs, and a half hour call to some poor sap in Bangladesh before I got everything to the point where I could do it myself. (I sound just like my kid!) So go check out www.sarahmanderson.com and tell me what you think. It's not 'done,' but it's not half bad, either.

So, as you can see, things have been Crazy in some of the best ways possible in the last week and a half. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a book to finish!