WAHOO!!!

The cold that has kept me from blogging regularly is pretty obviously a flu, or something bronchial that has lasted for about a week, now, and has me coughing some interesting stuff in the sink late at night. Erin and I are both going to pay a visit to the doctor tomorrow morning. Nora is under the weather, but Vivian seems to be doing okay. My visiting mother-in-law Rosemarie is also coughing.

But this has been the only bad spot on what has otherwise been a bright week. I’ve been sitting on a hefty piece of news that I’ve been bursting to tell you all, but now Erin’s agent has given her permission for me to say this, so say it I shall.

Some of you may remember that Erin has been working on a young adult fantasy novel entitled Plain Kate, and that it had caught the attention of agent Emily over at Pippin Properties, an up-and-coming agency whose previous big finds have included Because of Winn Dixie, a bestselling novel and now a movie. After extensive edits at the behest of Emily, Plain Kate was submitted to a number of top publishers in the United States a couple of weeks ago. Interest was generated, and the book went to auction, and we finally have a winner.

Plain Kate has been acquired by Arthur A. Levine at Scholastic Books. I can’t reveal the full details of the deal, but I can say that it’s a six figure advance, there’s a deal for two books, there’s simultaneous publishing in Canada and the United States, and while we don’t have a formal release date yet, we think it might be sometime in 2010. Though we were sad to have to disappoint the other interested parties in the auction, Erin and I are excited to have her working with Mr. Levine, as the man has a reputation of being a kingmaker. He was the one, after all, who brought J.K. Rowling and Phillip Pullman to America, and he’s giving Erin a similar warm welcome.

You can learn more about what Erin has to say about the deal on her LiveJournal and you can read the first chapter of Plain Kate there, but suffice it to say that she’s over the moon. This is a life-changing deal.

I don’t have much to add, other than to jump up and down and cheer (and then bend over double with coughing). I should say that the cover at the top right of this blog post isn’t the official cover, but is something that Erin cobbled together, using with permission a photograph by photographer Nick van der Kolk. Many thanks, Nick!

So… WAHOO!!!