My Book Deal - thrilled to be moving from one roller coaster to another!

So. It has happened. I've got a book deal! On June 2010, TALL STORY is going to become a real book with real pages and a cover and a publisher!

And not just any publisher, David Fickling Books!

AND not just David Fickling, but something very important to me - a publisher in my native Philippines in the form of RayVi Sunico!

OMG!

When I started trying to write novels NINE years ago, I thought, how hard can it be? I was a journalist writing hundreds of words a day. Surely children's fiction wouldn't be that hard. It would be great fun! I was a bit like a kid getting on a ride at a funfair.

I had no idea it was going to be like this:

And like this:

And like this:

A lot of the time, it was more painful than fun. But it was still fun enough to keep going.

And finally getting a contract is like, well, changing the ride.

Going off into another unknown!

Up and up and up!

Am I ready for what lies ahead?

Well at the moment, it's all looking good!

But there's a lot of hard work up ahead! The stakes are suddenly higher.

And I must remind myself why I write.

I must remind myself that beyond getting published, the reason I write is because I love it.

Reason enough to keep going.

Thank you to the hundreds of emails and wow, what a buzz that was on Facebook and on the SCBWI message board and in the Philippines, oh, the Philippine flag was waving!

It really, really is beyond fantastic!