Housekeeping!

Hey, everybody! *waves*

I know, I know, I said I'd be back Monday and I was not. But it turned out that I needed at least 2 days to recover from my vacation. Those of you with kids know what I mean. Now, let me do some catching up.

NaNoWriMO: FAIL. I only managed 30K words by the end of November. But that's okay. That's half the book, and Rebel Belle continues to chug along at its own pace, and it continues to make me happy, even if sometimes I do think I've gone too far with it (someone gets straight up murdered with a shoe. But, I mean, that's fun, right?)I'd still really like to have it done by Christmas, and that seems doable, so we shall see! One of the writing related things I did over the break was make a list of all the books I have bouncing around in my head right now, and when exactly I thought I could start working on them, and when they would be finished. I ended up having 14 books written in 5 years. I clearly have an overly optimistic take on how long it takes me to write books.

Birthdiversary: Most excellent. Chilled at the beach with the fam, got some lovely and thoughtful presents, and am feeling good about the last year of my 20s. And I'm already planning something epic for the big 3-0. Not sure what yet...but EPIC. OH! And at the beach, I read the best, best book in the whole wide world, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Do yourself a favor and GET THIS BOOK. Easily one of the best things I read this year.

Iron Bowl: We will not speak of it.

Small Son: Continues to rock my world with his awesomeness and high levels of hilarity. Last week, he got chocolate pudding cups out of the fridge, brought them over to me and said all excitedly, "Mama! I found Harry Potter!" I have no idea what this means, but I laughed and laughed. My kid rulz.

Demonglass: Will now be sold in both Germany AND the UK, bringing the grand total of countries where you can find Demonglass up to 6 (counting the US)! Both publishers are super awesome, and I am so thrilled to be working with them (Also, sidenote of awesome: My British co-agent's name is Caspian. This makes him easily the coolest person ever.)

CONTEST: Yes, the Reading Writing Rachel/Buy A Book, Save the World Gift Card Giveaway! Thanks to everyone who left a comment! Please feel free to kick up your feet here at this ol' blog anytime you want. And our winner, chosen at random (as in, I put the comment numbers down on paper and crossed out the voluntary "disqualfiers" and made The Husband pick a number...just in case you were wondering)IS:

CHARMALOT!

Woo hoo! Charmalot, shoot me an email at rachel@rachel-hawkins.com, and give me your deets, and some Barnes and Noble giftcard goodness will be on its way to you!


Since I've been away so long, I'm going to try and blog every day for the rest of the week (I know, that's, like, 3 more days. Big whoop. But I'm trying here!) I have some publishing stuff I was thinking about talking about, but I'm also going to open the floor to requests. Anything you RWR readers out there would like me to talk about specifically? I'm thinking publishing/writing/book stuff, but if someone wants my indepth analysis of Neil Diamond's I Am, I Said um... we can do that, too. ;)

Let me hear from you!

Quitters Never Win (Except When They Don't Die of Cancer)

I'm a quitter.

No, not on Rebel Belle or NaNoWriMo. Perish the thought! I'm a much better kind of quitter. An AWESOME quitter if I do say so myself, for I have...

QUIT SMOKING! Yes! Adieu, Cancer Sticks! I am officially 2 1/2 weeks cigarette free, and so far, it's actually been really easy. I think it's because A) no one I know smokes anymore, and B) It took me around 2 weeks to get through a pack, so it's not like I had a particularly bad habit. Now, like most smokers, I've quit before only to fall back into the habit. I quit for over a year back in 2005 (back when Small Son was Fetus Son, and then Tiny Baby Son). But this time is for good because I've said so on the internet, and as we all know, nothing is real unless it happens in Internetlandia. ;) You peeps will hold me to it, right?

In other momentous news, another country bought Demonglass (can't say who yet; waiting for PM announcement) and there are a few other countries checking it out, which is VERY exciting. Also, I have a film co-agent with CAA now, and there is *whispery voice* some movie talk burbling. Nothing concrete yet, but it still fills me with excitement/terror to think of people in Hollywood even knowing about my book.

And to top off this Feast of Awesome, Sunday is my birthday/anniversary! Yes, I got married on my birthday, but it wasn't on purpose (the date, that is. I obviously got married on purpose.) See, back when The Husband and I decided to wed, it was his first year teaching, so time off was not easy to come by. I wanted to get married in the fall, so we settled on the Saturday before Thanksgiving... which, that year was my 23rd b'day (on the 23rd, too! So I got married on my "special birthday!") The Husband has exactly one date to remember every year. He is quite lucky.

Oh, and in addition to being my birthday, it was also the Iron Bowl, and if you know anything about The South, SEC football, college rivalries, etc., you will understnad when I say that everyone in our wedding totally effin' HATED US for that. But they cheered up considerably when they got to the reception and began partaking in the free beer. Besides, Auburn won that year and has never lost since! The Husband and I joke that we have to get divorced whenever Auburn's winning streak is broken (which will almost undoubtedly be this year. Oh, well. The Husband and I had a good run!)

But wait, there's MORE! In celebration of me entering the last year of my 20s- which I am SO PUMPED about. The Husband was sad when he turned 30 last year, but I'm actually bummed I have a whole other year to go before 30. All of my friends who are in their 30s say it is much more excellent than the 20s- I am giving YOU, my loyal blog readers, a present!

Well, one of you, at least. To help facillitate buying a book and saving the world, I'll be choosing a random reader from the comments section to receive a $20 gift card to Barnes and Noble. Yes, seriously!

Just leave a comment to be entered. Any of you lurkers out there, now is your time to de-lurk. Say hi! Leave your own thoughts on Xanadu! Tell me how much you LOVED Camp Winna-WTF? and how heinous I am for hating it! If you're a writer, plug the ever livin' you-know-what out of your own book! Whatever you feel like!

I'll be at the beach through Thanksgiving, but when I return on Monday, December 1, I'll announce the winner!

Hope everyone has an awesome Turkey Day!