With Letters to Zell finally making its way through the world on its own, I’ve turned my attention back to New Charity Blues and its eponymous town. But I’ve also been doing a few extra things here and there talking about LTZ, the importance of writing, and, of course, myself.

Here’s a smattering:

• Interview with the amazing G.G. Silverman
• Interview with the fine folks at The Qwillery
• A few words on my favorite retelling, C.S. Lewis’ Til We Have Faces
• A letter from 38-year-old me to 16-year-old me

I’m looking forward to bringing you more soon! xo

To quote a friend (author Randy Henderson), yesterday was my Dream Come True Day.

For which I hauled out my first book, written in what must have been 3rd or 4th grade. I wrote about it here, long ago, but to recap it’s about a girl who inexplicably lives in Dallas (I grew up in Montana), cons her parents into letting her win a horse that turns out to be a Pegasus, and adventures until she and the steed are eaten by a large green dragon. Chomp. The End.

Little could I have dreamed all those many years ago (and they are many) that I’d spend the day awash in love and support from all corners of the globe, all corners of time, and all corners of my life. That I’d spend an evening at the podium of one of my favorite bookstores looking at a room crammed with friends and supporters who came to listen to me read, and bought all but one of the books in stock. Or that I’d close out the night with five of my close friends, shutting out a bar full of quiz teams, waltzing in and whooping the next closest team by twenty points. That I’d be unable to sleep, the day swimming hazy and the night’s full moon bathing the room with light. There are no words for the gratitude I feel, for the love I hope I reflected back to my friends and community. I couldn’t do this without them. I’m so glad I don’t have to.

There were so many great surprises yesterday. People who came who I hadn’t expected. Happy tears. Flowers. Champagne.

But one of the most wonderful points of the evening yesterday was when a bookstore employee named Anna approached me before the reading. (I can’t even type this without crying.) She thanked me for writing the book and said she’d had trouble putting it down because it was the book she’d needed in her life just then. And I couldn’t tell her this without completely dissolving, but one of the many reasons I wrote LTZ was because I had just finished a book (also an epistolary novel) that I had very much needed in my life. To be able to give that back — even to just one beautiful young woman — well, it makes every bad day, every bad review, every all-nighter worth it. This is why we read and write, for the call and response, for someone to say I see you. I see you: friends, lovers, dreamers, optimists, bartenders, unicorn farmers, readers. Thank you to those who’ve taken this journey with me so far and all of you who have yet to and will someday. xo

Photo: Gracie Doyle, Publicist Extraordinaire.

Friends, today’s the day Letters to Zell goes on sale worldwide. You can have it in ebook or paperback, audio CD or mp3. You can read it in a boat. You can read it with a goat. Scratch that. Goats are bad news. (Speaking from experience, here.)

I started this post about five minutes to midnight. Adam and Dutchess have been asleep for hours now, but I know sleeping will be hard to do for me for least a bit longer. When you’ve wanted something your whole life — or at least most of the part you’ve wanted things better than red bicycles and Snickers — sometimes it’s hard to know what to do with it once you’re holding it in your hands.

And it’s here that I come to gratitude. The acknowledgements section of a book is so woefully inadequate at expressing thanks to the people who’ve made this possible. Writing is not completed in a vacuum. Nor is life. I am boundlessly fortunate to have met some of the world’s best humans in this endeavor. I continue to do so.

Today, the wonderful Su Ring, a novelist in her own right, invited me over to King5’s talk show New Day Northwest to talk about the book and the reading at University Bookstore. (That’s 7pm at the University District location.) Today was yet another day spent meeting new friends, talking to amazing people, and experiencing new things.

Maybe you’ve already started reading on your kindle. Maybe you don’t read books about fairy tales, or books in letters or even books at all. Still, I thank you for being a part of this journey. It means the world to me. Cheers. xo

PS. I mean it about the goat.