Welcome, ASH!

Today was a bit of a hectic day because tomorrow I'm heading out to SCBWI and am trying to do 1,000 things before it, of course. One of them was get my hair cut, which meant I had to leave my house this afternoon. Normally, I actually do like leaving the house (seriously! I'm not a total writer shut-in), but today I was a bit reluctant because I'd gotten word that I should be expecting a package today. Of course, it arrived when I was gone.

After I got my hair cut and ran about 10 errands, I got home to find this:

Inside it was this package:

I had a pretty certain suspicion about what was inside.

By this point, I was both speechless and exhausted. Sounds a lot like labor, to me. Seven years of labor!!

But wait, there's more! I took off the jacket to reveal the beautiful spine:

And last but not least, I spent several minutes staring at, yes, the copyright page. There it is: "Ash/by Malinda Lo.—1st ed." Yes, my eyes were welling up at those words.

Then I read a little further and discovered that the Library of Congress cataloging description is a TOTAL SPOILER. (Beware, readers! Do not read it! Unless you like spoilers.) So I blacked it out in Photoshop:

You can see my dedication on the right-hand page. And that's where it all began, folks. My grandmother started me telling stories before I could hold a pen. This book is definitely for her.