Once upon a time in my Harry Potter fandom days, my friends and I were planning an event that required four of us to play the heads of the various Hogwarts houses. The others agreed, as if it were a foregone conclusion, that I would be the head of Hufflepuff.
I was a bit taken aback at their matter-of-factness. But then I considered the choices:

“You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry
Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true
And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
if you’ve a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin
You’ll make your real friends,
Those cunning folks use any means
To achieve their ends.”
(from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling. New York: Scholastic, 1997)

I could see their point about Slytherin – I was too naïve to be called “cunning”. No, naïve has a negative connotation. Let’s say “earnest”.

Brave Gryffindor? No, definitely not me. In fact, the one and only time I played Dungeons and Dragons, my character was the sole survivor – but only because when the Dungeon Master would ask me how my character would respond to say, a dragon attack, my answer was usually, “Scream like a little girl and go hide behind that boulder.” I am relatively certain that I could turn into a Mama Bear and do amazing, brave things if my child were threatened. But the rest of you are probably on your own.

Ravenclaw? Surely, “those of wit and learning” fits little old me, who loves books and libraries and would be a perpetual student if I could.

“No,” my friends told me. “You’re one of the hardest working people we know. You keep your head down and keep going no matter what. That’s Hufflepuff.”

Despite the fact that some people see Hufflepuffs as a “lot o’duffers” according to Hagrid, I embraced the label.  So it was amusing to me when my book deal with HarperTeen was announced on Tuesday, and my agent, Steven Malk, tweeted the following about it:

There it is again. Not lyrical writing, not stupendous talent – what he emphasized is what a hard worker I am. (I should mention that, having done through three detailed rounds of revisions with me, Steve’s no slouch in the hard work department either.) But I guess it says something about me that I took this as a giant compliment. Because one thing I have learned the hard way in the 10+ years I have been trying to break into YA publishing is that all the talent in the world won’t do you any good if you are not willing to put in the work – hours of butt-in-chair, kill-your-darlings work.

As wonderful as it has been to bask in the glow of the announcement, I am trying to keep the above in mind. Because I have months of revision ahead, so the hard work is not over. And even after the book is published, there will be more work to do, promoting this one and writing and revising the next, and the next, and the next.

Good thing I’m a Hufflepuff.

For readers unfamiliar with American Sign Language, I should explain that “PAH!” is often used by signers as a written shorthand for the ASL sign that translates best into English as “At last!” or “Finally!”  (so-called because of the distinctive mouthing of “pah!” that goes with the sign).

Today this sign is very relevant, because I CAN FINALLY SHARE THE NEWS I HAVE BEEN SITTING ON FOR MONTHS!  And it’s this: my debut Young Adult novel will be published by HarperCollins in 2016!  You can read the full announcement here.

My wonderful agent, Steven Malk of Writers House, has worked long and hard to get us to this point, and without him this quite literally would not be happening.  (Another writer recently called him “The King of All Agents”, and, having worked with him, I can tell you that this is no exaggeration.)  Steven sold the book in a two-book deal to Alexandra Cooper at HarperTeen, and I am so excited to be working with her to get the book ready for publication.

“What’s the title?” you’re asking.  Well…I’ll let you know when I do.  🙂  As is pretty common in today’s publishing world, the title is in flux.

“So what’s it about?”, you say.  That I can answer: It’s about a land where writing is the sacred privilege of a few, and a slave girl, Raisa, who gets the extraordinary chance to learn the language of the gods when she becomes a royal tutor. But her dreams are threatened by her forbidden love for the prince, and her loyalty is tested by the Resistance, who urges her to join in the fight for her people’s freedom.  It’s about the consequences of following your heart, and learning to trust yourself and other people.

This has been a long, long time in coming.  (The first draft of this book was written when I was childless, and I am now the mother of a nine-year-old.)  So many people have been a part of this journey, whether they read drafts, tolerated my whining on Facebook, or just asked “Hey, what are you working on?” and didn’t glaze over at my answer.    I will tell some of those stories here in the coming months, now that I can FINALLY TALK ABOUT THIS BOOK!  Seriously, I didn’t keep it a secret for more than 24 hours when I found out I was pregnant with my son – this has been torture!

But for now, I will say thank you, and go jump up and down a lot. PAH, indeed.