I am so very honored and excited to share some fantastic news with you and I seriously do not know where to begin...

I attended the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Summer Conference in August, which has truly been the highlight of my year for four years now.  It's a time to meet up with my beloved writer friends, make new friends, share stories and nuggets of gold, meet the awe inspiring publishers, editors and agents that help make this kidlit machine run so beautifully, and a time to learn more about this amazing craft of writing and the business side of being an author.

This year I submitted my manuscript, STARRY KALAHARI, for a consultation. When I checked in, my heart stopped when I saw that I'd been paired up with one of the industry's biggest and most well respected agents in the kidlit community. My meeting time was 3:40 on Sunday. And although Thursday, Friday and Saturday were unforgettably uplifting, for the purpose of time (and my own short attention span), I'll skip right to Sunday...

On Sunday morning, there was an announcement made that the agent I was scheduled to meet with had a death in the family and could not participate in the agent panel discussion. I was saddened for him and his family. Then a friend told me that my name was called out from the podium earlier asking me to report to the California Room registration area. I had missed it because I was checking out of our room. So I jumped up and immediately went to registration. Kim Turrisi had news for me.  She pulled out my manuscript and said that the agent LOVED it. In fact, he loved it so much that he nominated it for two awards; the Sue Alexander Award (the winner goes to the SCBWI Winter Conference in NY to meet with editors) AND a new SCBWI award just for picture books (the winner gets $500). I was in complete shock. Then Kim told me that this uber agent wanted to speak with me. WOW!!! By now, I was a total blubbering mess... poor Kim. I even asked her to repeat it all in case I'd misunderstood. She grinned ear to ear, then patiently and kindly repeated it all (a little slower this time). I was in a daze for the rest of the day as I floated on a light, fluffy, dreamy cloud around the ballroom, through the lobby, and from session to session. (Insert harp sounds here.)

Flash forward to the following week... It turns out that the agent offered to represent me and I absolutely accepted... AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!  And then flash forward to yesterday... I received a surprise call from the lovely Kim Turrisi and it turns out that I WON the LITTLE MONKEY MOST PROMISING PICTURE BOOK AWARD!!!! Double AAAAHHHHH!!!!! Words honestly can not explain how blessed and honored I feel.  The fact that this is the very first year for the award, and the fact that I get the honor of being the very first winner is truly an award all within itself.  I couldn't wait to call my new agent and tell him that I had won. And even more importantly, I had the opportunity (again) to thank him for his support and for believing so strongly in my little picture book.

So I am proud to announce that I am now represented by Rubin Pfeffer of East West Literary Agency. I am holding tight with high hopes that my little 275 word nonfiction rhyming picture book will find the perfect home very soon.

And in the mean time... I think I'll do a little happy dancing!!!!!

SQUEEEEEE!

P.S. A HUGE congratulations to the winner of the 2012 Sue Alexander Award, Kat Yeh!!!