HIGHLIGHTS:

1. I got married. That was a pretty big deal, though the only thing it really changed was I have a shiny new last name, more credit cards, and a lot less space in my apartment thanks to all the awesome gifts. Oh, and also now my husband is STUCK WITH ME. Hahahaha. Tricked him into that one! Here are a few of my fave pics from the professional photographer:

My sister and me. I love the way she’s grabbing my arm like, "Can you believe today is the day?!"	They make this look so easy. Never mind the fact my dress weighs more than I do.	My cute boy and me.	My dad actually had two-sided hats custom-made. The hubby is a die hard Red Sox fan and my dad actually has Yankees-room in my parents’ house complete with a life-sized Derek Jeter that scares the crap out of me at night when I’m home. This has caused some animosity between them with me caught in the middle since I could care less about sports. But as you see, the rivalry is over thanks to the wedding and these hats.

2. I signed with my fab agent, Sarah LaPolla at Curtis Brown. I’m so excited to be working with her, I absolutely LOVE all her revision suggestions, and she seems to share the same TV and music taste as I do (based on her tweets), which I think is awesome. Anyone who loves Buffy and Weezer is just automatically cool in my book.

3. My long time critique partner Denise Jaden’s book, LOSING FAITH, was released into the wild and is getting some rave reviews fromreaders! Even though Denise wrote the book, I am very proud of it. I was there since conception of the idea when it was only a tiny 10-sentence outline. I watched it grow up and read several versions along the way, each time sending poor Denise more and more critique notes instead of less. I am very excited that now other readers get to share it! 

4. I got to hang out with several of my amazing critique partners in person. Jen Hayley is my partner in NYC crime. (And I will miss her a lot when she ditches me for the UK!) She and Denise Jaden came to my wedding and Denise also stayed in my apartment for the week of BEA. Chandler Craig came to town last January for dinner. I had lunch with Jennifer Hoffine. 

5. I met many other awesome YA people throughout the year at conferences like ALA in Boston, BEA in NYC. I went to Kody Keplinger’s launch party. I got to finally meet Jessica Love in person when she came to the hotel I was staying at for my cousin’s wedding and subsequently had to meet my entire extended family. Going to BEA was the most amazing experience. I loved it and I can’t wait for next year! 

6. My honeymoon was pretty amazing, except for when the zodiac boat stole one of my husband’s toenails to keep as a souvenir.

I’m smiling here because this is before I realize WE ARE ON A BOAT OF INCREDIBLE DANGER. There were casualties in the form of lost toenails from the extreme waves.	Instead of the boat gracefully leaping in the air, it slammed down like a car accident. On each wave. I considered divorce at that point because I felt DUPED. I thought this was going to be a booze cruise. Not an extreme sport which required me to hold on for dear life for 4 hours until my fingers bled!

But the rest of the Honeymoon was awesome. He cooked for me every night. We had our own secret beach. We saw many famous locations like Puff the Magic Dragon and the set of Pirates of the Caribbean 4. Also canyons and stuff.

7. I read some amazing books this year. I didn’t reach my reading goal and I read about half of what I read in 2009 thanks to the wedding planning robbing all my free time, but I got back on track in the last part of the year and I’m setting a goal of 100 books for 2010. Some of my favorites this year:
       

8. In the day job, I worked on some awesome graphics for Food Network, Discovery Channel, History Channel, and a whole bunch of commercials. Two videos I edited (one of Kim Kardashian and one of football players) made it onto TMZ.

THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN 2011

1. I’m meeting my agent for the first time on January 5th. I can’t wait!

2. ALICE IN WONDERLAND HIGH will go out on submission and I’ll start revising my companion novel, which is 2/3 written at the moment.

3. My sister is getting married in March and I have several other weddings to look forward to as well!

4. I turn 30 at the end of March. Wait, maybe I should cross that out? I’m not exactly looking forward to it.

5. My husband and I are planning to visit Jen Hayley in Liverpool in April and then head over to London for a few days.

6. BEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And Denise Jaden is coming to stay with me again!

7. I am hoping to go to SCBWI LA next year.

8. We are looking into moving from our cramped apartment to a townhouse in the suburbs, and if everything goes as planned, our good friends who currently live in the same apartment building will also be moving to a townhouse in the same development.

9. We need to buy a car desperately.

10. And of course, all the fabulous books I can’t wait to read. The one I’m the most looking forward to right now is BUMPED by MeganMcCafferty. I finally got on the Jessica Darling/Marcus Flutie bandwagon this year and WOW. I was missing out. The voice in those books! I just want to swim in it. I can’t wait to see what Megan does with dystopian!!! Also, I love sisters books. 

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 28th, 2010 at 2:41 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.