Halloween and New Links

The good news is, after an exhaustive search, I've finally found some orange knee socks -- well, orange with brown trim actually, but that's going to be good enough. My Velma outfit is complete!!

I haven't been blogging much lately, but I've been hard at work on three separate projects. Just finished another round of copy-edits on The September Sisters, I'm finishing up revisions on YA Book 2 (Title coming soon -- I promise!), and I'm also deep into a new adult book that is practically leaping out of my head. I figure if I had an extra five hours or so every day, I might actually have the time to write the book on the computer as fast as my mind is concocting it. But I don't, so I'm seriously exhausted now from not sleeping enough this week.

At The Novel Girls this week, we blogged about Halloween -- and I wrote about my orange and black kitties who like to hang out together, and who we call, collectively, "Halloween." There's a cute picture of them and everything, so pop on over and check it out!

And check out a few new links: This first one is a blog post about the HarperCollins spring preview. Check out the nice mention and the picture of The September Sisters cover!

And I'm also up on the HarperCollins site now, with my own countdown widget and everything! Click here to check it out.

Have a safe and happy Halloween!!!!

Sales and Socks

The Novel Girls are blogging about our book sale calls this week!

Though I love the story of my book sale, it always makes me sad to think about it because my book sold the same week my grandfather died. He was the first person that I was really close to, to die, so it was an oddly surreal time for me. The excitement and the sadness, all at once, was a lot to handle. If you want to read the whole story, click here.

And be sure to check out the posts by the other The Novel Girls, too! There's nothing I enjoy reading about more than triumph in the publishing world. And these posts have all been pretty inspirational so far.

Next week, we're blogging about Halloween. Which reminds me, I still have to finish getting my costume together. That's right, for the first time in probably, um, 15 years, I'll be dressing up, at the request of my son. So, please, if anyone knows where I can buy a pair of bright orange knee-socks, drop me a line. I've been searching all over, and big surprise, they're kinda hard to find!

Favorites

Asking a writer to choose her favorite books is like asking someone with a sweet tooth to choose her favorite dessert. ( I know this one because I fit into both categories!) Seriously, there is nothing more exciting to me than walking into Barnes and Noble, the store aglow with all the pretty, pretty covers.

But it's favorite books week over at The Novel Girls, so I've been agonizing all week about which books to write about. There are so many that I love. If you want to see what I chose, click here to read my post.

Something that I left out is the fact that lately I've been immersing myself in YA books. It's mainly because THE SEPTEMBER SISTERS and my second book (which I'm almost finished revising!! Yay!) are both YA books. So what are my most recent, favorite YA picks? I'll have to say Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin and The Patron Saint of Butterflies by Cecilia Galante, two books which I couldn't put down and made me think.

What are some of your favorites? I'd love to hear!

An Anniversary of Sorts

It occured to me that it will be exactly a year next week since I finished my final revision of The September Sisters and sent it off to my agent. That means a year ago from now, I still had no book deal, I felt at the end of my rope in terms of revising the book, and I was more than a little pessimistic about whether or not the book would ever find a home. What a difference a year makes!! The September Sisters will be out in a little over four months, and I'm in the process of revising my second novel, which will be published by HarperCollins in 2010.

I wrote the first draft of The September Sisters in 2003, and it went through dozens and dozens of (maybe more?) different revisions before that final one last October. If you head on over to The Novel Girls you can check out my post on first drafts and read about how it all began for me writing that book.

Of course, in the end, I think it was the revisions that really mattered more than anything, but first things first. Getting it all down on paper has to count for something!

A Terrific Review!!!!

The Compulsive Reader posted an amazing early review of THE SEPTEMBER SISTERS on her blog today!! To read it, click here.

Her review is so beautiful that it made me tear up to read it! She calls the book "beautifully penned and emotional," and she says "Cantor is an extremely sensitive and yet savvy writer, and aptly describes each and every dynamic aspect of the girls' lives, giving the book a haunting and persistently real quality. "

My favorite part is the end where she says, "Cantor's impressive debut is a beautiful and heartfelt novel that will appeal to fans of Sarah Dessen, and should not be missed. "

Knowing that someone else (well, aside from my mom) read the book and truly loved it, makes me unbelievably happy! So thanks to the Compulsive Reader for a lovely review!!!