Fresh New Voice of YA- Mandy Hubbard Guest Blog

So, I was told that I could blog about what I found in my couch cushions, and I have my itemized list ready and everything, but then Lisa swooped in and totally took that topic. *Shakes a stick at Lisa*.

So alas, I had to come up with my own topic. Since I had something really, completely exciting happen this week, I hope it will suffice.

Monday morning, I had the day off from work, and forced my husband to pretend I didn’t exist so that I could get some writing done. (He went clothes shopping and grocery shopping, like a good wife. But don’t tell him I said that.) Anyway, so I’m sitting at home, writing (aka, checking my amazon ranking) when I got a facebook message from a teen in Pennsylvania.

She says, “That’s so cool that this actress is talking about your book in TIME!”

Me says, “WTF?” That made no sense. If that actually happened, there’s no way some average teen facebooker would be the first to see it.My editor would know about it, right? I replied and asked her what she was talking about. She didn’t reply for several hours. I convinced myself that after I replied, she went and re-read the blurb and realized an actress was discussing the original Pride & Prejudice, by Jane Austen, and that’s why she is ignoring me. I went back to Amazon stalking.

Finally, she says, “No, really. Abigail Breslin says she’s reading it in TIME.”

Me says, “OMFG that cannot be right.” I still did not, in a thousand years, think it could happen and not a person at my publisher would know about it in advance. Also, that the paparazzi would be banging on my door by now if it were true.

I figured out which issue it was and promptly called the grocery store, who tells me they only have a Michael Jackson tribute issue of TIME. I call B&N, the nearest of which is 40 minutes away, and they say they have it. I contemplate forcing the B&N employee to stand there and read the whole magazine to me just to see if it’s in there. Instead, I race out the door, jump in the truck, and drive to B&N.

When I get there the employee is in the magazine section, putting stacks of magazines away. I ask him for the TIME, and he digs one out. I move approximately 3 ½ inches away from him so that he can continue working while I shakily open the magazine and look for the blurb.

When I find it, I say brilliant phrases like ,”Ohmigod its real.” I re-read it a half dozen times to see if its made of disappearing ink or if maybe I’m just really really blind and I have super-imposed my name and book title.

The guy asks me why I am freaking out and I tell him, and he very kindly asks me how many more copies I would like to buy. I say five.

Then I rush out of the store and call everyone I know.