It’s 12:30am, and it’s the release day of my debut book.

This is a good day. I worked a very long time to make this happen, and it definitely wasn’t easy. I’m hoping a lot of things right now — that the book is well received. That people are excited about my characters. That the book does well financially. I’m thinking about these things, and those thoughts have been present basically since the book found an editor, but most of all today (and it’s still really tonight) I’m feeling really grateful.

I’m grateful to my teachers, who taught me how to hone what was good and cut what was weak.
I’m grateful to my husband and family, who gave me tremendous support.
I’m grateful to my friend Sarah, who was the first person I ever showed the draft of Generation V to. She read about three versions of the book.
I’m grateful to friends who gave me good career advice, and listened to lots of my whining.
I’m grateful to my agent, Colleen Mohyde, who worked so hard for this book.
I’m grateful to my editor, Anne Sowards, who liked the book enough to take a chance on it, and then did so much to help me make it stronger and better.
I’m grateful to all the people at Penguin and Roc who put their time and talents into this book — particularly the cover art team, the copy editor, and Brad from publicity.
I’m grateful to all the friends I made among other writers while I was tweeting and posting while waiting for the book to come out, many who were incredibly generous with their time, advice, and passing the word about this book, especially Michael J. Martinez, Django Wexler, and Barb Hendee.
And I’m so very deeply grateful for all the bloggers and review writers who read the book and got excited about it — Julie from Yummy Men & Kick Ass Chicks, Candace from Candace’s Book Blog, Tori from Smexy Books — and all the other dedicated and wonderful bloggers and reviewers who gave so very generously of their time and platform to help give my book the best possible start — just a few among them are RT Book Reviews, Kirsten at A Book Obsession, Abigail at All Things Urban Fantasy, Sally at The Qwillery, Carolyn at Book Chick City, Kristen at My Bookish Ways, Theresa at Fade Into Fantasy, Star at the Bibliophilic Book Blog, Angela at SciFiChick.com, Kristie at Dark Faerie Tales, Stacy at Urban Fantasy Investigations, and Amy Phelps at News & Sentinel.

Thank you all, so very very much.

You are the cardigan to my shetland pony.
The shetland pony might be able to exist without a cardigan, but the pony will be far, far poorer for its lack.