My kind of celebration

A couple of weeks ago, I sold two more YA romantic dramas--something like Going Too Far and Forget You and my upcoming July release, Love Story--to MTV Books. This decision was a long time coming (or at least it seemed that way to me), and I was so incredibly happy and relieved at the news that the next day, I drove to the town where I grew up and ran in a 10K that was uphill both ways through the red mud. I am not making this up.

Last week, I found out that Going Too Far is in its 9th printing, with a 10th printing planned for April. Yesterday I got my party on by running 8 miles. And now I have registered for my very first half marathon, which happens to be run on the NASCAR track in Talladega. I have heard that people show their support for this run by parking their RVs in the middle of the track, waving checkered flags, drinking beer, and flashing their bosoms. Okay, I may be making that last part up.

I guess it may seem strange to some people that I celebrate something I have wanted and looked forward to for so long by running my butt off. But for me, running and writing have been intertwined for years, because I do a lot of my best thinking about my novels while I am running. This is most obvious in Going Too Far, in which the characters themselves are runners. And truthfully, I never wanted fame or fortune out of this job. Well, fortune would be nice.

But the money just means that the publisher values me and plans to promote the book. And it means I can spend that much more of my work day writing novels rather than articles about ball bearing factories. Not that I minded writing articles about ball bearing factories. Ball bearings are very important. I know more about them now than I wanted to. I would rather write novels.

In other words, all I ever really wanted out of this job was more of this job. Especially in these economic times, I feel very fortunate to have gotten a little more of this job, at least for now. And I intend to celebrate it, for 13.1 miles.