we’re hitting the big apple for spring break this year. and of course i can’t pass up the chance to finally meet my agent and editor.

so next week i’m going out for my first “business lunch” ever and then getting a peek inside the random house offices in manhattan. my editor has told me there’s some folks she’d like me to meet. i’m guessing the ones in charge of design, publicity, and sales and marketing for DUALED.

eeps.

i’m really, really, excited…and more than a little bit nervous. because conversing back and forth over emails and through a computer screen is safe. being able to project a certain personality of your choosing is safe. having a whole manuscript to fall back on as conversation is safe. filters, folks. i like them. i need them.

i’m a fast talker as it is. when i get nervous, i’m nearly incoherent. whatever does make it out might very well end up being halfway offensive. and as i was saying to a fellow YA author not too long ago (right before she was about to meet her own editor for the first time, actually), i’m pretty sure i’m incapable of not spitting food from my mouth while talking at the same time.

because here’s the thing: as much as they might love DUALED, have invested in me as an author, have faith in my writing abilities, i want them to like me as a person, too. just like no matter how much i appreciate them as my agent and editor, i also really want to enjoy them as individuals. though for me, after a year of pretty regular correspondence (filtered as it might be), i’m already confident they’re nothing less than awesome (book deals tend to make me like you).

if i get through it without making a massive fool of myself, i will reward myself with an authentic new york black and white cookie. inner peace, indeed. that and a couple of jimmy fallon coffee mugs.

random: listening to adam lambert mad world (channeling gary jules more than tears for fears), coldplay charlie brown, brandon flowers only the young. reading is everyone hanging out without me? by mindy kaling.