Release the Hound: ROTTEN is out now!

My new YA novel is out today. Finally. I am excited and stessed, hopeful and maybe a little nervous. Basically, I am conflicted as usual. The reviews have been good—excellent, even—and I have been knocking myself out doing guest blogs, interviews, and events. And now, well, it’s not that it’s entirely out of my hands. It’s just that it’s in other people’s hands, too. At least, you know, I hope it is.

A quick word about availability: The book is everywhere. I’ve heard from many amazing independent bookstores that are stocking it. It is in every(!) single(!!) Barnes & Noble and available online in every major format. And I’ll be entirely honest: This is because my last YA has done quite well. I am grateful for that, but that’s also where some of those nerves creep in. What if this book doesn’t do as well? Is this my shot?

When people say, “Well, raise my rent, you are the Kid,”
will I have to say, “Was. I was the Kid”?

I’m trying not to think too much about that. I love this book. I put a tremendous amount of work into it, and it is very personal to me. We always had rescue dogs when I was growing up, and it was important to me to get that right. Whether or not I did is up to each individual reader. I hope there are more than like three of them, but again: out of my hands.

Here’s the last thing I hope. Just one more thing, and then it’s off to Twitter to lose a bunch of followers with a day’s worth of incessant book flogging. I hope that, if you read the book, you enjoy it. I hope you laugh a few times. I don’t even care if it’s at the right parts.