I DID IT!!

     Well, I did some of it, anyway.  Here are some things I actually did yesterday morning:

     1. Completed revisions to my manuscript.
     2. Composed a short email to the agent who asked to see them.
     3. Attached the manuscript to the email.
     4. Spent about ten minutes in utter dysfunctional panic.
     5. Hit "send."

Now here are some of the things I've done since then, but only in the privacy of my own little head:

     1. Received The Call from the agent, who is so overcome by the sheer brilliance of my book that she can barely stammer out her list of superlatives to describe it. I wait patiently as she attempts to regain some measure of self-control. I can afford to be generous.
     2. Watched with interest as the bidding war swirled around me, yet somehow retained my humility. (How rare is that?)
     3. Spent my handsome advance on long-neglected home improvement projects.
     4. Considered whom I might ask to write cover blurbs.
     5. Worked - just a little - on the book club and school study guides.
     6. Announced to friends and family, who have been hearing for twenty years that I've been writing books but have given up on anything ever coming of it, that I have a book that will actually be published soon, thank you very much.
     7. Prepped my presentation, entitled "YA's Own Grandma Moses," for next summer's annual New Jersey SCBWI conference.
     8. Been nominated for the Newbery. Okay, fine. Won.

     It's been a heck of a weekend!