The Bound Book Arrives!

Today was a banner day—an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) came in the mail! It was a great early Christmas present worthy of a mini photo shoot.

Here it is in a festive surrounding:

And here it is in what will soon be its native environment:

As a writer, reading someone else’s summary of your work is a strange and wonderful thing. Here’s how the back jacket copy reads:

When her safecracker mom and code-breaker dad inherit a dreary Scottish castle, sixteen-year-old Caity Mac Fireland is not happy. Ripped from her cushy life and friends in San Francisco, Caity’s secret fantasy of being discovered by a Hollywood agent, talent scout, or even just a pageant coach seems more unlikely than ever.

But when Caity stumbles across as hidden room in the castle, its walls covered in strange symbols, her life takes a bizarre turn. She finds herself center stage in an international conspiracy involving warring secret societies, assassins, the suppressed revelations or the Mayan calendar and the year 2012, plus the fate of humanity.

With the help of her friend Justine back home, and Alex, a gorgeous and mysterious Scottish boy, Caity must race to decipher the code and real its message to the world before time runs out.

I like it. It’s not at all what I would’ve written, but that’s probably a good thing. Now I’m going to settle in with my ARC and give it a read. It’s such an odd feeling to be holding a bound book that has my name on the spine!