Vessel Paperback Release (Plus a Lion!)

Today is the release day for the paperback edition of Vessel!!!

This book is really special to me because writing it was such a magical experience.  Every time I sat down to write it felt like stepping through a portal. 

Vessel is my first novel set entirely in a fantasy world -- a desert land filled with wolves made of sand that hunt within storms, sky serpents made of unbreakable glass that fly through the sky, and gods that walk the desert in human bodies.  It's about Liyana, who is destined to be a vessel, to sacrifice herself so her clan's goddess can inhabit her body... but her goddess never comes.

More information about Vessel, including the first two chapters, can be found here.

Vessel is also special to me because LION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Earlier this summer, I was thrilled and honored to learn that Vessel had been awarded the 2013 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature.  And just a few days ago, I received the loveliest thing I've ever gotten in the mail: the gorgeous lion-shaped Mythopoeic Award statuette!!!!!

I wasn't home when it arrived.  I was on a train to NYC to meet up with a bevy of YA authors to see Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments: City of Bones on the big screen.  While I was on the train, this happened:

And then about fifteen minutes later, this happened:

The award (called an Aslan, in honor of the most awesome lion in English literature) is now sitting on my desk next to my laptop.  OMG, he's so pretty!!!

I am keeping him near me so I can pet him as I write.....  Kind of like Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget.....

.....but less with the evil and much more with the awesome!