I'm sort of sad to see November come to a close...

Don't get me wrong: I am all about a long holiday break in December... but November has been a pretty solid month for me!

First of all, Marisa de los Santos -- my favorite author of all time -- followed me on Instagram. And gave me a shoutout on her Facebook page (which has, like, 24K followers). And now has a copy of my book. And she's going to read it! I mean, that alone would have been enough to label the month with a title of "winningest." But then...

Remember Tophouse? That band I fell head over heels for? We are talking swan-dive-into-a-somersault love. Caamp is no longer my exclusive shower band, folks; I now listen to Tophouse in the mornings just as frequently. Anyway, Tophouse expressed an interest in The Way Back as well, so I mailed them a copy, and they too are going to read it! How cool is that?

Speaking of bands... If you've never seen Old Crow Medicine Show in concert, you need to. Not only are they extremely entertaining and talented, but the drummer, Jerry Pentecost, is extremely kind. He corresponded with me quite a few times (even though he's very busy with newborn twins!) and let me know that the band never received the copy of The Way Back that I tossed onto the stage. I was sad, obviously, but Jerry gave me an address where I could ship another copy and he said he'd take a look at it. That doesn't mean he'll read it, because he doesn't have a lot of free time and he admitted that he's not the reader in the group, but I am hopeful that maybe the reader(s) in the group will enjoy The Way Back and recommend it to some friends.

As if all of that wasn't already great enough... THEN TODAY HAPPENED!

Several months ago, my book club read We are the Brennans by Tracey Lange and had one of our best discussions about it. The meeting was at my house (I take credit for choosing that book because 1. I actually did choose the book, and 2. Literally EVERYONE liked it) and since only women were in attendance, someone posed the question, "If you could date one of the characters in the book, who would it be?"

It was such a fun discussion! Siri chose Denny, I'm pretty sure, and Annie chose Kale. Kale was my backup boyfriend, but my heart belonged to Jackie. He was the artsy, quiet brother... and if my memory serves me correctly, he had a man-bun. I am a sucker for a good man-bun. (Siri hates them.) I can't remember who Brecia and Kristin and Victoria chose, but it wasn't Jackie; I was definitely the only person to choose Jackie.

So I wrote to Tracey Lange the other day and told her about my book club and our discussion about We are the Brennans and how much I adored Jackie. And I also asked if she'd have any interest in reading The Way Back.

She does!

I got her message at the start of third period today and ran straight across the hall to share the news with my marketing manager Mary: "Tracey Lange wrote me back and wants to read my book and gave me her address so I can send her a copy and she has a small thing for Jackie too!" are essentially the words that came out of my mouth, with exactly that punctuation.

So.

November.

It's been a pretty good month, yeah?

(I'll be heading to the post office tomorrow!)