...and NOTHING except having a baby could have eclipsed this in my news for 2008! I am SO thrilled to be able to finally tell you guys, after a few intense and freaky and wonderful weeks of negotiations:

Via the amazing Barry Goldblatt, the Kat trilogy has SOLD to Hyperion!!!!!!!!!! Kat by Moonlight will be published in hardcover sometime in the spring of 2010, followed by Kat by Starlight in 2011 and Kat by Ghostlight in 2012.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't even express how happy I am - not just with this deal, which is great, and with a fantastic publisher whose line-up really fits my books in every way...and not only to be finally publishing my first books after dreaming about just that ever since I was seven years old, 24 years ago...but, most of all, that my first published books, after all those years of dreaming, are going to be the Kat books, which have brought a whole new level of joy into my life.

I started Kat by Moonlight in the spring of 2006, loved it, felt inspired and intensely happy to be writing it - then forced myself to give it up only two chapters in, because it wasn't a Practical, Sensible, Career-Oriented Project. It made no sense to write a light, funny Regency YA fantasy when I "knew" I was a serious, dark adult writer! What had I been thinking? When I finally gave in and went back to Kat by Moonlight in 2007, I did it despite the fact I still believed it was completely impractical and NOT the smart way to spend my writing time - but I still couldn't resist, because I loved Kat and her sisters much, much too much to stay away from them. And when I finished the first draft of KbM, I knew the smart, sensible thing would be to write a totally unconnected book next, because I knew KbM might never sell, and then I would have officially wasted my time with Book 2 - but I wrote the first draft of Kat by Starlight anyway, because I just couldn't stay away from Kat and her family and their crazy magical adventures.

All those choices went against every practical bone in my body - and I am so, so glad I made them. I love that my first three published books really are going to be the books of my heart, the books I wrote (and am still writing) because I loved them too much to stop. Even if they hadn't sold, I would have written Kat by Ghostlight anyway - but I LOVE that they get to go out into the world. (And I'm actually getting paid to write them - something I couldn't have resisted doing anyway. How incredible is that???)

I am very, very happy. :)