So even though I told you all about my young adult book deal with Little Brown last week, the “news” became official this week. Well, official in the sense that my deal was listed in both Publishers Marketplace, the bible of publishing dealmaking, and in “Children’s Bookshelf” in Publishers Weekly.

To actually see the deal listing in these publishing news outlets made me just maybe — a tad, a tidge, a smidgen — believe this is actually happening. Let me just say — IT STILL FEELS COMPLETELY SURREAL! And even when I read the deal news, I still kept thinking “Who is this Daisy Whitney person who shares my name and has a book deal?” But evidently — barring any evil twins or good twins or surrogates or clones (which is the most likely explanation as I have a lab under my house run by 20 Daisy clones who churn out work for my clients, so shhh…don’t tell them) — that Daisy Whitney with a book deal is me.

Here was the first listing that ran in Publishers Marketplace on Wednesday August 19.

Children’s:
Young Adult
Daisy Whitney’s debut THE MOCKINGBIRDS, about an underground vigilante group of boarding school students committed to righting the wrongs of their peers, to Nancy Conescu at Little, Brown Children’s, in a two-book deal, for publication in Fall 2010, by Andy McNicol at William Morris Endeavor (World English).

And yes, I will shamelessly admit I now sometimes just log in to Publishers Marketplace and search for my name. Just to make sure it’s still there, I swear! (I only spent two and a half years reading the thing hoping someday to have a deal in there!)

So then on Thursday August 21, my editor (tee hee, still love saying those two words together!) emailed me the Children’s Bookshelf mention, which said: “Nancy Conescu at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers has signed debut YA author Daisy Whitney to a two-book deal. The first novel, The Mockingbirds, about an underground vigilante group of boarding school students committed to righting the wrongs of their peers, is tentatively scheduled for publication in fall 2010. Andy McNicol at William Morris did the deal for world English rights.”

I love this one too because it sound like I was out there at a tiny little minor league ballpark in Missouri and the scouts came to check out my fastball and then signed me. (For the record, I don’t have a fastball, but I’m really good with the off-speed stuff.)

Now, here’s my question for you, blog readers. I need to start thinking like an author as well as a new media maven, so what do you want to hear about it an author blog? What interests you? Would you check back as I chronicle the publication process? Do you want to hear about writing, publishing, editing, etc.? Let me know and let’s shape the newly emerging marketing machine for THE MOCKINGBIRDS together!