Thank you, critique partners!

Two family members, three critique partners, and one young adult fiction editor have now read Blackbirds (the editor read the first ten pages; everyone else read the entire manuscript). My last reader, Ara Burklund, posted the following lovely words about Blackbirds on her website:

"Every chance I got this week, no matter how small, I rushed to my computer to keep reading. Her story questions had me right where they wanted me: stuck in their pages, frantic to find out what happened next. And the ending? It delivered. Big time. Totally didn't see it coming but in retrospect, it left me thinking, Of course! Just the way a good ending should."

Thanks so much! I just read Ara's YA contemporary manuscript, which deals with heavy issues in a story packed with page-turning tension, and had a blast switching books with her. Thanks also to my other readers, Kim Murphy and Francesca Miller--two fellow historical fiction writers.

I'm going to make some final revisions and read through the manuscript one more time, and then I think I'll be sending Blackbirds to my agent. I originally planned to wait until 2011, but I think I'm at the point where I'm ready for her input. I'm hoping to send the book her way by the end of November.