What Will You Be Writing in 2010?

The first thing I'll be writing is my July 2011 romantic drama for MTV Books. I can't tell you the title yet. I don't know whether it will be approved for one thing, and for another, I don't want anybody to steal it before it's final. The title is the best thing about this book right now. It's not as brilliant a title as I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone, but it's close.

I'm really excited about this book, and I'm so grateful that my editor and I are on the same page. I turned in the proposal in December, but since then I've had some second thoughts about it. The whole plot seemed a little too Goody-Two Shoes and made me want to slap myself. So I called my editor about it, and the first thing she said was, "Can you make it a little less Saved by the Bell?" See? My editor Gets It.

The book is due on August 1. That may seem like a short time to write a novel--six months--but since I had two months to write my last novel for Simon Pulse (and they wanted to give me only six weeks!!!), I think this timeframe is luxurious.

A little too luxurious, maybe. I find myself putting off getting started. It's not that I usually procrastinate about writing. I don't. It's that I absolutely love writing a book that I have a contract for, and I want to savor the feeling as long as I can. Just as if I had only one cupcake, I would gaze at it longingly for a while before actually eating it. I hate writing myself out of a contract--turning in everything that's due, and then having to write on spec and hope that a publisher buys it. I have written eleven still-unpublished novels that way



and I think that is enough already. But I guess I will be writing #12 come August 2.