I’m going to get real here, friends: It’s not all that fun right now.

I mean, sure, it’s fun, everyone’s excited about the book coming out, I’m baking a million cupcakes for the launch party at Bookpeople on the 25th… and I’m happily excited, I swear! But, the past few days, that excitement has been seasoned with a healthy dose of nerves.

It’s sort of like when you finally get on the big roller coaster you’ve been dying to be on for so long, after waiting in line for hours, and you’re going up that enormous first hill, with the clackity-whirr of gears grinding underneath you… and the “happy excited” flips ever-so-slightly into the “oh-crud” kind?

Yeah, that.

No, I have no idea why. Except that it’s not every day that your Life’s Dream comes true, is it? And mine is about to hit. And if I learned one thing from having a super-colicky Screamer Devil Baby almost 13 years ago, it’s that Glorious Life Changing Events never turn out exactly the way you’d think.

So, think about me this final week. And, if you still want to win a book by/from a Nervous Nellie debut author, you can enter here:

1. Vonna Carter’s blog has a guest post by moi, with a link to my new Splendid Academy website! Win an ARC, and instant fame/notoriety as a meal-planner for the school.

2. Mod Podge Books has a few days to run on a contest for a SIGNED coy of the FINAL BOOK! Seriously, you want this one.

3. I’m giving away a copy of Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave in honor of Joy Preble’s launch of Anastasia Forever. Extended until Wednesday!

Now, I’ll just go eat a few more squares of chocolate until these nerves pass. They will pass, right?