Sara: Hello, 2012!

Happy New Year! 2011 was as busy and exciting as I hoped it would be at the end of 2010. 4 client debuts and 17 client books in all were published, and I sold 9 debuts, and made 11 other deals, not including foreign deals and film options. I attended the Bologna Book Fair for the first time in March and the Storymaker's Conference in Utah in May where I got to see the Wells brothers and where I found three new clients, definitely a conference record for me.

We bought an apartment and moved to a new neighborhood that we love, our daughter turned 2 and started at a playschool. It was also the year that we lost both of my father's parents, at 90 and 93. They had been married for 68 years and have 7 children, 21 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren. We miss them and I wish that L had gotten to know them longer. In 2012, my maternal grandmother and my husband's grandmother and daughter's namesake with both turn 90 the same week in March, and we will be there to celebrate them.

This year I will have more client books coming out than any previous year, and I cannot wait to tell you about each of them. One of my resolutions is to be better about updating my website!

Here is some of the great news we got this year:

FROST by Marianna Baer is a CYBILS Best Young Adult Fiction finalist for 2011.

ROT & RUIN by Jonathan Maberry won the 2010 Cybils for Fantasy and Science Fiction.

ROT & RUIN is also on the ALA 2011 Best Fiction for Young Adults list, a nominee for the Arkansas Teen Book Award, on the 2012 Texas Lone Star Reading List and on the Missouri Gateway List.

Jonathan's adaptation WOLFMAN won the Scribe Award for Best Adaptation.

CHASING BROOKLYN was a RITA FINALIST 2011, and is a Missouri Gateway nominee.

I DON'T WANT TO KILL YOU by Dan Wells is A BOOKLIST HORROR TOP TEN for 2011.

Dan Wells was a John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer nominee.

MR. MONSTER by Dan Wells won the Whitney award for Best Novel.
MR. MONSTER is also an ALA QUICK PICK FOR RELUCTANT READERS.

VARIANT by Robison Wells is a PW best Book of the Year, and Robison is a PW Flying Start.

CHASING BROOKLYN by Lisa Schroeder, HOLD STILL by Nina LaCour, A SWEET DISORDER by Jacqueline Kolosov and THE MORGUE AND ME by John Ford are all on the TAYSHAS 2011 list.

TRAPPED By Michael Northrop is on the 2012 TAYSHAS List.

IT'S RAINING CUPCAKES by Lisa Schroeder and SAVING MADDIE by Varian Johnson are 2011 Bank Street College of Education Best Books.

THE DRAGON OF CRIPPLE CREEK by Troy Howell is an ABC New Voices Project selection for 2011.

YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME by Brian Meehl is on the BCCB Blue Ribbon Winner List for 2011.

TAKE ME THERE by Carolee Dean is a Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award Nominee.

SEA by Heidi Kling is a 2011 IRA Young Adult Choice and a Missouri Gateway Award Nominee.

THE MORGUE AND ME has been nominated for the 2011-2012 Georgia Peach Book Award.

OTHER by Karen Kincy is a Top Ten Popular Paperback 2011.

Two stars for Rob Wells's VARIANT (VOYA and PW) and stars for Jonathan Maberry's THE KING OF PLAGUES (Kirkus), Brian Meehl's YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME (PW), Kristen TRACY'S THE REINVENTION OF BESSICA LEFTER (BCCB), Kristen Tracy's SHARKS AND BOYS (Kirkus), and Dan Wells's I DON'T WANT TO KILL YOU (Booklist).

And looking ahead to this year's books:
Three Stars so far for Nina LaCour's THE DISENCHANTMENTS (Dutton, February) from SLJ, Kirkus and PW, and two Stars for Veera Hiranandani's THE WHOLE STORY OF HALF A GIRL (Delacorte, January) from Kirkus and PW.

Congrats on all the lists and awards, Nesters! Today I am thinking about the projects I already know I am submitting to editors in 2012, and those I have not even read yet. I am feeling incredibly lucky about all the books my clients sent me this year and those they will send, and that I get to work with such amazing people every day. I can't wait for Bologna again in March, and for the DFW's conference in May where I will get to meet Jenny Martin, and to the Highlights Whole Novel Workshop in October with Varian Johnson and his laugh. 2012 looks to be even busier than 2011, if that is possible. I think I will need Erin Bowman's word of the year: balance. And also a clone. Wishing everyone happiness in 2012! Sara