Deb Susan Loves All the New Beginnings

I’ve always loved beginnings, and New Year’s Day in particular.

New Year’s Day is the stuff of dreams, its potential limited only by imagination.

This particular year holds more exciting potential than any other I can remember. It won’t be as emotional as the year I married my husband, or as life-changing as the year I knew I would first hold my son in my arms. But numerically speaking, 2013′s got some amazing things going for it in my world.

Here’s hoping I find a less embarrassing way to celebrate when the time comes…

Top of the list would have to be the release of CLAWS OF THE CAT – my debut mystery novel, in which I’ll introduce Hiro Hattori and Father Matteo Avila de Santos to the world.

But CLAWS doesn’t release until July 16, and I’ve got oodles of excitement coming before that.

First on the calendar is the official release of Kerry Schafer’s debut fantasy BETWEEN – and I have to admit, I’m bursting with excitement. The swell of pride I felt when I walked into Barnes & Noble and pre-ordered my friend’s novel was almost overwhelming. Kerry’s the first close friend I’ve ever known at the time of her debut, and I’m tickled to be sharing her release.

A week later, I get to enjoy that thrill again when Dana Bate’s THE GIRLS’ GUIDE TO LOVE AND SUPPER CLUBS debuts in the U.S. (she’s already had her U.K. release, but I couldn’t find a friend in England to mail me a copy, so I can’t WAIT to get my hands on it the day it hits the shelves!) TWO good friends’ novels releasing in two consecutive weeks – how amazing is that!

A little later, I get to celebrate Amy Sue Nathan’s THE GLASS WIVES and Kelly Harms’s THE GOOD LUCK GIRLS OF SHIPWRECK LANE – and then, at the very end of 2013, my friend and critique partner Marci Jefferson’s debut historical novel, THE DUCHESS OF RICHMOND, will be published by Thomas Dunne Books.  And as if that wasn’t enough, my friend Heather Webb just sold her debut historical, BECOMING JOSEPHINE, to Plume/Penguin for publication early in 2014. My friend LJ Cohen just completed her most recent Sci-Fi novel, DERELICT – and you can take a peek at some of it here.

In case you’re keeping track, that’s SEVEN friends’ novels, plus my own, all in 2013 – and there might be a couple more that I’m not yet at liberty to discuss.

If anyone had told me all of this back on January 1, 2012 – when my debut novel hadn’t even sold – I’d have said they were crazy.

Well, if this is crazy, sign me up!

What are you looking forward to in 2013? Do you have a friend with a debut novel publishing this year? I’d love to hear about it in the comments – I’m always looking for great new books to read!

January 3rd, 2013 | Posted by Susan Spann | Claws of the Cat, Susan Spann