This just in: the very first piece of documentary evidence of the existence of my book in the real world. Woo hoo! This is a photo by Stephanie Leary taken with her phone (I love the world we live in, don’t you?) of the new teen fiction shelf at Barnes & Noble in College Station, Texas.

Not bad placement, eh? I’m very happy about the eccentric alphabetisation which has me next to one of the hugely-selling Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants books and Boy 2 Girl which is all the buzz right now. (Me being suseptible to such buzz I can’t wait to read it.) And what book should be on the shelf below? It’s Scott’s second Midnighters book, Touching Darkness, which he wrote while I was writing Magic or Madness on our fantabulous San Miguel de Allende writing holiday.

Just looking at our two books together makes me teary remembering the wonderful time we had, the excellent tequila, the hibiscus quesadillas, the sopa azteca and Silvia and Luz and Alejandra. Sigh. I wish we could write all our books there.

Stephanie also snapped the rest of new teen fiction, revealing many copies of not just Touching Darkness, but also of Scott’s other new book, Uglies.

How about that? Larbalestier and Westerfeld conquer the universe! Or at least the new teen fiction section of Barnes & Noble at College Station in Texas. It’s a start.

Sydney, 24 March 2005