For a while now, I’ve thought that the greatest secondary benefit of being a writer was fulfilling my fan-girl fantasies of meeting the authors of books that I love. At my first writing conference, I had lunch with Charlaine Harris. (Well, we sat at the same table, and I was so tongue-tied that I barely said two words to her, but it still counts, right?) At  my second conference, I had an intensive workshop with the lovely Kristin Harmel. (Her amazing new book The Sweetness of Forgetting is an international best seller.) And don’t get me started on SCBWI. Jay Asher. Ruta Sepetys. Sara Shepard. Patricia MacLachlan. Tony DiTerlizzi. I could fill up a whole post with all that awesome.

But, you know what? I’ve decided there’s an even better writerly by-product.

I knew I’d struck gold with my critique partner Kip Taylor. I was so happy when my her first book was finally released, and you can read my review here.  But I had no idea then that I would keep hitting the writer-friend jackpot.

You guys, I am reading some amazing books. Books that I can’t wait to review and share with you, so that you can see how awesome they are. But I can’t do it yet, because they haven’t been delivered into the world yet. These manuscripts belong to my beta/critique partners.

And just like I felt when I first read Kip’s book Finn Flanagan, I cannot believe how lucky I am to get to read these novels before the rest of the world. But that’s all I can say for now.

How about you? I’d love to see some CP love shared in the comments below!

Music for today: Chained by the XX. (I get to see them in 4 days!)