Oh, my! Oh, wow! Oh…I’m greatly honored–and stunned–to share the news that Eternal (Candlewick) has just debuted at #5 on The New York Times Best Seller List!

Children’s Best Sellers – Paperback, to be exact. The full list is available to subscribers online and will appear in Sunday’s paper (March 14, 2010).

It’s the first time that one of my books has made the list, and to be candid, I’m a little teary and profoundly grateful.

And absolutely wowed and thrilled and, okay, I had to have both my agent and editor assure me that it was really for real, but they both said “yes!” and so… Yowza!

Thanks so much to all of you who have supported this novel and my writing for all these years!

Big heaping thanks to my YA readers–it’s a pleasure and honor to work for you! In fact, it’s my dream come true!

Thanks to the booksellers–a million times over! I know it’s tough on the front lines right now, and I appreciate you!

Thanks to the teachers and librarians for everything y’all do! I wouldn’t never made it this far without your support, and I’m hopeful that our future will be just as sparkly!

More personally, thanks to Deborah Wayshak, Jennifer Yoon, and everyone else at Candlewick Press as well as my Ginger Knowlton and Tracy Marchini at Curtis Brown Ltd., along with manuscript readers Anne Bustard, Tim Crow, Sean Petrie, and Greg Leitich Smith!

Thanks to Lisa Firke of Hit Those Keys for her web design efforts, to Shayne Leighton for designing the Eternal book trailer, and to Gene Brenek for designing the Eternal T-shirts and other goodies!

Thanks also to my creative communities in Austin, Texas (including Austin SCBWI and the Writers’ League of Texas); at the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults, and around the U.S. and world!

It’s quite possible that this post will set the exclamation-point record at Cynsations! Before signing off though, I want to take just one more moment to cheer and reflect.

Congratulations to Carrie Ryan, whose novel The Forest of Hands and Teeth (Delacorte) also debuted on the paperback list! Her companion novel, The Dead-Tossed Waves (Delacorte), releases on March 9!

It also occurs to me that–with Sherman Alexie‘s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Little, Brown) at #10–this may be the first time that two Native children’s-YA authors have been on The New York Times list. How cool is that?

And, with All The World by Liz Garton Scanlon, illustrated by Marla Frazee (Beach Lane) listed at #8 among picture books, this may be the first time that two Austin-based children’s-YA authors have made it in the same week. Note: Liz is the Austinite!

[I’m unsure on the “first-time” here, as All the World and Jacqueline Kelly‘s Newbery Honor Book The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (Holt) were on the list at about the same time, but I’m not clear on whether they actually overlapped.]

And that’s enough from me! Oh, wait! I have just one more thought…

Thanks to you, too, Zachary & Miranda! There’s more of your story to come!