A special thanks to my AW friends!

I wanted to thank everyone who responded to my little drama earlier this week. I really appreciate all the support and sharing of your stories along with all the sage advice. I don't know what I'd do without all of the great people at AW. To fill in those followers who don't know what I'm talking about, on Sunday I was hunting around Barnes and Noble for new releases and came across a book that sounds eerily similar to my book, NIKKI's WISH.

Here's a synopsis for WISH (and I'll even give you a piccy): For broken-hearted Olivia Larsen, nothing can change the fact that her twin sister, Violet, is gone... until a mysterious, beautiful gown arrives on her doorstep. The dress doesn't just look magical; it is magical. It has the power to grant her one wish, and the only thing Olivia wants is her sister back. With Violet again by her side, both girls get a second chance at life. And as the sisters soon discover, they have two more dresses-and two more wishes left. But magic can't solve everything, and Olivia is forced to confront her ghosts to learn how to laugh, love, and live again. In a breathtaking debut from Alexandra Bullen, WISH asks the question: If you could have anything, what would you wish for?

So why was I freaking out? Because in my book, Nikki has lost her twin sister and tada! she meets a genie (Sam) who gives her a wish. What does she wish for? Her sister of course!

Many of you had said that if I look a bit closer at the two stories, that I would find some significant differences, and yes I think that there are. After cruising through a lot of reviews for WISH, I think that it has a very different feel than my book. For starters, WISH sounds like it's written mostly for a younger teen audience, whereas mine definitely has more late teen themes going on  (a bit of swearing and the like). Secondly, the focus of WISH is on the relationship between the two sisters - from what I got through the reviews, in WISH, the dead sister comes back as a ghost and the two talk back and forth to each other, so there's a lot of sisterly type banter going on and many reviewers said that was what they really enjoyed. In my book, while there are definitely subplots involving sisterhood and learning that magic can't solve everything, the main focus is the relationship/romance between Nikki and Sam. In my book, Nikki's sister is not brought back at all, but she plays a major role in the ending. I hope that my book also creates some level of suspense as Nikki has to figure out a way to free Sam from his master or else risk losing him forever.

Now, to tell you the truth, when I read the blurb for WISH, it really didn't sound all that interesting to me. mainly because it has a fairy godmother angle to it and the thing with the dresses reminds me of a Disney movie. And even though mine is sort of an Aladdin story, I promise you there are no monkeys in it - just a few androids. :) I'll probably read WISH at some point, if only to make certain that there aren't any other similarities. In the meantime, I'm going to keep plugging away at my own story while hoping that genies don't become as popular as vampires, shapeshifters and fairies. I should have a second draft finished by the end of February, and I'm still working on that query letter.

Again many thanks to all of you for your support. Happy writing to you!