Wow. The last few days have flown by. Hand Me Down has been out in the world for four days and so far, so good. There are still a million things I need to do, but I have some quick, exciting highlights to share with you.

The review in People magazine was great. They gave it 3.5/4 stars and called it a “sad and compelling read.” My name is in People!

A friend told me she went to a Barnes & Noble in Salt Lake City and asked for my book. They had sold out. The clerk called all 3 other B&N’s in the area and they were all sold out too!

My first reading and signing went well, despite my nerves. My hometown bookstore, Copperfield’s, is so great. I even got to choose a book as a gift from them at the end of the night! The wonderful employees put the People review up next to my book on the shelf, and this was the first place I got to see my baby smiling back at me from her new home with all the other books.

We went to Book Passage in Corte Madera, one of the premier bookstores in the Bay Area, and found my book in three places! On two different new arrival tables and a shelf. Next to Joyce Carol Oates. While I was taking a million photos (more of which I will post later) I was asked if I needed help by a very nice sales girl named Jessica. I pointed at Hand Me Down, told her it was my book. She said she was excited to read it. She said, “And I’m not just saying that.” In fact, she told me, she’d been waiting for a while because all the advance copies of it kept being taken by employees to be read. How cool is that?

John Lescroart gave Hand Me Down this great recommendation, and Jennifer Chiaverini called it “compelling, heart wrenching, and ultimately redemptive.” She is offering a free signed copy of one of her bestselling Elm Creek Quilts novels if you buy a copy of my book in a bookstore. Details on her Facebook page.

As of right now, Hand Me Down is holding steady at #5 on Amazon’s Hot New Literary Fiction list. Yesterday it was at #3. It’s been in Amazon’s Literary Fiction Kindle bestseller list since Friday, in the top 50, getting up to #29.

On Friday and Saturday, the book was #3 or #4 on the Trending Nook Book list on B&N.

And, maybe most wonderful, is all the support I’ve gotten from friends and family, old coworkers and students. Emails, Facebook and Twitter messages and posts, calls, even flowers. People congratulating me, telling me they knew I would make it, or that they ordered their copy, or got their copy, or are planning to buy it when they come to see me read. People saying they saw my review in People or the AP review that was everywhere last week; that they saw Hand Me Down in a store; that they just finished reading and they loved it.

I’ve probably forgotten something—I’m finding that my brain is struggling to hold in all this new stimuli—and I can’t tell you exactly how I’m feeling yet since my emotions are still settling, but the one big thing I am aware of now, is gratitude.

Thank you for all of your kind words about my book. Thank you for the messages, the posts, the shout-outs and shares, and referrals. Thank you for buying a copy. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I can’t say it enough.