Congratulations, Stefanie Gaither!

Here at SLOW we're trying to give insight into what it's like after you've conquered the slushpile. We want to talk about the hardships along with the triumphs. And boy, do we have a triumph to share with you today. I have summoned you here today so we can all take a moment... AND FREAK THE !@#$ OUT FOR STEFANIE GAITHER!

That's right! As you might've heard yesterday, it was announced that Stef (and let's not forget her amazing agent, Sara Megibow) has landed a deal with Simon & Schuster for her book, FALLS THE SHADOW! And let me just say that this book is awesome! It's full of clones and thrills and hotties and mystery. Gaaaah, it's going to be so awesome to see it on the shelves!

It'll be two years in March that I've known Stef. We've chatted pretty much every day since meeting so I'm confident in saying that this girl has worked her ass off to get to this point. Seriously, I can't think of anyone else (myself included) who's worked so hard to write amazing words. Also, I can't think of anyone more deserving. So, in honor of this momentous occasion, I've done something I never do. Because I know Stefanie loves poetry, I've written a poem.

(Disclaimer: I'm horrible at poetry. I had to Wiki rhyming schemes for goodness sake. I decided to go with the scheme from The Raven because... well, I don't know. I just did. Just imagine me as an artsy beatnik chick and it might sound better.)

So there you have it. It can be done, folks. It happens all the time.

CONGRATS, STEF!!!

Check out Stef's own freak-out blog post here :)