Hello NICE readers of the blogosphere!
My name is Micol Ostow, and I’m so excited that Jessica was NICE enough to have me here!
(Okay, I’ll stop with that. Promise. Just had to get it out of my system.)

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a young adult author living and working in New York City. Jessica and I met at the amazing Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in writing for children program, and have since bonded over our mutual love of fiction, young readers, and snark.
You can read more about my books at www.micolostow.com, but this week is ALL ABOUT JESSICA, and NICE AND MEAN, so let’s get to it!

Once upon a time, there was a young, insecure, high-strung little girl who had just graduated from a big scary college and was now thrust into the even bigger, scarier black hole known as the “real world.” The real world was loud. And dirty. And occasionally construction workers would shout things at the girl when she walked to work.
It was awkward.

And, yes, there was this “work” thing. What to say of that? Suddenly there was an alarm clock, and a commute, tepid, stale office coffee, and Xerox copies to made.
The girl, you see, was working for an EDITOR. This meant that she traveled every day to an office teeming in cubicles and, when she’s wasn’t busy answering phones and mailing out contracts, she even sometimes got to help MAKE THE BOOKS.

Despite the airless, windowless cubicle, and the paltry so-called “paycheck,” the girl enjoyed MAKING BOOKS, and working with some of her favorite authors from her own childhood, and would have spent her time editing until the end of her days. Happily.

BUT her fairy-godmother-editor-boss knew something about the girl, which was:
In her own day, back in COLLEGE and even before, she’d been a writer of sorts. The girl had written poems, short stories, and even novellas. These days, she was too busy EDITING to write books.

FGEB had no need to extend a particular kindness to her lowly assistant-girl. AG would have been pleased as punch to while away the hours on such things as cover copy, and the taking of phone messages. But FGEB was fair and benevolent, and offered a gift: the opportunity to contribute a short story to an ANTHOLOGY that the house was organizing.

Reader, she wrote it. AG wrote a story, and then PUBLISHED that story (though it was written under a pseudonym and she has since come a long way and NO I’M NOT GOING TO TELL YOU SO JUST LET IT GO).

And lo, when other editors heard of this, they contacted AG for more and more projects. Ghostwriting, work for hires, and then finally, HER OWN ORIGINAL NOVEL, with her name on the cover and everything.

And now she lives in NYC and works as a writer ALL OF THE TIME, and looks a lot like that gal in the picture above.
Feel free to pre-order her latest forthcoming novel:
http://tinyurl.com/yezmcrh

AG never dreamed it would be possible to make an entire career out of what had once been her passion. So, thanks, FGEB*. That invitation to write was the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.

*(she knows who she is)