exclamation-point news?” A delicious smile comes across her lips. As if she wants to savor her news before letting it out into the world. “Well,” she finally says, “your . . . sister . . . has . . . just . . . ,” and then she quickly runs through the rest of it, “sold her first novel!” “What?” I say, although I understand completely. I just can’t get my head around it. “Our major assignment is to write a novel. You submit the first half of the

