Carolyn

Thanks to the wonderful stupendous awesome dremiel having offered use of a futon, I am headed for Austin tonight! I am thrilled, as I did not relish an early-morning drive into Austin, and hitting that morning traffic. So instead I will hit the night traffic between here and Austin, but at least I'll have a good night's sleep to recuperate. Yo.

I've got all my crits printed, I have my maps from here to Drem's (I will call her by her name, I promise), from her house to the conference hotel, from that hotel to my hotel six minutes away (cost me less than half what the con hotel would've, so there), and I have a map from I-35 to a Jason's in Waco where I can pit-stop, have a quick dinner and pick up a lunch for tomorrow.

The con hotel demands that workshop participants buy their $26 lunch, which with all their taxes included, came to $34.34. Uh, hells to the no? That is what I spend on THREE meals, not just only one. No way. I am on a budget here, what with having to shell out 800 or so to get the boy his textbooks and get him into school. I had not planned on FAFSA throwing me a curveball. I'll get half of that back at least! Eventually. Maybe by end of September.

Going to leave work at 3, run to get my meds, some chewing gum and a lint roller, run home and feed the dogs, promise them I will be back and to beg them to PLEASE eat while I am gone (they won't, at least Maddox won't), iron my pants for tomorrow (the cleaners wouldn't have them out on time for me today so I have to do it myself, growl), then hit the highway and be on I-35W going South (yes, West going South), and headed for a weekend of workshops and madness, and eating out, and trying not to eat too much so I don't gain back the 6 lbs. I've lost the last couple of weeks. Yeah.

I am just ready to get out of here! More reports later...this will be the first fantasy con I've gone to quite like this (Dragon*Con counts, I know, but this one is just different...maybe?). I went to World Fantasy Con once but was at the mercy of those I no longer desire to associate with. Hopefully, this will be something I enjoy so much, I decide to do it next year too. Coming the week before Dragon*Con isn't the best timing, nope, but hey at least it gets me down to Austin!

Will check in later...

I've spent the last two days in a whirlwind flurry of polishing and reworking the first chapter of my fantasy novel, Altered Fates, for the Armadillocon workshop in August in Austin. I very nearly missed the deadline--ho hum, I was feeling lazy, decided to check the website...and SCREECHED! Submissions were due TODAY! This was discovered by me TUESDAY!!!

I yelled to my local writing peeps, they yelled back YOU CAN DO IT! and so I frantically pulled out the first chapter (which used to be the fourth) and spent yesterday and part of today (during work, shhh) adding and deleting and fixing and polishing and screeching yelling pulling hair out getting little sleep... WHEW!!!

DAMN that was FUN!!!

Seriously, I have not had that much fun, been so happy working on anything quite like that in quite some time. My passion for this story has been bubbling overboard lately--this story's time is now, at last. Taken about ten years to get it to this point, but now is the time, yes it is. Working on the first chapter again--time flew, nothing could distract me (even going over it in hard copy at Starbucks last night)and I realized (again) that the reason working on this novel makes me so happy is because it is damn good.

I have something special here, by golly. HAVE had something special for a long time, but evil people and circumstances beyond my control, and stupid attitudes and stubborness on my part forced it aside.

So, anyway!!! Now that that is sent in, I can relax, get back to beta'ing as I'd promised (uh, sorry about the sudden disappearance on that, KL! I went rather nutty!) and tomorrow, I leave early a.m. to go see my sister Leslie in Nashville. WHEE!! Four days of Being Away From Here will be a good thing. I need a break from Fort Worth, work, kids, dogs...scratch that. Not from the dogs.

When I get back I'll have two months to finish ballet boy--I want--no, it WILL be out of here by the time I go to Armadillocon end of August. Happily, two of my FW peeps will also be going. Whee! (they joined me in the panic over getting a chapter ready with less than 48 hours to do it, lol awesome). That'll be awesome wonderful fun, and both are far more familiar with the genre and the people in it than I am, so that will be added marvelousness.

So, here I go! Diving head first into the fantasy genre at long last. I think I am ready for it. Oh yeah.