another crisis averted
Believe it or not, it's time to start signing up for the Romance Writers of America National Conference already, even though it's not held until July. I attend every year that I can, & I always try to register early so I can be sure to get in, get a hotel room, etc.
This year, however, I had a minor panic attack when I realized that the confernce date had been moved up by two weeks--from the end of July to the middle. Now, I don't really care when they hold the conference, except that the middle of the month is when my mother & I take our annual trek to the Hundred-Mile Yard Sale that's held in our area. (Remember last year, when the car died fifty miles in? Oy. But we're not quitters; a little mishap like that would never keep us from going out again!)
I realize it sounds terrible, but when I looked at the calendar & discovered that the conference might fall on the same week as the yard sale...well, I hate to admit it, but there was no contest. The yard sale won by a landslide. I can always go to the conference next year, but I can't live with the prospect of not knowing what kind of crap I might miss if I don't go on the yard sale. Aaack!
Still, I was kind of hoping there would be some way I could do both. (Ever the optimist, that's me...unless I'm in an Eeyore kind of mood.) So I got online & started searching for information about the yard sale, hoping to find an official date for which weekend it would be held this year. Not much luck there, I'm sorry to say. But I did find a bunch of phone numbers that you could call to get more information on last year's sale.
That was good enough for me. *vbg* I started calling them one by one. Three were disconnected. Two were busy. And one rang & rang, but no one answered. I kept calling the two that had been busy signals, & finally someone picked up. I'm sure the woman thought I was off my rocker, but it turned out she was involved in the planning of the event & she did have the dates for this year's sale. (Yippee!) She just didn't have them at the moment. (Doh!)
So I called her back a couple hours later & she had her calendar ready, with the dates clearly marked. She swore to me that the yard sale is the weekend after RWA, & I am trusting her. (She'd better be right or bad things will happen. I'm not saying what, but "wrath of God" is a term that's been bandied about.)
That's when I felt (semi-) confident enough to go ahead & register for the conference. It's in Dallas again this year, which I'm not all that keen on. I mean, we were just there, & it's hot & kind of boring. Then again, I don't usually give much thought to where they're held...it's just another hotel to me, since I rarely get out to do any sightseeing, anyway. :-p
Took me all darn day to register for the conference, register for the hotel, & purchase plane tickets. Ugh. But I'm signed up now & ready to go. And I even think I'm signing at the Literacy Autographing, which I told myself I was going to skip for a change. :-P
But, hey, HEAT WAVE will be brand new that month, & Stephanie, Leslie, & I will all likely be there, so it could be kind of cool for readers to have their copies of the anthology signed by all three of us. If you're there, come over to say hi & get your copy of HEAT WAVE signed. (Even if you buy it from one of the other authors first. *g*)
