This is probably the most relaxed I’ve been before the national conference in years. For the first time in several years, I’m not a workshop speaker. Plain and simple, I missed the deadline to submit. :o I enjoy speaking and giving workshops but it does take some of the stress factor out. I also love to fly but it also seems terribly easy to hop in my car for a 45-minute drive and voila…I’m there.

This is my tenth national conference and every year I learn something new and find myself inspired. I won’t sit through workshops all day, but I’m looking forward to “refilling my well” with some sessions.

And speaking of “refilling my well”…there’s the literacy signing. I’ve said it about a gazillion times and I’ll say it again — I don’t write for myself. I write because I want to offer readers the opportunity to laugh and love and occasionally cry through a book — to leave their world behind for a while and join in an adventure. I love meeting readers and talking about books and writing. If you’re attending the literacy signing, please stop by to say hello!

Of course, I’m looking forward to seeing friends I only see once a year. This year is especially exciting as two friends have sold in the last year. Woohoo!!! I can’t wait to share a celebratory drink with the fabulous Kris Starr and Dee Tenorio. I’m also looking forward to meeting new Blaze author Tawny Weber. My conference roomie is from California and this is our once-a-year get together and catch-up time. Unfortunatley, our other roomies couldn’t make it this year.

I suppose I should be nervous about the RITA’s on Saturday night but I’m not. I’m excited that my family (the DH and the Girl) will be there with me but that’s more of a case of them getting a sample of what National is like than being torqued out about whether I win or not. That outcome’s already been decided by the judges and while it’d be great to win, it’s been a fun ride either way.

All of that said, it’s also a fact that crowds make me nervous. I’m also GREAT with faces but LOUSY with names…and then I get nervous and it just confounds the name thing. (Once I was introducing my next-door neighbor of 12 years at a party. This woman and I walked together every morning. I just blanked out. I finally had to lean into her ear and ask her to remind me of her name. Jennifer. How sad is that?) So, please don’t be offended if you say hello and I have to check your name badge.