I can’t believe it, but I leave for Houston in less than forty eight hours.  Less than forty eight hours.

I’m about ready.  I have all the clean clothes on one side of the wardrobe ready to be packed. My new bright orange shoes (!) are nice and stretched and comfy and go with the sinfully expensive Dolce e Gabbana handbag that I just could not resist – I’m not exaggerating about the sinful bit, but expensive handbags (purses for my transatlantic friends) are my one indulgence. The camera’s charged and I have all the chargers collected together (phone, iPad, camera – I wish I had a single one that would work, dammit).  I’m getting my hair cut tomorrow so I won’t look like a complete shabby scarecrow while doing the panel and the workshop. Talking of which, I’ve written up my notes for  “Fanfiction: it’s all grown up”, so hopefully we’ll do a good panel and have a lot of good discussion.  And I’ve got copies of everything for the writing workshop, and provided that Sarah Madison, Jennifer Roberson and I are all bouncy and energetic (!), then that should go with a buzz too. The bottom half of my suitcase is taken up with bits of paper for the con that at least means I’ll have a bit more room coming back – the papers certainly won’t be!

I’m taking a couple of print copies of FlashWired with me, and will talk to Sarah about maybe raffling off a signed copy of our books during the writer’s workshop. As I was reminded by a good friend, people always like winning prizes.

I have a couple of people to email about Houston, to finalise arrangements for meeting up

I’m about ready.  It’s getting more and more exciting!

And so, to deal with the excitement, I’ve spent the entire afternoon splitting Shield up into smaller chapters and rearranging them, because the pacing was all off.  Rolls eyes.  Oh boy, is that going to make dealing with the beta’s amendments **fun**.  I should be shot.

Still, Houston!  Less than 48 hours!!!!

Are we there yet?