Conference Countdown–T-minus 70 Hours

I’m blogging from DALLAS, TEXAS, today, from the comfort of my parents’ home in one of the southern suburbs. I came in a few days early to see them before checking into the hotel on Wednesday, the night before the 2007 ACFW National Conference begins.

So, what last-minute preparations am I engaged in?

Well, I slept until nine o’clock . . . took a nice long bath in the jetted tub . . . had a cup of coffee . . . am listening to the Singers & Standards digital music channel on cable . . . read for a little while . . . am about to go fix breakfast . . . and then I’ll read all of my friends’ blogs to see what last-minute preparations they’re doing.

But, seriously, what I’m doing today is concentrating on my pitches—printing my pitch sheets (on Daddy’s color laser printer. Yes, I’m spoiled.) and reviewing the synopses to create bullet points to use in the pitch sessions to talk through the stories.

Once I’m comfortable with those, it’s on to writing. I’ve had a full requested recently—Peace in the Valley—and I told them I could have it finished by the end of October. I have about 25,000 words written and they’re looking for around 75,000. So any day when I have extra time, I’ll be diligently plugging away on that manuscript. So, be sure to check my Daily Word Count page and hold my feet to the fire if I’m not posting a daily total of more than 1,000 words. I need to average about 1,200 to 1,500 per day to meet that 75,000 length.

All right, now, ‘fess up—what are you doing today to prepare for conference?