The conference was great -- I learned a lot, and met some really interesting people -- authors, editors, agents -- I spent time with people from my chapter that I didn't know that well and enjoyed every minute, I had a Napoleon-style salad, which was so pretty that I took a picture.

I love my roommates, and we stayed up until 2:30 laughing and talking, and we were a little concerend that the guy next door -- one of our keynote speakers and a former Special Forces soldier -- was going to sneak into our room in the night and slit our throats, we were so loud.

I found shoes en route to the hotel. They are pointy and grown-up and relatively comfortable.

And I'm exhausted.

I have five contest entries to judge and then I shall be able to concentrate on the writing once again.

I'm off to my conference in fifteen minutes. I have no shoes. I have no (finished) manuscript, but I also have no editor/agent appointment, so it isn't the end of the world. I am wracked with guilt for leaving my family for a whole weekend, and at the same time, incredibly light-hearted and eager to learn all that I can from the whole experience.

I only wish I had some shoes.

Back Monday chock-full of stories, I hope.

So, mizzmarvel very kindly made me the stylish icon, which I finally uploaded. Things here have been a little more chaotic than usual, and will remain so until the end of April -- I have a goal to meet at the next writing group (Monday) and a writing conference four days later (no appointment with an editor or agent, but I'm still excited). The book is far, far from finished, and the first fifty pages are not as polished as I would like, but I feel...okay...about the situation.

The plan right now is to have 115 pages finished by Monday, a solid first draft by the end of June, and a final manuscript by the end of the summer, whereupon I will mail it out to numerous editors and agents and then brace myself for soul-crushing rejection.

(As for Broken, which Tash has been remarkably patient about, I hope to have at least one chapter done by the end of May, and the whole thing wrapped up by the end of the summer as well. Other fanfic endeavors, including the three different L/R stories that will probably be ruined by X3, are on hiatus until I finish HCS and Broken.)

Nothin' but good times ahead, I tell you.