My first few days were spent at a place in Bee Cave, where my co-author for a series of non-fiction books lives. I stated at a hotel right near her and we had several good days of brainstorming.

The actual first conference begins tomorrow. I’m now ensconced in my room at the Hyatt and it’s beautiful. I’m on the top floor, just down from the conference room where the second conference will be held. It’s both comfortable and convenient.

I’m ready to get inspired and to kick butt.

It’s okay, though, I know that I’m just a few things on my list of pre-trip accomplishments from being done.

I best get back to it. The dryer is telling me the clothes are done.

We won that set 6-2 which was very satisfying. The next set I played with a gentleman whose name escapes me but we got beat 6-1. They were on fire. Scott was my partner for the third set.  We were easily the two weakest players of the four, we won the first game.

They won the second game but it was close. The next game, I was serving and we won, so now we’re up 2 to 1. They then went on a run and got up 5-2. We got one more game before they won the set. Still, it was a good night I scored 10 points and tied for second

It’ll be several weeks before I get to play tennis league again. I’m leaving for Austin, as you know, on Friday. I can’t wait. It’s going to be a blast.

I also worked in a haircut. I look adorable.

There was a workout and I got almost all the expenses figured out for my taxes.

What’s unusual about this week is that my normal modus operandi would be to wait until Thursday and try to get everything done. Then I’d be stressed. I’m kicking list but early and it’s making a huge difference.

Yay me!

Bunnies Make Me Happy

I really struggled to get yesterday’s post up. I wrote it, then thought I’d hit publish but didn’t. The next day I got a message from Dad that it wasn’t up.

I went back and I had somehow deleted it, so I wrote another one. Then I didn’t hit publish again. I just noticed that when I went in for tonight’s post. Ugh…my mind is elsewhere.

I’m so excited about my forthcoming trip to Austin for back to back conferences that I can barely stand it. Today, I did a bunch of things to get ready including buying some cool technology for the drive down. It’s a thousand miles and I love a good road trip.

I’ve been working to get good at Dragon Dictate and am making progress. My buddy Honorée uses it and she also uses an app called Dragon Anywhere. I asked her about dictating while driving and if the noise was too much and she said it wasn’t because she uses a Bluetooth ear piece that does a good job of just getting one’s voice.

Once I heard that I had to have one.

I bought the ear piece, a little holder for my phone that attaches to the air vent, a new charger, and a cool Bluetooth speaker that clips onto my sun visor. This is going to be a great roadtrip.

Well, today didn’t go so well for the Iowa Hawkeyes and the UNI Panthers. The Panther loss was a bit hard to take, though, as it looked like they had it sewn up. C’est la vie.

I’m starting to get really excited about my trip to Austin. I’ll be leaving late this week and driving down. There is a meet and greet that just got added to Tuesday night for the volunteers and so I’ll get to hang out with them some, too.

There are many things I’m looking forward to and one of them is the drive itself. I love driving and it has been a long time since I’ve had a proper road trip. This is going to be that. I’m not sure what I’m going to do afterward, but I intend to explore the great west a bit.

It will be a working vacation as I’ve got a lot of stuff I want to get written. That’s okay, though, as one of my dreams has been to write while on the road. I plan on stopping at truck stops and doing writing. I’m hoping it turns to be really productive.

Also, my buddy Honorée Corder has put me onto a great Blue Tooth ear piece that she uses to get stuff done through her Dragon Anywhere app. I’m going to go look at them tomorrow.

It’s almost time for an adventure and I can’t wait.

The day after my birthday was awesome, too. I got a lot done, the most important bit was going through the corrections my new (and awesome) assistant made.

All my novels go through two editors and then a beta reading team. I decided to have Laurie give it a read, too, because she’s good at finding mistakes. Also, each one she finds is one less thing each of the other editors have to deal with and that’s a good thing.

To give you an idea about how many corrections she found and I had to review, it took me four hours to read them all.

I just got it sent off to Brian, who’s my first editor, and he’s already written back that he will begin work today.

Another highlight of the day was the great ISU win sending them to the Sweet 16. Go Cyclones!

You know what? Writing is fun. It’s what I wanted to do so I did it!

I’m such a rebel…a 49 year old rebel.

Here’s to a great last year of my first five decades!

I worked a bit on Underwood, Scotch, and Cry today. My assistant has given it a read and she sent me some corrections. It’s amazing how many times I just leave out a word, especially when I’m on a roll with dialog.

We had a video chat meeting this afternoon. It was incredibly helpful. I do like the book business but NOT as much as MARCH MADNESS!

The TV jumped around a bunch between games. It was a ton of fun and the Cyclones won!

This meant I had to add more desk, some extra Maltese tail, complete the drawer at the bottom of the desk and build at a bit more of the chair. It was no small feat but I did it.

I may still tweak the wall behind Maltese because now that I look at it it could be a little better, but that won’t be hard.