The countdown has begun - only eight days until I leave for Minneapolis.

Today I made a list (in my mind) of everything that has to be done before I leave. Since I'm one of those people who don't like to leave dangling 'to do's' it all has to be done. Things like lots of crits, cleaning my bedroom, shopping, packing, buying a new pair of shoes, going to the dentist - well, you get the picture.

Besides all that there are things that have to be done for the conference. Things like printing all the pertinant emails--bookstore schedule, conference schedule, hotel confirmation number, well--you get the picture!

Then I have to write things called one sheets that are supposed to give an editor or agent an idea of what my book is about - on one sheet of paper. I've done two so far and will work on one for the Jenny books this week. Hey, you never know. Not that any of the editors specified looking for children's books, but I plan to be ready just in case. Since Jenny is the character I love best that should be my best one sheet.

Not that the others are too shabby. I had hoped to find a totally cool, spooky picture for my mystery. Like the one above. It has trees, fog and looks a little eerie to match the ending scene. The only problem is there is no cornfield which figures a lot in the climax. Trust me - a cornfield at night is a truly frightening place. Especially in the pitch dark, no moon, miles from the house when your brother takes off at a run screaming, "Bigfoot!"

But, I did find a couple of pictures to put on the mystery one sheet that I thought were nice. Found them at a totally cool website that has free use photos. Then I stumbled across one that has historical photos. I managed to find several to match the characters in my historical book. So, I'm working on one sheets and trying not to stress.

Truthfully, I just want to go and have fun. There are so many people I want to meet for the first time, lots of new friends I'm looking forward to seeing again and plenty of writing talk to soak up. If something else happens, great. If not, it's been a fun vacation and I got out of a week of work. :)

My thought is that if you go expecting this HUGE, LIFE ALTERING experience and you absolutely HAVE TO SELL THAT BOOK, then you probably miss a lot of the little moments that can make the whole thing memorable. And if one is stressing about it all and you look at it as a make or break conference, a way to validate your whole writing life, then you'll probably be stressed the whole time.

I'd rather have a great time without stress.

Now if I could just stop stressing over my to do list - - - -