RWA Nationals - 10 weeks and counting

10 weeks from tomorrow I will leave for Washington D.C. and my first Romance Writers of America National Conference. I am so excited and nervous and crazy and happy all at the same time!

I met with my critique group yesterday, and we decided that it's time to step it into high gear. One out of the three of us is already a successful published author of 13 books (with 2 more contracted to come out this year from Harlequin Blaze), but the other two of us are still aspiring. The two of us are looking to Nationals as a place to schmooz with editors and agents, and hopefully even get in an appointment or two so we can pitch our novels. Of course, in order to pitch, you actually need to have finished a novel. And that's where "high gear" comes in.

I have 3 projects in the works right now. There's the novella that was requested by Wild Rose Press that I still have yet to finish revisions on. It's about halfway done, so this week is going to be dedicated to getting it done. By now, it's a sort of do or die situation for that story. Second, there is the Silhouette Desire novel that I lovingly call "The Millionaire's Scandalous Secret". Total, I have 11,900 words finished on that and my goal is about 50,000 total. My third project is a bit more tricky. I want to write a young adult novel. I have ideas floating around about what I want it to be about and who the characters will be, but the ideas still need work. I am hoping that by the time I finish these other two, the ideas will be more fully formed, and I will have a chance to write some (if not all or most) of the novel before RWA nationals.

Too much to get done in 10 weeks? Am I being too ambitious?? Probably. But I have this hope that someday my high and impossible ambitions will actually be surpassed by the hard work I put into it. Who knows? I might even surprise myself this time.