Odds and Ends and Thank You's

I'm off to Memphis tomorrow morning on a short business trip, so I'm frantically preparing for that (I need a haircut, the laundry's not done, etc., etc.) while trying to get all the details of my contracts (agency and publisher) squared away. My agent sent me the Deal Memo last night (which outlines the basic elements of the contract without the legalese), and it looks fine. My delivery date for the three novellas is September 1st of this year, which is definitely doable. According to the memo, anticipated publication date is June, 2009, though that isn't set in stone.

Kevan (my agent) is hoping to get the deal announcement written up today, which means it'll be appearing in Publisher's Lunch and/or Publisher's Marketplace soon. How's that for unreal? I think we're going to give the anthology a different title--my current suggestion is Beyond the Red Door, but we'll see if that's what we go with or not.

In honor of my sale, I registered for the RWA National Conference over the weekend (good thing, too--looks like there were only a few hundred slots left at most) and bought plane tickets. I'm still working on lodging. Being terminally cheap, I'm hoping to stay with a family friend who lives in the city and am still waiting to hear on that.

I also finally sent in the paperwork to join my local RWA chapter. I didn't join in the past primarily because their meetings are held on Saturdays, and it's hard for me to get away on Saturdays. On top of that, the meeting location is very inconvenient--something like an hour from home. Buuuuut, they're holding a mini-conference for their May meeting at which Kevan will be a featured speaker, AND I really would like to have that community of local writers to rely on, so I decided to go for it.

Completely appropos of nothing else in this post, I saw the GREATEST vanity license plate this weekend: TO BLAVE. I can't tell you how tempted I was to chase that green SUV down and pull them over, just so we could trade lines from The Princess Bride!

Last, but not least, a heartfelt thanks to everyone who commented here, on the Mavens, or sent me private email congratulating me on my sale. It means so much to me!