Spring Fling is Almost HERE!

What to do? The Chicago-North RWA Spring Fling Schedule is out, and I have to make some tough calls.

I mean, seriously. Look at these choices! (Full text with times available here.) It's times like these where I'm like to be rent asunder trying to decide my schedule.

Yes, I mean decide it now. I'm one of those freaks of nature who carefully reviews the schedule for conferences in advance and decides where I can get the most bang for my buck. Normal people arrive on site, get their schedules, and then decide to go to whatever their friends are going to or, in case of writing conferences, who their favorite author is. For the RWA Nationals last year, I printed out my personalized schedule, with all available worksheets, a week in advance.

Yes, I'm a freak. I embrace the weirdness.

This is harder for me this time, because I actually know a fair number of these people, like Blythe and Courtney, have been to presentations I loved with others, like Allie Pleiter, and am facebook friends with a whole bunch of them. Plus, I volunteered to help out and will be moderating pitch sessions in the morning and helping out with the Silent Auction Saturday night. Oh, and my agent will be there, and we're going to chat about What Happens Next. Toss in a whole bunch of people I want to find because I haven't seen them in a year or two, and I'm going to be running ragged. But in a good way!

Adding to the fun, I'll be accompanied by my sister, Hannah Clampitt, of The Nanner Republic. She's testing the authorial waters, so to speak, with me as her Sherpa guide. (I believe that was the mother of all mixed metaphors.) Normally, she's all social-butterfly and I'm all stay-at-home-and-talk-to-imaginary-people (also known as characters, so don't get all weird on me), but our roles will be slightly reversed. Plus, my husband and her husband are dropping us off at the conference and then seeing the Chicago/Milwaukee sights (the Cubs are playing the Brewers) so that's an added level of crazy fun.

I find that sending your husband to a ball game with his brother-in-law while I network with my sister is the PERFECT way to spend an 8th anniversary, don't you? I love this conference, but the timing is a little lacking, personally. Oh, don't worry about The Kid. He's going to spend the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa, being spoiled rotten and having his run of the family farm.

So stay tuned for next Tuesday, when I talk about what actually happened at the conference! I'm hoping for all good things.