Deadline: 3 hours and counting...

I suppose that headline should read "Deadline: 3 hours to spare" because -- yeah, baby -- I just sent the manuscript off. It's whizzing across the country as we speak and *fingers-crossed* landing in New York, in my editor's email in-box, any second. Whew! Also, I should have a publisher-approved, for-public-consumption title very soon... Yay!

Deadline: 1 day and some change...

I thought I'd be a lot more frantic and panicked this close to D-day. But actually, I'm doing okay. No hyperventaliting. No heart palpitations. Hearing back from my agent yesterday has a lot to do with it. She likes the manuscript and found only a few copyediting mistakes, which eases my mind a lot. I mean, *a lot* So, today I'm making those changes, and rereading again to fix the typos, missing words and all those other little pesky things I'm still finding after reading this darn manuscript a dozen times already. All in all, I think I'm in pretty good shape. Wait, I didn't say that. Don't want to jinx it... :0)

Literary Guild of Orange County's Festival of Women Authors 2011

This year's Literary Guild of Orange County's annual Festival of Women Authors will be held Saturday, May 7 at the Irvine Marriott Hotel, and it will feature a great lineup of authors.

Here's the list:

Jean Auel (Earth's Children series, which started with "The Clan of the Cave Bear")

Hallie Ephron (award-winning author and book reviewer)

Carolyn Hart (award-winning mystery writer)

Sarah Blake ("The Postmistress," "Grange House")

Laurel Corona ("The Four Seasons: A Novel of Vivaldi's Venice," "Penelope's Daughter")

Zoe Ferraris ("Finding Nouf," "City of Veils")

Vicki Leon ("How to Mellify a Corpse and Other Human Stories of Ancient Science and Superstition")

Lisa Lutz ("The Spellman Files," "Heads You Lose")

Rounding out the day is a wonderful sit-down luncheon and an opportunity to buy the authors' books and getting them signed.

The festival is expected to sell out and soon, so act fast if you're interested in attending. Check the group's website for registration information.

Hope to see you there

Deadline: 6 days away...

If you heard something like a huge sigh a couple hours ago, it was me, sending off the manuscript to my agent. The revision is done -- at least I think it is, fingers crossed -- and there's still time for one more reading for typos and little fixes...

You've heard it before, and I'm sure you'll hear it again: a writer's work is never done, she only runs out of time...
:-)