A mild dose of the panics...

I'm going to the Festival of Writing at York again; it starts on Friday.

Friday.

THIS Friday? As in, just three more sleeps 'til I'm there?

Oh my giddy aunt!

Excuse me while I have a minor case of the heebie-jeebies and hyperventilate.

*breathes into a brown paper bag*

York has crept up on me this year. Today, it jumped out from behind the sofa shouting 'BOO!'

September's always a busy month - new school year, getting to grips with different timetables and the early morning alarm call again. But it's been made even busier than normal with two book launches, a local author event at Waterstones, a four-day church conference, a week-long visit by a German penfriend, preparations for arranging wedding flowers and facilitating a critiquing session at Nibs, as well as (hooray - finally!) taking delivery of a new bathroom. (Just delivery, mind you. Installation: October.)

The good thing is that because it's busy, I've not had time to worry about York; I haven't been hovering over the inbox waiting for notification of shortlisting in the competitions. In fact, my glaringly empty inbox meant I didn't have to colour my hair in rainbow stripes as I had promised to do in the unlikely event I ended up on either of the said shortlists. Neither have I been reading and re-reading my agent submissions and finding things I could've written better.

However. The bad thing is I've not prepared a pitch about my novel. (Um...'What happens when your destiny is written on your skin? And you don't discover it before the man that's taken your place does?' How does that sound?) I've not printed out the weekend programme. I've not printed out the copies of work needed for the workshops. I've not packed, and I have no idea what the heck to wear for the gala dinner, especially as I've just discovered another cloudie is planning to wear a dress that sounds remarkably similar to the one I was thinking of taking... (Mind you, I always pack two frocks, just to keep my options open.)

And now there's only a couple of days left to do all that AND get my head into writer mode.

Tell you what though - I can't flippin' wait! The Scribbles will be quiet over the weekend, but there'll be plenty to share with you afterwards so watch this space. There WILL be pictures...

Right - I'm off to throw a few things in a case. Catch you Monday!