Sandra’s Miscellany

Whenever I show up at RWA National, I usually want to do everything at once — hang out with all the writing buddies, visit the surrounding area, meet new folks, and attend all the workshops and sessions. I’d end up strung out on stress and spend several days post-conference just vegging.

This year is a little different: I’m happily typing away in the hotel room today while the buddies are out exploring CNN and the Margaret Mitchell house. I realized (finally) that I need to take care of myself during the conference, so I’m scheduling plenty of down time into my plans.

I’m also putting less stress into actually showing up at the sessions. I discovered that if I show up to learn — but not to obsess over learning — I’d actually derive more benefit from the workshops. Half of my problem is the kind of frenzy that I put myself in in order to “get the most out of each session,” which defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?

So this year, I’m kicking back.

I got more good news, too: Dead Reckoning got a five-star review from CataRomance! Check it out.