Final Countdown and a Lovely Poem

It's here. The week of my first conference. At the very beginning of January when I signed up it seemed like ages away, but here it is.

But there's something else big happening this week: me and Colene's Luck o' the Irish SPD Blogfest!! If you haven't signed up yet, hop over to Colene's blog to sign up. Also, see this post, where she shows a number of the pretty new releases coming out that could be yours free! And to further entice you, I've written an elegant poem. Try not to get too teary-eyed at its beauty:

Saint Patty’s Day totally rocks
Our blogfest will knock off your socks

Anything Irish will do

And there’s free stuff in it for you.

Leprechauns, clover and green beer

Will put you in good Irish cheer

Blarney, rainbows and pots of gold

Are always cool and never get old

Join the ranks of Stoker, Wilde and Yeats
Give us your best literary feats
But 200 words is all we ask
And in your awesomeness we all will bask

Two Irish lassies will pick their fave
But we’ll love you all for being so brave

Your bloggy friends will love you too

Go forth, write and the luck o’ the Irish be with you

Ha, hope you enjoyed that. And yes I know Yeats and feats don't technically rhyme, but hey.

Okay, now to conference talk. I promised a final checklist, so here it is:

- Write, practice and memorize pitches

- Research agents

- Make list of questions for agents
- Practice answers to questions commonly asked by agents
- Print several sets of sample pages to bring for agents and publishers

- Order business cards

- Test record function on cell phone to make sure it works for taping critique session with agent

- Decide on outfits

- And of course, get a total hair makeover

Just joking on that last one, this actually resulted from a year of debate and getting more and more bored with my hair... but I figured what better time than before my big writery debut?

So, see you guys Thursday for the blogfest and then I'll report next week with all the juicy conference details!