Tomorrow, my husband and I are leaving for a nine-day trip.  We'll be in Washington DC for the first half where we will do site-seeing stuff.   For the second half, we'll be in Baltimore for my editor's wedding.   Yay!

I'm excited about all of it, but I am especially looking forward to getting to meet  four of my critique partners during the trip.  I'll be having drinks and dinner with John and Gina in DC, and then dinner with Gina, Michelle, and Kim in Baltimore later in the week. 

I originally connected with all of these writers through a MediaBistro YA novel-writing course in 2007--which is also where I first worked with my editor, come to think of it.  What a life-changing class, huh?  

I'm trying to decide whether I should even bother bringing the hard copy of my marked-up manuscript along.  Will I have time to work on it?  Will I even want to?  My idea is that if I keep it with me and read through it during the week, maybe I'll be able to work out the elusive Climax Situation.  After I'll get back from my trip, I'll basically have that last week of October and all of November to complete my revisions.  But there's this one huge thing for which I still don't have a game plan. 

I probably should bring it along just in case--although luggage space is kind of a problem.  This is the first plane trip I've have taken for YEARS (or maybe ever?) where I'll have to pack over a weeks' worth of autumn clothes.  Usually, our longer trips are to warm places, so I get to fill up a small suitcase with just swimsuits, tank tops, and skirts!