BIAW--Book-in-a-week.

I signed up for Kiss of Death's BIAW which starts today, March 19th. I must have been crazy. Whatever might make me think I could write a book in a week?

Well, you might say my friend Bev Bateman twisted my arm, but that wouldn't be true. As usual, I jumped into the thick of this right on my own. No one dared me, threatened me or bribed me to sign up. I just thought I'd give it a shot to see it I could prime the pump so to speak.

You see, I've gotten the bug again. Caught it from some of my good friends. Spent the weekend in New Orleans at Fantasy on the Bayou, FF&P's very first conference and was inspired by the city, the authors and the editors to get my butt in gear.

I've got a new plot hatching this very moment. I've outlined, something I usually never do, but BIAW offers a great questionnaire that, when complete, gives you the outline. Amazingly easy to do.

My main character, the heroine, introduced herself to me today. She is petite, with shoulder-length glossy black hair. Her name is Sable and she is from the year 2436. Yep, this one's gonna be a time-travel. 659 words written so far and I still don't know who the hero is, but I'm sure he'll jump out at me soon.

I think I'm going to enjoy writing this story. Even if it does take longer than a week. What about your, have you ever tried BIAW or Fastdraft?

RWA's National Conference was the bomb this year! Scarlet visited the White House and ate a gourmet lunch at the National Mall. The real highlight of the conference for me was KOD"S pre-conference tour. We spent the day with the FBI and got to shoot Glocks, Shotguns, Tommyguns, and HKMP5's! Imagine, Scarlet with a machine gun! The workshops with the FBI were awesome, we learned about all the different types of cases they are involved in. On Tuesday we visited the State Department and the United States Postal Inspectors, both presentations were top-notch and vastly informative. On Wednesday we spent the day with the CIA. Really, the CIA! We had lunch in the CIA cafeteria at Langley, where we had six "Officers" (they don't like to be called agents) sit with us and answer questions! We also learned how to tell whether or not the movie rendition of the great seal in the floor of the CIA headquaters was correct! Most aren't, I'm going to hold on to that little tidbit and use it in my next novel! So many ideas! You should have been there. Of course there was more time for great food as MM and Scarlet enjoyed outdoor dining down the street from the Marriott and just across from the Omni. The Proper Conference was great, but I'll leave it to MM to enlighten you, I was just too excited about the Pre-Conference tours.