Let's Do This.

I have a deadline, folks! An actual deadline with a tangible purpose. I often set personal deadlines for progress in my writing but I don't strictly hold myself to them and little consequence is felt if they aren't met. Finally, I have a deadline from an outside source!

It's not the sort of deadline I hope for, i.e. from a publisher, but it's still meaningful. At the end of September I'll attend my first writers conference! I'm happily anticipating three days spent learning, networking, and dwelling in the professional writers' world. During the conference I will have an opportunity for a brief one-on-one meeting with either an editor from a publishing house appropriate to my genre of writing or with a professional who can assist me with the proposal I need to submit my manuscript to publishers. To take the fullest possible advantage of this, I need to have my manuscript READY. Done editing, done proofreading, done condensing the word count.

So, I have a deadline. A real and necessary deadline! The excitement I feel might be a bit hard to grasp but I had to share anyway. It's a little like this: