R T-Minus Two Weeks!!!

Yep. Two weeks from tomorrow, I fly to Kansas City for the RT Booklovers Convention. And, as might surprise anyone who knows how horrible I am about writing deadlines, I actually began planning/packing a couple weeks ago.

I expect I'll have my clothes fully packed by Sunday night - over the past two weeks I've been pulling out the stuff I plan to wear, making sure it fits, setting it aside. But the clothes are the easiest part of RT packing. It's all the other crap you have to assemble.

Last year, I forgot to pack my promo items. Let me repeat - I FORGOT to pack PROMO material. I'm an author, at a booklovers' convention, and I left all my damn promotional material neatly packed in a box and sitting on my desk. On top of that, my publisher didn't have any bookcards for me to hand out at the e-book signing. None of that stopped me from having a hell of a lot of fun, of course -- but this year, I was determined, would be different.

So I've double and triple checked that I signed up in time for the e-book signing. I've designed my own promo cards and ordered 250 of them. I'm just a little bit proud of them (I'm a crappy photographer, though):

I found these spatulas at Target last fall; they weren't available online, and my local Target had only a few. I ended up hitting every Target in the west and southwest of Houston to find enough to send to the rest of the Naughties and have a couple left over to give away at RT:
 

A constant concern at RT (or any convention, I'd assume) is keeping your electronic devices charged; lots of people congregate in the lobbies and other common areas and you're always looking for an outlet.  So I got an Anker Astro3 charging battery which works for laptops and Android devices; you keep the Astro charged and throw it in your bag, and you'll have a constant battery backup for your tablet, phone, whatever. It comes with all the different plugs you'd need (but if you have a laptop, make sure you get the Astro that charges them, because some will only handle mobile Android devices.) A Zagg does the same for iThings:

Speaking of promo - which I WILL NOT forget this year - the Naughties have reserved a full table in Promo Alley - so stop by for goodies of all sorts. We needed a tablecloth and I thought it would be cool to decorate it with images of our various covers. I'm about a quarter done, and so far I like the look. Diva's holding it up for me - don't know if it gives you an idea but I promise it's gonna be cool:

(Don't tell anyone that I did one of Erin Nicholas' covers upside down. Hoping no one will notice.)

To be honest, ironing all those transfers on is kinda tedious. I was going to pay Diva to do some of it for me, and I then I realized - no, that's probably not a good idea:

Besides, she's already expressed discomfort/disgust with some of the covers already. Diva's a prude, which is fine by me because she's 11, and I hope she remains prudish for another 10 years but I'm pretty sure she won't.

It wouldn't be RT if we weren't worried or jazzed about shoes. I will, of course, be wearing mostly sandals and modestly elevated boots because I have horrible feet, but I did go out and buy a pair of mundane, low heeled black patent leather toe pumps. And then I decoupaged them with bits of my book covers and a few lines of text:

We'll see how long/often I can wear them.

Normally I'd be worrying about all this stuff I have to take with me, because all together it weighs a bit and I'd have to pay extra baggage fees. But this year, Erin Nicholas is able to drive to RT so we're sending her all our stuff to bring down for us.

Most important consideration: will she have room for all the wine???