And so, the big conference adventure begins

It's Wednesday morning, and the trunk of our SUV is completely full of tote bags, programs, and assorted flyers and promo items sent by authors/publishers for the HNS conference this week. Mark's still asleep, and we haven't really packed anything else yet, though I've got a folder of notes and other printouts set aside.

The last week has been hectic, even beyond expectations. After BEA, we were home for exactly two days before taking off in the car again for my cousin's wedding in London, Ontario, a 9-hour drive, though we overnighted in Ann Arbor on the way out. The trip went smoothly, the wedding was lovely (beautiful sunny day, not too hot, held at a historical estate on the outskirts of London) and we got to visit with many family members from across the US and Canada.

More troublesome was the return trip to the States on Sunday, which Mark summarized succinctly on his blog. Yeah, we're armed and dangerous, all right. (Armed with book purchases, maybe. I did some historical novel shopping at a Canadian bookstore on Saturday morning.)

On Monday morning, we learned that one of our author guests of honor, Edward Rutherfurd, had a family emergency and had to return to England asap, so was unable to appear at the conference after all. He was extremely sorry about it, and we're disappointed we won't be seeing him there, but family comes first. Fortunately for us, conference attendee Sharon Kay Penman accepted our very last-minute invite to give Saturday night's keynote address in his place. Sharon's one of my favorite historical novelists, and I'm really looking forward to meeting her and hearing her talk.

Today's plan: head up to Schaumburg, unload all our stuff at the hotel, and meet up with editor/agent liaison Ann Chamberlin for the drive out to hotel liaison Winifred Halsey's house an hour west; she's been storing 120+ boxes of books in her garage for the past month and more. Publishers were very, very generous with donations for attendees, so there's lots of good reading to look forward to. These books will mysteriously reappear in conference attendees' tote bags when registration opens on Friday. We're renting a U-Haul and plan to do the big book move this afternoon and evening.

Inspired by a post by Susan on the HFO forum, I've set up a Twitter account, which I'd been mulling over since BEA, and will be posting news flashes from the conference there as time permits. Holly from Wonders and Marvels (tweeting as history_geek) and I are wondering what other historical novel folks are there, so if you're connected up, let me know! I'm coming late to the party and am still figuring out how it works - no snazzy backgrounds yet - so please bear with me. No doubt I'll be blogging more about the event as well, though maybe not until after it's over.

Looking forward to seeing many of you in Schaumburg!