Barnes & Noble.com has Ravyn's Flight available now! For the last couple of weeks, I linked to my publisher because that was the only place where new copies of the book were for sale, but I had people asking me when BN.com or Amazon would have it available. What could I say? I had no idea. But now, at long last, you can order a copy of RF from BN.com.

Yesterday was a long day. I needed a display easel made up for Eternal Nights to put in the goody room at National. I figured as gorgeous as that cover model is, that his face will encourage people to take a bookmark. At least I hope that's how it goes. I just had a small easel made up, but it should be big enough.

Kinko's needed three hours to get the thing ready, so I ran over to the mall to check out the bookstore. No copies of EN yet and I thought they might have them since they're shipping at BN.com. I dropped off a stack of bookmarks, and somehow, agreed to do a book signing. =8-O I know, I shouldn't be so reticent about this kind of thing, but autographings are tough. I live in terror of spelling someone's name wrong or really sticking my foot in my mouth.

Since there was no way I could kill three hours at the bookstore, I went home and started getting things together that I wanted to take with me to Atlanta. I loathe packing. Absolutely, positively hate it. So many things to remember to take. Sigh. It used to be easier. Do you know that once upon a time, I used to attend National with nothing more than a roll-aboard suitcase? The kind that fit in the overhead compartment? Now, of course, I take the largest suitcase allowed by the airline.

It was very hot and humid here yesterday and the sky finally opened up. We had a pretty intense thunderstorm roll through and the humidity wasn't much better when it was finished. You're thinking, oh, no! She's talking about the weather again. This time, though, there is a point. I didn't want to drive to Kinko's in the downpour to pick up my easel, so I waited until it eased up.

So I get there and the parking lot is empty. I think, Great! I can run in and back out again in no time. Of course I couldn't. I stood by the sign department for easily twenty minutes and could not get anyone to even acknowledge my presence. Two guys working, a third one running in and out and I was invisible. They were far enough back from the counter that I would have had to holler for them to hear me too and I couldn't do that. No matter how irritated I was getting. Finally, a girl working on the other counter asked if I needed help and then I rang out in a couple of minutes. No gold star for Kinko's.

The one thing that truly amazes me about packing is how much crap gets piled on my dressers as I clean out my bags. Take my toiletries bag for example. I have hair spray and shampoo that I'm not taking because I have newer (and smaller) hair care products, a couple of things of makeup that I don't need, some brushes that I kept carrying around and never use to apply said makeup and other things that I don't need. Then there's all the stuff in my hard plastic folder that I drag with me to each conference. Where does all this paper come from?

Anyway, I finished packing around 11pm last night and I think I have everything. I hope. The suitcase is only filled up about 3/4 of the way and last year, I'm sure it was filled to the top. That must mean I'm forgetting something, right?

Like I mentioned here yesterday, I'm not taking the laptop with me, so I'll be blogging from National when I can, otherwise I'll share the highlights when I get home.