The ever-popular "leaving on a jet plane"

But first... A "HtDaS" update!!

Spoke to my Secret Agent this afternoon, and the two editors from the first round of submissions who are still considering the proposal are sharing it with colleagues to get further reactions. Which is a good sign, but nothing to bank on. The responses to date have been wonderfully supportive, even the rejections, and there hasn't been one consistent response that leads us to think about revising the proposal before the next round. Will probably take a look at it again anyway, though. One of the comments was about wanting to see more of my "normalcy" before diving into the "abnormal" world of MMORPG (I'm totally paraphrasing, those were not the terms used), so I may see about finding a way to ease into the gaming world more slowly, or play up my alt-"Sex and the City" lifestyle pre-CoH. Until then, to keep my spirits up, this reaction from one reader:

Ms. Daniels has quite an entertaining read here! I really enjoyed reading about her romantic travails - she tells her story with humor, wit and panache.

I have panache! Oh yeah -- suck on THAT!

Anyway, as I said, I'm heading out of town tonight so long as Tropical Storm Beryl doesn't delay things (fingers crossed!), and except for a few photo posts when I can get phone service in the mountains, I expect to be incommunicado. When I get back, I promise the full story: "I may be a 33-year-old professional woman, but at heart I'm just a tween girl who loves ponies. Ponies!"