'Twas the Night Before San Diego...
Next week is the San Diego Comic Con, Wednesday to Sunday and as ever, I shall be doing my best to post a daily blog here and on my Livejournal from the moment I land to the moment I leave. But currently it's Sunday night and I'm packed. I have everything I need in suitcase, hand luggage and on my person, I have my documents all printed out, I have a shiny new camera and black clerical shirt and I'm ready to go to San Diego...
However, I still have a couple of days to go before I need to actually go to San Diego. So why am I getting ready so early? Well, tomorrow, Monday I'll be spending the day writing as much as I humanly can, finishing the third of the Horowitz books that I'm adapting for Hachette Children's Books, as well as continuing on a) the other Horowitz book I'm adapting, Necropolis - and b) the other book that I still can't mention yet but will be able to shout from the rooftops following Del Rey / Random House's announcement at the 6pm SDCC panel on the Thursday of the show.
I'll be writing until about 6pm where I shall get everything together, pack it all into my car and drive to my father's house, in West London, about two miles from Heathrow Airport. There I shall spend the night and early Tuesday morning, I will be boarding a plane for America.
Usually, I'll drive up stupidly early on the Tuesday morning, arrive and frantically race to the airport, all for that extra night in my own bed. But to be honest, it's utterly pointless - I never sleep, I always stress and I then drive into London right before rush hour on a knife edge that could screw up on the slightest traffic delay. Why worry, when I can go the night before, take a sleeping tablet and then arrive at the airport relaxed?
After all, it's a fourteen hour journey to San Diego. Much of which will be either spent in the company of travelling companion Harry Markos, watching downloaded TV on my media player or you've guessed it, adapting more of the aforementioned books on my Eee PC. Once I hit San Diego I'll meet up with my roomie Jimmy Aquino, shower, head to a meeting I have and then a drink with some friends and by the time I get to bed, I'll have been up over twenty four hours.
So the night before is always important. So why risk a bad night's sleep and a 5am wake up?