Writing, Odyssey, and Opera (WOO!)

I finished a draft of my Dryad story, For the Love of Trees, on Wednesday and emailed to to my novel group for this month's meeting in place of a novel chapter. When I started writing it, I thought it would be something of a tragic love story with a twist, but it turned out to be less about love than about coming of age. The protagonist is very immature at the beginning but is forced to grow up quite quickly. The ending is not happy, but I couldn't really see any way out of the situation that was. The word count is now at 5,700 which is a little bit longer than I hoped. I may need to trim it a little, but I also think I need to add just a couple things to make the setting stronger. This is the story I hope to have polished enough to send for my pre-workshop submission for Odyssey.I am planning my trip to New Hampshire for Odyssey, which will be in just over a month! I checked out some routes in the atlas and on Mapquest yesterday, and it looks like the best route is going to be to Cleveland, Erie, PA, and then all the way across NY State and through southern Vermont. This will take about 15 and a half hours according to Mapquest. Since I haven't been to that part of the country except once as a child, I am going to take a couple days. At the moment I think I will stay overnight around Dunkirk, NY and visit Lake Erie State Park, and then one night around Bennington, Vermont so I can enjoy that scenic area and take my time getting to Mahchester, NH.Turandot opens tonight and it is sold out! I told the family and friends that are attending that they better pay attention and not clear their throats too loudly or they will miss my Act 1 handmaiden solo. :)