Congratulations New Writers . . .

One of the nicest things about this trip to London and meeting with so many writers was the fact that in amongst them this time there were so many writers who have recently signed their first contracts or had their first books published. And meeting so many of them for the first time - or the first time since that event - added a very special somethng to the AMBA lunch or the HMB reception afterwards.

As you know, I really enjoy helping new writers and I'm honoured that some of these newly accepted/published authors have told me that they have taken taken the final steps as a result of either my critique in the NWS or their reading of the 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance.

So can I make special mention here of the lovely and talented Natasha Oakley - seen here - and who is featured in the Sunday Spotlight over on the Pink Heart Society site today. Natasha was one of the first New Writers I worked with, the first to take the trouble to write to me and thank me for the critique, and if not quite the first to be published, she thoroughly deserves her current success as one of the launch authors for the new Romance line with her current title Accepting the Boss's Proposal . Why not go and read her interview over on the PHS.




Other new authors I met this time were Chantelle Shaw whose third book The Frenchman's Captive Wife is out this month, and brand new signing Natalie Rivers whose Kristallis Baby will be out in 2007. I worked with Natalie on this book for the 2005 NWS so I'm delighted to see that Natalie's hard work on revisions has resulted in the sale of her fist M&B Modern title. I don't have pictures of Chantelle or Natalie - hopefully next time! But I do have a photo of the delightful Abby Green whose first M&B Modern title - Chosen as the Frenchman's Bride - is out in January 2007 . This picture was taken at the Modern/Presents authors' dinner on ther night before the AMBA lunch and as you can see Abby and the BM are deep in conversation - they formed a mutual admiration society - something to do with Abby being of Irish descent, like a certain Kate Walker that the BM is married to!

The final photograph shows one more brand new M&B Modern author - Christina Hollis (on the far left of this picture) who was also at the Presents authors' dinner and who also has her first book out in January - with the title of The Italian Billionaire's Virgin.

The lady in white in this picture is the internationally best selling author Sandra Marton - and the gentleman seated, busily photographing other authors present is her charming husband Marty.

Finally (for M&B at least!) in this 'roll of honour '- and the newest of the new authors signed this year (there seems to have been a real rush of them recently) - I have to send sincere congratulations to Imogen Grey who received her 'Call' only last Thursday and was kind enough to say in her blog that

I don't know if you keep a record of how many writers you've helped to
publication with the '12 Point Guide'? If you do please add me to the list!

Many many congratulations Imogen and I'm thrilled that the 12 Point Guide played a small part in your success


Oh - no - sorry - this isn't the 'final' success I need to mention. When I got home I found a package waiting for me. It had come from New Zealand and was the wonderful gift of a signed copy of Yvonne Lindsay's very first title for Silhouette Desire - The Boss's Christmas Seduction. I was lucky enough to meet Yvonne in NZ when I spoke at the conference there a couple of years ago - and my advice to her was to be brave and write from her heart. So I was thrilled to receive a copy of her very first book, signed by Yvonne the Brave

Which seems a suitable conclusion to this post. Every author I've mentioned here has taken their courage in both hands, submitted their work to face the scrutiny of strangeers in the form of critiquers like me and, most importantly, of editors. That does take courage because inevitably submitting means risking rejection - but on the other hand if you never submit then you can never ever be accepted and published.

So Congratulations once again to all these new authors just starting out on their new careers as published authors, and to everyone out there who is hoping, dreaming that one day they might join them - then have courage - keep trying - keep learning - and I hope that one day I might be able to list your first books on here as well.

Good luck!