40 for 40 - Sophie Weston

 

The romance writing world is an interesting network.  So often I've found that if I've read and enjoyed someone's books, then I usually like them when I meet them. This rule of thumb applies to today's guest -  Sophie Weston . And it's intriguing to see that in her post she mentions  the same sort of thing  - reading my books before she met me.

If I'm honest I can quite recall exactly when I met Sophie - she seems to have been part of my writing life for so long. We've connected at so many RNA events - conferences, award lunches . . . and then there are the AMBA lunches.   I've been lucky enough to visit her in her London home and meet her cats. Though I haven't met the present feline incumbent Tom Kydd who like Flora and Charlie  is a glorious Maine Coon.  

I had to smile reading Sophie's post - it brought back such  memories of the time I ran the Conference Virgins - ahem - Conference First-Timers network.  I made so many friends through that. You've met several of them here in the 40 for 40.  Thanks so much for the memories Sophie - and welcome to the blog.

 

Here's Sophie -

 

I cannot say what a pleasure it is to congratulate Kate and Steve on achieving their 40^th. We have shared a lot over the years – the anxieties of professional authorship, the delights and woes of living with cats (we are now both under the paw of Maine Coons), the frustration when a book hits a snag and, lo, the euphoria when it shakes free and heads to the end at full speed.

 

Before I met Kate I already knew and admired her books, with their enviably passionate heroes.  But I really got to know what a thoroughly good egg she is when I ran my first (of three) conferences for the Romantic Novelists’ Association.  The conference had been growing in scope and popularity for some years and that year a high proportion were going to be attending for the first time.  Kate, bless her, volunteered to be den mother of all the first timers.

 

And what a service they got! Her pre-conference briefings were so informative and, above

all, so friendly, that those first time attendees – conference virgins as they called themselves – knew each other well before they even arrived on campus.  They had come from all over the country and never met before. Many, though by no means all, were unpublished. One, dear Bev, was very ill. She told me that she had almost not come because she would know no one, had not been writing much recently, and was feeling down about her treatment. But she knew the others, after Kate’s first timers’ loop, and they all urged her to give it a whirl. I remember the hug Kate gave her when Bev arrived;  we sorted out disabled parking for to get about campus;  Steve was always unobtrusively on hand with calm, unhurried support if she needed it; the whole group – Kate’s group – buoyed Bev up the whole weekend, so that she went home zinging with enthusiasm on fun and friendship, as well as writing. Magic!

 

So Happy Anniversary, Kate and Steve, life enhancers both.    

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Sophie Weston has written lots of Harlequin Mills and Boon; GETTING THE POINT, basically punctuation for the petrified as Jenny Haddon with Elizabeth Hawksley; and  TO MARRY A PRINCE, as Sophie Page for Arrow books. She is currently 100,00 words into the Book of her Heart. She has been running away from it for 10 years and is scared to death.       

OOPS - sorry - I forgot to post Sophie's question  - so here it is:


Question - I've got a sequel to TO MARRY A PRINCE in mind. I keep asking myself, how much of your own life would you be able to hang onto, once you'd married your prince? What do you think? 

 

Prize: signed copy of TO MARRY A PRINCE