RNA Conference weekend

So here’s how the statistics for the weekend stack up:

First and foremost  - people to thank for a wonderful, fantastically well organised and stimulating conference once again  - Jan Jones and Roger Sanderson

Hours spent getting lost en route to Telford 2

Minutes left to prepare/change clothing/brush hair before Wellington Library panel 5

People attending Wellington library  panel  30

Wedding anniversary celebrated 1

Old friends met up with again  100- maybe more

New friends made – 30

Talks/workshops attended 20

Quiz won  - 1 (by ½ point!)

Bottles of wine consumed . . . err – lost count

RNA ex-virgins (from when I ran the first-timers group)and writers now published after my courses/12 Point Guide – Janet Gover Rachael Thomas Brigid Cody Iona Garrett Cathy Mansell

Discussions with past course students after one to ones -   10

Books added to my TBR pile – 15 – with special thanks to Janet Gover, Lara Temple (see above)

Person to thank for all the photographs – 1-   John Jackson

Late nights in the kitchen with wonderful friends – 4

Cats to appease after abandoning them for 4 days – surprisingly, none. The wonderful cat-sitter we  asked to look after them did the job so well we actually had no complaints, no sulks, no retribution when we came home. 

Except – number of mice sacrificed to cats’ need to bring presents for cat sitter – 3

Hedgehogs to feed in the evening after we got back – 4  - that’s including one brand-new half-grown Heck who is currently eating his/her way through everything we put out for it.

Bundles of washing to dump in the machine and get dry before we head out to Writers’ Holiday- 4

Days to go before I have to turn round and head out again towards Fishguard and teaching on this summer’s Writers’ Holiday – 3 ….

Eeek – thank heaven I planned the course well in advance and had only to pack my handouts etc.

Conferences and Covers

Heading out today for the RNA Conference and meeting up with lots of friends and fellow writers - so looking forward to this. But I just wanted to share - sometimes my covers seem a bit 'samey' but every now and then I get a new cover design that really stands out. So I was delighted with this from a French collection that I spotted today.

 And I'm in a collection with the wonderful Sara Craven who was one of the special writers who made me love the romance genre and I learned so much from her! So consider my day made with this.

Now I need to finish packing and get one the road - to everyone I'll see at RNA - travel safely - Oh, and yes, I'll be at Wellington Library tonight so if you're coming to that I'll see you there.

PS Perhaps I should say that the title of mine in this collection is Cordero's Forced Bride - which had a rather different cover

Busy July

July is always a hectic month for me. So the coming week is going to need me to have my head down, nose to the grindstone - in theory this will mean finishing the book I've been wrestling with, for ever it seems.

The there will be the RNA Conference - where I have the appearance on the fantastic panel on Thursday evening 13th July, it's a free event at the local Wellington Library, from 7-8pm, so if you're in the area, and you'd like to come along, everyone's welcome - other fabulous writers on this panel are : Freda Lightfoot, Sarah Morgan, Nicola Cornick, Bernardine Kennedy.

At the RNA - as always - the Babe Magnet and I will be celebrating our wedding anniversary of many, many years but as the conference is always so busy and so much fun, we'll have our private, personal celebrations once we're home.

T

hen the next week (we have 3 days to turn around, get clean clothes and head out again we're heading for lovely Fishguard in Wales and the fabulous Gerald P Hobbs Writers' Holidays where I'm teaching The Complete Romance Writing course and one Stephen Wade is running a course called 'Make 'em Laugh' - writing humour. (Note to self - must find out if there are any places still availab

le on this year's Writers' Holiday in case anyone's interested.)

So as I know I shall be very busy (understatement ) in the rest of the month - I'm going to be doing something a bit special for the next few days - and introducing you to a new writer. Someone who writes very different sort of books from mine but they're fascinating and great reads - well, I'm partial because I know her! But if you have young readers in your family specially those who love books of fantasy and darkness, magic, menace and a truly terrifying foe - then come along - and there will be a giveaway to enter as well.

So that's coming up soon.  I hope you'll come by and meet this writer.