Today's Great Big Blog Party Guest Blogger is a lady who I hope has spent the last week or so relaxing, recovering and revelling in the thought of another job wonderfully well done.Because today's Guest Blogger is the brilliant Jan Jones who plans and organisesthe RNA Conferences with such brilliance - and so much hard work and worrying. A couple of weekends ago, in Leicester, Jan handled the arrangements for 150 or so delegates, a wonderful selection of speakers, meals, coffee breaks, rooms, sound systems . . . you name it - and all with the appearance of a swan gliding calmly through the water (though you know only too well that its feet are paddling away like mad under the surface to keep thing
s going.) She coped with late arrivals, good news and bad news, kept the sessions flowing, made sure they didn't overrun - and all with a smile on her face that maybe got a little fixed at times but never actually disappeared. She was, quite simply a star. And I'm quite sure that by the end of the conference she was exhausted and had to go home and recover.
s going.) She coped with late arrivals, good news and bad news, kept the sessions flowing, made sure they didn't overrun - and all with a smile on her face that maybe got a little fixed at times but never actually disappeared. She was, quite simply a star. And I'm quite sure that by the end of the conference she was exhausted and had to go home and recover.But you did a brilliant job, Jan. Thank you so much. If everyone had as great a time as I did then you can give yourself many pats on the back.
Of course in order to run such great conferences, Jan has become a Mistress of Manipulation, managing to persuade innocent and gullible friends and fellow RNA members into running talks/workshops/panels etc byapproaching them when they are in a very good mood (like at a 50th title celebration), happy, relaxed, and so unsuspecting . . . and then she pounces. Which is how I've ended up doing Library talks, workshops on plotting, Emotional Punch etc etc - and now it seems, in a moment of madness, have signed up for something else next year as well. But the truth is that I can rarely (OK, never) refuse Jan anything - and she did give me this conference off completely. (Which is probably why I enjoyed it so much!)
Jan doesn't just organise Conferences though, she also writes brilliant romantic comedy and her book Stage by Stage won the RNA's Joan Hessayson Award (for books that have been through the New Writers' Scheme). It's now published by Transita and I enjoyed it so much that just wish she'd get another published so I can enjoy that too!
So here's Jan Jones - Going For Gold
Fifty equals gold. Romance equals roses. So it was entirely appropriate that Kate Walker was show
ered with golden roses at her Big Fiftieth Title Party in Lincoln.
But - did you know that yellow roses are a comparatively new phenomenon? European roses were all shades of pink or white until the 19th century when the arrival of tea roses from the Orient caused an outbreak of breeding to produce different colours and forms.
Frenchman Joseph Permet‑Ducher spent twenty years breeding roses in a search of a hardy yellow variety. Then, one day in 1900, he noticed a mutant yellow rose in a field, which had all the characteristics he'd been trying to create!
Which brings me, rather tortuously, back to a Kate Walker link. One thing - was it from the emotional punch workshop, Kate? - which struck me particularly, was her saying that whilst it is always possible to refine a piece of writing to wring the maximum out of it, if the subject didn't spring naturally from your heart in the first place, it isn't going to work as well as something that does.
In other words, write from your heart. Which Kate does to perfection.
GIVEAWAY Q
UESTION: Kate had golden roses for her celebration. I'd like to know which flower means the most to other people, and why?
GIVEAWAY PRIZE: is a signed copy of Stage by Stage, my NWS award-winning romantic comedy. Or, if you prefer, one of the Sexy Shorts anthologies in which I have short stories.
Biography: Jan Jones is on the RNA committee and organises the annual conference. (She also takes advantage of Kate’s good nature from time to time, but that’s another story) One day she hopes to find enough time to write another book.
Fifty equals gold. Romance equals roses. So it was entirely appropriate that Kate Walker was show
ered with golden roses at her Big Fiftieth Title Party in Lincoln.But - did you know that yellow roses are a comparatively new phenomenon? European roses were all shades of pink or white until the 19th century when the arrival of tea roses from the Orient caused an outbreak of breeding to produce different colours and forms.
Frenchman Joseph Permet‑Ducher spent twenty years breeding roses in a search of a hardy yellow variety. Then, one day in 1900, he noticed a mutant yellow rose in a field, which had all the characteristics he'd been trying to create!
Which brings me, rather tortuously, back to a Kate Walker link. One thing - was it from the emotional punch workshop, Kate? - which struck me particularly, was her saying that whilst it is always possible to refine a piece of writing to wring the maximum out of it, if the subject didn't spring naturally from your heart in the first place, it isn't going to work as well as something that does.
In other words, write from your heart. Which Kate does to perfection.
GIVEAWAY Q
UESTION: Kate had golden roses for her celebration. I'd like to know which flower means the most to other people, and why?GIVEAWAY PRIZE: is a signed copy of Stage by Stage, my NWS award-winning romantic comedy. Or, if you prefer, one of the Sexy Shorts anthologies in which I have short stories.
Biography: Jan Jones is on the RNA committee and organises the annual conference. (She also takes advantage of Kate’s good nature from time to time, but that’s another story) One day she hopes to find enough time to write another book.
PS from Kate
I've posted the official 'Jan Jones as Conference Organiser' picture that Jan sent me - but Sid would like me to add this one - that I've snaffled from her web site - as well because it shows Jan with a very handsome friend
