As well as writing
children's books, I am quite partial to writing a nice romance every
now and then. In fact when I first started writing 30 odd years ago,
it was romances that I particularly wanted to write. At the time I
joined The Romantic Novelists Association (RNA) as a probationer, and
went along to a couple of their events.
There was a weekend in
Bournmouth where I heard author Mary Wibberley, talk and recall being
absolutely awe inspired by her. I bought her guide on writing
romance, To Writers with Love which she signed for me.
I was saddened to learn
that she passed away in December last year. She'd written almost 50
books for Mills & Boon, the first being Black Niall in 1973.
When my writing went in
the direction of children's books and non fiction, romance got put
on the back burner for some 20 years. Then a couple of years ago, I
caught the romance-writing bug again and finally got two romances
published as floppies with My Weekly and People's Friend – and then
in large print and ebooks.
This all rekindled my
interest in writing romance, and I re-joined the RNA, this time as a
full member. Good friend and fellow author Karen King – who writes
romance under the name of Kay Harborne joined at the same time, and in July this
year we went along to their annual conference, which was superb.
It was held at the
Harper Adams University, Telford and for the three days we were
treated to a packed programme of talks and workshops by top romance
authors, publishers, editors, agents and other professionals. At each
period there was always a choice of three different session to
attend, so you were just spoilt for choice as to who you were going
to be inspired by next!
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| Gala Dinner starter! |
Food and drink was
wonderful – it was good to see they recognised the fact that
writers like to eat and drink! There was a free drinks party before
dinner on the first night - courtesy of Independent Publishing at
Amazon. And they again provided lots of free wine the following night
before the gala dinner.
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| Author Pamela Hartshorne gave a fascinating talk. |
There was also an
opportunity to have a one-to-one with editors and agents, which you
pre-booked and submitted some work beforehand that you wanted
feedback or comments from.
All these slots were quickly nabbed, and I
think everyone there really appreciated the opportunity of talking
about their latest masterpiece with a possible publisher, or agent.
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| A little pre-dinner drink with Karen King. |
Everybody was
networking, exchanging emails, phone numbers and business cards. And
a few new friendships sprang up too, no doubt.
It was just such a
great three days – and if the RNA is an organisation that you think
would interest you, then I'd recommend you take a look and see what
they have to offer. As well as conferences and get togethers, they
have annual awards and lots of other activities going on.
