Love Gone Wild!

This past weekend I was lucky enough to attend the Love Gone Wild conference run by Romance Writers of Australia in Brisbane. I don’t think I’d be underestimating if I said the effect of the weather on my mood was magical. Goodbye, frosty Melbourne! Hello, sunny Brisbane!

As soon as I arrived on Friday afternoon, I shucked off the multiple layers of Melbourne clothes and enjoyed the sunshine and 28 degree C temperature. And the super swish room at the luxury Pullman Hotel and my two fun room mates didn’t hurt either.

Love Gone Wild cocktail party

Then it was a chance to get ready for the Love Gone Wild cocktail party, a costume or fancy dress event that’s always a hoot! It was amazing to see some of the wild animals let loose on the dance floor. I especially loved the flamingos and a certain ninja turtle who I didn’t even recognise under her body paint! Check out the pictures below, I’m sure you’ll see what I mean!

Business Hub

Over the next two days I set about learning lots of new information from the fantastic guest speakers in the new Business Hub stream. The content from Google, Draft2Digital and iBooks left my head spinning…but in a good way. I came away with heaps of things to research and study. I’m looking forward to implementing some digital marketing and promotional ideas over the next few months.

Awards Dinner and Butterfly Ball

The Awards Dinner and Butterfly Ball on Saturday night was a great chance to shake our tail feathers, too. And so many writers that I know and admire were up for the big awards. Special super-dooper congratulations to my fellow Melbourne Romance Writers Guild members, Miranda Morgan and Janis Linford, who were both contest finalists. Correction, Miranda also won the Ripping Start contest!

Of course mega-awesome authors Avril Tremayne and Amy Andrews are two of my absolute favourite Aussie authors, so it was wonderful to see them pick-up the big gongs. Congratulations to both of you. Mwah!

Networking like a #LoveArmy

But most of all, the conference was a chance to network with like-minded romanciers, the fabulous (mostly) women writers who focus on the positive, the good, the love in the world. Something we all need right now. Someone on Facebook mentioned that RWA is like an army of love. I totally agree and propose we all need #LoveArmy buttons.

Anyway, without further ado, please enjoy this Storify round-up of some of the social media around conference including lots of photos.

P.S. I’ll also be writing something else about the conference soon for the Romancing the Genres blog! Yes, I’m going to be a Genre-ista! How exciting. 🙂

Ain’t Love Grand – Romance Australia 2016 conference highlights

For the last four days, I was lucky enough to attend the Romance Australia 2016 conference, Ain’t Love Grand. It was my third conference and probably the most fun!

Below is a Storify wrap-up of my Twitter feed from the weekend, filled with notable quotes, and as someone else told me, lots of impressive cleavage! My writing group pals in the Melbourne Romance Writers Guild (MRWG) were all brilliant as usual, and also looking particularly fabulous…

View the story “Rocking the Romance Writers of Australia 2016 conference #RWAus16” on Storify

Super-dooper highlights

On Friday, the Michael Hague Story Mastery workshop was gold, right from the start. Michael is a Hollywood screenwriting consultant, having worked with the likes of Will Smith on finessing a script. His focus on romantic comedies was right up my alley, and I think I’ll gain a lot of inspiration from that session into the future.

Friday night was the cabaret-themed cocktail party. It was a hoot, and of course it was special to me, as I received my First Sale ribbon, acknowledging that 2016 was the year my first novel was published. My debut novel, Girl on a Plane, was only released about a month ago by Avon Maze/HarperCollins UK, so it’s still exciting and new to be an official author. I found time to chat with other authors and fangirl like a boss!

The morning after the night before was all a bit hard…but once I found real coffee and got going, I enjoyed some fab workshops and also brainstormed some new story ideas with some friends.

Then Saturday night was the big gala awards dinner in the Stamford Grand ballroom. I still can’t quite express how excited I was for my writing group friends who were up for big awards. Samara Parish and Jess Devine were Highly Commended in the Valerie Parv Award, and Chris Weston from the MRWG won! Also Stefanie London was Skyping from Canada, watching the announcement of the short, sexy romance category in which she was a finalist. Well done to all!

The biggest news from the awards was the WIN by MRWG’s own Michelle Somers, in the RuBY Award (Romantic Book of the Year) for her romantic suspense novel, Lethal In Love. Our table erupted into hooting and hollering, even from the ladies phoning it in via Skype. Super-dooper mega congratulations Michelle!

Later we danced the night away, busting out some 80s moves and even a shimmy-shake like my own flight attendant heroine, Sinead. This was on special request from Vanessa Carnevale, otherwise I wouldn’t have done it, because I’m such a shrinking violet on the dance floor… 😉

Sunday was more relaxed, but I have to mention the fantasticly funny and inspirational keynote speech from Fiona McIntosh. She challenged us all to work hard, write like it’s a job (it is), bum in seat and come and get her on the bestseller lists. It’s on!

Now the Ain’t Love Grand conference is over, I feel inspired to finish my manuscript (dubbed the Neverending Story) and get onto something new and fresh. Happy writing everyone!

Prepare for take-off!

My debut contemporary romance/romantic comedy novel, Girl on a Plane, will be released globally as an e-book on 18 July 2016. As I batten down the hatches and prepare for take-off, I’ve been excited to have a bit of pre-release publicity.

A Book To Watch!

First of all, a massive thanks to the AusRomToday site for featuring my book as one of 5 Books To Watch in July. I’m in such great company too, with some fabulous Australian romance authors. I want to read all of these books, stat!

Check out the cool promo video here:

5 Books To Watch in July – AusRomToday

Hearts Talk article

Today, the July issue of Hearts Talk magazine hit the inboxes of about 1000 members of the Romance Writers of Australia. I was lucky enough to have a full-page article published in the magazine, outlining my path to publication following the We Heart New Talent contest win (with Avon Maze/HarperCollins UK).

Hopefully the aspiring and emerging authors who read it will find it interesting, to learn about the process from entering a contest, to winning, to getting the book ready for publication.

Here’s the full article, if you’d like to read it.

Prepare for take-off article in Hearts Talk magazine

Soon, I’ll have something else exciting to share here, in the lead-up to release day. In the meantime, I’d love for you to pre-order Girl on a Plane, or sign-up to my newsletter mailing list on this page, for a couple of exclusives coming soon.

Finalist in First Kiss writing contest

I had some exciting news on Easter Sunday night. I received a phone call from a contest organiser from the Romance Writers of Australia association, letting me know that I am a top 6 finalist in the First Kiss writing competition. Hooray! I was so excited I was fit to burst (I still am actually).

What is this contest, I hear you ask?

Well, it is an opportunity for unpublished writers like me, writing novels in the romance genre (or writing romantic elements stories) to submit a 1500 word scene for review by a panel of expert judges, including bestselling authors. The scene needed to include the first kiss between the main characters.

What is this novel of which I speak? Glad you asked that too.

Some of you might remember my earlier babbling here and on social media about the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) competition. I started writing a novel in November 2013 and although I didn’t finish it, I managed to write 35,000 in a month. I was off to a good start. I wrote a little more over the next couple of months, but the manuscript is still incomplete.

It’s a chick-lit or romantic comedy style novel, set in Melbourne with a bunch of wacky characters and possibly some superheroes. I can’t tell you too much…you’ll just have to read it someday if it’s ever published.

I decided to edit and polish my 1500 word scene for the contest and submit, just for the opportunity for the judges’ feedback and score sheets. I never expected to be listed as a finalist, but I did it! I was so very excited to see my name on ‘up in lights’ on the finalist list.

The final round will be judged over the next 4-6 weeks by a literary agent in New York. Wish me luck!

Banging out the words and writing like a pro

So it’s been a while since my last post. Because reasons. Life. Kids. Work. Winter. I mean, blergh, I’ve succumbed to quite a few germs lately. But in between all of that, I’ve been working on a couple of projects that I’m quietly excited about. Yay! Maybe not so quiet.

Romance books – love writing them like a crazy person

First, I’ve written a short story of about 9000 words that should be published in a couple of months’ time in an anthology. More news on this development very soon. And a cover reveal coming. Squee!

The other project is a full-length novel that I’ve almost completed drafting. It’s a contemporary romance with humour. I recently entered the first three chapters of this manuscript in the Valerie Parv Award, a well regarded contest for unpublished writers of romance fiction run by Romance Writers of Australia. The competition was fierce, but I was thrilled to receive not one, but two perfect scores from the judges and another score in the 90 per cents… Not bad, and eighth place was better than a kick in the pants.

I’ve been busily writing away, adding words, completing scenes, bringing the plot together in some sane order (I hope) and it’s been such fun. I’m enjoying this project so much. Hopefully, I might find a publisher who enjoys it too.

More news coming very soon. I promise. Really.

Confessions of a writing contest junkie

This blog post was originally published on the Melbourne Romance Writers Guild site on 14th February 2016. However it has nothing to do with Valentine’s Day. Did I plan that badly? Sigh…

I’ve been entering writing contests for just over two years. I did the maths in my head and realised in that time, I’ve entered about 15 contests. I know I may have a minor writing contest addiction problem.

What’s a writing contest?

This is what my family and friends asked me when I first entered one in mid-2013. I hardly knew the answer at the time, having just decided to get serious about creative writing for the first time in (mumble, mumble) years.

For the uninitiated, writing contests are run by publishers and writing organisations such as Romance Writers of Australia and offer the opportunity to:

win a prize, sometimes cash, often a publishing contract
gain feedback from fellow writers or editors
develop your writing, working to specific guidelines
finish something, in time for a contest deadline
grow your network of writer contacts
avoid the ‘slush pile’ of unsolicited manuscripts
get your work ‘out there’ in front of key editors, agents and publishers.

Romance novel contest leads to madness…

My little problem started in 2013 when I joined Twitter and started following authors I admired, then a few publishers. I stumbled across a little thing called So You Think You Can Write or #sytycw in Twitter hashtag speak. This is a global writing contest run by Harlequin, one of the biggest romance publishers in the world. A publishing contract was on offer for the winner, but not only that, a squad of fifty editors were on hand to provide tips and feedback.

I asked myself, “Could I write a romance novel?” and despite never having tried before, I answered, “Why the hell not?” I started to write, and I loved it. Was it mad to try to write my first novel in three months? Of course it was, but I’m so glad I did it.

This contest taught me so much about writing, it’s not even funny. I participated in online ‘boot camp’ activities such as writing a 100 word pitch and a synopsis, having work critiqued by other aspiring writers. I was also selected for a first page critique by an editor, which was so valuable it should have been sprinkled with gold dust.

I also had barrels of fun interacting with the other entrants on Twitter and Facebook, and made heaps of writer friends. Some of them formed the core of an international online writing group I still hang out with.

Twitter pitch opportunities

Twitter pitch contests such as PitMad (Pitch Madness) or #pitmad hosted by author Brenda Drake, offer writers the chance to pitch their book in 140 characters or less. Try it! It’s really hard and will make you crazy! Editors/publishers and agents watch the tweets over the course of a day and favourite the ones they’re interested in. Then writers can send it manuscripts or queries in the requested format. Warning: this contest can be really fun and addictive!

Also, look out for regular Manuscript Wishlist or #mswl tweets and other specific calls for manuscripts.

Publisher ‘open call’ contests

Publisher contests offer the chance to post a pitch or blurb relevant to a particular call for submissions. Some examples are the Entangled Publishing blog wishlists or the recent Tule Publishing ‘Pillow Talk’ contest for the new Eros imprint.

The Harlequin Community runs regular writing challenges and series contests e.g. the recent ‘Blaze Blitz’. I know several writers who have fast-tracked their way into book contracts through these types of smaller, more specific contests.

So, follow publishers on Facebook and Twitter, subscribe to their blog pages and keep an eye out for those opportunities. Get to it!

Romance Writers of Australia contests

I was recently chatting to some other emerging authors and realised that the Romance Writers of Australia contests are probably the most helpful thing I’ve done to improve my writing. I started with the First Kiss contest (and was a finalist!) then entered the Valerie Parv Award twice, not making the finals but doing pretty well, also the Emerald Award and Ripping Start were good learning experiences.

I haven’t entered any of the published author contests…yet. I can’t wait until I can.

International romance writing contests

Last year I entered (and came third!) in the Lone Star contest, run by Northwest Houston Romance Writers of America.

My Lone Star contest 2015 finalist badge – any excuse to re-blog about this!

Most of the US state-based chapters of RWA run contests, many open internationally. The Golden Heart is the big contest for unpublished authors with a full manuscript ready to go.

In return for a small entry fee, you gain feedback from authors more familiar with the US market, your specific sub-genre or simply offer a different perspective. You might not always agree with the feedback but it can be an eye-opener. For example, if that anonymous US judge is reading this, I still don’t agree that ‘British’ English is wrong or distracting…

See the Romance Writers of America website for details or check websites such as Stephie Smith’s writing contest list for contests coming up across multiple genres.

What I’ve learned as a contest junkie

They’re fun! The online contests especially have a sense of community and excitement.
They offer great insights into your work. You might have to sit back and mull over some of the feedback for a while, or even rant a little if it’s negative, but it’s all a learning experience.
They don’t hurt. I was slightly terrified of entering a US contest. I thought, small fish, big pond, they’re going to hate me and I’ll do terribly badly. I was wrong.
They give you something to shoot for. A deadline, a goal, a reason to think of a new idea, all of these reasons are gold.
They could raise your profile. If you’re working away in your writing cave, getting ready to submit a manuscript, a writing contest credit on your website or in your query letter may help you get noticed (I’m hoping).

As I wait patiently (crazily) to announce something related to another international writing contest, I’m toying with entering (you guessed it!) another writing contest.

It’s the circle of life for a writing contest junkie.