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. 🙂

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!

Finalist in the Lone Star contest! Yee-ha!

I’ve been sitting on this news for a week, so I’m super-pleased to announce that I’m a 2015 finalist in the Lone Star writing contest, run by the Northwest Houston Romance Writers of America. That’s my name in the Contemporary Series category.

Yee-ha! Since it’s a Texas contest, let’s throw our cowboy hats in the air to celebrate.

Yee-ha! Cowboy hat in the air.

Now I can finally breathe out. At least until the winner is due to be announced in a few weeks at the Lone Star conference. Then I’ll probably be hyperventilating on this side of the world via Facebook. No, just kidding. I’ll be away for the weekend at a holiday house by the beach with barely any internet connection. BITING MY NAILS.

You know that feeling when you’re buzzing with energy but your brain is so scatty you can’t concentrate on anything? That’s what I’ve been dealing with lately. I’ve actually been trying to edit two separate pieces of writing so it’s been a bit difficult.

But it’s been a fantastic experience to enter a US contest and find that the story I’ve been working on is well-received by reader-judges in America. Their comments have been insightful and helpful, especially as I’m still editing.

My almost complete manuscript, Dating Little Miss Perfect, was the piece I entered in this contest. It’s a fun story about Eden, a research scientist and Brandon, a marketing manager at a big pharmaceutical company in San Diego, California. They are competitors by day, and anonymous online dating partners by night. But what happens when Brandon finds out it’s Eden he’s been chatting to? You’ll just have to wait until it’s published to find out!

In the meantime, here’s my Dating Little Miss Perfect inspiration board on Pinterest if you want to see some pretty images (especially the images of my current hero muse, actor Jensen Ackles from Supernatural) and general story ideas.

By the way, I still have some other exciting writing news that’s burning a hole in my brain, but that news will have to wait until another day. Don’t you just love a cliffhanger?