Romancing the West - Awesome-sauce!

The Romancing the West mini-conference yesterday was amazing!! So much goodness packed into one day, my brain is fit to explode with all the excellent advice and info.

I was especially thrilled to meet up with my on-line buddy, Fiona Lowe, and it was sooo great to chat face-to-face rather than e-mail-to-email!

Here I am, posing with Fiona at the tea break! (Thanks to the lovely Rachael Johns for taking the pic!)


Fiona gave an excellent workshop on conflict and finding your characters' backstory. And the importance of drip-feeding information throughout the story rather than giving a great big info-dump upfront.

Nikki Logan's workshop on branding was awesome. It's something I've really struggled with but it was just like someone (Nikki, lol) bopped me over the head with the clue-stick. I hope I can now implement her advice!

And Juliet Marillier's workshop on history, guesswork and wild imagination was fantastic! Not least because it reassured me the way I go about researching and weaving it into the book isn't half as crazy as I've always wondered!

I'll be putting a full report up on my website shortly!

In other news, I'm over at Shelley Munro's blog today, with a writer's tip. Hope you can pop over and say hi!!!

Romancing the West & Edits

Very excited about the Romancing the West Seminar tomorrow! Will be so much fun to catch up with everyone and meet a lovely friend of mine, Fiona Lowe - fab HM&B Medical author.

There are some great workshops on offer, including Conflict and finding the Zen of your Backstory (one of Fiona's - can't wait!), Branding - Why You Need it Before You Sell from Nikki Logan. I'm definitely going to this one because I'm a bit lost about the branding thing.

And in the afternoon Juliet Marillier is talking about History, guesswork and wild imagination: Creating believable historical settings in your fiction. And I definitely want to attend that one!

There are also other fantastic workshops from Australian author Fiona Palmer. Not to mention morning and afternoon tea and lunch (not that I think of my stomach *all* the time...)

In other writing news, I heard back late on Wednesday night that my editor approved my changes and the book has been passed onto the next stage. Yay! I was so excited I could hardly sleep!!

Romancing the West & VistaPrint

Yay. First chapter done! Whether it's any good or not I'll leave to my CPs!! But the main thing is it's down and the pesky couple of paragraphs of description (that took me almost an entire week to nail - I know, unbelievable isn't it!!) have been wrenched from my imagination onto the page. I much prefer to get onto the nitty-gritty of the interaction between my hero and heroine but I have to set the world first. And I can't leave a blank and go back to it - I'm strictly linear!

In other news, I'm getting very excited about the upcoming Romancing the West one day conference in Perth on 1st May. I've ordered some postcards of my pretty cover for the goody-bags from VistaPrint (and VistaPrint rocks! I'm awesomely impressed by their customer service) and it will be fantastic to meet up with everyone.

I've also discovered it's a Very Bad Idea to look at airfare prices late at night on an iPhone. With the upcoming RWA conference in August, I was almost beside myself last night when I discovered Virgin Blue charged $209 for a return to Sydney so immediately raced to the computer to grab this bargain with both hands. Only to discover, of course, that was a one-way ticket! I hadn't scrolled down far enough on the iPhone. Oops!

2010 Romancing The West Conference

From the Romance Writers of Australia's website:

Romance Writers of Australia inc

proudly presents

The 2010 Romancing The West Conference

Featuring…

Juliet Marillier (www.julietmarillier.com)
Three time winner of the Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel

Fiona Lowe (http://www.fionalowe.com)
Harlequin Medical author and 2007 Finalist for Romantic Book of the Year. (R*BY).

Fiona Palmer (http://www.fionapalmer.com)
Penguin Australia author

Nikki Logan (http://www.nikkilogan.com.au)
Harlequin Sweet author

Plus: giveways and much, much more.

Come and hear some of Australia's leading romance authors talk about the craft of writing and the industry they work in. With interactive tutorials and an author panel, it's a day no aspiring author should miss.

After a day full of information, relax and catch up with your new friends at our post conference dinner.

Saturday 1st May 2010

Metro Hotel
61 Canning Hwy
Perth

Cost:

Pay before 1st April 2010 After 1st April

RWA Members $100 $110

Non-Members $110 $120

Set 2 Course Dinner - $35.00 per head (Drinks not included)

Prices include lunch, morning and afternoon tea

Since the first Perth Roadshow back in 2008, Nikki Logan sold to Harlequin Mills & Boon Romance, Loretta Brabant sold to Avalon Romance, Shona Husk to Samhain, Michelle Diener to Pocket Books and yours truly to Berkley.