RWNZ Conference - The Musical

Okay, so no, I'm not going to sing (you lucky people!) But after the conference I certainly feel like it. The passing of Sandra Hyatt cast a pall - how could it not? - but I'm sure she won't mind if I pass on some of the good things that came out of the conference. And there were some extremely good things.

1. My pitch to Lucy Gilmour. I'd won the First Impressions Contest #2 and my prize was the pitch. And since she'd already read and judged the first 1k of my story, we didn't really talk about it much. In fact we ended up about me and my writing (poor Lucy)! Anyway, she was lovely and so encouraging that I felt like getting down on my knees and paying homage. :-) Rather OTT I know but she laid to rest a great many fears I had. The end result anyway is that they're extremely excited about my Modern partial and are impatient to see it. Only hope I don't break it the way I broke the Hammer Pants ms.

2. My pitch to Angela James. Who loved it and asked if I had the ms with me. She was just joking of course but she was really keen which makes me really keen too. Now I just have to finish rewriting the end so I can send it to her.

3. Dinner where I got to sit beside the fabulous Natalie Anderson (Hoo took rather a shine to her as you can see), who wore her Adidas tracksuit (theme was the Rugby World Cup) complete with sparkly heels, and who had the best hair. She was wonderful company and made me swear that I would enter my next five - yes, you heard right - manuscripts into NZ's Clendon Award. I promised one. ;-) Anyway, go buy her new book because she's a fab author and lovely lady. Yes, buy it I tell you!

4. Molly O'Keefe. Who liked my hair. And gave one of the best ever workshops on conflict. It was so inspiring she even had a few lightbulbs herself and had to go off to jot them down. :-) Seriously, she was wonderful. A few highlights were having at least three facets to your character's life in your plot, and at least three scenes scenes for every facet. The first establishes it, the second raises the stakes, the third resolves it. She also gave a great run down on hooks and how to tweak them for that all important 'unpredictability factor'. Basically the way to do that is to think about why people love to read, say, a 'secret baby' story. Think about what people expect to have happen, then think about how you can tweak it so that it's different to what people expect.

5. Bob Mayer gave an awesome talk on how to write a great synopsis and also marketing of your book. The possibilities given social media are pretty endless and repetition seems to be key. The main points really are that only you can sell your book. No one else is going to do it for you.

6. Wearing my contest rosettes. In NZ, if you final or place in a contest, you get to wear rosettes and after a few conferences of a sadly bare chest, it was finally my turn. I had two! I had to be careful of their placement. ;-)

7. Collecting my certificates for my contest placings from Lucy Gilmour on the stage. Yeah, I know, but hey, I'm celebrating my successes here, no matter how small.

8. Spending time with the lovely Amanda Wilson and Cody Young.

9. Meeting more fellow writers who are also riding the roller-coaster with me.

10. Going home and finally being able to sleep without a million things scrambling around in my brain!

Anyway, I haven't really done justice to some of these things and that's mainly because when I got home and read through my notes, I realised they were hopeless. It's been a long time since my university days and clearly I suck at note-taking.

I haven't finished up my spiel about the Aussie conference either but since Jane Porter gave the most inspiring closing speech ever, I might save that for a seperate blog post. And besides, I'm pretty damn tired - two conferences back to back, especially when circumstances are tragic, are pretty full on.

Hope everyone else has been doing okay. Thanks also for your lovely comments re my last post on Sandra. It's going to take a while to sink in, let alone get past (not that you ever really do).

Sad News - Sandra Hyatt

I'm going to continue to my round-up of the RWAus Conference and then pass on some good stuff from the RWNZ conference too but I just wanted to mark the passing of Desire author, Sandra Hyatt.

I didn't know Sandra well but often had great chats to her at our Auckland chapter group meetings. In fact, I did a blog post not two weeks ago about our last meeting, where she talked about essence and identity - a subject that gave me a number of lightbulb moments about my WIP. Afterwards I had a chat to her about Desire and whether or not I should send something there, and she was so lovely and encouraging. Then she confessed that she was almost going to tell me that I was close [to selling] but that she wouldn't because she'd always hated it when people had said it to her. :-) I still remember laughing about that.

But what I've also been thinking about today is how she told us a little bit about the story she was working on. It sounded so different and fresh, and it's just so sad that this story will remain untold, as will all the other stories she had yet to write.

When something sudden like this happens you do kind of evaluate life and where you're heading. You think about your dreams. About what you want to achieve. About what's holding you back.
And I think the main thing that's come out of this for me built on what Jane Porter said at the closing of the RWAus conference a couple of weeks back...

Your stories are yours. No one else can write them for you. No one else can write them like you can. You own them. And if you don't get them down, they will remain untold.

Don't let them remain untold.

Deepest sympathies go out to Sandra's family and friends, and to the rest of the RWNZ

The Awesomeness that was the Romance Writers of Australia Conference - Part 1

Alrighty... *rolls up sleeves*

So this post is going to be about the best part of the conference (for me at any rate) - the people.

What came across quite clearly at the conference - from a number of different speakers - was what a wonderful bunch of people romance writers are. And I can quite categorically state that this is absolutely true. They are the BEST bunch ever and I couldn't have asked for better company. I want to have the weekend all over again just so I can spend more time with them all.

Anyway, here is a list of conference highlights in no particular order:

1. Seeing one of my CPs, the fabulous Rachel Johns, get her First Sale ribbon. It was especially funny to see her gas-bagging so much she almost forgot she had to go up on stage to get it!
2. Having the gorgeous Becca Heath's company at dinner with Mum and I.
3. Finally meeting the awesome Robyn Thomas AKA Chelsea Finch, one of my Sassy Sisters, face to face instead of via email.
4. Drinking the Moet that my Mum brought duty free in our hotel room with Bec and Rach before the awards dinner.
5. Not falling over on the way up to the stage to collect my High Five award.
6. My one minute of fame when I collected my High Five award.
7. Losing mobile service so I couldn't text my Mum (who was up in the hotel room) just before the High Five award was announced. Then getting it back again just in time for Mum to dash downstairs to the ballroom to see me collect the award!
8. Did I mention collecting my High Five award? ;-)
9. Having the wonderful Helen Lacey (Special Edition) recommend my blog to another author at our table.
10. Having my photo taken with the lovely Presents author Megan Crane (Caitlin Crews). I got quite shy and couldn't think of a word to say other than smile manically!
11. Saying hi to Jane Porter cos Maisey told me to. Cue another performance of me smiling manically cos I was too shy to say anything!
12. Tearing up at Jane's closing speech.
13. Hearing someone ask, at a panel discussion on heroines, whether any of the authors and editors present would do a crack-head heroine. Answer was: All in the execution. Cue a number of manuscripts being sent in that have crack-head heroines.
14. Having photos taken in the vintage photo booth with Robyn.
15.The plane not crashing either on the way to Melbourne or on the way back.
16. Having my amazing mother come with me, share her Moet, meet my writing buddies, see me collect my award, hold my hand on the plane, and just generally be the best roomie a girl could hope for. Love ya, Mum!

But of course, with every wonderful time, there are a few regrets:

1. That there wasn't a free night to go out to dinner with all my fabulous mates.
2. That I didn't ask Jane P or Megan if Hoo could get his photo taken with them.
3. That my other Sassies weren't there to join Robyn and I.
4. That the my fabulous mates don't live just down the road so I can go and talk to them whenever I want.
5. That the NZ conference wasn't quite so close!

Will do another post of the actual sessions I went to and some of the insights gained, but really, it was mostly about the people and I want to do it all over again!

Essence and Identity

Okay, this is last blog post before Melbourne and the RWAus conference. Really looking forward to it - especially spending actual face-time with some of my awesome online buddies. Plus I get the extra special treat of meeting one of my Sisters! *waves at Robyn just in case she sees this*

But before all that, I need to start contemplating the essence of my hero in the story I am going to pitch Lucy Gilmour. Why? Well, at our most recent chapter group meeting, the very wonderful Sandra Hyatt gave us a talk about the Micheal Hague workshop she did and part of it really resonated with me.

Our characters wear two faces - the face they show to the world, and the face they keep to themselves. The face they show to the world is their identity, the face they keep to themselves is their essence (the people they truly are). Now in the story, the characters should conflict at the level of identity, but they should connect at the level of essence.

I thought that was a very simple way of making sure there is conflict in a story, but also some real romance. Because it's the moments where the two characters connect that show the reader that these two are meant for each other. Of course what it means is that I need to figure out who my characters actually are, as opposed to the face they show to the real world. Tricky. I know the faces they show to the world but working backwards to find their essence is another thing.

Anyone have some handy tips??

BTW, a big shout-out to my chapter-mate Louise George who has recently sold to Medicals!! Awesome, Louise!! Her first book is out in March!

Another Ride on the Rollercoaster

Yep, the publication rollercoaster has pulled up outside my station and apparently there's a seat there with my name on it. What the hell am I talking about?

Found out yesterday I won the First Impressions Contest #2, a pre-RWNZ conference contest. Was pretty damn pleased, as you can probably guess. The past month has been vile so I was dreading to hear the final placings. The last contest I lucked out, coming fifth, and didn't receive a request which made me sad. To be fair, although the chapter was strong - I STILL think it was - the scenario/conflict it was very, very Presents and probably not different enough to warrant asking for more. My opinion entirely of course.

This other contest though, I didn't want to know where I'd come, certain it was last. But no. As well as coming first, I have also been asked for a partial and synopsis. Plus I get to talk through the idea with Lucy Gilmour at the conference. So big yays for me!! Especially as they really liked a small twist I'd put in with the heroine. She's a little bit different. I wondered if it was too much but no, apparently not. Now I just hope I can pull it off.

But with a big win comes also big fear. Did this last year with the High Five win and TOTALLY ballsed up my partial.

However, my writing is so much better than it was at that point last year. I have learned a hell of a lot and one thing is for sure, I will not be making the same mistakes again. Of course I may make different ones but I guess that's another story...

Anyway, bubbles all round for everyone!

Climbing Mt Ngauruhoe

Holidays over. Phew. And a new month, which is even better, cos July has been, quite frankly, a stinker.

Yep, you guessed it, moany post alert! I haven't had one for a while so I figure I'm due one.

Keeping going with this writing stuff hasn't got any easier I'm afraid. I've stoppped thinking of climbing Everest. I'm now thinking in terms of Ngauruhoe. This is a mountain in NZ - for all you LOTR fans out there, it's Mt Doom. Which is a very appropriate title.

Why the change? Well, with Everest if you have the right equipment and skill level, and the weather is on your side, you can get to the top. I admit that in my forays up Everest my skill wasn't great, nor my equipment the best. But then you don't know these things until you fall off. The other thing I needed was the weather but somehow or other, the right combination of skill, equipment and weather has never lined up favourably for me. However, the thing about Everest is that I mostly enjoyed climbing it.

But I'm not these days which is why it feels like I'm climbing Ngauruhoe instead. This is a mountain comprised totally of shale. Climbing it is like climbing a massive sand dune. One step up, two steps back. There's no joy in climbing it (at least, when I actually did climb it years ago, I hated every moment of it), because all you do is trudge and keep trudging. What you need to get to the top is dogged determination and the belief you can do it.

And that's what I'm struggling to find. Dogged determination and self belief. One step forward is always accompanied by two steps back. It's dispiriting.Which makes it hard to keep going. What's the point when no matter how hard you climb, you don't get any higher?

So, what do you all do when you're feeling this way? Got any tips for me? God knows I could use 'em! :-)