RWAus12 - The Pantomime

I think I said 'the musical' last year so this year it's a pantomime. Sorry, I'm not going to sing or dance. That would be far too much. But I shall post photos instead. Had the bestest time evah on the Gold Coast for the Romance Writers of Australia conference. My third year and this time I had a bright shiny (okay so it was blue and not shiny) first sale ribbon to stick on my conference badge!  As you can see I look rather tired - I blame Rachel Johns and Pink Ladies at the cocktail party the night before... Anyway, the conference was fabulous. Had a great time catching up with the lovely Rach and Bec, meeting again fabulous Madeline Ash, Helen Lacey, and Leah Ashton. Saying hi to fellow Entangled peep, Annie Seaton. Also meeting for the first time Fiona Marsden (sharing our love for Maisey Yates' tortured heroes) and Melissa Smith.

The workshops too were interesting, with Eloisa James giving a very inspiring keynote speech about putting your emotion in your writing.

One thing especially stood out this year and that was the sense that there were a lot more options for unpublished authors than there ever has been. Editors were actively selling their publishing houses to authors in a way I haven't seen before which was actually very exciting and I think contributed a lot to the positive feeling of the conference.

What else happened? Well lots. I lost my phone twice. Yes, twice. I know, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, once is a tragedy, twice starts to look like carelessness (or stupidity depending on your pick).  I went to the theme parks and screamed on the rollercoaster (it was a very small rollercoaster and my six year old did not scream). Dr Jax dragged me along to a timeshare presentation purely so he could get cheap tickets to Seaworld which meant I was almost late to my agent pitch appointment. Luckily I made it on time and got a full request for Mr Sheikypants from said agent. Dr Jax was forgiven...

And now I have to gear up for the RWNZ conference this weekend, where I get to pitch to an M&B editor but since they already have Monseiur Sheikh, I have no idea what I'm going to say. I guess 'hi' would be a good start. :-)

Sorry if I've left anyone out of my shoutouts. Suffice to say that I really enjoyed meeting and talking to everyone at the conference and can't wait till Perth next year!!

It's Conference Time

Well, I've been a bad blogger. Haven't been posting much but in my defense, have had lots on with getting Mr Sheikhypants into a fit state for sending, while angsting about my next Samhain submission and also the editing of the next Indulgence that I'm planning to send off soonish.

Oh and in the middle of that there's the Romance Writers of Australia conference that I'm going to and then the week after that the New Zealand Romance Writer's conference. Not to mention Dr Jax being an international jetsetter and flying off to Milan in a week or two - without me, I may add.

It's all very busy. 

Hopefully when I get back from the Gold Coast I'll have some good goss to relate and blackmail pics to post. I'm pitching to an agent there - first time evah! - so wish me luck.

In the meantime I'll leave you with a link or two:

This is to the Hot Pink Typewriter where fellow Indulgence author Victoria James is talking about torturing your characters. Okay, so she doesn't put it quite like that, but that's the essence of it. And since she posted this the same time I was putting my sheikh through the emotional wringer, I thought it was very appropriate.

Also see here, where the fabulous and talented Maisey Yates has her story of selling to Berkley with a cowboy story! So proud of you girl!

Ummm...and that's about it. Might do a post later about what to do when your characters take you places you really don't want to go (not looking at anyone in particular Mr Sheikhypants!). Should you go there or rein them back??  (I let him go there and still can't work out whether that was a bad thing or not).

 Have a good week, y'all.