RNA Conference 2011 - Day Two and the Gala

I wasn't supposed to be at the conference during the day on Saturday but fate intervened...It was an amazing day. It was also exactly what I needed as I tackle these edits. The day began with Linda Gillard's 'Set the scene, create the characters...painting with words'. There was so much from this session but here's a few highlights...

Linda Gillard

-readers co-create with the author
-just enough description to make the reader feel they are there otherwise it slows down the action
-when drafting don't do the action first then add the description. EMBED the description in the action from the start
-write concrete, specific detail. It works harder
-watch for your own boredom threshold
-character description can be where writing sags a bit
-be specific but not comprehensive
-framing...be aware of who is doing the describing...it can be a 2 way street

Jane Wenham Jones

Next up was the a funny, perfectly pitched session by Jane Wenham-Jones on 'Where's the hook? What's my angle?' The most important things she said for me was...'it's never too soon to think about how to sell or market you and the book.'

Tamsyn Murray

Then I sat in Tamsyn Murray's session 'Reader, he dumped me!'...the rise of the bad boy in YA lit more because of DD who is and will be reader these books. It was a fabulous session looking at bad boys in literature old and new. What is their attraction? How they have changed? And what are we teaching with the new bad boy/toxic boy? A heated debate ensued and I will be looking more closely at what DD picks up...

Post lunch it was a wonderful session with Alison King...'What Stops You? strategies to keep you writing.' As I mentioned perfect to help keep the focus on editing...

Miranda Dickinson and Ruth Saberton

Tamsyn Murray and Brigid Coady

Jill  Mansell and guess who

I then took a break. So many things were connecting in my head I needed to be somewhat still. Didn't succeed though as I spent time chatting with friends.

Emma Darwin

My final session for the day was Emma Darwin's 'The literary-commercial divide'. This was always going to be controversial and it didn't disappoint. She took us through what each offers readers and where they can fail readers before jumping into the area of books that fall between the two. She felt that in literary readers have to read into the spaces left by the writer and that readers have to work harder so they 'own' it more....She said if you fall in between the two you have to do everything better - deliver the page turning quality of commercial with the complexity of literary. It was a lively discussion and great fun.

Anna Louise Lucia, Fiona Harper, Julie Cohen, Brigid Coady

The flat mates all glam

Then off to prepare for the Gala Evening. In our flat we gathered in the kitchen to drink a bit of champagne before setting out to the bar...which turned out to be closed! We about faced and found a naughty kitchen to drink more champagne....

Judy Astley, Julie Cohen and Roger Sanderson

Me and my agent - Carole Blake

Anne Ashursy and Jane Wenham-Jones

Then the dinner and the announcement of the winner of the Elizabeth Goudge Award. As I mentioned on Monday I was the runner up with THE HOUSE OF GHOSTS (here) and Cally Taylor won with here entry THE SOMNAMBULIST'S DAUGHTER which is here. It is fabulous. But our flat and table had the wonderful Anna Louise Lucia who was also in the final six! I hope she will post her entry soon.

Anna Louise Lucia and Moi

The Heroine Addicts sans Susanna Kearsley...Anna Louise Lucia, Julie Cohen, Moi, Pia Courtenay, Brigid Coady

Moi and the fab Cally Taylor

Of course post dinner their had to be a naughty kitchen and it turned out to be ours!

In the fug of the naughty kitchen...Anna Louise Lucia, Carole Blake and Biddy Coady

A wonderful day....

The Heroine Addicts, Settings and Frenchman's Creek

One of the delightful by products of this years RNA conference was making an acquaintance a friend - Susanna Kearsley. I had met her in the pub after the awards lunch two years ago. I was surprised (she lives in Canada) and delighted to see her at the conference this year. The friendship grew from breakfast and not only breakfast but daily breakfast at McDonalds of all places....to make a long story short Susanna suggested that a few of us do a joint blog - the Heroine Addicts and thus it was born. The Heroine Addicts are Susanna, Julie Cohen, Anna Louise Lucia, Brigid Coady, Christina Courtenay and moi.

You can find the blog and my post of settings here.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer...

Now back to the laundry

Diversity

I have the fun task of compiling the the monthly list of publications for Romantic Novelists' Association (RNA). I was late doing this moths list because of netbook problem (ahem). So as I did this moths list I was struck by the diversity of the list. On it you have some big names - Jill Mansell and Katie Fforde and you have some newer writers as well. You have international publishers, US , e -pubs cover the light to the gritty. So I thought I would publish this months list here......enjoy the diversity :-)

June List 2009


Anna Louise Lucia – Dangerous Lies
1934755087,9781934755082 Medallion Press
June 2009 US$7.95, CDN$8.95Marianne Forster was only spending time with a gorgeous man in the hot sun of Morocco.It wasn't anything more than that - until she was kidnapped on the way home.

Susie Vereker - Tropical Connections
ISBN 9780 7278 67872 - Severn House
1st June £18.99
Love, art and intrigue in the Far East. Claire finds more than she bargains for.

Katie Fforde -Love Letters
978-1-8460-5447-1 Cenutry
4th June, £12.99 (on offer in Waterstones)

Catherine King - Without a Mother's Love
9780750530415 Magna Large Print Edition. Hardback.
June 2009. Price £19.99p.
'Abandoned and alone, they must find the courage to survive'
Another gritty saga set in 19th Century Yorkshire.

Victoria Connelly - Molly's Millions
Allison & Busby
£6.99
A fast-paced love chase about a lottery winner who gives it all away.


Monica Fairview - The Other Mr Darcy
0709088116 Robert Hale
June 30 - £18.99 (now on discount for £13.99 until the end of June from Robert Hale)
An Austeneque romantic comedy: Caroline Bingley is heartbroken at Darcy's wedding -- and caught in an embarrassing situation by Darcy's American cousin.


Sheila Newberry - The Watercress Girls
978-7090-8798-4 Robert Hale
30th June 2009 £18.99
In August 1914 Mattie dances in the stream with her sister, unaware that
their idyllic childhood in Suffolk is almost at an end.


Benita Brown – The Promise
978-0-7553-3476-6 Headline
June £5.99
A powerful story of two young sisters caught up in an underworld of corruption and deceit.


Kate Jackson - Reach for the stars
People's Friend June 13, 2009
78pHannah has no idea what to expect when she accepts Jack's strange invitation.


Julie Cohen - Girl from Mars
978-0755341399 - Little Black Dress
11 June 2009 - £5.99
"I, Philomena Desdemona Brown, do solemnly swear to forsake all romantic relationships. There. Now do I really have to say it in Klingon?"



Cat Marsters - Sundown International
978-1-60521-171-8 - Changeling Press ebook
26 June - TBC: approx $8.99
Collection of four previously released novellas in the Sundown series of paranormal erotic romance. Includes the award-winning Never Leave Me.


Louise Allen-The Society Catch in Regency High Society Affairs vol.4
978-0-263-87551-5 Harlequin Mills & Boon
June 2009 £6.99
Rather than face a loveless arranged match Joanna flees, and it is Giles Gregory, whom she has always loved, that her mother asks for help to find her.

Nicola Cornick - The Confessions of a Duchess
ISBN 13: 978-0-373-77377-0 Harlequin HQN Books1st June 2009 $7.99 or £4.73First in the Brides of Fortune Regency trilogy


Janet Woods - The Coal Gatherer (LP)
9780727877406
June-£19.99
1884 Callie Ingram is the daughter of a fisherman who defies her father to obtain her heart's desire.


Jill Mansell - Rumour Has It.
ISBN 9780755328192 Headline Review
25th June £6.99
Cotswolds-set rom com


Georgia Evans - Bloody Good
978-0-7582-3481-0 Kensington Fantasy
June $6.99
Vampire spies infiltrate the Surrey countryside during 1940.


Susan Palmquist -A Sterling Affair
1-60154-367-0 The Wild Rose Press
Date-June 5th, 2009 $12.99
Can Sir Ian Ashby, who just happens to be over 200 years old and returned from the grave, give Deana Adams a second chance at love?