The RNA Summer Party

Last night at the Royal Overseas League was a glittering affair...

Me, Kay Burley and Jane Wenham-Jones

Handsome Date and Biddy Coady

Me, Scarlett Wilson and Lynda Dunwell - three of the Joan Hessayson Shortlist

The wonderful Evonne Wareham won with her novel her Novel Coming Home...

And then the Romantic Novel of the Year...Please Don't Stop The Music by the wonderful Jane Lovering

A brilliant night!

More photos of the night are on the RNA blog here.

It seems I have been appearing everywhere this week....the links

Over on the International Chick-Lit Month blog I've written a letter to my unpublished self here
There's a new Cornish Literature blog here
At Novelicious I'm there with my top tips for writing here and my writing rooms here and the fabulous review here...

Tomorrow we continue with the 'One Thing I've Learnt' series and you'll next here from directly the day after the London Launch of The Cornish House...on the 25th. Of course if you are in Lodon on the 24th you don't need to wait for the blog post - please come and join the celebration. It's on the 24th of May 2012 at 7PM at Waterstones High Street Kensington...there will be Cornish pasties...

The RNA RoNA Awards and Education day at the Emirates Airlines Festival of LiteratureJust what Jill mansell is doing

Monday was the RNA RoNA awards and today was Education Day at the Emirates Airlines Festival Festival of Literature...and i'm not sure where i am....

Good guess what Jill Mansell was up to...

But here are a few of the out takes from the photos i took on Monday...the rest are here.

My killer heals

Jane Wenham Jones and Judy Astley

Today i have the pleasure of running two creative writing workshops in Sharjah for the Education Day. It was such fun. The girls were interested and I loved the questions they asked....

Marketing - A Learning Curve Part 5 (I am a Product)

me - thinking hard

Here are the posts I did a little while ago on marketing and PR in case you missed them.

marketing - a learning curve
marketing - a learning curve part 2
marketing - a learning curve part 3
marketing - a learning curve part 4

I'm now only six months from publication of THE CORNISH HOUSE. Uncorrected proof copies are out in the world and people are reading it - GULP(more about this another time). The book is no longer 'mine' it belongs to who ever reads it. If it works, which I hope it does, it becomes the reader's THE CORNISH HOUSE. But God is this scary - as my kids would say sh*t scary - of course they would never say this in front of me!

These proof copies are a key marketing tool and I have begun posting them to reviewers and interviewers - fingers crossed they love it. But as I prepare to send these out and draft yet another email to another magazine or blog I have to think of myself as a product. I want to promote the book, but that may not be what they want. They want an article they can feature that fits their publication...

So I have to step back and think about myself differently. It is a time to put all bashfulness aside and ask...
- What about me is different?
- What about me is interesting? (nothing i hear you say, but look harder and go all the way back to primary school if you must)
- Think of the meme things that were so popular on blogs a few years ago - you know the ones where you confessed the world that you had been a runner up in a beauty pageant (yup - yes at 18 or 19, memory happily fails - trying for a branch in the Boston area of the Irish American Rose of Tralee Contest and a trip to Ireland) and that you won a poetry contest (not to my knowledge) etc...

I have been reading back copies of writing magazines, Alison Baverstock's book - MARKETING YOUR BOOK: An Author's Guide, and looking through my notes from Jane Wenham-Jones' talk at the RNA conference this summer. You do have to separate yourself from yourself if that makes sense. Make a decision about what you are willing to send with the wide world. You need to know what you are comfortable with sharing. How do your family feel about being dragged in? Be sure you know before you proceed!

So in order to put together a list for the publicity department at my publishers, Orion I had to dig deep - in fact it was more like having your tooth drilled without the benefit of pain relief. I also can say I haven't done a very good job but I did do it. I would suggest before you begin making little paragraphs - a simple list of one or two words...

For me it began with ...
- writer (stating the obvious but then it's not longer a blank list)
- wife
- mother of 3
- expat expert
- cat lover
- traveler
- fearful flyer
and so on... you get the idea. With that list it's easier to build pitch paragraphs and you need them. You need to be thinking out of the box all the time...as a debut author (by the way see Nicola Morgan's post here and make sure you click through and read Nicola's interview with Catherine Ryan Howard) chances are you won't be reviewed so you need to look at other ways to get your name and your books name out there...

This is where the list comes in handy...I was reading a writing mag on the flight on Friday. They mentioned a new magazine in Bahrain. So I dog eared the page and then yesterday I did some on-line research to see what the magazine was about...once I figured that out, I went to my list to find a fit....and twenty minutes later I had drafted an email to the editor highlighting a feature of my life that might just fit their magazine. Look at it like the children's game where you have a list of names on one side and pictures on the other....

me -losing the plot completely!

This also help to keep 'you' out of it...after all you are just taking a little paragraph and matching it to their needs....simple - sort of....

Have you ever thought of yourself as a product?

(the pictures were taken by the wonderful Adam Gibbard and you can find him here.)

Romantic Novelists' Association Conference Day Three

Let's just say that day three began with a head that reminded me that I am not young any more. Breakfast was a fairly subdued affair and as I sat opposite Julie Cohen we were both grateful that we both knew each other well enough that words were not required.

The first session of the morning was a PR round up by chairwoman Catherine Jones. The RNA is all about raising the profile of Romantic Fiction in all its many forms. This includes the two main prizes - The Romantic Novel of Year (this year Freya North's Pillow Talk) and the Romance Prize for category romance (this year Kate Hardy's Breakfast at Giovani's). Liz Bailey who has been doing a sterling job with the PR asked us all to vote on who we thought was the sexist thing on two legs. Well in my hungover state there was only one name that came to mind - Richard Armitage - later I thought of a few more. We then had an update on the preparations for the RNA 50th Anniversary in 2010.

Then just what every writer needs on those feeling less than wonderful mornings - laughter in the form of Jane Wenham-Jones. I began to take notes but I was laughing too hard to keep going. So will apologize that I can not even sum up her talk but if you haven't picked up a copy of her book Wanna Be A Writer then do..........

The next session of the morning for me was on the RNA's New Writers Scheme led by Melanie Hilton aka Louise Allen. She reminded us that agents and editors give you two minutes as they 'speed buy' so make it easy for them with polished work. I realized this year will be my fourth year in the NWS but as Giselle Green whose debut novel Pandora's Box came out in June was in NWS for nine years so it's worth it to keep at it.

Next Up was agent Caroline Sheldonwho began with the not so good news about the publishing world:-

-publishers are focusing on best sellers
-shelf life is shorter than yogurt but longer than milk
-the full effects of the Net Book Agreement are now fully visible
- numbers of publishers is condensing (now 9 major houses here) so it is tougher to place books
-they want to publish fewer titles
-minimum sales are 4000/5000 hardback and 15,000 paperback
-250,000 is a big seller
-mid lid have been cut from 12 to 6

However they still say the are:

- looking for fresh, new, different voices
- new directions in romantic comedy, chick lit, mum lit, Gothic (think The Thirteenth Tale), weepy (think Bridges of Madison County), sagas, sweeping stories (think Maeve Binchy or Rosamunde Pilcher), and quality historicals (think Philippa Gregory)

For submission her tips were:

-material needs to be tip top
-title must evoke what the book is about
-great first line
-research agents carefully - there are more of them now which is good for the writer

An agent should:
-be enthusiastic
-share your vision
-have drive, professionalism and flare
-be in it for the long term

The most important thing she can do for you is find you a powerful editor who will fight for your book.

So with a break for lunch and a nap I was ready for Julie Cohen's workshop on Pacing (which isn't just what you do in your Jimmy Choos while waiting for the of your dreams to ring).

Julie began with the fact that pacing works on two levels:
-the whole book
-sentence and paragraph

She said that as a writer we are a time lord (here we all glazed over thinking of David Tennant) as you manipulate time for your reader. You control the novel time, the reader's time, her experience of time (that she spends reading the book and how quickly or slowly this feels). This leads to an intimate relationship with your reader.

She then moved onto length of book and how this effects pacing. A shorter books is fast (obvious) and a bigger one has more time for subplots, introspection, world building, history and reader digestion. The two example she threw up on the screen were Green Eggs and Ham vs. War and Peace.

She suggested doing a calendar after the first draft to visually see how the story is moving through time. A periodic event can help pace book. The example she used was Carole Matthewsbook the Chocolate Lovers' Club. The four main characters meet on a regular basis.

Conflict:

Golden Rule Number One: reading time is subjective (real time has gone quickly yet they have spend a longer time with the character)

Golden Rule Number Two: a book with a lot of well handled conflict will seem to go more quickly no matter how many pages (here she noted Penny Vincenzi's books and Phillipa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl - big issues but reads so fast)

Function:

-a pacy book is efficient in it's story telling (no wasted time or repetitions)
-each scene should whenever possible have two or more purposes

Some General Functions:
-more the plot forward
-move the subplot forward
-character development
-create emotion
-create atmosphere
-create conflict
-impart information

Julie prints out the manuscript and then goes through it to make sure each scene serves more than one function and to be sure that she doesn't have scene that do the same thing in the same way.

Hooks:

-start each scene with a hook to grab your reader
-end each scene with a hook to keep your reader from putting the book down
-use the biggest hooks for chapter endings

Julie then had us analyse a short scene for The Other Boleyn Girl. In a small space P. Gregory had packed in conflict, dialogue, atmosphere and irony.

Variety:

Give your reader variety in:
-mood
-topic
-theme
-style

Julie sited Marian Keyes' This Charming Man as a good example.

Keeping a Secret:

Readers are nosey - keep your secrets back.. Ask yourself how long can I keep it back from the reader or the other characters. Delay as long as possible. Here she sited Giselle Green's Pandora's Box (not a spoiler as it is on the back cover - the daughter has a terminal disease and plans to kill herself but her mother doesn't know - as reader you keep turning the pages to find out what happens when the mother finds out).

Slowing Down and Speeding Up:

You need to slow down for:
-dramatic events
-important points
-emotional high points
-sudden happenings

Short scenes can speed up but can also slow down by distraction and the white space around it can make it feel like more time.

Speed Up or Skip
-coffee scenes
-description for the sake of it
-things that are necessary in real life but not in fiction (going to the loo, washing hands....)
-naturalistic but unneeded dialogue
-the bits at the beginning and ends of scenes that are not hooks

R.U.E

Resist the Urge to Explain

Getting Out the Chainsaw (and loving it)
-embrace it
-revise for pace
-do a chapter list with title and what happens or function after first draft to make sure the novel is balanced

Her final thoughts were that pacing is as important in Romance as in any other genre and it must be invisible to the reader. With that in mind she said to remember that:

Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did only backwards and in high heals.

I think that is enough of a post for today.......tomorrow I will fill you in on Kate Harrison's Botox for Writers. However check out the following blogs for more reports on the conference:
Kate Hardy
Imogen Howson
Ray-Anne's next installments

Romantic Novelists's Conference Day Two

Saturday was an example of how my life can be divided. I needed to be in two places at once. DS2 was celebrating his last day at prep school and there were all these wonderful sessions at the conference.........I may it back to the conference in time for Jill Mansell's talk which was the last session of the day.

Jill had us all laughing which did make it tricky to take coherent notes but here is what I can make out of mine (Jill if I have my facts wrong please please correct me - otherwise it might be embarassing!):

-she writes feel good fiction with nice people in it
-her characters are much wittier than she is (so she says)

-she writes by hand sitting comfortably on her sofa with tv going in the background

-she doesn't break the work up into chapters until she has written the whole book and can see where the breaks need to be

-she uses a time line

-she gets here ideas from being nosy, eavesdropping, watching tv while writing, problem pages in magazines, asking people pertinent questions

-sparks of ideas do just come

-she adores the Internet and has found that looking oneself up is like being in the a loo cubicle and having people just outside talking about you

-the biggest compliment is that she made a reader laugh or cry and helped them come through some hard times
-she collects embarrassing experiences
-she writes one book a year/ roughly 1000 words a day


Now Fortunately I can send you and me in the right direction for some brilliant reports on the the sessions I missed. Debs Carr has written up her day at the conference here. The notes are brilliant in their detail. Ray-Anne is working her way through her notes and thus far written up the Midas PR session here. We were lucky enough to have the independent book seller Mark Thornton of Mostly Book in Abingdon providing the conference with the book stall and a talk on Shelf Secrets. His account of the conference is here.


So the one successful thing I did do was have my camera handy to capture everyone dressed for the gala dinner........... So here is a selection of Romantic Novelist's in the bar of course

Here is Anne Ashurst and Giselle Green

.

Nell Dixon and Fiona Harper.

Here's Bex Leith and Lesley Cookman.

Jane Wenham-Jones and Katie Fforde

Kate Harrison and Sarah Duncan

Julie Cohen and Pam Brooks aka Kate Hardy

Janet Gover and Ray-Anne (see above)












Fenella Jane Miller, Anna Jacobs and Jean Fullerton

Jill Mansell and Moi

Beryl Kingston

Kate Johnson

and her shoes!

Novel Racer - Chris

Here's the profile of the newest addition to the Novel Racers - Chris, http://homethoughtsweekly.blogspot.com/:

'I knew that I wanted to be writer when I won a tin of chocolates in a competition at school so what did I do about it? Well, I went to UEA but didn’t do the prestigious creative writing course, I went into a so-called proper job because I needed the money and along the way I sold a couple of articles. All this time I was writing books in my head and, except for a couple of failed Mills & Boons, that’s pretty much where they stayed even when I joined the Romantic Novelists’ Association.

After a family bereavement I finally woke up to the fact that unless I took a professional approach to my writing I’d end up living half a life, always wondering what might have been. Last June I picked up the twenty thousand words of a typescript that I’d been mucking about with for years and sat down to finish it. In February I sent it to Hilary Johnson, who I’d met through the Romantic Novelists Association, for an appraisal by her Authors’ Advisory Service.
Hilary passed the book to an agent and I’m nervously waiting for that outcome. Slight understatement – I’m nearly climbing the walls – so the novel racers are just what I need to make me get on with Novel 2.

In the meantime I’ve had non-fiction work published by Honno in an anthology, ‘Strange Days Indeed’ and now know the thrill of holding a proper book, to which I’ve contributed, in my hand! '

I'm still smiling from the launch of Wanna Be A Writer on Saturday. I haven't finished the book but I have already decided it would be required reading for anyone contemplating this crazy life!!! Jane Wenham-Jones lays it all on the table with such humour you are given a true picture. God, help I am still continuing!!!! By the way I skipped to the back and she's running a great contest there - go check it out ;-)

On the writing front, my fingers have hit the keys again. I have thought August Rock through and have started the re-write. As I mentioned my goal is to have this rewrite complete in time for the Daily Mail Novel of the Year contest. With all that is currently going on in my life this may be unrealistic. Their deadline is 2nd July. I am moving house on the 10th July and before that I have half term, my best friend's wedding in the states and a dirty weekend with my dh in Venice plus the RNA Conference in Leicester! However I'm going for it as I have lose to lose but my sanity.

Over the course of this week along with the few profiles I have left (hint hint). I will be sharing the feedback on August Rock that I have had - the good, the bad and the ugly. In some cases I will show you have I have learned from this feedback and finally what I am doing now to kick this baby into shape. Hopefully by doing this it will cement it all in my mind. So rewrite number 5 is in full swing!!

Wannabe A Writer

Some days I love being a writer - even if I'm unpublished and today's was one of them. I went to the book launch for Jane Wenham-Jones' Wannabe a Writer. It was at Borders on Charing Cross Rd and it was a blast. I arrived and spotted some friends, Bernardine Kennedy and Katie Fforde. While scoffing a glass of wine I met Amanda Brookfield and had a brilliant chat about writing and plot twists. Her book Relative Love is now added to my tbr pile.

While chatting with her Kate Walker arrived looking lovely and we had a great chance to catch up. I finally met Kate Harrison! I now have a signed copy of her latest book The Self-Preservation Society and it has a bumpy cover :-)

Lesley Cookman arrived and Margaret Kaine plus Judy Astley. As Jane had interviewed so many writers it was amazing to see Helen Lederer, Erica James, Maria McCarthy, Jane Bidder/Sophie King, Sue Moorcraft, Daniel Blythe, Karen Howeld, Victoria Connelly and Adele Parks. I know I missed a few. Then there were the wanna be's there Pia Tapper-Fenton, Henriette Gyland, and Biddy Coady. It was wonderful fun and the book is great. I was killing myself laughing as i read it on the way home on the tube! Now I know why writers are such fun :-)