Novel Racer - Jane Henry

I have promised to highlight each of the Novel Racers if they are brave enough! We are thirty-two in number and growing. Roughly a third are already published in fiction and few regulars in the non-fiction department. We cover North American, Europe, and Asia. Mostly women with three men. A pretty diverse bunch. So the first to take up the challenge and tell us a bit about herself is Jane Henry http://maniacmum.blogspot.com/(which is quite appropriate as she wrote Running on Empty - The Diary of a Marathon Mum). Enough of my words here are her own:

"Although I blog as Jane Henry, I write under my actual name of Julia Williams.

I am a poacher turned gamekeeper, in that I used to edit teen fiction and now I write commercial women's fiction. My first novel, Pastures New is coming out in the new Avon imprint at Harper Collins in September, which is just a bit exciting.

I'm currently writing my second (as yet untitled book), which appears to be heavily influenced by Green Wing at the moment. I always use music for inspiration when writing and all my characters have theme tunes. My hero's are: The First Cut is the Deepest/Fifteen Years and my heroine's are: The Weakness in Me/Can't Get You Out of My Head. The Miracle of Love is the theme for when they eventually get together...

Thanks to Green Wing and because the book is going to feature dancing heavily, my hero and heroine's catch phrase is currently : Dance Like No One's Looking. This may well change by the end of the book. But that's my prerogative. I am after all a writer..."

A huge thanks to Jane/Julia for being first.......who is brave enough to be next?

I have half written up the third and final installment of the Savoy lunch. It reads a bit like hello magazine :-) Will post it tomorrow.

Finally the new fiction contest starts tomorrow on the Maht's The Moontopples blog... http://moontopples.blogspot.com/. Check it out :-)

Savoy 3

Well a few days later and I confess I'm still tired. I'm too old I've decided. However first things first.......what did I wear. In the end the lovely top my mother gave me for my birthday back on the 9th. If you are curious there is a photo of moi with great writing friend Fiona Harper on her blog, http://www.fionaharper.blogspot.com/. She also has some other photos of the Savoy. I should have brought a camera and I wouldn't have to rely on the dodgy pictures from my phone. I include one more. Nell Dixon with Madde Rowe, one of the lovely editors at Mills and Boon.

Now, onto the rest of the wonderful things at the Savoy. As I mentioned fellow Novel Racer Bernardine Kennnedy was there as was Lesley Cookman. Please forgive me as this will begin to read like Hello magazine with the names just rolling by.....I had a chance for a quick chat with Kate Walker before lunch when I saw the author, Susie Vereker who wrote An Old-Fashioned Arrangement of one of my favorite books last year. From my to be read pile.....was the lovely Jane Gordon Cummings who was one of the clever organizers. Jan Jones, another one of the brilliant organizers, who again was guardian angel in her seating arrangements. I was with two other aspiring writers, two agents, Julie Cohen, Delys Curthoys, and one wonderful author who I must confess I can't remember her name. She was brilliant and I'm off to buy the suggested books to help me find exactly what I should be writing (that will be a subject of another day). I was delighted to see Giselle Green mentioned back in the post on marketing........ Oh and I finally met Judy Astley who has a home near mine in Cornwall.

The lunch flew by with Rosie Thomas' win and then Nell Dixon's. Once on my feet I ran into Jenny Haddon, the chair of the RNA who was looking stunning and did a brilliant job as mc. Michelle Styles who had been one of the short list for the Romance prize and her lovely daughter. See I did mention it would be a bit like Hello magazine......sort of the who is who of romantic fiction. I didn 't have the opportunity to speak with the Michael Allan of the blog Grumpy Old Bookman but I was pleased with his write-up of the event on his blog. In the bar immediately after I caught with Fiona again and had a great chat to an editor from Mills and Boon and her MIRA colleague and journalist Danuta Kean.

Finally after that is was off to the pub to meet up with dedicated! Things begin to go slightly fuzzy but I had great fun with Jan Jones, Roger Sanderson, Fiona Harper, Bernardine Kennedy, Lesley Cookman, Judy Astley, Gilli Allan, Jenny Harper, Jean Buchanan, Henrietta Gyland, Mary Zacaroli and Katie Fforde. In the end the die-hards were Henrietta, Gilli, Mary, Katie and I. We ventured off into the wilds of Covent Garden on a Friday night to find food. It was a good meal from what I remember but the company was tops.

Thank God it's another year until the next one :-)

Savoy 2

Well, still tired but now sitting here realizing I need to get out more!!! I met the wonderful fellow Novel Racer Bernardine Kennedy there. While chatting with her someone came up and introduced Bernardine to a striking blond woman in a fabulous dress. She said her name and I didn't catch it but smiled and spoke to her about her dress. It was from Biba and it wasn't expensive......the conversation went on. The drees was deep gold run through with metallic. it was fabulous but she had just the perfect figure to wear and the outfit was finished off to to die for brown high boots. She said if you couldn't dress up for the Romanic Novelist Lunch then when could you. How true.........

Now until an hour ago I had forgotten about this encounter. Then I received an email from the wonderful Bernardine talking about her Savoy experience. She spoke of how kind it was that her ex-editor introduced her to Amanda Ross (Amanda Ross) ........of the Richard and Judy book club fame........the most powerful women in publishing. I met her clueless and wittered on about her fabulous dress. I may never ever been lucky enough to meet her......lost opportunities???? Well, as I don't have a book in print probably not.



However if my fabulous Have You Seen Adam badge had arrived sooner I could have promoted that In Search of Adam (Thank you wonderful Caroline)............I have worm my badge proudly today looking for Adam at the plumbers merchant on Munster Road and to the Fulham Mitre for lunch.........

So hence the ghastly picture of a worn and tired me........... but proudly wearing my badge which I trying to keep away from my dd.

More on the Savoy later but had to share my utter dismay with my own lack of knowledge!!!

Savoy

What a day! The day would have been wonderful no matter what but was made more so by the recipient of the Romance Prize being friend, Nell Dixon for Marrying Max. I was sitting next to Julie Cohen when the award was announced and we just refrained from totally embarrassing ourselves. The others on table commented.......so you know her then!!!!

Rosie Thomas won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award for Iris and Ruby. I did managed to speak to her and she said she did remember meeting me last year and commenting of the Savoy Lunch.......well, it was nice to here.

I will blog more about the day later but will confess to being tired as I rolled home at 10......