A long-overdue RWAus12 conf post… Part one!

I’ve been back from the Romance Writers of Australia conf for over a week now (sob sob) and so I’m hoping my memory behaves and lets me share with you my experiences. Since I returned, I’ve been very busy – finishing Man Drought edits (out January 2013 with Harlequin Australia), visiting my Gran who isn’t very well, catching up with washing, cleaning etc and… okay, I felt like I was doing lots more.

So here goes my RWAus12 conf recap:

This year I attended my first Author Day. I was lucky enough to be one of the few people who attended Jennifer St George’s Media Boot Camp. This was an intensive workshop for authors about how to deal with the media (everything from what we should have on our websites to how to deal with journalists). I had a great time mock-interviewing the delightful Helen Lacey and we all learnt how to deal with difficult questions and make the most of media opportunities.

After media boot camp we caught the tail end of Kate Cuthbert’s Getting Reviewed Right talk, in which she talked about how authors should handle getting AND receiving reviews. The main message was DON’T INTERACT! After a yummy lunch, we had the pleasure of listening to agent Helen Breitweiser talking about publishing, specifically in New York. Was especially fab to hear her raving about my mate Maisey Yates‘ new cowboy series coming out with Berkeley next year

To finish off author day, I enjoyed a very empowering round table discussion with other Single Title published authors. Although the publishing world can be a scary place, it also seems to be a very good time to be an author with so many opportunities and choices available to us!

On Thursday night for myself and the other Harlequin authors it was off to the fabulous Harlequin Author dinner! This was my second Harlequin dinner and it was just as exciting as the first. It was a pleasure to watch the established authors welcome the newly signed ones (Bronwyn Stuart this year), honour some of the authors with fun awards and then to hear the innovative new things coming from Harlequin Australia. We heard about Harlequin Aus’s new digital imprint – Harlequin Escape, to be edited by renowned romance reviewer Kate Cuthbert – and also that Harlequin Australia is officially now an editorial office and has opened their door for submissions. Very exciting indeed! I’m certainly proud to be one of their first authors

The theme was Naughty or Nice and there were whips and blindfolds on the tables. The editors and publishers present even dressed up! A couple of photos from the night are pasted below:

 

Joanne Grant – editor from Mills & Boon UK, with Haylee Kerans my gorgeous publisher

Me with the delightful and hugely talented Leah Ashton (writer for Mills & Boon)

Once again I failed DISMALLY in my efforts to take lots of photos. Have a few more to share over the next few days from the rest of the conf though Until then…