The RNA New Writers' Scheme - What Made Me Join?

Way back in June 2014, The lovely Karen Aldous asked whether she could guest on my blog to tell my readers a bit about her experience of being on the Romantic Novelists' Association (RNA) New Writers' Scheme (NWS). Her blog post was so interesting that I actually published it in two parts (which you can read here and here) and it quickly became one of my most popular guest posts.

So what is the RNA NWS? Well, in a nutshell, it's a scheme set up for unpublished writers of romantic fiction. It opens in January and accepts only 250 writers (unfortunately the scheme is now full for 2016). The organiser has a team of more than 60 readers who are authors with extensive publishing histories in various types of romantic novel. After joining, members of the NWS can send their script to be read by one of the readers for a critique (something that would normally be pretty expensive).

At the time of Karen's guest post, I was in the early stages of my own writing career. I had been writing fiction for magazines for about a year and the thought of writing a novel hadn't even crossed my mind - far from it. I was happy with what I was writing... Why would I want to be doing anything different?

Strangely though, over the year, things started to change. First, I noticed that my stories were beginning to get longer and more involved. This made me wonder whether I might be able to write a serial. The People's Friend certainly thought so (in fact my editor had mentioned it a while back) so I took the plunge and wrote a five-instalment serial called Charlotte's War for them. The following year, I wrote another, Life at Babcock Manor, and it made me think that maybe I could write something even longer. A novel perhaps? 

There was a short story I'd written for Woman's Weekly which had a theme I couldn't get out of my head. Might it work as something longer? There was only one way to find out. At the end of 2014, I made a start and it was about this time that a lovely writer, Deirdre Palmer (who has also written a guest post here) invited me to meet up with some other writing friends for coffee. They were all members of the RNA and were very welcoming. Deirdre had been through the scheme and had recently got her first publishing deal, why didn't I consider joining the scheme in 2015? 

I'd made a start on my novel but it wasn't progressing very well. What I needed was something to give me that push to really get stuck into it. Could the NWS be that thing?

That October, I went with Deirdre, as a guest, to the RNA Christmas party (you can read about it here) and talked to people who had been on the scheme. Should I join? The overwhelming opinion was, Yes! It was also at that party that I met my blog guest Karen Aldous in real life! It was from her that I had first heard of the New Writers' Scheme. It seemed an omen. I should go for it.

So having already written my application email, at two minutes past midnight on the second of January 2015, I hit the send button. The following day, I was thrilled to hear that I had been accepted. You can read my super-excited post about it here).

Next week, I will tell you about my first year of being an RNA NWS member and how it has helped me with my writing career... don't miss it!

Busy, Busy, Busy

I hope you won't mind that I haven't written a proper blog post today but I thought that instead, I would point you in the direction of the guest blogs and interviews I've been doing over the past couple of weeks since publishing my short story collection, The Last Rose. I would hate you to have missed them.

I'd like to thank all of the lovely people who have welcomed me with open arms onto their blogs. Please do pop over and have a read - you never know, you might find out something you didn't know about me!

These are the lovely people I have been talking to:

The Write Romantics

Anne Harvey

Write Minds Write Place

Karen Aldous

Ben Adams

Never Too Late to Write

Also, thank you Tracy for a generous bit of promo.

Please do support these great bloggers - I like to think of us all helping each other.

My Fabulous Star of the Chateau Makeover

What an amazing Valentine Weekend I've had!

It all started last December while visiting my daughter in Hamburg. I switched on my phone to find that I had won a competition I'd entered on book blogger and reviewer Tay Pickering's website, Chicks that Read. It was to promote the lovely Karen Aldous' new romance, The Chateau, and the prize was a makeover with Karen's daughter celebrity makeup artist Gemma Aldous.

You can imagine my excitement. The first thing I did was to look at Gemma's website where I was overwhelmed by the number of the A-listers she had done the makeup for. It was certainly going to be a challenge for her to turn me into the star of the chateau - especially as my only sight of a red carpet had been when I'd spilt wine on it!

My only problem was going to be the whole 'Getting to London' thing.Those of you who are regular readers of my blog will know that I'm not a great traveller and this is where my lovely husband came to the rescue. In fact he proved to be very deceitful – but in a good way! He couldn’t think of anything to get me for Christmas so decided to combine my prize with a weekend away. He got in touch with Karen and asked if the makeover could be linked in with a Valentine Ball at Gray’s Inn he wanted to take me to so that I had somewhere to go to show off my make-up. Not only that, but he also booked for us to see War Horse the following day, so the weekend became a very special one indeed. I didn’t find out about all this until Christmas day!

To say my weekend was amazing would be an understatement. Karen, her husband Glyn and Gemma met us at The Royal Horseguards Hotel, where we were staying, for a lovely lunch and then the men left us so that we could start the highlight of my weekend - the celebrity makeover. The beautiful view of the Thames from the window (and a bottle of Prosecco) set the scene and soon Gemma was opening her very large suitcase of cosmetics. The first thing Gemma did was to ask me what type of make up I usually wore and what I liked. I said that I was happy for her to make all the decisions as long as she could find me some cheekbones!

Without a mirror, I could only guess what was happening, but I know it involved a lot of brushes! It was fabulous to feel so pampered but I was a teensy bit apprehensive to see the results as the last makeover I'd had had ended up in my looking ten years older and resembling a clown. How silly of me! I'd forgotten that Gemma had made up the likes of Pixie Lott, Emeli Sande and Sheridan Smith. After curling my hair she said, "You can look now."

What I saw nearly made me fall off my chair. Kylie Minogue was staring back at me... how had she done it! My husband has always liked Kylie but there was no way that Gemma could have known that. I couldn't wait for him to come back to see the results!

 
"Who do I look like?" I asked when he came in.
"Kylie!" he replied picking up his jaw which had dropped to the floor.

Not surprisingly, we had a great Valentine Ball and then the following day, which was Valentine's Day, we went to see War Horse which was quite stunning.

 

 So I owe a huge thank you Karen, Tay and Gemma for such a wonderful prize and of course to my husband for making it the best Valentine's weekend ever. If you would like to find out more about my celebrity makeover, Karen has interviewed me on her website. You can read it here.

 

Click here to purchase The Chateau by Karen Aldous

RNA New Writers' Scheme - Why I Joined

Last Friday, early in the morning of January 2 (12.02 to be precise) I sat at my computer with my finger hovering over the send button of an email. This email was my application to join the Romantic Novelist Association's New Writers' Scheme.

Over the last couple of years I have had some lovely guests on my blog and many of these are novelists who have found publication after being enrolled on the RNA NWS. Karen Aldous, author of The Vineyard and The Chateau is one of them. Rather than re-invent the wheel and tell you what the RNA NWS is myself, you can read Karen's guest post about it here and here,

So why apply? The answer is simple - because I want to write a romantic novel.

Although predominantly a short story writer (I love writing them and have been very lucky to have been successful in the women's magazine market) a lot of my fiction is romance. As well as the magazine romances, I have written two short romantic serials for The People's Friend and published Room in Your Heart my collection of romantic short stories. As I am always searching for new achievements, a novel seemed the obvious next step.

So why hadn't I taken it? Well, I did start. As I mentioned in my last blog post where I revisited my 2014 goals, one of my aims was to have written a novel by the end of the year. Sadly, this didn't happen. I only managed three chapters and I realised it was because I was not taking the novel as seriously as I should. I had the time to devote to it (as well as the stories) but I was not making the best use of that time.

What could I do about it?

During 2014, I was lucky enough to meet (in real life and on-line) several writers currently on, or recently graduated from, the RNA New Writers' Scheme and I began to wonder whether this might be the path for me. What I needed was a proper deadline to aim for and I knew that if I joined the scheme I would have to have something ready to be critiqued in August. As well as that, I would have the support of other writers on the scheme. With that in mind, last Friday, I pressed the send button and went to bed - to find, the next day, that I had been accepted onto the scheme!

I am excited by the prospect of taking my novel seriously this year but for those of you who like reading my magazine stories... don't worry, I have no intention of giving them up!

A Look Back at 2014

I thought I'd take a look at all the lovely things that have happened in 2014 (this won't include general short story sales or publications).

January - The year started well with some serious goal setting with writing chum, Tracy Fells. Had my my first article published in The People's Friend and tried (and failed) to get to grips with Scrivener.

February - Was interviewed by the The People's Friend for their website. Went to a Jive weekend on the Isle of Wight.

March - Finished my WW2 serial for The People's Friend. My choir Cantatrice won two classes at the Worthing Music Festival. Article published in Writing Magazine on how to be a good blog host.
 
April - Went to a modern jive weekend on Hayling Island. Took my grandson to London for the first time.

May - Was featured in an article in Writer's forum on how to break into serials. Went to Bruges and visited the Flanders Field battlefields of WW1. Met People's Friend writer Alison Carter. Went on holiday to the beautiful Lake District.

June - Had stories published in four magazines in one week. Karen Aldous guested on my blog.

July - Natalie Kleinman was a guest on my blog. Samantha Tonge was a guest on my blog.

August - Met fellow writer Patsy Collins. Sue Moorcroft was a guest on my blog. The two year anniversary of my first story sale. Had a story published in The People's Friend 2015 Annual.

September - Went on holiday to the Dordogne. Author Cally Taylor was a guest on my blog. Was featured in Phil Barrington's 8 days a Week article in Writer's Forum. Went to the paperback book launch of Juliet West's Before the Fall. Went on Della Galton's 'How to Market Your Book' course.

October - Launch party for my romance collection Room in Your Heart. Had and evening with Mary Berry. Kath McGurl was a guest on my blog.

November - went to the RNA Winter Party with author friend Deirdre Palmer and met many on-line writer friends. Had an article published in Writing Magazine on how I put together my story collection for National Short Story Week. My cover designer Sarah Hughes is guest on my blog.

December - Sold my 100th womag story!

All that is left is to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Publication, a Win and Father Christmas

Phew - what a week! Firstly, I have had three stories published in the women's magazines.

Two are in Take a Break Fiction Feast. The first, Don't Fall for a Singer, is a Christmas story and the second, Searching for a Jane Austen Hero, was inspired by my daughter and will feature in an inspiration behind the story post very soon.

My story More than Meets the Eye in The People's Friend Special is the second classroom story I've had published (I'm surprised I haven't written more as I've sent most of my life in one!)

Another lovely thing that happened this week was a weekend to Hamburg to visit my daughter who is working there for a year. We timed it so that we'd be able to go to the Christmas markets and what a sight they were! I took the photos at one of the biggest markets held in the main square.

We even saw father Christmas! (I'm rather proud of this photo!)

When I got home, it was to receive the exciting news that I've won a competition held by Karen Aldous (author of The Vineyard and The Chateau) and Tay from book review site Chicks That Read. The prize is a makeover and masterclass with Karen's daughter - celebrity make-up artist Gemma Aldous. I've looked on her website and Gemma has a list of celebrity clients as long as my arm including the gorgeous Pixie Lott and Emeli Sande. I can't wait... though I think it only fair to warn Gemma that she may have her work cut out!