Meeting my Editor, the RNA Party and the Tube!

It's hard to believe that the RNA Winter Party has come around again. It doesn't seem twelve months since I was at the last one. I've always enjoyed the event but, this year, there was something else to look forward to. I was being taken out to dinner beforehand by my Bookouture editor, Jennifer hunt.

Now, since Jennifer approached me with a publishing deal in May, we have been in contact by telephone and email but it's not the same as meeting someone in the flesh. At last, I was going to meet the person who had loved my novel enough to offer me a contract... and I was super excited.

Me and Jennifer

Jennifer had booked a table at Tozi in Pimlico so all I needed do do was get there in time and find the place. It didn't start well when my train was cancelled and I had to travel to Victoria via Brighton. Not good when you suffer from travel anxiety at the best of times. The train was then held up outside Clapham Junction due to a signalling failure and I could see the minutes ticking away. What sort of impression would it give if I was late? it wasn't even as if I could let Jennifer know as I didn't have her mobile number!

Finally the train arrived at Victoria and I ran all the way (with the help of trusty Google Maps) to the restaurant - which wasn't a bad thing as it meant I didn't have time to get nervous. After all, meeting your editor for the first time is like going on a blind date. What if you don't get on? What if you have nothing to talk about?

As soon as I was shown to my table, I knew I had nothing to worry about. Jennifer was just like she was on the phone, warm and welcoming, and the meal was very informal. We shared a selection of tapas dishes, helped along by a glass of Prosecco, and talked about all sorts of things. It wasn't long before we were looking at our watches and realising we'd better get our skates on if we were to make the RNA party.

This year, as last year, the party was held at 1 Birdcage Walk, in a beautiful room lined with books. It was Jennifer's first RNA party and I warned her it would be very hot and very loud - but also very friendly.

It was lovely to catch up with old friends and new (many of whom I only knew through social media). People such as Jenni Keer, who's been tavelling a similar writing journey to me these last couple of years. If I'm honest, the whole evening went by in a blur and it took me a good twenty minutes to get to the bar for my first drink as I kept getting stopped along the way.

Me and Liz

To top the evening off, I did a very brave thing. With the help of my lovely friend, Liz Eeles, I went back to Victoria on the underground! Most of you will know that I never EVER go on the tube (the last time I tried, I felt panicky and had to go back out again) but this time it wasn't too busy and the District Line isn't too deep, so I survived. Quite an achievement!

All in all, it was a very successful evening and if you've been thinking about going to one of the RNA events, but haven't felt brave enough, please consider going. I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy it. 

The RNA Winter Industry Award Party and Me

I went to the library yesterday. Not to borrow some books but to attend the RNA Winter Party and industry awards in London. This delightful venue was in Birdcage Walk and inspirational - being surrounded by books was certainly a fitting way to pass a few hours in the company of other authors.

I went to the party with my good writing friends, Liz Smith (who writes under the name of Liz Eeles) and  Susan Griffin - my partners in crime at this year's conference. To say the evening started eventfully would be an understatement. First, my train ticket wouldn't open the barrier. Luckily, there was a man in a little box (well he wasn't really in the box but that's just the way my brain works) who told me to show my him my ticket. I waved my ticket in front of his face on the screen only for him to say, when he guessed what I was doing, "No, show it to the camera, not my face." It transpired that the barrier hadn't opened was because I'd used my return ticket by mistake.

At last was got on the train - only Liz and I had been talking so much, it was the wrong one!

A change of trains later and we were on track again (excuse the pun) and joined up with Susan for the last leg of our journey... only we weren't out of the woods yet. Our taxi route from Victoria (remember I don't do tubes) came to a halt when we found the roads around St James' park barricaded off. We had to ditch the cab and walk so it was a good job I wasn't wearing my high shoes.

Eventually we arrived. The place was packed, the noise level was high and I stood there feeling, as I always do, slightly overwhelmed. I needn't have worried though as very soon, I spotted someone I knew and from then on the evening went in a whirl.

Me (right) and Kath McG

But it wasn't all socialising. An important part of the evening is the industry award ceremony. Congratulations to all the winners! I was particularly thrilled to learn that the publisher I write for, D C Thomson, was runner up in the category Publisher of the Year. You can find all the winners here.

I'd like to tell you that I was brave enough to introduce myself to Agent of the Year winner Broo Doherty, who has the first three chapters of novel two, and runner up Rebecca Richie who favourited my twitter pitch for novel one in the recent #TellAMH twitter pitch contest and has the first three chapters.... but it didn't happen! One day I'll stop worrying about what people think of me and just do it.

As always, I only managed to speak to half the people I would have liked - but never mind, there's always next time.

In other news, I am delighted to have recently had two sales to The People's Friend and today I found out that novel two has been long-listed in the Flash 500 novel opening and synopsis competition... keep your fingers crossed for me. Congratulations also to writing chum, Tracy Fells, who joins me on the list.

Finally, I'll leave you with a picture of my story in the People's Friend Annual 2018 (which is out now) called Where the River Leads.

November Catch Up

Just a short post this week in the lull between guests. November has been an interesting month. I'd been going through a bit of an, 'I'll never be able to write anything again' stage but perked up no end when, as well as sales to The People's Friend, I sold two to Take a Break Fiction Feast and two to Woman's Weekly (the only two I've sent in over a year).

There have also been a flurry of publications - they've been a bit like buses. This week, I have one in The People's Friend Weekly and three in The People's Friend Fiction Special... I'm certainly not complaining though.

Also, I was very excited to find out that The Friend had made an audio recording of my story The Artist's Apprentice which you can listen to here. 

In other news, I went to the Romantic Novelists' Association Winter Party last week. For someone who doesn't like big gatherings, I had a lovely time. I spoke to as many people as I could and made an effort to talk to some writers I'd never met before. Everyone was unbelievable friendly but the noise was unbelievable!

And that's all for now... I'm off on a mini-break in the New Forest but I'll see you next week when I'll have a new guest taking the spotlight. Hope you'll join us.

The RNA New Writers' Scheme - My First Year

In last week's post (which you can read here) I talked about the reasons why I decided to join the Romantic Novelists' Association (RNA) New Writers' Scheme (NWS). Today I'll be looking back on my first year and thinking about what this has meant for my writing career.

A week ago, I left you with an image. I was opening the email telling me that I'd successfully been enrolled onto the scheme... yippee! After congratulating myself, I decided I needed to sit down and think carefully about the coming year. As I said in my post last week, my novel just wasn't happening: I hadn't been giving it enough time and, with no deadline, there was every likelihood that it would never get finished.. 

This was certainly no way to carry on. Did I think my novel idea was good? Yes. Did I want to complete it? Yes. Did I want others to enjoy it? Definitely. I needed to give myself a kick up the backside and what better way to do this than by giving myself a deadline. I knew the end of August was the last opportunity to submit to the NWS reader for a critique - this could be it. 

Now I'm not suggesting that waiting until the last minute to submit a novel is a good idea (the poor readers are inundated with late submissions) but I had to give myself enough time to have a reasonable amount to send. I needed to give myself a target - a concrete number of words to complete - and I needed someone who would keep me on the straight and narrow and have the stick waiting when I was slacking. Who better than lovely writing buddy, Tracy. After much discussion (and teacakes) we came up with the magic number - a minimum of 40,000 words. Of course I could have said that I should have the whole novel finished by August (which would have been much better) but I wanted my expectations to be realistic and I also wanted what I sent to be the best it could be.

With a word count to aim for, I found I had more focus and drive and, as the months went by, the novel started to take on a greater importance in my writing life. I wanted to talk about it... share the experience with others. What better way to do this than to join in some of the RNA events (you can find a list of them here). I'd already been to the Winter Party the previous year as a guest but it was time to get my teeth into something a little meatier - the RNA Conference. Last year it was held in London so, in July, I trotted along to St Mary's College in Mile End. I spent a wonderful weekend attending talks, meeting other writers and, best of all, having one to one sessions with publishing editors. To be told that the first chapter of my novel suggested it was a marketable story idea was music to my ears. (You can read my post called Ten things I've learnt from my first RNA Conference here.)

With renewed enthusiasm, I came home and wrote and wrote. By August I had written 54,00 words - more than my target. I sent it off and then I waited... and waited. I carried on writing and eventually, on September 20th, I finished it. My post The Day I Wrote The End is here.

When I eventually received my critique back from my reader, I was delighted. They'd obviously read what I'd sent them carefully and their observations were neatly labelled under 'plot', 'character' etc. The comments were thoughtful and very positive and luckily a lot of the suggestions they made were things that I'd already addressed in the final half of the novel (the problem with only sending a partial). It was the final comment that stayed with me though -  'This novel deserves to be read'. It was worth joining the NWS just for that!

So where am I now, a year on? I've researched agents and started to send the novel out. It's early days yet but one thing I do know... being in the New Writers' Scheme was what gave me the confidence to finish my novel and start the second. It you're new to the scheme this year or thinking about joining it in the future... good luck with your writing and I hope it gives you the boost you're looking for.

You can find out more about the RNA NWS here.

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!

My Writing Year 2015

Today I am going to be looking back at all the lovely things that have happened in 2015 (excluding general story sales or publications).

January - The year started as usual with teacakes and goal setting with writing chum, Tracy Fells. I joined the RNA New Writers' Scheme and author Ben Adams wrote a guest  post.

February - Met Karen Aldous in London for a celebrity make-over with daughter Gemma as a prize win.

March - A fanfare to celebrate the Publication and Launch party for story collection The Last Rose. As part of my bog tour I was guest on these  blogs The Write Romantics, Anne Harvey, Write Minds Write Place, Karen Aldous, Ben Adams, Never too Late to Write.

April - My first serial, Charlotte's War, was published in The People's Friend. I had an article published in Writing Magazine on writing serials. Patsy Collins and Samantha Tonge were blog guests. Went to the Riot Jive Weekend on Hayling Island.

May - Had a wonderful holiday to Vengen in Switzerland and a weekend at Corfe Castle. Alison May was my blog guest. I am guest on A Woman's Wisdom blog.

June - Had three lovely guests on my blog: Julie Shackman, Malcolm Welshman and The People's Friend Fiction editor, Shirley Blair talking about writing serials for the magazine.

July - I attended my first RNA Writers' Conference in London. Deirdre Palmer was my blog guest and I had a lovely boating holiday on the Kennet and Avon Canal.

August - Entered the #PitchCB contest and had two agents 'favourite' my novel pitch. Had a story in The People's Friend Annual 2016. Merryn Allingham was my blog guest. I was asked to be competition judge for the SWWJ John Walter Salver award.

September - Had my second serial, Life at Babcock published in The People's Friend magazine. I was interviewed by Doug McPherson for his article on breaking into serials in Writers' Forum. Writing chum Tracy Fells and I joined forces to discuss writing buddies in Lyn Hackles' 'Novel Ideas' column in writing Magazine. I was featured author on the Writing and Wellness blog. Had a weekend in Bordeaux with my girlfriends. Went on a wonderful research trip to Skopelos and Alonissos and finally finished my novel.

October - Sold my 100th story to The People's Friend. Samantha Tonge and Julia Gibbs were guests on my blog.

November - Went to the RNA Winter Party in London. Patsy Collins and Leonora Frances were my blog guests. I was guest on Elaina James' and Susanna Bavin's blogs. Had my novel back from my RNA NWS reader.

December - I was special guest at the SWWJ Christmas tea in London, along with Sir Tim Rice, where I awarded the prizes for the story competition. Had four Christmas stories published in magazines. I was guest on Rachel Brimble's  blog.

Now I'm off to have a sherry and a mince pie so all that's left is to wish all you lovely readers a very Happy Christmas and thank you all for supporting my blog through another year!

The RNA Winter Party - a week to celebrate!

This is me at the RNA winter party. It may look as though I'm smiling but in fact I am grimacing due to the ridiculous height of my heels! In fact, from the moment I arrived I was unable move from this spot and had to wait for people to come to me (a bit like the queen) for fear of toppling into someone if I worked the room. I seem to remember the same thing happening at my first party (there's a picture  of them in a post about it called 'I Went to the RNA Winter Party... Well Done ME!' which you can read here).

It was  a lovely evening, especially as I got to meet Viv Brown (who writes as Vivian Hampshire). It's always great to meet another magazine writer in 'real life' and we had lots to chat about as Viv has also been writing a novel alongside her short stories.

Talking of novels, it was due to the other two people in the photo, Natalie Kleinman and Elaine Roberts, that I even have a novel. At last year's winter party I went as a guest, not as a member, and I have these lovely ladies to thank for persuading me to join the RNA New Writers' Scheme which in turn made me get on with writing my book. It was certainly nice to be there this year as a novelist as well as a magazine writer.

I'd show you all my  wonderful photos if only  I'd remembered to take any! This one is courtesy of Francesca Capaldi Burgess... thanks, Francesca!

I had this great plan that during the evening I would make sure that I would stalk chat to some lovely agents and plug tell them about my amazing debut novel. When it came to it, though, the room was so packed and loud that even if I had managed to collar introduce myself to one of them, we would have been shouting and using sign language. I did manage to have a chat with Rebecca Lloyd from Accent Press though (who I'd had a one-to-one with at the conference). It was nice to see her again and she was very happy to answer some of my (probably rather naive) questions.

My biggest disappointment of the evening was not being able to meet up with half the people I wanted to. In fact, some people I didn't even see or saw so briefly that all I could say was a quick hello. I can probably blame my shoes again for that! Still, as someone said to me - there's always next year.

Now that's the the RNA party covered but what is it I'm celebrating I hear you ask. Well, it's two things really. The first is that I have a story in both The People's Friend weekly and the Christmas special.

... and the second is that since I started my blog three years ago it has had 150,000 pageviews WHOOP!

Writing Targets 2015

It's that time of year again. Two weeks ago, I looked at my 2014 writing goals and discussed whether or not I had achieved them. This week I shall be setting in stone (or on screen) the goals I talked through with Tracy at our teacake session... were we really in the tearoom three hours! You can read Tracy's own goals here.

So (deep breath) here are my 2015 writing targets:

1. Continue to write one short story a week.

2. Write at least 40,000 words of my novel by August to enable me to submit something for the RNA New Writers' Scheme critique (I could say write the whole novel but I'm being realistic here). I intend to try to write at least 500 words of it on at least four days a week - this way, it won't seem a chore. I'm hoping I'll write more but we'll see. Can I say I'll start next week, Tracy? *hangs head in shame*

3. Go to the RNA conference. Although it may seem a small goal, it is a big one for me - for reasons I have given in this post. I've already printed out the form and it should be in the post tomorrow.

4. My final goal is to publish at least one more collection of my published magazine stories. I've been thrilled with how well Room in Your Heart has been received and have been asked many times whether I'll be doing another collection. This is already in progress and my second collection will be available soon... so watch this space.

I hope my 2015 goals are manageable but I've learnt from last year that I need to be flexible. If there's something that's not working then I'll change it. After all, targets are just that... something to aim for.

In other news I have a story in the People's Friend Special. It's a historical story about a quarryman's family and is once again set against the backdrop of the Lake District's beautiful pikes. The illustration is by Michael Thomas.

Also, I've just heard that my first People's Friend serial (written a year ago) is in the process of being illustrated by the very talented David Young, which might mean that it may be published soon. Can't wait!

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!

I Went to the RNA Winter Party - Well Done Me!

I did something very brave, last Wednesday - something that took me out of my comfort zone. So what did I do, I hear you ask - Did I skydive from 30,000 feet? Did I walk through a field of bulls? Did I sing karaoke in my local pub?

No, It was none of these things. What I did was to go to a party. Not any old party, but the RNA Winter Party. Why was this brave? Let me make you a list.

• I don't like parties
• I don't like talking for long periods (I like dancing)
• I don't like London
• I don't like tube trains
• I've nothing to wear

Why then did I decide to do it? Well, it all started with a pair of shoes - not my shoes, I'd like to point out, but a lovely pair that writer Sue Moorcroft had talked about on Facebook.

"I love them but where would I ever wear shoes like that?" I asked.
"To the RNA Winter Party," she replied.
"But I'm not a member."
"You don't have to be."
"But I don't write romantic novels!"
"No, but you write romance."

And the seed was sown. I couldn't let the chance to meet up with so many on-line friends pass me by, so I made up my mind to go.

Luckily, RNA member Deirdre Palmer (from The Write Romantics) said I could go with her. She also said we could go by bus from Victoria station which eliminated problem four so I moved swiftly on to problem five - what to wear. I have three dresses. I don't wear them very often and when I tried them on one was tight, one was very tight and the third one is best not spoken of. I opted for the first and hoped I could get away with standing with my back against a wall. I then made the mistake of deciding it would be a great idea to wear these shoes for three hours!

Once I'd decided on my outfit, other doubts started to surface. What was I going to talk about for three hours? What if people found me boring? What if I caught them staring over my shoulder in the hope that someone else more interesting had come in? What if they asked me to name ten romantic novels starting with the letter J? The answer was clear - I would have to find a pillar to stand behind.

... only nobody told me there weren't any!

So, what did I think of my first RNA party? 

To begin with, I felt like I was participating in some sort of party game. Everyone wandered round the room looking at each others stomachs (where the name badges round our neck seemed to hang) and when the music stopped we talked to the person nearest to us. Well, all right, I exaggerate, but you get the idea. When you have a room full of people you are dying to meet, most of whom you have only ever seen in a small Facebook picture and you have no glasses with you, it can all get a bit excitable. Speed dating would seem a doddle in comparison!

And the verdict... I had a great time!

I got people mixed up, I called others by the wrong name, I asked well-known people what they did and I put my foot in it a few times (and then got a blister on it).

But as well as this, I talked to some lovely, interesting people, the time went by in a flash and I came away having made many new friends (here I am with Talli Roland, Natalie Kleinman and Elaine Roberts.

So, would I go again? Absolutely!