Romance Writers of Australia Conference 2012 – Part One

 Our annual conference is close, perhaps too close for attendees like myself who are still scrambling to be ready. Next Wednesday I catch my flight to the Gold Coast venue in my beautiful home state of Queensland.

 Having been a member of RWA here now for what seems like “forever”, I am looking forward so very much to many things I’ve enjoyed at past conferences.

These include:

Greeting again writer friends made over the many years at local groups and the annual conferences.

Meeting other members of RWA I have until now only “met” online and making new friends.

Getting to know other writers who are writing the kind of romance novels I enjoy reading the most

Sharing with writers also targeting the same inspirational romance sub-genre market I currently am.

 

The book-signing event Friday evening.

Meeting publishers and editors who publish romance.

As well as all the above, I am so looking forward to all the various sessions where other writers share their expertise in areas I know I am weaker in. I look forward to hopefully having at least one important “light bulb” moment over those four days to take back home with me. The challenge back home of course will be to try and put it into practice.

So, while it is very cold here, I know from experience it will be much warmer up north. Past time to think about dragging out clothes from Tassie’s summer days – which are so often the same temperature as the Gold Coast’s winter is right now.

There’s that Friday evening costume party on the theme of conference, Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend. I’ve never been quite convinced of the truth of that old statement but from past conferences I know it will be a night of real fun and some very clever costumes. 

What do I have that might at least look like diamonds and 1950’s clothes?

There’s that special Award Dinner on Saturday evening. What dress will be suitable for that?

So, I’ve some preparation to do.

I may not be able to post next Thursday as will be enjoying the Published Author’s day programme, but look out for RWA Conference Part Two coming soon – I hope! 

I couldn't resist searching out some old photos taken at conferences. Perhaps you may even recognise some of my writer acquaintances and friends?

Oh, and if you’ve never been to a writer’s conference, why not?

And what would your expectations be? Do share some here with us.

RWA TASMANIAN ROADSHOW

Last Saturday, Sarah Brabazon and I are privileged to be with three outstanding writers and speakers, Fiona Lowe, Melanie Milburne and Ebony McKenna.

Fiona Lowe presented workshops on "Maintaining Tension" and "Writing From the Male Point of View".

Read about Fiona, a finalist in this year's RITA contest, on

http://www.fionalowe.com/

Ebony McKenna shared workshops on "The Staircase Of Turning Points" and "Writing Young Adult Romantic Fiction".

Read about Ebony on her website:

http://www.ebonymckenna.com/

Melanie Milburne is well known in Tasmania. We are very proud of her wonderful achievements and so grateful she was able to share some of her insights this day with us.  http://www.melaniemilburne.com.au/

Do check out all three websites.

And then it was over. Melanie had returned to southern Tasmania and I had driven our other two wonderful and generous Victorian guest speakers to the Launceston airport for their flight back home.

An hour or so later my understanding husband quickly helped me unload the car. I was exhausted but after a cuppa still yielded to temptation and checked the Feedback Forms from the thirty writers who had attended that day seminar,  our first Romance Writers of Australia sponsored event in Tasmania.

Had writers been helped on their journey to being published? Had it been as successful a day as I thought it had been?

Very soon, my weary eyes were moist. Page after page, comment after comment. Each one thrilled me, made all the many, many hours of preparation over the months, the weeks and especially those last two exhausting days with my fellow coordinator worthwhile.

Now Sarah Brabazon and I have recovered somewhat, it is time to finalise reports for the Romance Writers of Australia’s Event Coordinator to take to the RWA executive. There is still some tidying up to do, including the list of writers who have indicated interest in forming a RWA Hub group here on our Island state.

And last night there was that email from a writer who had this brief, one day “taste” of what can be expected at our annual RWA Conferences. She is fired up! Encouraged in her writing efforts, she went home and registered to be at the Gold Coast RWA Conference this year. It will be so good to see her there, as well as so many other romance writer friends I’ve made through being a member of RWA for nearly twenty-one years. 

There is still much information and inspiration for me to personally sort through from those workshops last Saturday – as there always is after every RWA event I’ve been to. Now, just how do I improve the way I show my hero’s male point of view, put into practice those other “light bulb” moments in this current manuscript of mine?

My Writers’ Conferences and Seminars




Lynne Wilding
and Emma Darcy

- a long time ago! 

 

Another RWA conference
united with my
 old RWA group



Denver, USA, 2009
With a favourite author,
Loree Lough



I’ve lost count now of the number of these special events I’ve been privileged to attend since I first became serious about trying to write back in the early 1970’s. Until Romance Writers of Australia held their first weekend event they had all been one day seminars organised by different writer’s groups I’ve been a member of – including RWA. 

In the early years, RWA’s main annual events were held in Sydney. I attended my first one way back in 1991. I sold my first manuscript to a publisher in 1992. Since then I have only missed attending a few annual RWA Conferences. Need I say more about what I think of these great times and just how much I owe RWA?

Today our Annual Conferences have grown, quickly spread from that first one day event to two, then three and now four days in August each year. They eventually moved away from only being in Sydney to now alternate between Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane or Gold Coast. Over the years, too many romance writers across our large Australia find travel costs, and perhaps even being away from family and work responsibilities also, make it too difficult to attend. The last few years RWA have sponsored day seminars in areas across Australia a long way from the annual conference cities. These are called RWA Roadshows and are only a brief “taste” of what our annual conferences give to writers.

Perhaps I should not have been so surprised October last year when an email arrived in my Inbox from the current RWA Events Co-ordinator. It started with, “In 2012, Romance Writers of Australia would like to take Roadshow across water for the first time—to Tasmania.”

Wow, I was thrilled. Then I paused and thought of the already busy programme ahead of me in 2012! So when I emailed back I mentioned I would certainly support a Roadshow here in my State but because of previous commitments doubted I could help very much with organising it. Famous last words! Perhaps I just can’t help my self?

There have been several times over the years at different writer seminars and conferences I’ve presented talks and workshops to try and pass on a little of what I’ve been learning and trying to put into practice. I’ve even helped in other very minor ways on the actual days but have to honestly say have had no real idea just how much work it all takes. Now I’ve been involved in being one of the Tassie organisers for just one special Roadshow day here on May 19th, I realise how much I have taken for granted those many, many volunteers who each year organise our conferences and special events.

Venue, budget, programme, speakers, catering, registration forms, advertising, Goody Bags, meetings and emails to discuss and make decisions - and so on and so on.

The RWA appointed team have been wonderful helping and guiding us through so many different processes. Published authors are being so supportive. Now the registrations have closed and we now know numbers, there is still much to do.

Excitement is mounting. Several writers are coming from interstate. Some are experienced writers, most are novices. Two of our three speakers, Fiona Lowe and Ebony McKenna come from Victoria, and our own award winning Melanie Milburne from Hobart will be joining us in Launceston. They all write for different romance sub-genres, are multi-published and award winners. We are delighted that since accepting our invitation to be a speaker, Fiona has become a finalist in the Romance Writers America RITA award – the “Oscar” for romance writers.

Just over two weeks to go. Still much to do. Please forgive me if I am slack with posting here for the next few weeks!
The Tasmania RWA Roadshow needs my attention!

Romance Writers of Australia conference “Taster” in Tasmania

How much value do writers put in sharing conferences together?

Last year an email to all members of RWA in Tasmania from the RWA Event Coordinator started it.


With old friends at 2007 conference

 Over the 20 years since their annual conferences over a weekend commenced, I have only missed going to a handful. Last year I was unable to attend the conference across Bass Strait in Melbourne, so I greeted the idea of having an RWA Tasmanian Roadshow here in 2012 with enthusiasm. Unfortunately, I had several commitments booked already this year so felt compelled to state that while I was very happy about this, I would be too busy to be able to help very much with the organising of this one day seminar.

Famous last words?

First of all a decision had to be made where this special one day event could be held. One multi-published author in the south near our capital, Hobart, was facing surgery in the new year and unable to help. Another keen supporter there also would be out of the state for some time at the beginning of the year. It seemed there were at least three of us in the north who were able to look into venues. Bit by bit, I became more and more involved, especially when Launceston area was decided on. Different responsibilities were divided up amongst the three of us and another couple of writers in different parts of our island state.

We wrote down the names of speakers we would like to have share workshops and speaking sessions with us. I became the Speaker Liasion and so became more and more involved. I wonder how many of you are smiling at me by now – especially those who know “Mary just can’t help herself!”

For far too many years I wrote without regular contact with other writers. We lived in a country city hundreds of miles from Sydney when I went to my first ever writers seminar in Sydney. It is now many, many years since that wonderful day which helped confirm my dream of one day becoming a writer. There was only irregular contact with other writers after that for years until a small number of folk interested in writing for the romance readers began to meet in out town and I heard about the new organisation, Romance Writers of Australia was being commenced.

A short time after becoming a member of the fledgling RWA, in one of their newsletters I read about a new bookclub of Christian Romance novels by being commenced in Ohio. I will be forever grateful to the editor of that HeartsTalk margazine for the information that eventually led to my first contract and first book published.

In previous blogs I have shared other photos from conferences.

Here are a few more of writers at RWA annual conferences over the years. Some I have met for the first time and always a delight to put faces to author's names on books I've enjoyed. Other writers seeking to be published have been met year after year and how wonderful to be able to see them after they too have been published.

So now, I am looking forward to be able to help provide this opportunity for other romance writers to hone their skills, to encourage them in their journey to publication. We are thrilled that we have three wonderful, multi-published authors coming to share with us at the RWA Tasmanian Roadshow on May 19th. While this will only be a one day event we are trying hard to make it a true “taster” of some of the things writers can expect from the annual RWA conferences.

Meet our special guest speakers!

All three are multi-published, award-winning romance authors in different romance sub-genres.

On the left meet Melanie Milburn from Tasmania. We are so proud of our "home-grown" author!

On the right is Ebony McKenna from Victoria who writes Young Adult books.

And Fiona Lowe also from Victoria is published in medical romance novels.

It is a big commitment for these generous writers to take time from their own busy schedules to share their expertise with us.

Registrations are now open but close on April 20th. Please have a read of what is in stoer – and while it is a taster it will be every bit as digestible and nourishing as we can make it for one day.

Do click HERE to read about this very special event - the RWA Tasmanian Roadshow. This is a first for us here and we are excited about being able to offer this in our island state.
Remember that as wonderful as this will be, it is a mere Taster of what writers feast on at the annual conference - this year to be held at the Gold Coast in August. While on the RWA website do check it out also. I might meet you there!

Writing conferences

ACFW 2009 with Debbie Macomber,
and senior editors,
Allen Arnold & Karen Ball 

I love them. The year ahead has more to choose from too!

Meeting other writers face to face, learning from other professionals in the industry from talks, workshop electives, panels is invaluable. Unfortunately they can become rather expensive too, but I really do believe can be the difference having that manuscript die in the bottom draw or being revised and re-written to a publishable standard. Networking online has become really essential for authors and I would dare to say networking is also very important at conferences.

 They are also heaps of fun and I can’t resist sharing some photos with you.


ACFW 2009 I meet a favourite author,
Colleen Coble



Ray and I decided we had to go to the American Christian Fiction Writers conference in 2009 at Denver, Colorado and had a simply wonderful time. This year we have been thinking seriously about going again. It is in Dallas this year and not too far from some Texas friends we have made. So, off we went to the Travel Agent. The money it would cost us just to fly there was daunting. Besides, we have been involved here in Australia now with other writers’ events.

RWA 2005 one of founders,
Lynne Wilding, and famous Australian
romance writer, Emma Darcy

 Since Romance Writers Australia commenced back in 1991 I have only missed a few of their conferences. However, last year I missed the one held in Melbourne and this year had decided I also could not go to the one in August at the Gold Coast in Queensland. I have also become more and more involved in events targeting the Australian Christian publishing industry. This year the first live-in weekend for us has been organised in October, also in Queensland and why thought could not fly up there for both events.

 But I have writer friends I have not seen for ages at RWA so now am seriously thinking perhaps we can manage that conference as well as the Getaway one. Besides, have just discovered Ray’s publisher, Rochelle Manners from Even Before Publishing is going to be there also and presenting a workshop on inspirational and Faith-based Romance!

This photo was taken at RWA 2007 on the fun Friday evening with Sheila Hodgson, Harlequin M&B senior editor from London and multi-published, Australian author, Barbara Hannay.

I have been privileged to present workshops at RWA conferences in the past about writing for the inspirational romance market, and this year am pleased that Rochelle Manners from Even Before Publishing will be presenting the workshop, Inspirational and Faith-based Romance.

It seems I'll just have to try and go to RWA Annual conference again this year as well as the first live-in Getaway weekend for Christian writers in October in Queensland.

You will be hearing more about these in future blogs.
And the draw for Ray's book, From Eden With Love, is still open so do go to the post before this one and leave a comment to enter. Remember we do need at least four comments for there to be a winner!

WHAT THIS WRITER DOES BESIDES WRITING

I know I seem to too often mention how busy life is here for me in our relatively quiet little village in Tasmania. Well, perhaps I do need to say that very important word, “No” far more often. I thought today I would share some of the things I have been involved in recently that is keeping me busy–perhaps at times too busy!

Published authors involved in writers’ groups may receive manuscripts from other writers to read and comment on. I have certainly had several of those over the years and, while I do very much enjoy trying to help unpublished writers in this way, it has the danger of taking too much time away from my own writing.

And so, what do I do? I lead with my chin and agree to being the presenter/leader of an elective for fiction writers at the Fusion Faith And The Arts week long event. This was held at Fusion’s village of Poatina in January. A beautiful place and do click HERE to check this unusual village out.

While I did come home weary, it was a very exciting and worth while time of fellowship and input into other writer’s efforts as well as getting to know other great folk involved in various other artistic works. This is an annual event and click HERE to find out more about FATA. It was a real privilege to be involved this year.



With Valerie Parv at
RWA National Conference

 Then I came home and straight back into being involved in planning and organising another exciting event. Romance Writers of Australia had contacted their members in Tasmania last year to see if we would consider having a RWA Roadshow here this year. These day seminars have been held successfully in places like Perth, Adelaide and North Queensland to try and give writers a “taste” of our annual National Conferences. However, these are only held in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and too many other areas miss out. Since these annual conferences commenced way back in 1991 I have only missed a few. Let me assure you, that while I am looking forward so very much to this one day here in Tasmania, I know it can only be a teaser for the wonderful RWA four day conferences held each year.

I couldn’t go to Melbourne last year and am especially looking forward to this special, yummy “Taster!”

And here is the first announcement, the Teaser for the Taster!

Tasmanian RWA Roadshow
When: Saturday 19th
Where: LINC Tasmania – 8 High Street, Launceston

Time: 9.00am – 5.30pm (with optional dinner afterwards)

Cost: Members $55 (GST incl.) Non-members $66 (GST incl.) – includes lunch
More information about our special guest speakers from Victoria, their exciting elective workshops as well as registration will be available very soon at: http://www.romanceaustralia.com/roadshows_tas.html

Oh, and before I finish this post, I have to also mention my involvement in the Tasmanian Baptist Womens' Ministry committee. Our Conference Day happens on Saturday March 24th . Our theme this year is Where is God in Your Life? Is it obvious to you right now too that I sure need Him with me every moment?

I always enjoy these times of Tassie BWM fellowship. A really great day has been planned this year with a special speaker, Jan Adams, and others doing very important and interesting electives like:- 

Where is God in tough economic times? byAnthony Plisek.

Anthony is Senior Financial Counselor at Anglicare Hobart.

Registration Forms will be available this weekend .

So, once again I’ve lead with that softening chin of mine and am presenting the Bible Study elective, Where Is God In Your Day. And now I’m off to start preparing it! Perhaps God will again try to tell me what to say "No" to and hopefully I'll be listening!

MORE ABOUT THESE EVENTS NEXT WEEK!

And until then I might even be able to write more of my Her Outback Cowboy manuscript? Another perhaps?

Oops! For a moment forgot about the Society Women Writers Tasmania meeting next Monday – and helping to organise their Short Story Contest!

When Writers meet Face to Face

As well as online fellowship, writers do enjoy meeting with other writers. This photo was taken at a monthly meeting I try hard to go to each time of the Society Women Writers Tasmania. We have our next meeting this coming Monday - a special Christmas luncheon time!
My apologies for not posting here for so long. We arrived home from Queensland late last Thursday. Hard to believe a week has already slipped by. We “oldies” were certainly ready for a holdiay to get over our two week working holiday, but instead have found ourselves very busy catching up on mail, email, restocking the fridge and helping our family – not to mention the usual unpacking, laundry, sorting out notes and paperwork from the Writer events.

The last few days I’ve spent too much time trying to sort out insurance re-imbursement for a bit of damage to our hire car and trying very hard to find my camera. Sorry there are no photos this time of our trip. The above one was taken last year but a good reminder of writers meeting face to face! They are all still on that camera – somewhere not in aeroplanes. airports, hire car company and apparently at our family’s homes!

However, our trip away was a great time of meeting with readers at book-signings, my extended Qld family and then of course other writers. The Word Writer Fair was even bigger and better this year as it continues to attract more and more of those of us who are writers. I’ve already heard about some pre-planning to make our face to face time together with writers from all over Australia even more exciting next year. I so enjoyed putting faces to names of other writers I've only "met" online here as they have commented on our blogs posts and also on other blogs and writers email loops.

On the Friday I was privleged to mentor four fiction writers. It was a busy but very rewarding day and hopefully we will see those manuscripts they worked so hard on published in the future.

Saturday was very special for me again this year. Ray presented a workshop on writing devotionals and I talked to writers wanting to write fiction who attended my workshop on what writers need to know they should know before they start a novel. There have been so many things I’ve had to continue learning over the years and so many things I wish I had known before writing my own first novels. I sure pray it will help other writers not to have to learn the hard way I so often have by making mistakes with my manuscripts.

The CALEB Award dinner was another time of fellowship for us all. I was thrilled to be one of the three finalists in the fiction category and am thrilled for the winner, Paula Vince, for her novel Best Forgotten. Not only did she win our category but was the overall Grand winner! Fiction ruled!

An extra special moment for me was the delight of seeing one of the unpublished writers I mentored last year win the unpublished category, and know she has signed a contract for that manuscript we worked so hard on. Congratulations Jo Wanmer!

Another delight for me was the opportunity to meet and share dinner with members of the newly formed Toowoomba Romance Writers of Australia group. Perhaps I will be able to share more about the details of that and other experiences out west in future blog posts.

Already Ray and I are seeking to know what and where and how we may be involved with writers’ events next year. Already I am booked to share with writers at Fusion’s annual Faith and Art convention here in Tasmania in January. I missed the Romance Writers Australia National conference this year and in 2012 will be held at the Gold Coast in Qld. There is planning afoot for an RWA Roadshow for writers of romance here in Tasmania next May. Then there is another Word Writers Fair in Adelaide as well as another in Brisbane.

Choices, always choices. Our prayer is we will continue to listen to God, let Him choose for us. May He continue to make the journey HE wants to take us on very, very clear.

BACK HOME but PREPARING TO BE OFF AGAIN!

This week I thought I’d tell you a few things that have been happening here to my husband and I. As well of course, there are those other plans for another trip to the Australian mainland in November.

But first of all, I received a lovely photo sent to me by a lovely fellow writer – and a clever photographer – from the RWA Conference at Coogee beach in Sydney. Had to share this one with you!
Remember, if you click on a photo on my blog posts, it will enlarge and be clearer.

The two writers on the top of the left cube are Cathleen Ross   and Kandy Shepherd who organised the RWA conference this year. The writer beneath them is Kylie Griffin, this year’s Golden Heart winner. Also on that cube are Kerri Lane with Sandra Allan. The photos on the cube on the right include Barbara Hannay and Anne Gracie next to me, and underneath us are Kandy Shepherd, Nalini Singh and Christine Stinson. The other side of the cube is from the “Goal, Motivation, Conflict” Friday session  with Debra Dixon of America. Many thanks to clever Robyn Aldridge! She has called this RWA Sunrise Cubes

And so, RWA conference and the other speaking engagements in New South Wales in September are behind me. Now we are planning for more speaking appointments in Queensland in November! I will be on a panel about “Reaching out for God through fiction” and doing a seminar workshop session on writing romance at the Word Writers Fair in Brisbane area. The award dinner for the CALEB book contest organised by the Omega Writers is on that same Saturday evening, November 6th.
And I have been thrilled today to learn that my Return to Baragula and Outback From Baragula have been short-listed in the Fiction category! Whoopee! There are also encouraging reviews of the books on the CALEB page.

Do click on the Word Writers Fair, Omega Writers and CALEB and you should go to the websites to read all about these events, including the full list of other great books that have also been short-listed in all the categories.

Don’t forget to make sure you let folk know about the Word Writer Fair so they can register ASAP. I believe places are filling already so register NOW! I am so looking forward to sharing with writers at the seminar and then being a tutor for the Omega mentorship live-in programme the following week.

And if all this isn’t enough excitement for one trip, arrangements are being made for me to share with writers as well as readers of Christian fiction at the Toowoomba library. Will post more information about that event later.

And how are we travelling to Qld this trip? We studied the plane and car hire fares carefully, compared them and other expenses with the only other way to leave our beautiful island. We also need to take books with us and have space to bring books back too! So we are now booked on the Spirit of Tasmania, the ferry that sails overnight across Bass Strait to Melbourne. We will be taking our time driving –and I’ll try and remember to take photos to share with you.

Would love to hear if there is any chance I will be able to meet any readers of my blog – somewhere between Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales and southern Queensland!

Romance Writers Australia conference 2010 plus

 I am typing this on our son and d.i.l's computer after a few days recovering from a hectic few days over last weekend at this great conference. For me the Authors Day just a week ago was the highlight. Having said that, I just loved meeting old friends and meeting new ones.
Instead of raving on about the workshop on promotion and marketing, the great Awards Dinner and the excitement of seeing writers receive awards in various categories, I'm going to just share a few photos with you.
                                                    

I met Narelle Atkins on the internet a few years ago and have been in regular contact with her ever since, including a quick visit to her home on one trip to Canberra. She brought her friend Karen Ward with her who is now one of my friends! With us here is also another Christian writer, Laura O'Connell. Wonderful to share fellowship with these lovely ladies!

Editors from different publishing houses in Australia were present and also Dianne Moggy from Harlequin in North America. A real privilege to have a brief chat with her one day.

Then of course there were authors that have been to every RWA conference I've been to. But I met Valerie Parv, now called "Australia's Queen of Romance" several years before RWA commenced. She had an article in a woman's magazine about a writer's course called Art of Romance Writing. It is now in book form, but I am so grateful that part of the course was sending her a full manuscript to critique. I give her credit for honing my skills so that I signed my first contracts back in 1992. Was great seeing her again!

And I think that might be all I should do on Lance & and Karen's computer for this blog. Hopefully I'll be able to share more about the Australian Christian Writers Fellowship day seminar I am doing the workshops for this coming Saturday. This is at St Phillips Anglican church hall at Eastwood in Sydney. I do hope to meet other old friends there also who are targetting the Christian markets.                                                                            

Writers groups

     As some of you already know, I am a member of several writers' groups and associations. Some time after starting my first efforts at writing seriously with the correspondence course (see my website for more about that) I subscribed to a Christian writers' newsletter. It is now close to forty years ago so I can't remember the name of it but I think it originated in Victoria. Besides my American tutors of that course, that was my first contact with other Australian writers.

     Then Billy Graham came to Australia and I heard about a day conference for writers sponsored by their Decision magazine and some Sydney Christian writers. Wow, did that day simply blow me away! Any readers remember Sherwood Wirt? He was a well-known, prominent editor from America. Even more thrilling for this nervous writer were the Australian publishers and editors. One the results of that day was becoming a member of the Australian Christian Writers Fellowship. I have been a member most of the years with them ever since, but because we have lived for the most part hundreds of miles from where they hold their monthly meetings in Sydney have rarely been able to share face to face with them.

     And that is what I enjoy the most - face to face encounters with other writers.

     I know that if your are reading this and are a writer also you will understand just why. For those of you who are primarily readers, let me tell you just a few of the reasons.

     Writers are creative people who first of all were readers first before daring to put pen to...er...fingers to keyboard to try and put their thoughts, their stories into a form to share with readers. Some of us use our imaginations to create characters, plots, themes and use them to tell stories that we hope will challenge readers and perhaps most of all give them an hour or so of entertainment. Other writers love the use of words and create beautiful poetry, articles to inform, to challenge. I am primarily a "story teller." When I was first challenged to write, my first thought was "what do I write?' The answer to that is one I now still try to encourage other folk thinking of writing to consider. Write what YOU enjoy reading THE MOST!

   But back to these writers' groups.

   While I have always read widely, ever since I can remember my favourite books contain at least some romance. So, perhaps it is no wonder that my first short story had a hint of that when an injured soldier still recovering from the trauma of Vietnam met a blind young girl on his favourite beach. While I called it "Scars" the Woman's Day editor published it way back in 1974 as "Tomorrow is a New Day." When I evolved to writing my first novel, of course it had to be a romance novel.

    It was about eighteen years after that short story was published before I met a group of writers who also wrote romance. I joined the fledgling Romance Writers of Australia and it was wonderful being able to share each month at our meetings with other crazy writers. This is a photo of some of us at our Christmas dinner one year.

     We shared our problems with plots, characterisation,  point of view, how to format a manuscript, who to submit it to, kept informed of market trends and publishers' news for our chosen genre. As well as sharing expertise and the critiquing of our efforts, most important was the fellowship we shared, the tears when we received rejections, the times we cheered a writer with some success. How I missed that monthly group when we moved from that city!

     As well as our RWA, I joined the Romance Writers America and their Faith Hope Love chapter for Christian romance writers. While we lived in England for two years I joined the Association Christian Writers and also the American Christian Fiction Writers when it commenced. When we moved back to Australia from England I was delighted to be able to join the Society Women Writers Tasmania because they held their monthly meetings less than an hour's drive from us. I have been honoured to be the president for them these last couple of years. Recently I have also become a member of another group for Christian writers in Queensland, Omega Writers.

     And that brings me to this last few days. We have our SWWT annual meeting next Monday and I am so thankful another writer has let me nominate her for this position. With releasing my Baragula books in 2008 and 2009 and all the promotion and marketing efforts for them, trying to write the third book in the series and going overseas for several weeks last year, I simply need more time now to concentrate on not only my writing but other responsibilities I know I will have this coming year.

     I am delighted that after missing the last two annual conferences, I am off to the RWAustralia conference in Sydney later in August. Last September Ray and I were in Denver, Colorado, at the ACFW conference. This year once again there will be wonderful opportunities to continue to learn writing skills, but I also will be meeting old friends made over many years who are just as much crazy writers as myself! And I'll let you into this also: I will be meeting a literary agent from the agency in New York who has asked me to send them manuscripts. The big question is, "will they or won't they offer to have me as one of their clients?"

     I continue to be blessed so very, very much by other writers God has brought into my life from all over the world. And don't forget, if you click on the highlighted names of the writers' groups you will go to their websites. On some sites there are great articles about writing for writers - mainly in members only I'm afraid, but if you are interested, RWA also has information about the romance genre .