Exciting Times

I went to the Festival of Romance in Bedford at the weekend. It was all arranged in a last minute rush when I discovered that I had been shortlisted for the festival’s new talent award. The shortlisting was for the first chapter of a novel and it just happened to be ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’, the one with the chainsaw wood carver in it!

Thanks to Bella Osborne for being my festival buddy and congratulations for her for being runner up for the award. The lovely trophy was won by Lucie Wheeler.

Sunday morning in Bedford

We had a great time, apart from a few hiccups with the hotel. I went on an Irresistible Heroes workshop run by Christina Courtenay (The Gilded Fan) and Sue Moorcroft (Is This Love). Miranda Dickinson (Take a Look at Me Now) then shared her road to publication with us.

The Sunday conference was full of useful advice and lots of editors telling us what sort of books they are hoping to acquire for publication. Thank you to the organisers of the Festival of Romance, without whose tireless efforts, events like this would not exist.

In other news, my writing friend Jan Preston has just signed with Mills and Boon for two Regency romances and another friend Heather King has just released her debut novel A Sense of the Ridiculous, again a Regency romance, with Musa Publishing.

Those of you who are in the depths of the November NaNoWriMo writing challenge will no doubt be writing away. I hope you are finding it enjoyable. With mine, I am submerged in the depths of the home front of WW1 with my character Millie in the Black Country.

What are you writing at the moment?