Plenary Session: Susan Wiggs and the Writer’s Journey

Presented by Susan Wiggs. Here are the 12 steps to being a writer, presented as a form of the Hero’s Journey.  I mentioned it in an earlier post, and have had a chance to write it up now. She also made the point that while it is nice to have a career as a writer […]

Breakout session: Writing the Emotional Rollercoaster

Presented by Joan Kilby, a contemporary romance writer.  She is from Canada but lives in Melbourne, and many of her stories are either set in Australia or have Australian characters. This was a good, practical crafting session.  Some of it covered ground that was similar to Valerie Parv’s session yesterday, but it was still good […]

Plenary session: The Next 20 Years

Panel discussion with authors Kelley Armstrong, Stephanie Laurens, and Bob Mayer, and also Angela James (Executive editor, Carina Press) and Kristin Nelson (Nelson Literary Agency). This was really interesting, particularly in terms of where ebooks are going.  The consensus seemed to be that more and more technology would come into the publishing process, and as […]

Writers’ Conference – Day 3

These are my sessions for today:  8.30am – 10.15am – Plenary session, Keynote address by Marion Lennox.  Panel session ‘The Next 20 Years’ 10.45am – 12.15pm – Breakout session 4 ‘Writing the Emotional Rollercoaster’ 1.15pm – 2.15pm – Breakout session 5 ‘Sense and Sanity – Living with the First Draft’ 2.25pm – 3.25pm – Breakout […]

Breakout Session: Life of a Trade fiction book

This was not very interesting.  The interesting part was the publishers talking (again) about the state of the industry, but the rest of it wasn’t anything new.  It was about the process of edits, cover selection, publicity and sales.  Sure, some people may not have known it, but I don’t know if it warranted a […]

Breakout Session: Valerie Parv and Jennie Adams

The Art of Layering your novel This was an instructive workshop on how to add depth to your characters and therefore to your story. I have been to workshops run by Valerie Parv before, and they are always really good value and worth attending.  In addition to her fifty novels, she has written more than […]

For Wystii and Cupidsbow . . .

Further to the post on the editor’s panel, one member asked them a question from floor.  She asked if any of them looked and male / male romances. The ‘big four’ sat in shocked silence.  It took one of the HMB editors – who used to work for Ellora’s Cave – to explain to everyone […]

Writers’ Conference Day 2: Publishers Galore

I have just attended a *very* interesting panel discussion on what publishers are buying in Australia right now.  There were representatives from Harlequin Mills & Boon, Avon, Carina Press, Allen & Unwin, Penguin, Hatchette and Random House. The final four listed, in their own descriptions ‘mainstream publishers’, are starting to accept romance.  They were polite […]