RWA Dallas report

I started writing this post a couple of days ago, but then Blogger seemed to be having a few conniptions and wouldn't save it.

My week in Dallas was a wonderful, amazing time, and I was already glad I went long before I won the Golden Heart. Spending days immersed in the romance genre with people who respect it, love it, read it and write it was inspiring.

Highlights and great memories:

Monday - meeting Penni from the e-Harlequin boards, who collected me from my hotel and showed Wayne Jordan from Barbados and I around Fort Worth. It was a very pleasant day, in great company, and I got to see Texas Longhorn cattle, as a bonus :-)

Monday evening - meeting Tiana, an online friend from e-Harlequin's BatCave, and having dinner with her. Then meeting my Australian roommate for Monday and Tuesday nights - Joanne. I hadn't met Joane before, but we all clicked and the three of us stayed up too late, talking!

Tuesday - Tiana kindly took Joanne and I shopping to the huge Grapevine Mall. I didn't spend heaps of money, but it was fun to see all the different shops, clothes and other items and to spend time with Tiana and Joanne. We did find a sparkly top to wear with my black skirt for the Awards night, so that was something I could stop worrying about.

Wednesday - over to the conference hotel, the Hyatt. We arrived late morning, and the crowds were starting to gather, a definite hum of excitement in the air. I met up with my roommate, Michele, and Theresa, another online friend. It's such a buzz to finally get together with people I've 'known' for ages. I braved the crowds of the literacy signing for a while, but being determined not to collect copious quantities of books (due to luggage restrictions and too-high postage costs), I restrained myself to only buying two books - Anne Stuart's Ice Blue and one from Wayne Jordan.

Thursday the conference program started in earnest. With the PRO retreat, Golden Heart and Golden Network activities, and an agent and editor appointment, my diary already had a fair few entries in it, and as I didn't want to overload myself too much and produce a three-day migraine, I gave myself free-time gaps as well. So, there was a lot I didn't get to, but I did benefit greatly from the things I attended - and I was able to spend time with Tiana, Joanne, Michelle and Theresa, AND read Ice Blue (which I thought was the best of the series; I felt the characters were better developed, suited to each other, and the heroine wasn't TSTL).

Friday morning was my agent pitch, and that went quite well despite my nerves. I came away with a request for a partial and a very positive impression of her and the agency, so I'm definitely hoping that she will like what she reads and offers representation. My editor pitch also went well, resulting in a request for a partial. (This weekend I will finalise the long synopsis that the agent asked for, do the cover letters and get everything ready to post express post on Monday.)

Saturday was a great day - a wonderful workshop in the afternoon with Barbara Samuel, the rehearsal for the GH Awards, enjoyable dinner with Theresa and her roommate, Adrienne, and then the big Awards ceremony.

I was quietly excited about the Awards, and only a little nervous. Being a finalist was such a wonderful thing, a brilliant rich cake that was a fantastic experience and prize in itself. Everyone who saw the 'GH Finalist' ribbon on my name tag was congratulatory and encouraging, sharing the excitement, and the group of GH finalists that I got together with a number of times during the conference were an amazing, warm, and fantastically friendly and supportive group, so I was on a high from all of that. There'd been a quiet voice in my head a few times in the weeks proceeding that every now and then would say, 'you're going to win', but then another practical, logical voice would reply, 'there are 8 finalists, any one of them could win, and they all deserve it and being a finalist is just brilliant, anyway.' (Yes, I'm a writer. There are always lots of conversations going on in my head :-) )

I'd asked Theresa to be my guest in the reserved area - we've been online friends for a while, and share many things in common. We arranged to sit with Melanie Scott and Keri Arthur - Mel was the other Australian GH finalist, and a double finalist, and she and Keri were among the first Australian romance writers I'd met, back in 2004, at a mini-conference in Canberra, so it was special to share the occasion with them.

All the GH finalists looked gorgeous - beautiful formal dresses, sparkling eyes, and everyone genuinely wishing each other well. I was proud to be part of such a generous group. I get emotional, and when the lights went down and the ceremony started, I was teary and trying to keep from sniffling with the joy of it all. When Theresa turned to me and told me how proud she was of me finalling, and how honoured she was to be sharing this with me, it was a struggle not to have full-on waterworks. (The voice that said, 'you know your face and nose go all red and blotchy when you cry' helped :-) )

There were a few glitches in the order of the slides and announcements for the first couple of GH categories, which was a bit of a bummer and must have stretched the nerves further of those in the early categories. We held our breaths and kept our fingers crossed for Mel in her two categories, but someone else won both. Mel's going great places, though, I'm sure, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if we get to drink champagne to a book sale at the RWAus conference next month.

My category was second last, and I can't really describe how I felt by then - excitement, moved by the emotion of the occasion, trying not to cry when each of the finalist's slides went up, because they were all gorgeous and deserved every success. There was a pause while Stephanie Bond, the presenter for the award, opened the envelope, and I'm not sure that I consciously thought anything during that time. I think I did breathe, though - a long, deep breath. Then she said, Falling into Darkness, and I knew I'd won. I stood up, and heard the applause and the cheers, but I was ready to cry again, and I couldn't hug my friends right then, because if I had I knew I'd break out in tears. I remember walking carefully to the stage, conscious of not tripping up the steps in long skirt and high heels, and Stephanie handed me the envelope and the box with the heart pendant. I hadn't written down a speech or notes, but I knew who I wanted to acknowledge: my parents, for showing through 50 years of marriage that love based on a firm foundation of respect and commitment can achieve wonderful things; Gordon, for supporting me to come to Dallas, despite the expense; all the many people in RWA, RWAus, for their support, friendship and encouragement on the writing journey; all the people who had made me feel welcome and among friends at the conference, and congratulated me when they saw the GH finalist ribbon; and my online writing group - I said something along the lines of 'they can be a bit batty at times, but there couldn't be a more supportive, wonderful group of people.'

Afterwards, there were many hugs, a few more tears, lots of smiles and grinning, photos, a glass of wine, dessert, and general celebrations. Later we went up to Joanne's room so I could use her computer to email my family, and I was able to talk to my sister using skype, which was fantastic. (Gordon was off bushwalking, so I couldn't talk to him straight away, although I did email him.)

It was an amazing experience, wonderful and exciting and humbling and inspiring. Thanks to everyone who helped along the way, and who has cheered and celebrated with me. I still look at the card that Stephanie read the announcement from, and get a shiver of excitement. And if some of the above isn't coherent, it's because it's all still too new and amazing to describe in mere words!

Golden Heart

I'm finally home again, after all the excitement of the RWA Conference in Dallas and the absolute, amazing thrill of winning the Golden Heart award for best romantic suspense manuscript.

I'm very, very tired though, and am having trouble locating a functioning braincell, so please excuse this short post! I'll write more later, but in the meantime, my friend Theresa was with me at the awards, and took some photos - you can see them on her blog.

Super congrats also to fellow Australian, Barbara Hannay, who won a RITA Award.

It's time for me to take my jetlagged brain and body off to a warm, cosy bed. I have to go to work tomorrow, so I need a solid night of sleep!

Radio interview online

My interview for ABC Radio National's Bush Telegraph went well this morning - although I was nervous about it because I knew many of my online friends were listening in!

If anyone wants to listen to it, the audio file of the program is now available. It's in the program for Friday 6th July. Click on the audio links to the right to either listen via streaming or download the file. I'm about 26 mins into the program. (The audio files are only online for about two weeks.)

Flight reading

I leave on Saturday just before midday, and by the time I get to Dallas, about 48 hours will have elapsed. Not all of that will be on planes; I have almost 24 hours in Sydney, and 4 hours at San Francisco.

However, there's plenty of reading time ahead. I don't want to take too many books, for luggage space and weight reasons, so I've selected from the TBR pile:

Nora Roberts - Northern Lights
Rita Herron - Last Kiss Goodbye
Stephanie Laurens - The Perfect Lover
Carla Neggers - Abandon

Those should keep me entertained for a reasonable amount of the trip, particularly since I'm hoping to sleep for hours on the Sydney to San Francisco segment.

Two more sleeps...

...before I leave home to head to Dallas. I'm even vaguely organised; I haven't actually started packing the suitcase yet, but it's out from under the spare bed, dusted, and I've been stacking clothes that I'm going to take on the bed, ready to be packed.

The DH solved a couple of technical problems for me last night, so now I can charge my iPod without the laptop, and I have an additional, large memory card for the camera, so I don't need to take the laptop with me. I don't think I'll have much time for writing, anyway, and I'm assuming I'll be able to find an internet cafe or similar to check my email occasionally, so it will be a relief not to have to lug the laptop around and worry about it's safety. Given that I've developed a very painful right shoulder, I sure won't miss the extra weight.

I just did a quick calculation, and I suspect that I land at San Francisco at about 3am, body time. I'm planning to sleep as much as I can on the plane, but I'm not looking forward to that part - no airport is fun when the brain thinks it's the wee small hours of the morning! Ahh, the joys of travelling ;-)

Media whirl part 2

The media interest continues - yesterday TV station NBN filmed a segment for the regional evening news, and ABC Online contacted me and later posted an item on their news website. Today, I had an interview with ABC Radio Canberra, and tomorrow morning I have one scheduled with ABC Radio in Central Australian. I suspect that will be the last one, other than the Radio National one we have scheduled for next week, just before I go.

It's very cold here, and after all the excitement - and frantic workload at work to juggle around it - I took tonight off, and watched Dr Who on TV. Now I'm finishing my bedtime cup of chamomile tea, and listening to the wonderful music of Falling You at magnatune.com. I'm itching to buy some more music from magnatune - they have some great stuff, and 50% of the income goes directly to the artists - but I'll have to wait until after Dallas, when I might have some $$ again.

Media happenings

It’s been an amazing couple of days. My university sent out a media release yesterday morning, about my being a finalist in the RWA Golden Heart Award. I expected the local paper to pick it up, and perhaps the regional radio station, but the response has been overwhelming - I’ve done two radio interviews today, for the local regional radio station and the regional station for the north coast, a television news segment, an interview for the major news agency that feeds across the country, and I’m lined up for another TV news interview tomorrow, and a spot on Radio National next week, just before I fly out to Dallas.

The interviewers have been quite good, although Barbara Cartland or pink chiffon negligees have been mentioned in most of them. Because of the early British influence on the romance genre in Australia, the two most common things that non-romance readers tend to say when romance is mentioned is 'Barbara Cartland' and 'Mills and Boon'. However, I think I did an okay job in talking about the diversity in the genre.

I saw the TV segment on the local news tonight, and I was quite happy with it - although our TV reception for that channel is pretty bad, and it didn't record very well at all. And, of course, the sweater I was wearing made me look fat :-)

The cameraman took some pictures of me at my computer at work 'writing', so I had to write something. Yes, on the news was the close-up of the screen where I had written the amazingly elegant prose 'His chair squeaked as he pushed it back.' Okay, so I'm not going to win the Nobel proze for literature with that! However, it is very hard to just write creatively at the conclusion of a media interview, when there's a camera looking over one's shoulder.

So, it's all been quite an experience, and an incredible response from the media. I was expecting the local interest, but the rest is quite a surprise. And the pleasant part is that it shows that there is a growing interest in the media about the romance genre - which can only be a good thing. I hope I've done the genre justice today.

As far as I can tell, none of it's available online, so I can't put links up to the interviews. However, next week's segment is on Radio National, which is streamlined live, so I'll put a link for that up closer to the time.

Contest success

I found out earlier in the week, but couldn't say anything until it was officially announced:

My two entries in the RWAustralia Single (Title) and Loving It contest placed second and third. The manuscripts are Dark Legacy, the loosely-linked sequel to my Golden Heart finalling book; and Shadows and Light.

Both manuscripts have been challenging to write, for various reasons, and each has had a number of versions, so I'd entered them in the contest primarily for the feedback, to see if what I'd done with each of them worked. It seems so :-)

Big congrats to Melanie Scott, who won the contest. She's also a double Golden Heart finalist, and I'm really hoping I'll be giving her a huge cheer (or two!!) and pouring champagne for her at the awards night in Dallas. Mel was one of the first people I met at the first romance writers conference I attended, and she deserves every success.

Speaking of Dallas, in three weeks exactly I'll be heading to Sydney airport to get on the plane to San Francisco, and from there to Dallas.

From winter in rural Australia to a luxury hotel in a huge, bustling hot city - it will definitely be a contrast! I am becoming quite excited, although there's a huge list of things I need to finish before I leave. I don't usually pack ages before I go away, but because I'm taking summer clothes that I'm not currently wearing in freezing winter temps, I have started piling some things on the guest bed. I may even start making a list, soon :-)

Guest blogging

I'm GuestBlogging about my research over on Romance By the Blog today. Hop on over and visit!!

Dallas, here I come...

It's decided - I AM going to the RWA National Conference in Dallas in July. It will be a quick trip, just a week away, with a day or so in Dallas to get over the jet lag before the conference starts, and heading home on the Sunday afternoon.

I'm not looking forward to the whole flying half-way across the world thing, but it's good incentive to lose some weight, so I'll fit into those tiny airplane seats a little more comfortably! I've traveled several times on longer flights across to Europe and the UK, and coped okay, but I was slimmer then.

In between bouts of nerves, I am looking forward to the conference. This will be my first US conference, and 10 times larger than the Australian one I went to a couple of years ago. So, it will be quite an experience! It will also be my first visit to the US since 1983; I'm sure a lot has changed in that time.

Updated web site

I wasn't particularly happy with the website design I've had for a year or more, so in this last week it's undergone a major renovation. If I had the money, I'd get a professional to do it, as my visual design imagination and skills aren't at the professional level, however, I've had to do it myself - at least for now.

So, please check it out at http://bronwynparry.com

I welcome feedback on it!

(And now I'll need to update the look of this blog to go with it... )

Decisions, decisions

The RWA needs an author photo from each of the Golden Heart finalists, and, as I'm no gorgeous model with a portfolio of glamour shots, I need help in deciding what to send!

I'm still not used to the new hairstyle and colour (I had my long hair chopped off last Thursday), which adds to my indecision about what looks best.







So, 1, 2, or 3 - or option 4 - drag long-suffering DH out for another photoshoot?

(The sharp-eyed amongst you will note that I've used my absolute minimal photoshop skills to make my blemishes less obvious in no. 3. Hmmm. I'm not sure that's me.)

Golden News

Well, I said I'd blog again if there was exciting news, and there is!

I was overjoyed and honoured to find out yesterday that my ms, Falling into Darkness, is a finalist in the RWA's Golden Heart Award, in the romantic suspense category.

I still can't quite believe it!

Congratulations to all the other finalists, and commiserations to those who didn't final.

Finances are fairly tight, and getting to the US for the conference and awards ceremony is very expensive, so I'm not sure yet if I'll make it to Dallas. Probably not, but all hope hasn't quite been extinguished, yet!

Farewell - for a while

After a lot of thought, I've decided to take a break from this blog for a while.

I've found it a bit difficult to blog well here, for a range of reasons, but mostly because I've been conscious that with my PhD research on online romance readers and writers communities gearing up for major action this year, I've needed to keep my public image relatively neutral - which has meant not commenting on a lot of issues and topics around the genre.

Given that I'm not published (yet), and my writing progress doesn't make for scintillating reading, and the above-mentioned reasons for not commenting loudly on genre issues - well, that doesn't give me a whole lot to write about, on a writing blog.

So, I'm going to take a break. In between work and PhD I'll still be writing, and I'm currently sending a manuscript out to agents, so if there's any exciting news I'll post it here - and start blogging again, if there's a career to blog about ;-)

In the meantime, if you want to see the scenery and wildlife around here, there's my photoblog, and I also have a textile blog where I post about my occasional textile projects - and the pairs of socks I knit while I'm staring at the screen, writing!

Thanks to everyone who's visited this blog - see you again when I have a writing career to blog about!

Merry Christmas!

The second turkey I've ever cooked.



Our simple, delicious Christmas lunch.

Book recommendation

My most recent order from amazon arrived yesterday, including two copies of this book, written by my friend Joanna Sandsmark.

It's gorgeous! Beautiful illustrations, with the text a warm, gentle 'philosophy' that is delightful and meaningful.

I bought one copy for me and another to give as a gift, but I think I'm going to have to order a couple more. It's too beautiful not to share with others.

Five things you mightn't know....

1. The first actor I had a crush on was the guy who played Thierry la fronde in the (very early) 1960s French series, which was shown here as The King's Outlaw.

Yes, he's the one in the left front in the short jerkin and the tight tights - as all good heroes should be :-) Thierry was played by actor Jean-Claude Drouot, who apparently went on to become a significant actor in French theatre.

2. Much though I wish I could, I can't sing very well. I can hold a tune only if there's no other harmonies going on around me.

3. I was dux of my school in 6th grade.

4. I've always been a romantic. When all the other girls were going through the 'I hate boys' stages, I didn't. (Maybe that was Thierry's influence.... :-) )

5. I started writing when I was about 7 or 8 years old. We moved to a new suburb, and a girl two doors down, a year older than me, was writing a story about the Beatles. She had hundreds of pages of dialogue. So, I began writing too - first I did fan-fic of Lost in Space and Danger Island (because there just wasn't anywhere near enough romance on screen for me), but I quickly began creating my own stories. If I recall correctly, my first hero's name was Max.

Now I'm going to tag.... Grace Tyler.

Tagged by Jennie

Jennie Adams has tagged me. She wants me to reveal 5 things that no-one (or hardly anyone) knows about me.

Hmmmm... might have to think about this. What secrets shall I reveal?? Is there anything interesting about me that not many people know??

Stay tuned...

(And in the meantime, go and visit Jennie's blog.

Jo Beverley's 'The Shattered Rose'

Many of the big name, American, historical romance authors are hard to find here. Borders only has stores in the capital cities, and they're the only place I've come across that actually has a 'Romance' section. Sadly, I don't get to the city very often. Our local bookstores have some romances sprinkled in with 'Fiction', but not a large range. However, I've managed to hunt a few historical BNA down in the past months, as I'm trying to expand my reading across the genre and at least be familiar with some of the authors being talked about on various blogs and email lists.

The romance book that's stood out for me this year is Jo Beverley's The Shattered Rose. Out of interest, I had a look recently at the amazon.com reviews for this book, and discovered that it was a 'love it or hate it' book. I loved it. It's not an easy book, and it certainly isn't a light, comfortable romance - hence the negative responses from those perhaps expecting something more traditional and undemanding.

However, for those who like their romance real rather than fantasy, then The Shattered Rose is satisfyingly challenging. The historian in me really appreciated that the characters were people of their times; these were medieval nobility, with the world and religious frameworks of the period, not modern people dressed in medieval costume. I loved the way that Beverley drew both Galeran and Jehanne and their responses to the situation they found themselves in; their story was heart-wrenching and the resolution of their difficulties in keeping with both character and time - even if as challenging to the reader as to Galeran and Jehanne themselves.

The secondary romance was rather less satisfying for me; although it was fun, it felt too light for the drama and depth of the primary story. However, the book still rates as probably the best romance I've read this year.

If anyone has recommendations for more books with that level of realism, please feel free to make them!

I found Laura Kinsale's Flowers from the Storm in a second-hand bookshop a few weeks back, and picked it up because of all the positive comments at the Smart Bitches and other places. When I'm finished with my current deadline, I'll reward myself with it.

Celebrating with Kelly

My friend Kelly Hunter's first book Wife for a Week burst onto Australian shelves this week. (Okay, it was a bit slow getting to our town, but made it eventually!)

I had lunch with Kelly and fellow writer Michelle today to celebrate - a thoroughly pleasant lunch, with two wonderful writing women to chat with and a gorgeous, happy baby to cuddle. Can't think of a better way to spend a Friday afternoon :-)



Signing my copy of her book (every romance writer should have a feather pen!)



After lunch, we went to the local K-Mart to admire the book on the shelves.

Congratulations, Kelly, on sticking with your dreams and writing such a warm, wonderful and fun book! May there be many, many more.