A Great Day Out at the RNA Conference 2015

This year, as the RNA Conference was at Queen Mary's University, Mile End, London, I decided to just go for the Saturday, but to be honest, as I left at 5.30, I wished I was staying!
I travelled with Jen Gilroy (www.jengilroy.com) who, this year, is an RWA Golden Heart Finalist!! Their conference is in New York this week and I hope that you join with me in wishing Jen the best of luck!
Arriving in time to pick up our goody bags (you can see some of the contents in the photo), my first session was with Jane Wenham-Jones which I was looking forward to because she gives such entertaining talks. This one was a 'Wannabe a Writer We've Heard Of?' workshop, based on her book of the same name. In her inimitable style, she talked about making the perfect elevator pitch which, if it works before the publisher or agent has reached their floor, can be followed up with a good anecdote about why you wrote the book, which I found useful later in the day!

Then after coffee break, where I caught up with Jen and chatted with some people that I'd met on previous conferences (it's a fact that the more conferences you attend, the more people you know!) I went to Hazel Gaynor's 'Promotion Commotion'. With an impressive two video screens, she told us not only to excel at social media, but to also be a real person attending events and meeting people face to face which she did as a self-published novelist with The Girl Who Came Home, and also afterwards when it was taken up by publishers, William Morrow.

Lunchtime was rather crowded, but I did meet up with Rosemary Gemmell, a longtime online friend from Scotland. She is promoting her new book The Highland Lass, and I was impressed with her giveaway in the goody bag: a beautiful tiny thistle tied with tartan ribbon and a heart-shaped chocolate in a tiny cellophane bag together with a mini cover of her book. Irresistable!
After lunch, I went to Rowan Coleman's session about 'Five Reasons Novels Fail and How To Avoid Them'. I thought one of her best pieces of advice was to:
     'Find the time to write 500 words each day, then they will soon add up and you'll be 'in the zone' thinking about writing the story and you'll find it easier to write each day'.
I think that I'll definitely give that a go!
Then it was 'Following your Heart' with Jane Johnson. She had a captivating tale to tell of how she met her husband in Morocco. Being Cornish, she was intrigued to hear an article on Radio 4 about the Barbary Pirates who kidnapped Cornish people as white slaves, and remembered her mother telling her tales about someone from her family who had been kidnapped. Determined to find out more, she visited Morocco to do some research for a novel and, with a friend called Bruce, to do some climbing. She found the perfect Moroccan man to base her Pirate King on, who in turn rescued Jane and Bruce when they got stuck climbing a difficult rock face. And, dear reader, she married him! You can find out more about this by reading The Tenth Gift which I'm add to my reading list!
I actually had an appointment with a publisher during this talk, and was hoping to hear what happened before I had to leave, but luckily Cristal Phillips told me what I'd missed!
At the appointment, I was able to put Jane Wenham-Jones advice to use when I was asked what other books I had written. I'd only been thinking about promoting the current one, but put on the spot, I was able to remember what Jane had said about the perfect elevator pitch!
The last session was Jenny Barden and Joanna Hickson giving an entertaining talk about 'Researching Historical Fiction'. I loved it!
I had a wonderful day at the conference. Thank you Jan, Roger and Jenny who organised it!
But, I think I'll go back to staying the weekend though, next year!

A Fabulous Day Out at a Woman's Weekly Fiction Workshop!

I was really lucky to get a place on the Woman's Weekly Fiction Workshop which ran yesterday at the amazing Blue Fin Building in Southwark.

I felt quite nervous arriving on my own, but I'd been in contact with Cara Cooper and Wendy Clarke and knew they would be there (even if I didn't get much time to talk to them in the end!)
However, I needn't have worried because we were given a warm welcome by Gaynor Davies, Woman's Weekly Fiction Editor; Mary Bird, Head of Marketing; and Suzanne Ahern, a well-loved Woman's Weekly serial writer. Soon thirty eager writers were sitting around a table strewn with copies of Woman's Weekly Fiction Special, sweets and biscuits and cups of tea, coffee and water. Some people had already had stories published in the magazine and Fiction Special; I hadn't, but was hoping to pick up some tips.
Gaynor started with a welcome and a talk about 'Writing for the Woman's Weekly Audience'. She said that some stories they received were too old fashioned because of the perceived image of the magazine,
and in fact they had readers of all ages which include some men as well! Not wanting to spoil her talk too much, if you are lucky enough to go to one, she also gave good advice about conflict, character and plot and we were asked to write an attention-grabbing opener which we had to share with the group! I found that quite hard, because I'm not a very spontaneous writer. Anyway, Gaynor was very pleased with everyone's efforts, thank goodness!
Then Suzanne gave a talk about 'The Art of Serial Writing' which is something I'd never considered before. A Woman's Weekly serial can be in three, four or five parts, each about 3,300 words long, so a three part serial would be about 10,000 words. Longer than a story, but shorter than a novel. She also talked about character, plot and point of view, and we did an exercise as a group to plan a serial with the essential cliff hangers to keep the reader hooked.

We had lunch in the 11th floor, Blue Sky Café, and went out on the terrace to marvel at the rooftops of London and St Paul's Cathedral around the tall tower of the Tate Modern!
Before, Laura Longrigg, joint Managing Director of the MBA Literary Agency, gave her talk, Diane Kenwood, Woman's Weekly Editor, popped in to see how we were getting on and seemed very impressed at our industry!
Laura talked to us about the job of being a literary agent, and how to find one. Also about the importance of being able to describe your book in one sentence, and what agents are looking for at the moment.
It was a fabulous day, and I was sorry when it was over. There will be more workshops this summer and a series of them at Woman's Weekly Live in Manchester on 12th-14th September. I'd love to go to one of them because they have Jane Wenham-Jones, a regular and entertaining contributor to Fiction Special, and short story expert, Della Galton, as speakers! For more information visit the Woman's Weekly website here, and I hope you will have as wonderful a day as I did!