Speaking at conferences - the truth

Alison speaking at the International Writers’ Festival, Dublin

Whether you’re invited or have submitted a pitch to speak at a conference it’s the same on the day. You have a mass of faces in front of you. You re alone in the arena and the lions are pacing back and forth, tongues salivating. The be-tunicked and be-toga-ed are watching, a smile on their […]

Are conferences good for you?

With critique writing partner Denise Barnes (Photo: Anna Belfrage)

Spring and summer are the conference seasons and can sometimes create quite a hectic schedule; I’m on and off planes all the time with a few days in between. And then you squeeze a holiday in somewhere. The airports seem to blur together after […]

What is an editor? Joanna Maitland reveals all

This week’s guest, multi-published Joanna Maitland, knows all about loving her characters, but to ring the changes from the ‘Love me, love my character’ series, I’ve asked her to give as some of her valuable expertise. What am I talking about? Read on…

Joanna Maitland’s first historical romance went through the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s New […]

Jenny Harper Love me, love my character

I am utterly delighted to welcome fellow Romantic Novelists’ Association colleague Jenny Harper to my writing blog today! Jenny lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, though she was born in India and grew up in England. She has been a non-fiction editor, a journalist and a businesswoman and has written a children’s novel and several books about […]

Snapshots of RNA2016

With Denise Barnes (left) and Jean Fullerton (right)

2010, I was a trembling newbie; 2016, I was teaching historical research and pontificating on a trade panel. What a transition!

The Romantic Novelists’ Association embraces every type and sub-genre of romance and romantic fiction, from the sweet, inspirational, gritty contemporary through gay romance and […]