This October long weekend, Rachel ventured from home in Townsville down to the tropical Whitsundays to conduct research for her current work-in-progress 'Reunited'. As well as enjoying some holiday time, Rachel gathered information and sensory detail for her book, experienced scuba diving, and relished in the value of conducting research.

This weekend, Rachel attended the Romance Writers of Australia conference where she participated in The Deep Dive manuscript workshop with author Rachel Bailey, learned how to construct lovable alpha heroes, and attended a workshop on crime writing to improve her romantic suspense skills. Rachel pitched three manuscripts to publishers and built upon her skills in creating conflict and plot structure. Rachel enjoyed socialising with her fellow writers, bought too many books, and left with the goal to focus on writing category romance.

Rachel's pleased to announce that she will be appearing at GenreCon 2019 in Brisbane as part of a panel 'Write to Win'. On this panel, Rachel will join other winners and finalists of writing competitions to discuss the benefits of entering your work into competitions and what happens after you win.

This weekend, Rachel attended four workshops with romantic thriller writer T.M. Clark. 'Layering Your Novel' reviewed enriching manuscripts with detail and emotion. At 'Life After the First Draft', T.M. took participants through stages of edits to help make a manuscript reach a publishable standard. Then on Sunday, 'Finding Your Voice' was covered followed by a very motivating session 'Finishing That Book!'

Thank you Townsville City Council and Festival of Stories for these workshops. You can read more about Rachel's experience here.

​This July, Townsville's Festival of Stories is back and better than ever, keeping Rachel busy for four whole weeks. Today, Rachel attended a workshop 'Hooking the Reader' with crime writer Mark Brandi and discussed first chapters, one of Rachel's passions. After all, there is nothing more important than that vital first chapter and page.

Today, Rachel attended The Writer's Plan, a workshop hosted by Queensland Writer's Centre's CEO and romance writer Lori-Jay Ellis. At this workshop, Lori-Jay took participants through principles of goal setting in order to effectively manage writing time and complete your novel. This professional development opportunity has helped Rachel realign her goals in order to complete her next novel by the end of the year.

​View Rachel's writing plan here.

This weekend, Rachel attended the Rainforest Writing Retreat in the beautiful Gold Coast Hinterland at O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat. There, Rachel had the opportunity to participate in workshops about writing blurbs, ghost stories, and a writing masterclass with Anna Campbell.

You can read about Rachel's experience at the Rainforest Writing Retreat here.