I am thrilled and absolutely honoured that Reunited with the Millionaire ​is the recipient of Romance Writers of Australia's Emerald Award for best unpublished romance manuscript. The feeling is no less sweeter or exciting the second time around.

I have to admit, I love the Emerald Award. It is it's only kind in Australia and the contest I've found the most valuable. Initially, we submit the first 10,000 words, which is read by reader judges. Full manuscripts are then requested for the highest scoring entries. The top three - or this year four - entries were then sent to the final judge, Meghan Farrell at Tule Publishing.

This was without a doubt my biggest reading month ever. July was full of surprises. I started off the month with the goal to read new and different books, which I definitely achieved. While I've read some historical novels before, this month I discovered and fell in love with the Australian Historical. Reading is all about escapism and historicals have that added factor of escaping to another time. This allowed me to read more books from my Facebook friends and also led to the purchase of more books! And I'll admit, I've had a wonderful time journeying back to colonial Australia. I've discovered and learned so much! In addition, I managed to catch up with some old titles I've had sitting on my shelves, read one book for Ruby Readalong, and binged some more Mills and Boon Forever Romances.

This weekend, I attended the Romantic Novelists' Association's mini virtual conference. It was a late evening, but I was able to enjoy a whole range of writing webinars from the comfort of my own home. It was such a fantastic night! I was especially keen to attend the Creating Conflict presentation from the Mills and Boon editors.

​There was a lot of information, but these are just three take home messages from each of the sessions.

Am I obsessed or I do just have nothing else to do? This month, I finished my manuscript 'Bali Holiday', completed the second draft, and read twenty books! Honestly? No, I don't have much else going on in my life. Books are my life and I've had a great time reading a great range of them this month. I got hooked on the Mills and Boon Modern line's Once Upon a Temptation, reading four of the fairytale stories. In total, I read thirteen Mills and Boons, three novellas, and four big books. What a month!

Thank you to everyone who attended Popular Fiction's online meeting about creating characters, the most essential part of writing a book! It was great to see all again and to share what I've learned about creating characters with you.

Last night, we covered the basics - characters need a goal, motivation, and conflict to create your story. We will cover this again when we rehash everything we've learned next month. 

Oh my God! Did I do anything but read this month? Well, yeah, I did write 40,000 words of my next book. How do I do it? I don't know. Other than the fact I obviously have no other life!

This month, I had a great time enjoying a variety of stories and read nineteen books! That has to be a personal record, I'm sure. I devoured over a dozen Mills and Boon moderns, forevers, and medicals, plus read four big books. At least I can safely say I enjoyed plenty of good stories this month!

Thank you to everyone who attended the First Pages workshop last night! It was amazing to catch up again even on Zoom. I really enjoy these meetings and sharing some of the best tips I've learned on my Writing Journey with you.

Last night we got together to talk about what a first page and chapter needs in order to hook a reader. We discussed what we as readers like and don't like in the opening pages. Then we examined the first pages of a collection of novels.

Wow! This month, I read twelve books while also writing an entire manuscript of my own! I'm not sure if that's because I was feeling particularly motivated or whether it was because of Covid 19 lock down. I kept all my normal working hours, but I did write nearly every night. So either way, it was quite a successful month while I read many awesome stories. 

I've really enjoyed trying new romance writers this month, as well as some old favourites.

This month, we had our first Zoom meeting to stay safe during the self-isolation laws. I'm very glad that this worked well and that people made the effort to attend in this trying time to discuss the expectations of various genres.

Genre is important to define so you know how to describe your novel accurately to readers and know how to market your story. Thank you to everyone who attended. Here is a summary of what we discussed at last night's meeting.

I think it's safe to say I devoured a whole bunch of Mills and Boon books this month, both old and new, of new authors and some old favourites. I've discovered some amazing stories and been inspired by so many fantastic writers. It really has been an amazing month. And now that I have a treadmill again, there will be a lot of reading completed while I indulge in my daily walks. Oh, such fun, mixing my two passions - reading and walking!