So, I haven't forgotten about my ebooks! In fact, it's nearly all I've been reading as it is soooo much easier to hold my phone on the treadmill than a book. Books are good when I'm in the middle of them as they stay open. But it's almost impossible to read the beginning or end of a book on Teddy the Tready. And since that's where I do most of my reading, it seems ebooks may be the way to go to keep me walking!

I probably didn't read a lot this month as I've been very busy writing, but I did get through some interesting, and long, books!

My rural romance was long-listed for the 2021 Publishable manuscript development program with the Queensland Writers Centre.​ This story has been with me for a long time so I'm glad it received this recognition and feedback. As part of the long-list, I was provided with a consult on how to improve my work and participated in three online workshops.

Here's just a little post about my experience with the Publishable program. 

On Sunday, I attended a workshop with Edwina Shaw titled The Healing Power of Story. This was an interesting workshop where we wrote about life experiences. The first prompt was 'a happy moment, how did you feel, use the five senses'. The second was 'something good that came out of a bad situation'. And the third, 'use some magic to change a bad situation', just for a little bit of fun.

Here, I share my happy moment. I wouldn't say this is a big happy moment in my life. I'd thought of a few different occasions. But this was what inspired me as it had occurred that morning and I felt like writing about it.

​Happy reading!

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honoured that Reunited with the Millionaire ​is the recipient of Romance Writers of Australia's Emerald Award for best unpublished romance manuscript.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 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.

New title for 2020 - my reading! Because I don't really review the books I read here, I just explain why I read them and whether I liked them a not. With the new year though brings a whole bunch of new goals, and this year I hope to become more diverse in the type of books I read, as well as devour a whole lot of romance.

I'm very, very pleased with how much I read in January. And in addition, I also read my own manuscript three times in a week, so there you go...can I add that as three more books to the list?

It's a new year and that means I needed to set my reading challenge on Goodreads. For the last two years, I set myself the goal of 50 books, so this year I went for a challenge and am aiming for 75. Considering everything that happened last year which slowed my reading, I'm confident that I'll be able to reach this target.

But I also have more goals than just a number of books to read, which will hopefully help me get through this massive number. So, just for fun, here are all my reading goals for 2020.

This weekend I attended GenreCon 2019 with writing buddy Deeanna West. This was the perfect conference for both of us, where I could indulge in all things romance and crime while Dee could follow her passion for magic and fantasy. We had a great time attending a writing workshop with Kate Forsyth, buying books at the Night Market, and attending all the crime and fantasy panels that we could. This was also my first conference as a presenter, where I chatted about writing competitions with a panel of other award-winning authors. We got a lot out of the weekend, as well as cute bags and a free book.

This is just a little snippet about my experience at GenreCon, thanks to the Queensland Writers Centre.

Thanks to the North Australian Arts Festival and Townsville's Festival of Stories, I spent the weekend attending four writing workshops with amazing thriller fiction writer T.M. Clark.

Having recently lost a lot of motivation, myself, and my voice, I attended these workshops with the hope to find these things again. And I'm happy to say, I'm back on track and it's full steam ahead!
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So, this piece is just a little bit about what I learned over the weekend and how I plan to take charge.

Last week, I attended The Writer's Plan - a workshop provided by the Queensland Writers Centre and presented by CEO Lori-Jay Ellis. Coming off the back of Anna Campbell's Fighting through the Fear of writing at the Rainforest Writing Retreat, it was the second time this month I've been told to get my butt into gear, stop making excuses, and just write.

Well, not really, but essentially that's what I've taken from it all. So here's a little bit about my Writing Plan for the foreseeable future.