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honoured that Reunited with the Millionaire ​is the recipient of Romance Writers of Australia's Emerald Award for best unpublished romance manuscript.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

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. 

This month at Popular Fiction we discussed all things romance! What defines a romance novel, what are the different subgenres, and what type of conflict makes up the story on the road to happily ever after?

Thank you to everyone who attended the meeting. We had lots of fun. And if you missed out, come along next month for Genre Expectations! In the meantime, here is a summary of last night's meeting.

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.

This weekend, I attended the Rainforest Writing Retreat at O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat in the Gold Coast Hinterland. I was very keen for this retreat as it was full of amazing workshops about ghost stories, writing productivity, and short stories. Not to mention the amazing setting of O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat, abundant with rainforest walks and breathtaking views. This retreat could not have come at a better time either and I really enjoyed my time away from reality to connect with my creativity again.

Read on to learn more about the workshops and my amazing weekend.