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.

2018 has been my most successful year of my writing career so far. As a board member of the Townsville Writers and Publishers Centre, facilitator of the Popular Fiction Writers Group, and entering many competitions, I have been very busy while also working on my three manuscripts. It has been a very overwhelming year with plenty of ups and downs, but I have learned plenty from competition feedback and writing workshops. Again, I feel like I've grown as an author this year and cannot wait to see what 2019 will bring me.

This blog post will share some of my writing achievements and memorable moments of 2018.

Popular Fiction is going to be bigger and better this year with interesting workshop topics on the last Wednesday evening of every month. Reviewing the most important aspects of novel writing, I've planned eleven workshops that should be applicable to all novel genres and will help improve the quality of my fellow writers work. Take a look below for a preview of Popular Fiction this year, and I hope to see you there!

This weekend I attended a literature festival in Ayr, an hour's drive south of Townsville, to mix with fellow writers and learn from their many experiences. In attendance were the amazing Fiona McCallum, Michael Robotham, and Natasha Lester, plus many other amazing authors and journalists. 

Like all writing events I attend, this weekend gave me the opportunity to find new inspiration, network, and make some lovely new friends. 

The importance of setting is generally overlooked when creating your novel, so tonight at Popular Fiction I led a discussion about how to make your setting mean something. Settings are not just a place in your novel. If you want your reader to feel and experience what your character is, then you need to think about time and place within that scene.

In August I attended my second Romance Writers of Australia Conference, which I approached with much anticipation. Conference is an amazing opportunity for aspiring writers to attend craft workshops, learn about the business of publishing, network, and pitch directly to publishers and agents. With the cocktail party on Friday night and awards dinner on Saturday, I love dressing the part for conference and had a great time spending the weekend with fellow romance writers.

I am thrilled and honoured that my romantic suspense manuscript, Almost a Princess, is the recipient of Romance Writers of Australia's Emerald Award for Best Unpublished Romance Manuscript.