The gala dinner |
I went to the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s (RNA) conference
at Harper Adams University at the weekend, and I’m still recovering. It was my
favourite RNA conference so far-there’s something about the venue (same for the conference in 2014) which creates
a warm family atmosphere. The RNA is a friendly organisation anyway, but there
really was a lot of love in the room at this conference.
On Friday morning, I had a meeting which meant I embarked on
my journey to Telford later than planned, and unfortunately due to lots of
traffic (basically all the way there, apart from on the M6 Toll which was a
dream), I missed Chairman, Nicola Cornick’s welcome and the panel which
followed on the state of the industry with Nicola, Rosie de Courcy, Isobel
Dixon, Broo Doherty, Sam Missingham and Emily Yau. However, I look forward to
finding out more in the write-ups which I’m sure will follow on blogs and in
the RNA magazine, Romance Matters. Friday night meant catching up with lovely friends, (who I was lucky to share a flat with) at the drinks, dinner and afterwards in our
kitchen with lashings of prosecco.
Lizzie Lamb and Adrienne Vaughan peering through my kitchen window |
On Saturday, I attended a talk by Nicola Cornick and Sarah
Morgan on social media; and then as my alter-ego, neetswriter: Elizabeth Chadwick, Beyond the dressing up box (historical talk); Pia Fenton and Anna
Belfrage on Playing with time in romantic fiction (making timeshift work). I attended
the RNA Open Discussion: Have Your Say! where lots of exciting plans were
discussed, including the 60 year anniversary of the RNA in 2020. Vice-chair, Alison May and
a team will be organising a celebration, and I can’t wait to find out more
and get the date in my diary. The last talk of the day I attended was These We
Have Loved with Ian Skillicorn of Corazon Books and Louise Allen on reviving
the backlist. I found this talk really useful as Ian talked about advertising
on Facebook and BookBub; and it was interesting to hear about Louise’s experience
of publishing her backlist.
Ian Skillicorn, me, Adrienne Vaughan, Jackie Ladbury, Liz Cooper, Jules Wake, Donna Ashcroft |
The gala dinner took place on Saturday night, where the room
was made to look pretty with pink lights on the columns and the food was
delicious-best beef wellington ever. I stayed up quite late on Saturday night with a few bad
influences in my flat (!), but had the best time.
Anna Belfrage at her fab talk |
On Sunday morning, after a
big fry up, I met up with my lovely client, Anna Belfrage which
was great as we usually speak over Skype. Then I went to Fiona Harper’s talk
on building characters from the inside out (again as neetswriter), and I look forward to reading through
my notes and applying Fiona’s advice when planning new characters, and revisiting those I've made up already.
After a delicious roast lunch of lamb and Yorkshire pudding,
I drove home, and stopped at Warwick services for a coffee. When I got out of
the car and walked towards the entrance, I had to tell myself I was no longer
at a conference and didn’t need to smile and say hello to everyone I saw…then
who should I bump into but Catherine Miller! We did laugh. And I must have been looking happy post-conference (despite being exhausted!), as the lovely lady in Starbucks included a huge smiley face on my coffee cup.
Much-needed cappuccino for the drive home |
I've done write-ups for talks at RNA conferences in the past (which take ages to put together!), but this year I'm writing this round-up post instead, as I know there will be lots of write-ups elsewhere.
All in all, I had a fabulous time, and thank you to Jan Jones and all the organisers for such a special weekend.
I hope to tell you some exciting news (for neetsmarketing) soon re that meeting on Friday morning, but I can't say anything until all is finalised. UPDATE: find out all in my post here!
My Social Media Course for Writers in London on 7 October is now fully booked, but I've just organised my next London course for 19 May 2018. And I'm running the same course on 3 March 2018 in York. There are quotes from former attendees on my website. Book here or by emailing me at anitajchapman at gmail dot com.
Wishing you all a lovely summer. I'm going to take the rest of the summer off as neetsmarketing to spend time with my family and to get some writing done. But I'll be back in September.
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Really sorry I missed it this year, Anita - and catching up with you! Glad you enjoyed it all.
ReplyDeleteMissed seeing you, Rosemary! Hopefully next year :)
DeleteEnjoyed our snatched chat. You really are quite lovely and look forward to catching you at another RNA event soon xxx
ReplyDeleteAw, Jenni-loved our chat! (although it was a bit sweaty in that room!)-hope to see you again at the RNA Winter Party, if not before :) Xxxx
ReplyDelete