And the Conference starts - RWA12 DAY 1

Your Anaheim correspondent has a confession to make. After three days of going like a steam train, I hit the wall today (of all days) so I probably don't have as much to report as I should have.

Unlike our Australian conference, there are no "plenary" sessions" to kick off the conference. It is straight into Workshops and for every time slot there are up to 10 different choices covering topics relevant to career, craft, publishing and research, writers life interspersed with author chats and spotlights on different publishers. Spoiled for choice? To make it even harder I am a member of the PRO Community of Practice...this is for the "almost published" (as I don't YET qualify for PAN - the Published Authors Network).

As an alternative to the workshops, I attended the "PRO Retreat" this morning.  The keynote speaker was a Chicago lawyer, Jon Tandler, on the topic of "Publishing Contracts Demystified". Those who know will know that I am a lawyer myself (although I've recently turned in my badge). We lawyers have a saying...if you act for yourself, you have a fool for a client and when it comes to publishing contracts, I paid for professional advice. Key issues he raised:

• Term of Contract: Length of copyright is not unusual (given this is life of the author plus 70 years  seems a very long time)
• Understand what rights you are giving to your publisher 
• Registration of copyright (we don't have this in Australia but my Australian lawyer advised me to register my work with the American Copyright office)
• Obligations and Indemnities of both parties
• Make sure you check your royalty statements for errors.
• Out of Print and Reversion Clauses
• Competitive works and First Option Clauses

In summary READ your contract carefully and get independent advice. Do your homework with your publisher.

Following Jon Tandler was a panel of Publishers:  Michele Bidelspach (Grand Central), May Chen (Avon), Debra Dixon (Belle Books) and Lindsey Faber (Samhain). This when I had begun to nod off but I don't think that I heard anything from them that was new or startling:  Only 5% of submissions get picked up/ Looking for great story and voice - a submission that is less than perfect is fine / role of publishers in the self publishing world - they are there to do the heavy lifting and leave the author free to write the next best book.

A sit down lunch for 2000 people followed. I met up with Kandy Shepherd but it is a good  opportunity to meet new friends. An interesting presentation on an RWA sponsored initiative called Love Between the Covers - a documentary on the Romance Industry - writers, readers, publishers and agents by documentary film maker Laurie Kahn (who I met). The little bit we saw looked like a positive contribution to the industry and we had one of the participants on our table, Golden Heart finalist and Aussie, Joanne Lockyer. Fortunately she kept her video camera in her bag!

Stephanie Laurens gives the keynote luncheon address at #RWA12

Keynote speaker was Stephanie Laurens. I've heard Stephanie speak many times on her favourite topic...the Business of Writing but this time was different. Her emphasis was on "Weathering the Transition and Keeping the Faith". Her main point was that the revolutionary changes that are going on in the publishing industry are about the means of transmitting the story from writer to reader. It does not alter the essential paradigm that a writer's success is measured by her readership, not which publishing house, self publishing vehicle etc. she has signed up with.  We must keep faith in our calling and concentrate on writing great stories. "Take your passion and make it happen". She was so inspiring in her passion that it was hard not to feel caught up by her own emotion. Her conclusion..."There has never been a better time to make to be an author".

Oddly this was a theme echoed in the next workshop I attended after lunch, Ethan Ellenberg the agent who's topic was New Paradigms in Publishing. Like Stephanie he spoke about the impact of the changes to on line publishing, particularly self publishing. The message I took from him is that Self Publishing is a legitimate alternative BUT it is turning the author into a business with all the distractions that go with it (Stephanie would say it is distracting the author from writing the best book). It takes time, energy and money to self publish, limited print distribution, an overcrowded internet and the lack of interaction with editors and agents limits your ability to grow as an author.

At this point your roving reporter could no longer stay awake so I'm ashamed to say, it is no reflection on Ethan that I sidled out of the workshop. 

So glad I am staying across the road which forces me out into "fresh" Los Angeles Air and sunshine. The conference facility is freezing and of course I had packed for summer!

No activities tonight...just a quiet dinner and an early night. I must be getting old.

RWA12 - PreConference Day

Well today's the day when it all kicks off with  "pre conference activities".

Your roving reporter, intent on making the most of every opportunity, had joined the "Beaumonde"Chapter of RWA (the Regency writers) and signed up for the mini-conference, which includes a "soiree" this evening (very late this evening). 


Regency? But aren't you a 17th century kind of girl? I hear you say...


I have a newly developed interest in the Regency. It began when I was writing Suzanna's diary for my September release GATHER THE BONES, which I wrote as a complete diary. If you want to know who Suzanne is and what relevance her diary has to a story set in 1923 - well you are just going to have to read the book!


Inspired, I thought I would turn my hand to writing a "Regency" and wrote Lord Somerton's Heir (the RTTA finalist - winner announced Friday) just to see if I could feel comfortable writing in what is arguably the most popular historical romance period. I confess have fallen in love with the genre and while I don't think I write classic regency (there is a murder mystery in there), I hope LSH finds a home. However it is not my historical period of choice so the more I can learn the better...hence the day with the Beaumonde.


I was late. I could say it was because I overslept but I think it was more I was just moving slowly. Day 2 and jetlag is catching up.  By the time I had registered and been lumbered with the biggest, heaviest bag of books I am unlikely to read, and dropped my humble Gather the Bones postcards in the "Goodie Room", the AGM of the BM had kicked off. Squeezing in to a seat next to Iona Jones (RWNZ Prez and friend), I managed to knock my knee on the table, slopping everybody's coffee. The whole room turned to stare. Pick the clutzy Aussie.


After the AGM, we moved into different workshops. I picked Popular Magazines of the Regency presented by Sandra Schwab. She was a mine of information about Journals of the period from the Gentleman's Magazine to Lady's Magazine (your source for music and decorative needlework patterns). If you are short of a plot or need to do the meteorological data for July 25th 1815, these journals are the place to go. They would be a mine of period detail, as well as useful props for your characters.

Before I had decided on the BM mini-conference I had booked a session with the resident photographer to get new "head shots" done. Heavy sigh...alas the lovely photos I had done 6 years ago ... in the words of G& S "She could easily pass for 43 in the dusk with the light behind her". Time for new photos. Deciding a jet lagged look was not good I pushed the boat out and indulged in a facial and a trip to the hairdresser (at this point I engage DH in another winning smile as I hear a heavy sigh echoing across the Pacific). I made a small error in telling the hairdresser I didn't want "boofy"...I ended up with dead straight. The photo session was fun but out of x-hundred photos,  it all came down to three. I took the lot.

After grabbing a quick lunch, it was back to the Beaumonde and a great session on Regency "costume" with the incredibly knowlegeable Isobel Carr, author and re-enactor.  I will feel very inadequate in my Regency dress this evening!

Delle Jacobs and a Regency corset

Isobel Carr dresses Delilah Marvelle in a drop front dress

By the time that session ended the Mariott was hopping with gaggles of romance writers in every corner and the lobby awash with people. I am rather glad to be staying across the road!

THE LITERACY SIGNING
Imagine if you will, the biggest trade show you've ever been to...close to 450 published authors all together in one place, mostly grouped in tables of 6. They are there to meet readers and sign books. Profits from the sale of the books go to charities promoting literacy. All the big names were there with long queues:  Norah Roberts, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Jayne Ann Krentz, Stephanie Laurens, Julia Quinn and on the list goes! New Zealand's Nalini Singh had been given one of the "important people" tables...it seems like only yesterday when she sold her first book. Armed with my map and the marker, I went in search of the antipodeans. Fiona Lowe was proving popular (was it the koalas or the Tim Tams?). Poor thing is very poorly with a ghastly cold. Hope she is well by Saturday. RITA nominees had special little blue flags to distinguish them. The other RITA nominee is Trish Morey who had Haigh's orange flavoured chocolate buttons. You measure an author by the standard of their catering apperently.

It is quite overwhelming to be in the presence of so many writers in one place. I have to say it is a little bit daunting when you realise what you are up against in trying to get readers interested in your books!

Fiona Lowe - RITA finalist

Yvonne Lindsay

The 2012 Literacy Signing

THE BEAUMONDE SOIREE

The first challenge was to don my gown without the aid of my abigail. I was forced to summon Ms. Lowe fresh from the Literacy signing to safety pin me into the dress.

The second challenge was escaping the Hilton and getting to the Marriott looking like Jane Austen with a bad hair day. Then I figured half the people in the foyer were wearing Micky Mouse ears so what the hell was I worrying about.


A fine time was had by all. At least 2/3 of the assembly were, I am pleased to report, appropriately dressed. "Sir Carolus King" took time out from his club to teach a group of ladies the game of Looe. I had just won back the country estate and my precious virtue when it was time to dance. Now, dear readers, the last time I took a turn at "English Country Dances" was in the drawing room of Wellesley House, the dear Duke of Wellington's home. He alas, had been dead some two hundred years but it just happened to be Waterloo Day and there we were...in London...with nothing else to do.


And so dear reader, that has been my eventful day and it is long, long past my bed time. Conference proper starts tomorrow with the "PRO Retreat".  See you tommorow!

The Duchess of Melbourne dances the Knowle House

The Duchess of Melbourne

HEROES - Pt 1

The Australian Romance Readers Convention (ARRC09) is coming up next month and I will be appearing on a panel with Stephanie Laurens, Anna Campbell, Sara Bennett and Kinley Macgregor...wow...that's pretty august company! I will be the quiet one on the end!

The topic of the Panel is "What's so great about rakes and assorted historical heroes?" It should be a lot of fun.

I don't write about rakes... not sure I could if I tried. My heroes are men with pasts, dark secrets that make them the way they are.

So in honour of ARRC and the panel, I am repeating an early blog I did which is a "Character Interview" with the hero of BY THE SWORD, Jonathan Thornton. I will post an interview with the hero of THE KING'S MAN in the next day or so.

I hope you enjoy them! (They were a lot of fun to write)

Interview with Sir Jonathan Thornton Bt. at Seven Ways Hall, Worcestershire.
JT: Are we on?
AS: Let me adjust that microphone…going live…
AS: Sir Jonathan Thornton, welcome. It’s 1660 and London is buzzing with the news that the King is to be restored to the throne. As a loyal supporter of the royalist cause how do you feel about that?
JT : Well, delighted, of course. It’s been a hard time for those of us who remained loyal to the King.
AS: In what way?
JT: Our estates have been subject to heavy fines and the continual threat of sequestration. As an outlaw, had I inherited Seven Ways on my grandfather’s death, the entire estate would have been forfeit.
AS: But didn’t your grandfather find a solution to that problem?
JT: He did. The old fox left it to my young cousin, Tom Ashley, but even the Ashley family’s parliamentary connections couldn’t entirely prevent the privations of the last few years. Of course, my marriage to his mother didn’t help much either.
AS: There were those of us who were surprised at your decision to settle down with Kate. You had, how can I put it, a wild youth?
JT: I can’t deny that I was the cause of my parent’s despair on more than one occasion. My mother , god rest her, never recovered from that troop of Parliamentary horse trampling her garden and ruining her orchard. Of course I look back now and regret that I never really made peace with my parents before they died.
AS: Any other regrets?
JT: Of course I have regrets. I’ve always had a tendency to act with my heart rather than my head and people I care about have got hurt in the process, badly hurt. Thank heavens for the wisdom of age and the love of a good woman to knock some sense into me.
AS: I presume you are talking about Kate?
JT: Of course.
AS: And how did you meet Kate?
JT: She was working in the garden at Seven Ways. I’ll never forget it. She wore an old, shabby gown and a battered straw hat. I thought I’d never seen a woman look quite so lovely. At the time I had a price on my head and no intention of falling in love. That’s what I mean about my heart ruling the head. Talk about a doomed relationship.
AS: But you managed to overcome the problems?
JT: We did, but our happiness came at a price. If you have a little time to spare, let me tell you the story….
Read Jonathan and Kate’s story in BY THE SWORD by Alison Stuart
For more information on the period, how the story came to be written and to read an excerpt go to http://www.alisonstuart.com