I’m thrilled that The Lost Heir has been nominated for the Ruby Award (Ruby stands for Romantic Book of the Year) in the short contemporary section. I am so honoured, especially considering how many amazing books and authors are in this section! Thank you to all the judges and to the Romance Writers of Australia, who run the award. Looking forward to celebrating all the nominees and winners of each section at the Awards Dinner during the annual RWA conference in August!

News for writers!

From September, I’ll be offering a limited number of online story consultations. Details and opportunities will be posted here and in my Workshops Newsletter. Looking forward to meeting you and hearing about your story!

(Feel free to email me if you’d like to be added to the Workshops Newsletter mailing list.)

I’m heading to New Zealand!

If you’re in New Zealand or close by (or ready to make the trip) then the RWNZ confernece is one not to be missed! Pop over to their website for more information.

I’ll be presenting three workshops at the Romance Writers of New Zealand conference in August: two half-day sessions on the Friday (Couple Chemistry + Once More with Feeling) and one session during the weekend conference program (Saggy Middle). I can’t wait – the RWNZ conference is one of my favourites!

Couple Chemistry

Whether you’re writing flirting lovers, sibling rivals, bantering buddies, odd-couple cops, devoted best friends or paranormal archenemies, you want them to click. To vibe. To have chemistry that leaps off the page. But what makes characters spark together? Couples with chemistry speak to each other differently, they understand each other differently, they change each other, and their personalities are perfectly and unmistakably matched. We’ll break down the concepts using lots of examples, with opportunities to work on your own dynamic duos, so come along and bring your characters with you!

Troubleshooting the Saggy Middle

It’s a story as old as writing itself: your manuscript’s beginning is captivating and polished, and the end is powerful and satisfying. But the middle? Oh, the middle. You sigh and start to wonder if anyone will even notice if it sags…. In this workshop we’ll shower middles with some much-deserved love and attention. We’ll talk about turning points, midpoints, subplots, making your conflict work harder, and surprise plot twists. So, if your middle is feeling a little sad and neglected, this session will give you some tips and tricks to help it shine!

Once More with Feeling

Want to give your readers all the feels? Ready to level up the emotional power of your story? Then let’s get started! We’ll cover the big picture, including embedding deep emotion in your premise, then strategies to hit your story’s key emotional points at the scene level, and then move on down to the micro level of paragraphs and sentences to maximise emotional payoff. We’ll go through lots of examples, with opportunities to apply the content to your own story, so join us in getting emotional!

From the RWNZ website: “Our theme for 2024 is Colours of Love. Join us for three days of keynotes, workshops, panels, and social events. Or, if you prefer, you can attend just the Friday workshops, or only do the Saturday/Sunday weekend programme.”