Phew, it’s been an intense few days here, (weeks even,) while I’ve been completing my latest novel-length, INESCAPABLE. The good news is it’s done and gone to my editor at Total-E-Bound. I’m now in a state of collapse. :o) I’ll post an excerpt from the book soon! I adore the way this story turned out. I think it may be my most intense, most romantic work yet. I hope the editor likes it. Fingers crossed.
I’ve now got a day to get myself ready to go to a conference. Gulp. I was supposed to have longer than that, but you know how it is with this writing novels business…the fictional world takes over. Got to pull myself together because tomorrow morning we’re off to the Lake District for a couple of days break before the conference kicks off. The event is being held at the University of Cumbria in Penrith, and it’s the Romantic Novelists’ Association annual conference. It’s my first time, and I’m very much looking forward to it. Some of the biggest names in UK romance publishing will be there, and editors from several of the UK houses.
Total-E-Bound senior editor, Claire Siemaszkiewicz, will be meeting with authors and giving a presentation on e-books and Total-E-Bound on Saturday afternoon. Fellow erotic romance writer, Victoria Blisse, et moi, will be on the panel. It’s going to be SO good to meet up with people that I’ve known online, and especially my editor Claire, who is a wonderful person to work with.
While I’m at the event, Mark (the Real Life Hero) will be out cycling in the area, doing the Tour de Cumbria, as it were, (ie pretending he’s in France. ;-) It promises to be a hectic few days but a real change of scene, which is always appreciated. I’ll blog about it on my return and I’ll try to remember to take photos!
I’m already excited about my work plans for when I get back. I have a couple of things lined up to work on immediately. A partial for a novella that’s been busting out of my head the whole time I’ve been working on INESCAPABLE. It’ll be great to get that idea down on paper at last. I’m also in negotiations to get UNVEILING THE SORCERESS re-released by small press, with a view to writing books 2 and 3 of the series over the next couple of years. I’m very excited about doing that project in between times! Then, between August and the end of the year, I’ll be working on THE HARLOT, my second Spice novel.
It’s been a good year for the writing so far and while I’m taking stock at the halfway point I am grateful for my author pals, the people I work with, the editors who I learn from, and the opportunities that have come my way. There’s been a lot of bad news in publishing during this difficult world recession. Sales are down, and many avenues have closed. As authors we hope and pray things improve soon, and we treasure what opportunities there are still out there.
See you when I get back from Penrith!
