RNA Conference 2012 - The Shoes of the Gala

It was a fabulous evening and wonderful shoes were out in force!

RNA Conference 2012 - Penrith Prep by Laura James

The Penrith Prep.

I’m a firm believer in preparation – it complements my liking for order.

For those familiar with Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, I know precisely where my towel is and never travel without it.

I am taking a pink one to Penrith.

I also carry a sick bowl in the car at all times.

Just so you know.

Since I have a predilection for prepping, I have spent the last few weeks getting organised for my first RNA Conference – I have written and entered my story for the Elizabeth Goudge Trophy, tackled a synopsis, pinned it to a first chapter and sent it to Jan Jones, and visited several BIG shops in search of the Gala Dinner dress.

I engaged Gajitman (my husband) in planning the route from Weymouth to Bristol to Birmingham to Penrith, working out times and places from where I can collect random Romaniacs, (it will be Thelma, Thelma, Louise and Louise in my red car – shades and headscarves at the ready, girls), and most importantly, I have chosen which pens and notebooks to take with me.

It will be a week of many firsts: first Conference, first one-to-one with an editor, first student flat-share and first glass of wine.

I do believe I have just told my first story about Conference.

I’m very much looking forward to seeing everyone – travel safely and enjoy the weekend. Hoot three times if you see a red Scenic on the M6 with two Thelmas

 and twin Louises. But not if we’re near a cliff.

Laura x

Katherine Garbera's Five Top Tips For Conference Survival

Top Five Tips for Conference Survival

1.      Be Professional:  Kind seems like this shouldn't have to be said, but it doesn't hurt to remember you are at the conference to make contacts and conduct business.  That means that even though everyone is hanging out in the bar at night, you shouldn't forget that a future contact might be there as well and see you.

2.      Keep Calm.  Its easy to think that if you blow one editor/agent pitch meeting that the world might end and you'll never sell, but that's not true. After my very editor pitch I was shaking so hard I could barely walk from the room but that didn't matter once I got home and submitted my manuscript.

3.      Make new friends:  This is hard for me since I'm inherently shy and have a hard time talking to people I don't know.  I've come up with a few standard questions that help me to get the ball rolling. 

a.       What do you write?

b.      How long have you been writing?

c.       Tell me about the manuscript/book you are working on?

4.      Don't Panic: This is my rule for two different types of workshops.

a.       Craft workshops:  More than once I'm sitting in a workshop and I hear the presenter say something about the craft of writing that isn't my process and I'll have that bit of doubt in the back of my mind, should I change my process so I'll be successful like this person?  The answer is no.  And if you are in a workshop like this that is making you panic/doubt your own process I recommend leaving.  Everyone writes differently and your process works for you!

b.      Industry Trends:  Since I started writing (way back in '93) the BLANK market has been dying.  I am serious when I say that at every conference I've been too someone has said what I'm writing is dying and that they won't be publishing it a year later.  I just ignore this stuff for the most part because of something that very wise editor said to me one time (the late Kate Duffy) publishers are always going to be buying good fiction. 

5.      Enjoy Yourself:  Its easy to get caught up in making as many contacts as you can and keeping your mind on business, but writing is a very solitary endeavor and you should use the conference as a chance to relax and enjoy talking about what you love to do with others who are like-minded.

Katherine's latest book...THE CASE OF KISS AND TELL

"Be my mistress for a month."

Billionaire bachelor Conner Macafee knows just what he’s worth, and he’s ready to make a deal. Nosy reporter Nichole Reynolds wants him--owner of New York's high-end matchmaking service--to spill his guts for her story? He’ll tell all--when she’s in his bed.

Nichole needs this scoop. But Conner is so arrogant, so cocky...and oh-so-sexy. Surely she can handle a month in the hot bachelor's arms in a cool penthouse suite--for her career.  But one kiss from Conner and Nichole knows she's made a huge mistake. Now she wants both the story and the man.  

To find out more visit Katharine's website http://www.katherinegarbera.com

Interview with Electra Shepherd

ELECTRA SHEPHERD is the pseudonym of an award-winning, best-selling author. She enjoys reading, travelling, and extreme Lego. 

You write funny, sexy, sci-fi romance, tell us what gave you the idea.

I believe it came from my childhood obsession with Star Wars. I mean, everyone, at some point, fancies C3PO and R2D2 and makes up romances involving them, right? Er…you mean you didn’t? I believe that in the future, everyone will be writing erotic science fiction romantic comedy. There’s even a name for the genre: Eromscicom. Sort of rolls off the tongue.

So what kind of heroine falls in love with a blue robot?

LOVE MACHINE is set in the near future, and my heroine, Cally, grew up with robots living in her house. They were invented by her genius father to take care of the family’s every need. But Cally, unlike the rest of her family, isn’t a genius. She likes to party, she likes a good time, she likes men. She’s actually a little wary of the house robots…until Blue comes up with a very interesting proposition.

And what about the hero? What has he got going for him if he’s a machine? Can he be programmed, and how important is his colour?

He has vibrating hands, a perfect physique, and a brain the size of a planet. What’s not to like? These days, Blue can’t be programmed. He’s started to think for himself. He’s keen to understand and experience human emotion, and he knows that Cally is the one to teach it to him. All of the house robots are bright colours—Blue, Red, Green—and they were made that way by their creator, Cally’s father Victor Morgenstern, in order to avoid looking too human, and falling into the “uncanny valley”. This sounds a little odd and possibly rude, but it is in fact part of robotic theory.

On a personal level I’ve always found blue quite a sexy colour, so I thought it would be a good name, and skin tone, for my hero. It’s sexier than Puce.

Is your book set in the real world or one you’ve created such as Pratchett’s Discworld?

It’s in the real world, in a near future which I have entirely made up myself, but which obviously still contains all the cool things like internet shopping and Haribo.

I’m a great fan of Star Trek, and my daughters loved Dr Who. What is your favourite Sci Fi show or film?

I loved the new Battlestar Galactica and how it really explored the lines between Cylon and human. But I’m also a big fan of Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation. I’m dying to see Michael Fassbender’s robot David in Prometheus. If you’re a sci-fi fan, you can take the ‘Who’s the Sexiest Robot’ poll on my website: http://electrashepherd.wordpress.com/whos-the-sexiest-robot/ 

Do you write on a computer, iPad or something even more high-tech?

I write on a laptop but I’m in the process of inventing a device that transfers words directly from my brain onto the screen via the medium of 80s power ballads.

Would you say your work was more futuristic than steampunk? 

Definitely more futuristic. If Blue were steampunk, he’d emit a strange whirring sound and have brass cogs scattered over his anatomy. Whereas in truth, he has an MP3 player in his chest, a USB hub in the back of his neck, and a permanent wifi connection.

If the aliens landed which book would you suggest they read first?

The Lord of the Rings. Mostly because I think it would be cool if the aliens all adopted mullets, spoke Elvish and engaged in week-long Dungeons and Dragons marathons.

How do you relax when you’re not writing?

Ms. Pac Man.

So what next? Which world or creature do you hope to explore next? 

My follow-up novel, MR ROBOTO, will be about a computer genius who finds herself caught (literally) between a sex machine and a real man. And the third book in the trilogy, SHE BLINDED ME WITH SCIENCE, is about a failed businessman who falls in lust with a disembodied alien. I’ll write them just as soon as I get the 80s power ballad machine up to full functionality.

LOVE MACHINE is an erotic science fiction comedy novella, published by Ellora's Cave. Good-time girl Cally Morgenstern has never paid much attention to the robots her father built to take care of her family. That is, until one night when her vibrator runs out of batteries. And hey, if you’ve got a six-foot hunky robot offering to relieve your sexual frustration, you’re not going to say no, right? Even if he is sort of, well definitely…blue?

Cally quickly realises that Blue isn’t your average robot. He’s rapidly acquiring a personality, for one thing. And an avid interest in human sexuality, particularly with regards to Cally. Her family don’t approve, but that’s never stopped Cally before. She’s eager to teach Blue all she knows about sexual pleasure, even if they have to build him a few necessary parts in the process. And even if Blue’s explorations of human feelings touch her own, very human, heart. 

Thank you for sparing the time from your busy techie schedule to talk to us today. We wish you every success with the book. 

To find out more about Electra visit her website: 

http://www.electrashepherd.com 

You can follow her on Twitter as @electrashepherd 

Download LOVE MACHINE on Amazon here:

Interviews on the RNA Blog are for RNA members, although we do occasionally take guests. If you are interested in an interview, please contact me: freda@fredalightfoot.co.uk

An Interview with Anne Brear

Today I’m delighted to welcome Anne Brear to the blog. Anne says she is the author of historical mainstream, modern romance and short stories. Also lover of chocolate, good movies and family! Well, I can certainly understand the chocolate, movies and family, but what is it about writing historical romance which so appeals to you?

The genre interests me because I love history and romance, and although I don’t strictly write straight historical romance, my books lean towards being sagas, there is always some romantic element in my books of varying levels. I do enjoy a happy ending, even if it is not an overly romantic ending the kind some readers expect.

You’ve recently started to write under a new name, why is that?

Yes, I’ve started to write under a new name, my maiden name of Brear. As Anne Brear all releases will be historical.

What kickstarts a new novel for you?

It really can be anything at all. A picture, a song, a scene in a movie, information from a reference book, all can set off an idea where I can see the heroine and hero playing out their lives for me. For most of my books though, the story will just come to me and I run with it. I let the characters dictate where the story goes, which keeps me interested.

Your settings are quite diverse, from Australia to Yorkshire, and Scotland too. What is it that you look for in a setting for your stories? 

Most of my stories are set in Yorkshire, with a few set in Australia. I find Yorkshire a fascinating place, so diverse from the bleak moors to the coastal cliffs of the east. My ancestors are from there, too, so I feel comfortable writing about the towns and people. There is such a wide interesting history of the areas I set my books in, so that all adds to creating a feeling of setting, flavour of the people and places. I like to ask myself, how did people cope, what must it have been like to live in those times?

How much of a part does your camera play when doing research?

It didn’t play much at all, as I was living in Australia when I wrote most of my books, but now that I have relocated to England, I believe my camera will be used a lot more for my books!

Feisty heroines seem to be your metier. Tell us how you set about creating one. Do you have any little tricks, or does she just emerge on the page?

I like strong heroines. I believe they make interesting characters to read and ultimately to care about. I like the decision makers, those that buck the trend a little but still live within the parameters of their social class and the expectations of the era the book is set in. All my heroines are put through such trials and hardship in some form or another and they need that inner strength and believe in themselves to cope and get through to the other end where happiness lies.

And what about the hero? What turns Joe Public into an alpha-male in your eyes?

Like my heroines, I like strong men as a hero, someone the heroine can respect and admire, but also one who challenges the heroine to be all that she can be. The perfect hero in my mind, is a hero who isn’t perfect! I want him to be flawed, to have a weakness, usually the heroine, to be adaptable yet keep the strengths that attracted the heroine to him in the first place. I try to make my heroes the kind of men women will fall in love with, as I do.

What event in history would you like to have witnessed in person? 

There are too many to count, really, but two would be the coronation of Queen Victoria and attend the Great Exhibition, and then perhaps have certain days in a time machine to see other key events in history like the signing of the Magna Carter, Elizabeth I coronation, the civil war, etc.

How do relax when you’re not writing?

I like to watch movies, spend time with family and friends, have picnics when the weather is nice, and of course reading. My reading list increasingly grows!

What was your favourite fashion trend of your youth that would look ridiculous now?

In the 80s I wore leg warmers, the brighter the colour the better, and novelty earrings like frogs and hamburgers, toothbrushes, etc. Ridiculously embarrassing now!

Halifax, 1876. On the death of her mother and sister, Isabelle Gibson is left to fend for herself and her brother in a privately-run workhouse. After the matron's son attempts to rape her, Isabelle decides to escape him and a life of drudgery by agreeing to marry a moorland farmer she has never met. But this man, Farrell, is a drunkard and a bully in constant feud with his landlord, Ethan Harrington. When Farrell bungles a robbery and deserts her, Isabelle and Ethan are thrown together as she struggles to save the farm. Both are married and must hide their growing love. But despite the secrecy, Isabelle draws strength from Ethan as faces from the past return to haunt her and a tragedy is set to strike that will change all of their lives forever. 

Thank you for sparing time to talk to us today Anne. We wish you continuing success with your books. Best wishes, Freda To find out more visit here: http://annebrear.blogspot.com 

Interviews on the RNA Blog are for RNA members, although we do occasionally take guests. If you are interested in an interview, please contact me: freda@fredalightfoot.co.uk