Introducing the RNA Blog team

As many regular blog readers will know, we have a great team of members who organise the fantastic content you read on the blog every week. As we go into the New Year, we thought it was time to give them a chance to introduce themselves properly so you can see who to contact if you'd like to contribute to the blog or to be featured on it during the coming year. So, without further ado...

Sheila Riley - New Releases and Hints and Tips for Newer Writers

Sheila joined the RNA in 2004 as a new writer. Since then she has written best-selling sagas as Annie Groves. She's a member of the North West Chapter of the RNA and loves to catch up with writer friends at the regular Southport lunches.

Sheila is also starting a new feature this year called Hints and Tips for Newer Writers. 

The new email address for monthly publications is: 

releases@romanticnovelistsassociation.org.

Ellie Holmes - Interviews with Book Bloggers, Reviewers, Editors

Ellie Holmes writes commercial women’s fiction with her heart in the town and her soul in the country. Ellie’s debut release was The Flower Seller. A member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and the Alliance of Independent Authors, Ellie’s latest book, White Lies is out now.

Amazon

Twitter

Website

Facebook

Francesca Capaldi Burgess - Competition Monthly

Francesca Capaldi Burgess has been placed or shortlisted in a number of competitions including Winchester Writers' Conference, Retreat West, Meridian Writing, Wells Festival and Writing Magazine. She's had stories and a serial published in magazines worldwide and in three anthologies, including Diamonds and Pearls and 100 Stories for Haiti. She is a member of the RNA New Writers' Scheme and the Society for Women Writers and Journalists.

Twitter

Write Minds Blog

Lisa Hill - Author Interviews and Guest Posts

Lisa writes contemporary romance with a light-hearted tone.  What interests her most is people, their interactions, emotions and relationships.  It’s probably why her career to date has been based in property; she confesses herself that she is ‘naturally curious’. Her first encounter with a romance author was chats over the garden wall between her father, Godfrey, and Mrs Cooper from the neighbouring village of Bisley.  It came as quite a surprise in later life to find that Mrs Cooper was in fact Jilly Cooper!  Lisa’s writing inspiration now comes from other Cotswolds' authors including Jill Mansell and Katie Fforde. 

Lisa is a graduate of the Romantic Novelists’ Association New Writers’ Scheme and attributes this supportive and informative scheme to her winning the Choc Lit Search for a Star competition 2016 with her debut novel Meet Me at Number Five.

www.lisahillwriter.wordpress.com

Julie Stock - News items and everything else!

Julie writes and indie publishes contemporary romance novels, novellas and short stories from around the world. To date, she has published two novels, and has two novellas and another novel planned for this year.

She is now a full member of the RNA, The Society of Authors, and The Alliance of Independent Authors. Julie recently took over as RNA Social Media Co-ordinator and is looking forward to working with the team to keep the blog sparkling in the months to come.

Twitter

Facebook

Website

Amazon

Thanks for all your support for the blog. We look forward to working with many of you once again in 2018!

Adele Blair – Kraftireader

Thank you to Ellie Holmes for this lovely interview with book blogger, Adele Blair, this month.

I am delighted to welcome Adele Blair to the RNA Blog’s monthly series where we speak to book bloggers and get an insight into their world. Welcome Adele.

I love the name of your blog – Kraftireader – and your motto “A book and tea puts a smile on me”. Can you tell us how long you have been running your blog and share your review policy with us?

I started my blog back in the summer of 2014.  My preferred book genres are contemporary fiction, romcoms, chicklit, historical romance, and family sagas. I love this quote about a “book and tea”. There is nothing more comforting than sitting down and finding yourself a nice quiet corner to read a book and pair it with your favourite cuppa.

What’s the best and worst thing about running a blog?

The best thing about running a blog is discovering new authors, especially indie authors.  I feel that bloggers are indie authors’ best friends as we can help bring their work to the limelight.  As a consumer when we are searching for our next read we do tend to look for the authors we know and have heard about.  However, there are some wonderful gems out there in the indie author world and I love championing this.  The worst thing about having a blog is time, I don't have enough time to read all that I'd love to read.

Do you ever read just for fun or do you review every book you read?

I would say especially this year that my reading has been 95% for reviews.  I'm thinking of blocking a week off each month to read a book for fun.

What was your standout book of 2017?

My standout book of 2017 is always such a difficult question to ask any book lover.  However, I do have a book series that I've completely fallen in love with and that is the Wild Warriners by Virginia Heath.  It is a Regency Romance series published by Mills & Boon Historical about four brothers trying to break away from their father's bad reputation, trying to build their family farm back to what it was in its prime and trying to find how they fit in the world.  Virginia Heath has created a wonderful series with each book concentrating on one of the brothers (we've met two already).  There is heartache, family saga, romance, comedy; the Warriners are like a 19th century rural middle England 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers'.

I see from your blog that you are very active on NetGalley. Can you tell us a little about that?

NetGalley is a portal for authors, publishers and professional readers: a place where authors and publishers can offer their books out for early review to professional readers.  Professional readers do have to prove themselves with links to their previous reviews on various websites.

I know you are a keen crafter. What are you working on at the moment and do you get torn between your crafting and reading? 

When I first started my blog it was to share what I love: reading, crafting, food etc. However, once my blog became established and I found I was really enjoying learning about new authors, the reading has ultimately taken over but my other interests are still there waiting for me.  One of the last projects I crafted was découpaging a pre-bought paper mâché owl.  I'd never done découpaging before and it was quite easy to pick up. The end result was such a treat, my owl has pride of place in my home...I must do some more découpage and it would be an ideal project to do to make as a gift.

I love the fact you describe yourself as a “recipe hoarder” (me, too!).   If you were able to host a fantasy dinner party for your favourite authors (alive or dead), who would you choose as your guests and what would you prepare for them?

Oh my goodness that's a difficult question...I would love the following authors at my table:  Jojo Moyes (I'm in awe of her stories); Lesley Downer (I read and was completely captivated by her historical romance The Shogun's Queen, I had the pleasure of meeting her recently and she has so much knowledge and experience of Japan, fascinating insight); Beatrix Potter (her illustrations and imagination around the animals she clearly adored); Milly Johnson (she's a Yorkshire lass whose warmth radiates in her books and I've had the pleasure of meeting her a few times) and Jacqueline Susann (I read Valley of the Dolls last year and was transfixed).  I would cook a big pot of chilli that would be warming and comforting and it's one dish I can do a pretty decent job of!

We often ask agents and publishers what they consider to be the next “big thing” - what do you hope to see in 2018?

I would love indie authors to become the spotlight.  I'd love it if a big glossy mag would do a series of bringing the spotlight to these unsung heroes in the book world.

Thank you, Adele for being such a wonderful guest.

Find out more about Adele via these links:

Website 

Twitter  

*****

About Ellie

Ellie Holmes writes commercial women’s fiction with her heart in the town and her soul in the country. Ellie’s debut release was The Flower Seller. A member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and the Alliance of Independent Authors, Ellie’s latest book, White Lies is out now.

Amazon 

Twitter 

Website 

Facebook 

Kim Nash - Book Blogger, and Publicity and Social Media Manager

Thank you to Ellie Holmes for this interesting interview with Kim Nash this month. As you will see, Kim is a woman who wears many hats! So, over to Ellie and Kim...

I am delighted to welcome Kim Nash to the RNA Blog's monthly series where we speak to book bloggers, reviewers and magazine editors and get an insight into their world.

Welcome Kim, tell us a little bit about yourself and your blog – Kim The Book Worm.

I am the publicity and social media manager for Bookouture (digital publisher), and a book blogger at Kim The Book Worm. I am also an independent consultant with Arbonne, an online skincare, makeup, and health and wellbeing company. 

As a book blogger I love to read and review women’s fiction and mix it up with crime and psychological thrillers, and I also love a good personal development book too. 

What made you start to review/blog?

I read a book called A Spring Affair by Milly Johnson.  It was about a lady who read an article in a magazine about clutter clearing and she decided to do it to her house.  When she’d done that, she realised that it wasn’t just her house that she wasn’t happy with, it was her life. 

This story really resonated with me and I wrote an email to the author who responded within an hour, which gobsmacked me as I never really expected an answer.  I’ll never forget her words.  She said “You lady, are the reason I write books!” 

I went out and bought all her other books and we kept in touch.  I had the idea to start a blog and she encouraged me to do it and mentioned it to a couple of her author friends who asked me to review their books.  So my Kim The Book Worm blog was born!   That was in February 2011!  So I’ve been a book blogger for nearly 7 years! OMG!

Has your blog ever won or been nominated for any awards?

Last year I won the RNA Media Star of the Year award.  What an honour and a privilege that was!  

What’s your review policy?

I don’t have a particular policy, I just only review books that I like the sound of.  It wouldn’t be fair on an author to review a book in a genre that I don’t like as it wouldn’t be a true reflection of the book.  Now that I’m working full time for a publisher, I don’t have as much time to read and review books as I used to.

Do you ever get to read just for pleasure or will you always write a review after reading a book?

I very rarely read for pleasure and try to review every book I read but I do sometimes forget! Obviously, I always remember if I’m on a blog tour.  And I do try to be very organised!   But with a manic work and home life, sometimes I’m only human and do drop a ball!

I know you are one of the organisers behind regular book blogger/author meet ups.  Can you tell us a little bit about how you became involved in this?

Author Holly Martin and I just decided one day to organise a meet up in London. It was just before Christmas and around 16 people turned up.  Not a bad turn out, so we organised one in Birmingham too.  It was really well attended with around 50 people and we were cramped for space at that one.  We did another London one and around 80 people turned up! Luckily there wasn’t much else on in the bar we met at as we really did take over the whole place! 

So we periodically do events in Birmingham and London.  We haven’t done a London one for a while though as not many people came along to the last one.  Holly has since moved to Devon so we organised an Exeter meet up in the summer this year, which was great and vey well attended and we have organised another event in Exeter for the end of November.

What’s the best thing about going to a book blogger/author meet up?  If members of the RNA want to find out more about a meet up in their area how do they go about that?

For me, it’s about meeting authors and bloggers that you know and love.  You can build really good relationships with people online, and to then meet them in person, is such a joy! I’ve made so many good friends both authors and bloggers that I know I’ll be friends with for life.
 

If anyone fancies coming along to our events, as long as they are an author or a blogger, then we’d love to see you.  We do need a rough idea of numbers so it would be great to hear from you beforehand to confirm whether you are definitely coming.   You can get in touch with Holly or myself to get an invite.

How do you like to spend your time when not working or reading?

I love doing stuff with my ten year old son, whether it be just hanging out or doing something fun.  I also run a book club in Cannock in Staffordshire.  It’s such a lovely group and we’ve made some fabulous friends and we really do love our little book club!  I love going out for meals with friends.  I also do some family travel reviewing and love that too.  I find reading very relaxing, and as I don’t get much other chance to relax, that’s my real sanctuary. 

We often ask agents and publishers what they consider to be the next 'big thing' - what do you hope to see more of in 2018?

I think we have an incredible mix of women’s fiction and psychological thrillers around at the moment and I hope that continues.  Maybe some different lead characters might be nice.  There are so many brilliant female detective-led novels around at the moment, but it would be good to see some different professions in the mix too.  I do like a cosy crime too.  I love a book that makes me feel the emotions of the characters whether that be getting my heart fluttering with gorgeous lead males, my heart pounding with breath-taking suspense or warming my heart with wonderful stories.  Please do keep them coming authors.  

Find out more about Kim via her Social Media links:

Website 

Twitter 

Facebook 

Arbonne 

Thank you for being such a fab guest, Kim and for giving us an interesting insight into your world.

*****

About Ellie

Ellie Holmes writes commercial women’s fiction with her heart in the town and her soul in the country. Ellie’s debut release was The Flower Seller. A member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and the Alliance of Independent Authors, Ellie’s latest book, White Lies is out now.

Amazon 

Twitter 

Website 

Facebook