FOCUS ON: Bath & Wiltshire Chapter

This month we welcome Rachel Brimble who answers our questions about Bath & Wiltshire Chapter

How long has your chapter been running?

Fellow RNA member, Alison Knight, and I started the Chapter about five years ago. At the first meeting there were just five of us. Since then, I now have twenty-eight members on the list and we always have between ten and twelve at each meeting.

Members of the Bath & Wiltshire Chapter
at the 2014 RNA Conference

How often do you meet – and where?

Every six weeks or so. We are lucky enough to meet in the beautiful village of Lacock in Wiltshire. It is a National Trust area and has been used in Pride & Prejudice, Harry Potter and Cranford to name a few film/series. Well worth a visit!

Do your meetings include a meal?

Always! I arrange the meetings alternate lunch and evenings so everyone has a chance to attend as many as possible.

Is your chapter open to non-members of the RNA?

We are more than happy to welcome guests who are actively writing with a view to joining the RNA in the future. We are all so enthusiastic about the Association and stress to so many newcomers the advantage of the New Writers Scheme. It hasn’t taken guests long to sign up!

How long do your meeting last and do they involve having guest speakers?

Usually around 2-2 ½ hours – we meet at 1pm or 7pm. I must confess we haven’t had many speakers but would love to welcome them if anyone is interested. Please email me at rachelbrimble@googlemail.com. Just recently, we had two agents visit us from Keane Kataria based in Bath and since then I know at least one member was signed, which is great news!

What do you have planned for the rest of 2015?

Myself, Alison Knight, Liz Fielding, Nicola Cornick and Louise Douglas will be hosting a Romance Writing Panel at the Chippenham Arts Festival. We are all very excited and would love to welcome as many RNA members as possible. Here is the Facebook event page for anyone wanting to come along - https://www.facebook.com/events/1431860797122479/

What would you say makes your chapter of the RNA so special?

On the roof of Ashdown House

The friendliness and support. I think we have a great supportive and fun atmosphere and one where everyone is made to feel valued and validated. We write a vast range of romantic novels from erotic to paranormal to sweet to historical. All sub-genres are discussed and enjoyed!

Does your chapter have a website, Facebook page or Twitter account?

Not at the moment but this is on my ‘to do’ list to get done this year! I will announce as soon as we are up and running.

Who is the contact for new members?

Me! I would love to hear from anybody wishing to join.

Email:              rachelbrimble@googlemail.com

FB:                  https://www.facebook.com/rachelbrimbleauthor?fref=ts

Twitter:           https://twitter.com/RachelBrimble

What a wonderful venue you have for your meetings, Rachel. I’m sure you must all find it inspirational. Thank you for sharing with us today.

The RNA blog is brought to you by 

Elaine Everest & Natalie Kleinman

If you would like to write for the RNA blog please contact us on elaineeverest@aol.com

Anita Chapman: Getting to Know the RNA Through Social Media

Today we welcome, Anita Chapman to the blog to talk about social media.

Thank you for hosting me today. I’ve been a member of the New Writers’ Scheme (NWS) since 2010 and plan to send in a full manuscript for my second novel this year. My work in progress is set during the eighteenth century and present day, in Venice and in two country houses in England. Being part of the NWS has helped me to move forwards with my writing and the last report for a partial of my second novel gave the most encouraging feedback I’ve received. Plus, the report was written by an author who clearly ‘knows her stuff’ when it comes to the eighteenth century. Where else would I find such specialised advice for the same fee?

With Liz Harris

When I first joined the RNA, I went to a few parties without knowing anyone, apart from my friend, a fellow NWS member. At these parties, I met other members, but we didn’t stay in touch. In October 2011, I set up the neetswriter blog on writing, joined Twitter and Facebook; and mentioned this on the RNA forum. Being a supportive bunch, several RNA members followed me on Twitter and commented on my blog. At the next RNA Party, I knew quite a few people in the room, many of whom have since become good friends. Some of us had talked on Twitter the day before, using the hashtag: #RNAWinterParty. This is always a great way to find out who’s going and to see photos and news during and after the party.

My blogging and social media experience helped me to get a role at National Trust Property, Polesden Lacey as a part-time website and social media volunteer, where I created history pages; and updated the Polesden Lacey Twitter and Facebook accounts.

At the RNA Conference in July 2014, I met Richard Lee, Chairman of the Historical Novel Society (HNS), who asked me to manage the social media for September’s HNS Conference. Since then I’ve been Social Media Manager for the Historical Novel Society (Twitter @histnovsoc).

Over the past couple of months I’ve done some social media freelance work for Corazon Books, and I’ve set up a website: www.neetsmarketing.com to show which training, assistance and promotion social media packages I can offer to individual writers, small publishers and organisations. I’ve set up an accompanying blog on social media for writers: www.neetsmarketingblog.com and the first post, published recently is ‘My Beginner’s Guide to Twitter for Writers’. On 6 February, RNA Member, Alison Morton will appear with a guest post, ‘Alison Morton on Twitter’. And on 6 March, RNA Members, The Romaniacs will appear with a guest post: ‘The Romaniacs on Blogging and Using Social Media as a Group’. The aim of my neetsmarketing blog is to help writers who are starting out on social media with tips, written in layman’s terms.

Details of upcoming RNA events can be found here. You can follow the RNA on Twitter at @RNAtweets as well as the RNA blog twice weekly here.

Here are some RNA hashtags to look out for, and use:

#RoNAs

#RNASummerParty

#RNAConf15

#RNAWinterParty

I’m on Twitter: @neetswriter, and at @neetsmarketing. Thanks again for hosting me, and I look forward to another year of fabulous RNA events.

Thank you for your interesting insight into Twitter and the RNA, Anita.

The RNA blog is brought to you by

Elaine Everest & Natalie Kleinman

If you would like to write an article for the blog or be interviewed about your latest publication please contact us on elaineeverest@aol.com

Nicola Cornick: Changing Times, Changing Genres

Welcome to Nicola Cornick who writes our first blog post for 2015.

Thank you very much for inviting me to the RNA Blog today. It’s a great pleasure to be here!

It was with something of a shock that I realised in 2013 that I had been writing Regency historicals for fifteen years. From the publication of my first traditional Regency, True Colours, by Harlequin Mills and Boon in 1998, I have had a wonderful time living in an alternative historical world. Along the way I have changed from a UK to a US publisher and now back again. The stories have become longer, more sensual and have ranged in setting from the ballrooms of London to the Highlands of Scotland to the far north of the Arctic.

It’s been an amazing time but for more than ten of those fifteen “Regency” years there was something else that I also wanted to write, a book with paranormal elements where the past and the present are entwined, and secrets and mysteries from centuries past are brought to light. I’d been promising myself for years that one day I would write this story but it always got squeezed out by contracts and deadlines until last year I thought that if I didn’t stop and write it now, maybe I never would.

I work as a guide and historian at the National Trust house Ashdown Park, a place with a rich and vivid history that has given me so much inspiration. It was a given that if I wrote a timeslip book then Ashdown and its history would take centre stage. So I started to plan a book set at Ashdown with three intertwined stories. One takes place in the 17^th century and involves Ashdown’s owner, the Earl of Craven and Elizabeth, the Winter Queen, to whom it is rumoured he was secretly married. A second strand of the story is based on the notorious love affair of the 19^th century Earl of Craven and the courtesan Harriette Wilson, and there is a contemporary thread revealing the connections that link the characters through the centuries.

 When I first started to write the book (as opposed to it being a collection of ideas in my head) I also started to have dreams in which I took on a series of ever more bizarre challenges (organising a competition for racing pigeons was one!) I felt scared. I had doubts. I think that maybe I was afraid deep down that I didn’t know how to write something so different. It was exciting to have the time and space for this new project but it was also disorientating because suddenly, after years of promising myself that this was the book of my heart, I actually had to prove it. I had to write it.

With three intertwined stories the book required a lot of planning, a detailed structure and a complex plot, three things that have never been my forte. My books usually arise out of the characters or from particular historical events. I get an idea and write off into the blue. This time, though, I was mixing fact and fiction and also mixing three time periods. When I tried to plan in detail my brain froze up so in the end I did what I always do and just plunged straight in and waited to see what happened. The whole book was a very, very steep learning curve as I struggled to create three stories that were individually compelling yet also wove together to create a much bigger canvas than anything I had ever written before. It was also a huge amount of fun!



Ashdown Park



Now the book is written and I am revising it to layer in some more character depth and texture, smooth out the wrinkles in the plot and tighten the pace. At the moment the most difficult thing to decide upon is the title – something suitably historical and a tad mysterious!  Please look out for the book coming in September from MIRA Books – by which time it will definitely have a name!

Thank you, Nicola for writing such an informative piece.

The RNA blog is brought to you by

Elaine Everest & Natalie Kleinman

If you would like to contribute an article or write about your latest publication please contact us on elaineverest@aol.com