Introducing the New RNA Social Media Co-ordinator

Hello! For those of you who don't know me already, I’ve been a member of the RNA for the past four years. I joined the New Writers’ Scheme initially, after lots of other writers recommended it to me. I've loved every minute of being on the Scheme, and have learnt so much as well. During those four years, I've self-published two contemporary romance novels, with some more on the way, and as a result, I'm just about to graduate from the Scheme to become a full, independent member of the RNA.

I thoroughly enjoy being a member of the RNA and have thrown myself into the social life it offers its members with great enthusiasm, attending conferences, parties, afternoon teas and chapter meetings all around the country. I've also been very lucky to make lots of new friends as a result of being a member, something I didn’t expect to be doing at this stage in my life. I love the way the RNA welcomes everyone as equals, so newbies can find themselves talking to big names, and mixing with writers and publishing folk at all different stages of their careers.

In my life outside writing, I work part-time for a local charity as their communications officer, overseeing their marketing, PR, social media and website activities. I also work freelance as a proofreader, website trouble-shooter and occasional supply teacher – a real Jill-of-all-trades! I live with my husband in Bedfordshire. We have two daughters; one is now away at university and the other is studying for her ‘A’ levels.

Since autumn 2016, I have been supporting Adrienne Vaughan, as deputy editor of Romance Matters, the RNA’s wonderful magazine, and now I’m taking on the role of social media co-ordinator, with responsibility for the blog, Twitter and the RNA’s Facebook page. Elaine Everest has done a sterling job for the past five years, and we’re all very grateful to her and her wonderful team for raising the RNA’s profile in that time.

I have a great blog team to support me and we're planning to keep blogging two or three times a week, with a mixture of regular blog posts about your favourite items – competitions, new releases, interviews with book reviewers and authors – as well as news items as and when they crop up, and some new ideas too. If you have any ideas for features you’d like to see, please do let me know and we will do our best to bring the subject to you.

I look forward to taking on the blog completely from Alison May in the New Year, and to taking it from strength to strength as we move forward. Thank you for all the support you have shown the blog in the past – I hope you will continue to do so for many years to come.

*****

My latest book The Vineyard in Alsace is available now.

Is there really such a thing as a second chance at love?

Fran Schell has only just become engaged when she finds her fiancé in bed with another woman. She knows this is the push she needs to break free of him and to leave London. She applies for her dream job on a vineyard in Alsace, in France, not far from her family home, determined to concentrate on her work.

Didier Le Roy can hardly believe it when he sees that the only person to apply for the job on his vineyard is the same woman he once loved but let go because of his stupid pride. Now estranged from his wife, he longs for a second chance with Fran if only she will forgive him for not following her to London.

Working so closely together, Fran soon starts to fall in love with Didier all over again. Didier knows that it is now time for him to move on with his divorce if he and Fran are ever to have a future together. Can Fran and Didier make their second chance at love work despite all the obstacles in their way? 

A romantic read set against the enticing backdrop of the vineyard harvest in France.

Connect with me here:

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Focus on Chapters: with Chapter Liaison, Jean Fullerton

Today we welcome RNA Chapter Liaison, Jean Fullerton to the blog.

Welcome, Jean. There has been much discussion recently on the RNA Facebook page about setting up chapters in areas where members are thinly spread and don’t have access to a group locally. Can you give any advice to people who live, for example, in the far west or east, north of south of Scotland, or in Cornwall?

The main problem people have in setting up new chapters is that of transport. Sadly there aren’t enough members in each and every town so unfortunately people have to travel. I don’t have a simple answer to this but one way might be to change the venue for each meeting as the Border Reivers do, or to plan your meeting to account for winter weather like the Marcher Chapter do. My best advice is to engage at some level with your local group. Many chapters like Leicester’s Beaumont Belles have Yahoo loops and Facebook pages, so link in with those and if possible go to a Christmas or special event. If there is really no other way you could start your own chapter with just two or three of you.

For the rest, I am aware that you have visited several chapters. Presumably each has its own ‘personality’. Have you ever found anything that really surprised you?

Jean on a visit to the
Beaumont Bells

I have visited all the chapters at least once, except for the Yorkshire Terriers when the train was cancelled at the last minute, and I’m in the process of starting my tour again. Natalie, each chapter has its own personality, but one thing all the chapters have in common is their warm welcome. The thing that most surprised me as I travel round the chapters is the number of long-standing RNA members who I’ve never met at Conference, a party or an award event. This has reinforced my believe that the chapters play a crucial role in supporting members who, for whatever reason, cannot get to the London based events.

For the past two years the RNA has very generously given groups a donation to ‘put on’ something special. If chapters are not sure what form this should take, do you have any suggestions? What have you seen so far?

The chapters have been very creative with the Committee’s generous donation but for the most part the event has taken the form of a craft or mini-industry day with speakers. Last year the London and SE Chapter put on a workshop day and I was able to twist the arm of my agent, Laura Longrigg, and my editor from Orion to take part. It can be something like a write-in, which the Yorkshire Terriers organised. We’re not prescriptive but it is designed to provide funds for an internal writing related event rather than external promotion.

I know from my own experience at the London & SE Chapter that the support and advice given and received within this sub-section of the RNA is invaluable and can be instrumental in moving forward a writer’s career. What have you found?

Absolutely the same, Natalie. I’ve said it before but it’s true. I wouldn’t be where I am today without the RNA, the NWS and the London & SE Chapter. It’s because I’ve been and still am so supported by the organisation as a whole and the London & SE Chapter in particular that I’ve taken on the role of chapter liaison. My vision for the future of the chapters would be for them to have a greater voice and to see more regional events taking place like the recent and very successful York Tea.

Thank you for joining us today, Jean. I’m sure many of our members will be inspired and, for those of you reading this who don’t belong to or have access to a chapter, start one. Even with only one or two members you’ll be surprised where it will lead you.

Would you like to join an RNA Chapter? A complete list along with Jean's contact details can be found inside Romance Matters.

If you would like your Chapter to be featured here please contact Natalie on natalie@nataliekleinman.co.uk

The RNA blog is brought to you by

Elaine Everest & Natalie Kleinman

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

Jenny Harper: People We Love

We are delighted to welcome, Jenny Harper to the blog today. Well known to RNA members, Jenny tells us about her latest publication.

Her life is on hold – until an unlikely visitor climbs in through the kitchen window.

A year after her brother’s fatal accident, Lexie’s life seems to have reached a dead end. She is back home in small-town Hailesbank with her shell-shocked parents, treading softly around their fragile emotions. As the family business drifts into decline, Lexie’s passion for painting and for her one-time mentor Patrick have been buried as deep as her unexpressed grief, until the day her lunch is interrupted by a strange visitor in a bobble hat, dressing gown and bedroom slippers, who climbs through the window. Elderly Edith’s batty appearance conceals a secret and starts Lexie on a journey that gives her an inspirational artistic idea and rekindles her appetite for life. With friends in support and ex-lover Cameron seemingly ready to settle down, do love and laughter beckon after all?

Artist Lexie Gordon, funky heroine of People We Love, has put her career on hold to support her parents following the death of her brother in a car crash. While the story revolves round the mystery of why he was driving while drunk, the family begin their journey out of grief through the unexpected appearance of old Edith Lawrence.

Edith’s character emerged from an incident recounted by my parents. An elderly woman with dementia walked twelve miles from her care home in her nightie, and climbed in a window of the house where she used to live. I was intrigued. What powerful instinct had led her there? The story was irresistible and I stored it away.

The second layer in the story was triggered by a haunting piece of photo journalism I spotted in one of the Sunday supplements – a series of photos of shoes worn by women fleeing from South Sudan. They were battered, flimsy and totally unsuitable for hard walking. Some were even just flip flops. I found the images of those shoes deeply moving, and I realised that shoes can tell stories – which is exactly what Lexie comes to understand.

But just a minute – a women’s novel revolving round shoes? Surely a cliché? Overdone, stereotypical – boring, even. Well … maybe. But although People We Love features shoes, it’s about other themes entirely. As the invitation to Lexie’s art exhibition at the opening of the book says, ‘Shoes tell stories. Stories of tiny, much-loved babies who can’t even walk, of the tottering steps of little children towards adulthood, of special events in our lives, of dances, and marriages and mountain climbs and escapes.’

So yes, my new novel does feature shoes. In fact, there’s a catalogue entry at the start of each chapter that features just about every kind of shoe imaginable, from baby’s bootees to the serviceable old Clark’s shoes Lexie’s father wears as he soldiers on through life. It even features a pair of vintage Manolo Blahniks. But it’s not about shoes.

If you want to discover why the Manolos are important… sorry, you’ll have to read the book for yourself!

People We Love is the fourth in my Heartlands series. Maximum Exposure is about a local newspaper under threat of closure. I decided it would be easier to set it in a fictional town – and so Hailesbank was born. When I started writing Loving Susie, which is about a politician in Edinburgh, my location had become ‘real’ in my head – so I decided Susie Wallace could live in (and represent) Hailesbank. And when Face the Wind and Fly started life, a small conservation village close to Hailesbank sprang, ready formed, into my head.

So far, my characters haven’t overlapped much, but they will in future books. The next in the series, Mistakes We Make, develops the back story of a minor but key character in People We Love, and I’ve written a novella, Sand In Your Shoes, based on Nicola Arnott, the head teacher in Summerfield Primary (in Face the Wind and Fly), which will be published in June.

Two of my readers have told me they’d like to live in Hailesbank. I think I would too –but then, part of me already does!

People We Love, out as an ebook, with paperback publication in August.

‘Thoroughly entertaining’ Katie Fforde

For readers of Jojo Moyes, Jodi Picoult, David Nicholls - you'll love Jenny Harper's People We Love.

LINKS:

My publisher has produced a great trailer for People We Love. Do take a look!

https://youtu.be/R0Aw5CPRMl4

If you fancy a sip of People We Love with your morning cuppa… http://bit.ly/1OZ9cx2

Website and blog

Amazon Author page

Facebook

Twitter @harper_jenny

Shared blog (Novel Points of View)

People We Love  

Face The Wind And Fly

Loving Susie

Maximum Exposure

About Jenny:

Jenny Harper lives in Edinburgh. An active RNA member, she redesigned Romance Matters as a colour magazine and produced it for seven years. As a committee member under Katie Fforde, she was responsible for the rebranding of the RNA, the RONA awards and the RNA website (with Janet Gover), and she commissioned the beautiful glass bowl that is now the Romantic Novelist of the Year prize. Jenny is the author of four books about Scotland and Scottish culture, a history of childbirth, and The Sleeping Train for young readers. When she isn't writing, she enjoys walking in the Scottish countryside or anywhere warm, and travel to Europe, America and India.

Thank you for visiting the blog, Jenny. People We Love is now on our ‘to read’ list.

The RNA blog is brought to you by,

Elaine Everest & Natalie Kleinman

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

Chatting with Romance Matters editor and wannabe Bond Girl, Adrienne Vaughan

We are delighted to have as our guest today, Adrienne Vaughan.

Thank you for finding time to speak with us, Adrienne.

When did you first take over the editorship of Romance Matters?

2012 was a hugely significant year for me, it was the year my first novel, The Hollow Heart, was published and the year I started working on Romance Matters. I joined the RNA NWS – it took a couple of goes – and one of the first editions of the magazine I received had a notice asking for a volunteer to take over from the then editor, the lovely Myra Kersner, who was standing down after an eight year editorship.

A tough act to follow, but I put my hand up, as a new kid on the block, who loves magazines, what better way to get to know people and learn about the business in which I was becoming immersed.

Have you worked in the world of magazine publication in the past?

I was given a turquoise Petite typewriter as a child, and my fate was sealed. I would sit for hours at the kitchen table, cutting out photos and pictures and sticking pages together to make my own magazines. I would often hear my mother, sitting down with a well-earned cup of tea, scream because I’d cut out the middle of Woman’s Own.

I always wanted to be a journalist and having achieved the necessary qualifications, was lucky enough to gain a place at the Dublin College of Journalism. My first stint at work experience on a national pop magazine, catapulted me into a glitzy press reception where I chatted with Rod Stewart and the stunning Brit Eckland. I was hooked.

We’ve seen changes to the latest edition of the magazine. Do you have any plans for further changes?

For many members the magazine is the only channel of communication, so it’s important it not only reflects the organisation, communicating important issues, but gives a feeling of inclusiveness for many who may not be able to make meetings, parties or the conference.

It also needs to be an important source of industry information, this is our professional role and our magazine needs to reflect that. It should be fun too, so it’s a balancing act.

I like to think of the magazine as evolving rather than changing and the more membership participation the better. Instigating the idea that members can advertise their services to each other is positive, encouraging us to use the vast and expansive range of experience and expertise our membership has at its fingertips.

Romance Matters is the association’s shop window, I strive for it to reflect our diversity, our talent and our professionalism and I’m thrilled when I get messages from readers saying they’ve enjoyed an issue, it sounds corny, but it really does make it all worthwhile.

If a member wishes to contribute an article can you advise on the type of topics you would like covered as well as word count? Should they pitch the idea to you first?

As I’ve said, I’m only the custodian of the magazine, it belongs to the membership, so the more contributions the better. Articles about technical issues, the mores of social media, how to write for a particular genre, how to tackle research, any and all of these are welcome. Please check deadlines and get in touch with me as soon as possible so I can plan a particular idea in, and always get in touch with me first, because we can often work ideas into a future issue. I’m not too worried about word count, if an article is particularly lengthy we can turn it into a series.

How about advertising? Who do members contact and are there any guidelines?

Again, just contact me. Members can advertise their books, editorial services, writer retreats, indeed anything that’s of interest to the rest of the membership, just get in touch and we’ll sort the artwork out and get things moving.

Tell us something about your own writing and how do you manage to fit it in amongst your RNA duties?

I’ve always written creatively, I think if you’re a writer, you just write.  Professionally, I have been a journalist and today I run a busy PR practice, setting my alarm clock to rise early and do my creative stuff - novels, short stories and poems - before heading to the office to work with the media, create corporate publications and co-ordinate launches and lunches!

Through the RNA I met three fantastic writers, Lizzie Lamb, June Kearns and Mags Cullingford and in 2012 we set up an independent publishing group, now known as the New Romantics Press and in less than two years we’ve published nine full length novels between us. My latest, the final in the Heartfelt trilogy, Secrets of the Heart, has just been published and for me, it’s now time to seek representation and that elusive publishing deal. In the meantime I’ll continue to work in PR, edit Romance Matters and write and write and write. Well, the do say sleep is overrated!

Thank you for sparing the time to speak with us, Adrienne.

Thank you for having me, it’s a pleasure, as is working on our fabulous magazine, thanks again.

Adrienne is a member of the Chartered Institute of Journalists, Chartered Institute of Public Relations, the British Horse Society and the proud owner of a Powerboat Driver’s Certificate …just in case she gets the call to be a Bond girl!

Links:

Email: adrienne.vaughan@avapr.biz

Twitter: @adrienneauthor

Books:

The Hollow Heart

A Change of Heart

Hocus Pocus

The RNA blog is brought to you by

Elaine Everest & Natalie Kleinman

If you would like to write an article for the blog or have a book due to be published please contact us on elaineeverest@aol.com

RNA Winter Party: A cold night but a warm atmosphere

Today we welcome Francesca Capaldi Burgess and Elaine Roberts to the blog. Both ladies accepted our challenge to cover the RNA Winter Party for our blog and what a fantastic job they did too!

On Wednesday 19^th November, members of the RNA gathered for the annual winter party, ready to meet up with old friends and make new ones. As with some previous events, we occupied the wonderful panelled Hall of India and Pakistan at the Royal Over-Seas League in London.
It was the first time the two of us had been to the winter party, so didn't know how it would compare to the other enjoyable RNA events we'd attended. It was soon clear that everyone present was bound on making it a joyful evening, judging by the animated chatter and laughter. Many people acquainted only on social media took the opportunity to met in real life. A good deal of head bowing and squinting took place as we all tried to read each other's name badges to find out who we were!

180 people attended, representing the industry across the board, from writers new and established, to editors, agents and publishers, all of whom mingled seamlessly. As usual, the frocks were fabulous, a fact celebrated by a photo call on the grand staircase (due to appear on the front cover of Romance Matters).

Tracy Hartshorn (aka Sally Quilford)

Tracy Hartshorn (who writes as Sally Quilford), the main organiser of the event, did a splendid job. She could be spotted for a good part of the evening on the front desk welcoming guests. Tracy explained afterwards that, “The RNA parties take several months to organise, culminating in just three hours of party time. But what a three hours they are. The mood is always cheerful and positive, and it gives a glow of satisfaction to those of us who do the organising to know that our work hasn’t been wasted. The Winter Party was no different. A good time was had by all, including me!”

Chairman: Pia Fenton

Our chairman, Pia Fenton, gave a speech thanking the committee, along with others who’ve contributed to the work of the RNA, for all their efforts. We raised a glass to those no longer with us. Pia thanked those who’d helped with the organisation of the party, particularly Tracy, who got a rousing round of applause.

   



Waiters weaved their way through the guests offering an array of canapés which included mini fish and chips and tiny pies. The bite sized chocolate cakes were particularly delicious. Not only did everything taste good, it looked good as well, the catering as ever living up to the splendour of the venue.





Wendy Clarke, Deirdre Parlmer, Karen Aldous, Rosemary Goodacre

First time attendee, Wendy Clarke told us, “I’m not much of a ‘party person’ and was expecting to spend most of my first RNA party behind one of the pillars – but I’m happy to say that this couldn’t have been further from the truth. From the moment I walked in, the welcoming atmosphere enveloped me and any fears of awkwardness evaporated. I didn’t feel the need to hide behind a pillar once – which was just as well, as there weren’t any.”





Vanessa Savage & Catherine Miller




Having some well earned time off from her adorable twins, Romaniacs member Catherine Miller declared it “another wonderful RNA party.” She went on to say that, “It's great that NWS members are made to feel so welcome.” As New Writers’ Scheme members ourselves we can certainly vouch for this. 

Sue Barnard

Another newby, Sue Barnard, said, “My first RNA party, but definitely not my last! What a great evening. It was wonderful to be able to put faces to names at last, and I made some lovely new friends too. I'm only sorry I couldn't stay longer!”



Rachel Crafts & Maggie Swinburne

Maggie Swinburne, editor of the twice monthly My Weekly Pocket Novels, travelled down from Scotland for the event because she said it was, “lovely to meet people”. She relayed some funny stories to our group regarding her job as editor, along with some tips on what she looks for in a story. She also came wielding the guidelines and is hoping for more submissions.



As the evening wound down and people started to don their coats and flat shoes (what a relief!), it was evident by the smiles and hearty farewells that the evening had been another RNA success. It might have been cold outside but the atmosphere inside was warm and friendly.

A hearty thank you to Tracy Hartshorn and all those involved in organising the evening.

Thank you, Elaine & Francesca for a wonderful blog post. Here they are earning a well deserved rest in between their reporting duties:

Elaine Roberts & Francesca Burgess

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