This year, our conference theme was An Affair To Remember, and it certainly was a memorable conference! We had a fabulous lineup of speakers and workshop presenters, including Laura Bradford (Bradford Literary Agency), Dianne Moggy (VP of Overseas Editorial Strategy & Development for Harlequin Enterprises), Alex Logan (Grand Central Publishing), Christopher Vogler, Stephanie Laurens, Jane Porter, Nalini Singh, Natalie Anderson, Vanessa Johnson, Nick McLeay, Nic Harrison… and the list went on!

We were totally spoiled for speakers. So much so, I had a hard time choosing which workshops to attend — still have buyer’s remorse, so to speak, LOL.

Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera *headdesk*, so was forced to rely on my iPhone… which has no zoom, and no flash. Hence, the cocktail party photos were a complete write-off. But some of the Awards Dinner ones did turn out — yay!

Anyway, here are the photos. Click on the thumbnails to view. Enjoy!

BTW, even if you’re not a cat-lover I’d be very surprised if at least one of these photos didn’t raise a smile — even if it’s one of disbelief.

So here’s the first lot of photos. (I’ll post some more next month — wouldn’t want you to be overwhelmed by the cuteness!)

Enjoy,

M

Can’t believe it’s September already! Yesterday, Auckland celebrated it’s first day of Spring with a day so fine, that I actually risked hanging out the washing. Daughter, who was home sick from school, even ventured outside to sit in the sun and read a book for a bit. And to my surprise, neither washing nor daughter got rained on. Pity about today. Spring might have officially “sprung”, but it’s not quite holding its own just yet.

And now Spring is here — sort of — I have dilemmas, dilemmas, and more dilemmas. Which is pretty much typical for us angsty writer-types, I guess *VBG*

You see, I have too many darn choices! And every time I sit down at my computer and open up my Manuscripts file, I vacillate between rewriting an old manuscript, outlining something new that’s a bit off the beaten track for me, jumping in feet first and running with a really cool idea I’ve got for a story, or falling back on writing something tried and true. And, just because nothing’s ever simple, of course there’re some added complications.

So if you feel like wading in with your opinion and perhaps helping me make a decision — or just giving me a kick in the butt and telling me to “fergodsake pick something and go with it!” — then feel free to pop on over to Writers Gone Wild and have at it.

Cheers,

M

This year I was lucky enough to score a copy of Maria Snyder’s Storm Glass, which I’d been meaning to read for a while now — not that I’ve had the opportunity to read it yet (as you can plainly see from this month’s reading list) because daughter got to it first! More fool me for unpacking in front of her, I guess. LOL.

I was also rapt to receive a copy of Jane Porter’s Easy On The Eyes.

Jane was one of our guest speakers and she just blew me away with her honesty and her willingness to share on both a personal and professional level. She wasn’t the only conference speaker who caused me to shed a tear, BTW–we were blessed with Christopher Vogler as a keynote speaker and he was fabulous in an entirely different way, and a couple of the personal stories he shared had me reaching for the tissues, too.

Anyway, back to Jane. I soooo wanted to love Jane’s book as much as I loved listening to her speak. I wanted to really really love this book, not just like it, because she was just such an amazing, gracious, giving lady and I wanted her book to reflect those qualities. And I almost didn’t want to read this book because I knew that my expectations were high–maybe too high. And I knew that it was kinda unfair to expect so very much from a book, just because I’d heard the author speak and was so very impressed by her and what she shared with us.

But yanno what? I shouldn’t have worried. Because Easy On The Eyes was a real emotional gut-wrencher of a read and I loved it!

It’s different from many contemporaries in that it’s written in 1st person present tense. Many YAs use this point of view, I guess because it conveys to the reader an incredible sense of immediacy, of experiencing everything as the character does–truly going through everything, and discovering everything, and learning along with them, if you like. At least, it does that if its done well. Otherwise it’s just a gimmick–and often an irritating one.

No gimmicky writing techniques here, not with this book. Even though the character of Tiana is so vastly different from me that it’s like comparing an old Ford Escort (me) to a sleek, glamorous little racy sports car (Tiana), I connected with her. I cried with her. I was her until the final word on the very last page.

Here’s a sample of the sense of ‘being Tiana’ that I’m trying to get across:

And suddenly I’m crying again.

I rest my elbows on the railing and cover my face and cry hot salty silent tears into my hands. I loved Keith. I loved him as much as I could love anyone and it didn’t keep him alive. I loved him with all my heart and soul and it wasn’t enough. I gave him all of me and it couldn’t protect him. How the hell are we supposed to love when it doesn’t last? How are we to love when life is so capricious that love can be taken away at any time?

This is the grief I can’t bear anyone to see. This is the pain that shadows me when I’m alone, yet here Michael is, witness to it all.

He closes the distance between us and wraps his arms around me and holds me as I cry. He says nothing, and a little voice inside me insists I push him away, but I can’t. I’ve been lonely and too full of grief for far too long. Besides, he’s warm and solid and he keeps me from toppling down, which is something.

The tears finally stop and I step carefully out of his arms and away from him even as I wipe my eyes dry. “Sorry about that.”

“You loved him,” he says.

My eyes sting, my throat aches, my voice is hoarse. “More than anything.”

Conclusion? Well, duh! Another must-read author to add to my list. Not to mention a bunch of Jane’s back-list books to ferret out and add to my already overloaded bookshelves. And, after reading a sample of her latest release, She’s Gone Country, I need need NEED to buy it! Now, darnit. I’m smiling at the prospect, though. It’s always a thrill to find another really amazing author.

Check out Jane’s website, with lists of her books and where you can source them.

And, note to self: nag DH into buying me another bookshelf before the book piles on my desk grow tall enough to hide me from view!

• The Thin Executioner by Darren Shan
• The Fallen by Thomas E. Sniegoski
• Leviathon by Thomas E. Sniegoski
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith
• Death Note 1 by Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata
• Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles
• Blue Moon by Laurell K. Hamilton
• Obsidian Butterfly by Laurell K. Hamilton
• Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews
• Narcissus In Chains by Laurell K. Hamilton
• The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
• Top-Notch Doc, Outback Bride by Melanie Milburne
• The Forbidden Game: The Hunter by L.J. Smith
• The Forbidden Game: The Chase by L.J. Smith
• The Forbidden Game: The Kill by L.J. Smith
• The Forest Of Hands And Teeth by Carrie Ryan
• Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand by Carrie Vaughn
• Easy on the Eyes by Jane Porter
• Fang: A Maximum Ride Novel by James Patterson
• Confesssions of a Little Black Gown by Julia Quinn
• Her Secret Rival by Abby Gaines
• A Man Worth Loving by Kimberley Van Meter
• Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs
• Burned by P.C.Cast & Kristin Cast
• Meridian by Amber Kizer

:-)

M

So what happened this year?

Soooo not prepared!

First mistake:

Was asked to pick up our guest agent from the airport. Her flight was coming in at 8.10 am, so I allowed an hour to get there through traffic, and planned to leave around 7.10am.

Woke up on time and grabbed a shower before checking the airport international flight arrivals. Turned out the flight was 20 minutes early…. EEEK! And I had to drive through rush-hour traffic…. Not a great way to start the day, in a rush to get somewhere in Auckland rush-hour traffic. (Made it, BTW. Phew.)

Moral: wake up and jump on the computer first thing to check flight arrivals. You never know when that plane is gonna have a tail-wind all the way from the US to NZ and get in earlier than scheduled, so you just might have to throw on some clothes and rush out the door.

Second mistake:

Picked up our guest agent from the airport and automatically took the exit toward home, instead of into the city. Realized my error — OMG! — and took the first exit that said Northern Motorway. Drove for about five minutes and saw a sign that didn’t look right…. and realized I was still so not headed into the city. Had to exit the motorway, negotiate an overpass, and get back on the motorway heading in the other direction. Then, a slight detour to get back to somewhere I recognized before I felt confident I knew where I was going. Phew!

Me being me, I confessed my error to my probably oblivious passenger, who was forgiving and utterly charming, and not at all fazed by the fact I’d gotten a wee bit lost. “No problem,” she said. “If we get to the hotel too early, my room probably won’t be ready anyway.” (Thank you, Laura!)

Moral: don’t ever presume you’ll be able to figure out where you’re going! Map out the route before you leave home, when you’ve got plenty of time and aren’t stressed. Especially if, like me, after the drama it occurs to you that you’ve never actually picked someone up from the airport and driven straight  into the city — I’ve always driven my guests back to my place, or somewhere local that I know like the back of my hand. Doh.

Third mistake:

Woke up Friday morning, wandered into my fancy hotel bathroom and turned on the shower….

Full frontal cold water shock — a real head to toe drenching. Talk about a helluva wake-up call! The cleaner had left the shower head directed straight outward, and I didn’t think to check it before I turned on the water. Yikes. I’m shivering just thinking about it.

Moral: Don’t make that mistake again. EVAH!

Fourth mistake:

For various reasons, I didn’t think I’d be pitching to an agent or editor on the first day of the conference, so once I recovered from the icy cold drenching, I donned my favorite jeans, a black top and comfy shoes. And, as per usualy, I had NO makeup on. Think vampire-pale, without the stunning good looks (more like nightmarish screamfest), and you’d be right on the money. The no-makeup thing is not a choice, mind. It’s because I have these weird allergies and I can’t wear makeup because my eyes swell up and I get all blotchy. Scary stuff, I assure you.

So I headed downstairs to register for the conference, and I checked the pitch sheets (that whole “being prepared” thing), and realized there were pitches scheduled for Friday, but mine was scheduled for Saturday. Phew!

Except…. later on I checked again — yanno, being all paranoid like I am — and I realized I’d been given two pitches: one on Saturday and one on Friday. Like, today. Eeeek!

Fifth mistake:

Decided I’d go with what I was already wearing, and not rush upstairs and change into my nice professional-looking pitch outfit because I needed it for Saturday’s pitch. And besides, the agent I was pitching to had already seen me do casual, because I picked her up from the airport. So I hoped she would forgive the jeans. I did the pitch and it went pretty well because I had a request for 100 pages etc (woot!), and I walked out the door and….

I walked right into a TV interview.

I couldn’t get to the elevator, because the TV crew were blocking it. So I stood there, waiting for them to finish up so I could slink off and disappear back into the Chris Vogler workshop I was missing. And when the camera crew finished up, I got to chat to Trudy (who was being filmed) and tell her how my pitch went, and hug her, and wish her all the best for her pitch. All good stuff — we writers like to share! And then….

The camera crew, who’d been listening in, enquired whether they could ask me a few questions.

Moral: fergodssakes, you moron, if there are camera crews lurking, change into your nice clothes at the first opportunity!

Sixth Mistake:

I said to the camera crew, “A few questions? Er, oookay?” Doh!

There I was, sooo not dressed in my nice professional pitch clothes, sooo not wearing makeup, sooo looking like something the cat dragged in, being interviewed for national television. Some ambassador for RWNZ I am! And despite Trudy assuring me that I came across really well — eloquent, even — I prayed that they wouldn’t  use any of my segment.

But they did.

And typically, they didn’t use the bit where I’d actually relaxed and might even have sounded like I know what I’m talking about. Nope. They used the bit at the beginning where my heart was thumping fit to burst and I was wishing I was anywhere but there. The bit where I was rolling my eyes and scrunching up my face and looking like an insane person.

How do I know this? Because they ran the piece last night. And everyone else who was interviewed looked lovely, and put-together, and calm, and professional. But me? I’m that pale-faced nut-job blabbering about cue-cards and having a complete blank when it comes to remembering what you want to say.

Moral: when you attend an RWNZ conference, always dress like you’re going to be filmed. And if, like me, you’re apparently incapable of saying “No, thanks, I need to be somewhere else, but here’s someone you can talk to!”  while you grab the next nervous person waiting in line to pitch and thrust them toward the camera crew, then be prepared for anything.

So after watching the clip again, and wincing — again — I’m gonna do what I always do when I need a pickmeup: Go immerse myself in a good book and forget about reality for a while.

:-)

M

Nothing particularly interesting to report. Still perfecting pitches and synopses, and wondering what the heck to pack for our upcoming Romance Writers of New Zealand conference.

But since I’m still angsting over high concepts and summaries that might hopefully wow agents and editors, I thought it might be fun to fall back on some of my all-time favorite summaries.

Yes, it’s the return of the Starz Bunnies, courtesy of Angry Alien Productions!

And for this week’s Writers Gone Wild post, I’ve selected a range of 30-second summaries for your viewing delectation. Just pop on over and click on the links.

BTW as a special treat for my website visitors, if you check out the Starz.com/Bunnies website, you’ll find the Bunnies version of Twilight: New Moon up on their New Releases area. I never got to see the movie…won’t need to after seeing this awesome rendition! LOL

Enjoy,

M

It stars Nathan Fillion of Firefly fame (excuse me while I have a private fangirl moment….) as mystery novelist Rick Castle, who “helps the NYPD solve crimes”. In other words, because he’s a mystery novelist, he pretty much guesses whodunnit and nudges the NYPD in the right direction… much to the irritation of the long-suffering cops he follows ’round, LOL.

It’s great viewing! And so is this: Nathan Fillion at Comic-Con 2010, as his fictional character Rick Castle, reading a romantic scene from one of  Rick’s bestselling mystery novels, Heatwave.

And aside from the fact that Nathan is totally awesome and totally immerses himself in his character, I gotta admire the clever people who magicked this supposedly fictional bestselling novel into existence. Evidently it was ghostwritten as a promotion for the show, and released in hardcover back in September 2009 . It debuted at #26 on the New York Times bestseller list, too!  And, not surprisingly, a second novel Naked Heat is scheduled for release in 2010.

Clever marketing ploy, for sure, because I’d buy Rick’s novels, and I’m not even a mystery fan!

And to top it all off, there’s the delightful squirm factor of listening to a romantic scene being read aloud.

Enjoy ;-)

Gosh there’s a huge variety of YA out there these days! Thanks to daughter’s taste in books and her love-affair of her library card, I’m reading books I’d never pick up off a shelf. Next in line for me from her latest library picks will be Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which I’ve been meaning to read for ages. Gotta love it when your daughter has a similar tastes in reading material. Mind you, she quite likes horrors, which I’m not so keen on. Must be her dad’s genes ;-)

Speaking of horrors, there is a scene in Neal Shusterman’s Unwind, which just made me shiver, it was so graphic and horrific! “Unwinding” is a process whereby kids of a certain age can legally have their lives “unwound” and their body parts harvested for transplants. It’s not considered murder, because the children “live on” in the transplant recipients. Ghastly. And the explanation of how such a process came to be acceptable to both society, and the parents who sign their kids over to the State to undergo unwinding, is chilling because I can actually imagine it happening.

One of the characters mentioned in the book was a kid whose very wealthy parents had gone through an acrimonious divorce. After years of fighting a custody battle in the courts, neither parent would agree to let him live with the other. In the end, the only thing mom and dad could agree on, was that they’d both rather see their son unwound than let the other have custody of him. Oh. My. God.

Another was an orphan, who was a good kid, but hey, her state school needed funds, and it wasn’t like she was a brilliant scholar, so she was sold off to meet their funding requirements for the year.  Oh, and she was supposed to be proud of that, because she would be helping the other kids get a decent education. And then there’s the kid whose parents are religious, and have “tithed” him, and he’s proud of the fact. Talk about  a mind-f**k!

There’s plenty more twists in this chilling novel, so I won’t spoil them for you. But I’m warning you it’s not for the fainthearted. And that aforementioned scene that gave me the heebie-jeebies? It’s not one you’d want to read just before you go to bed because it makes for some pretty fine nightmares! And as for its YA designation, well, it depends on your child, I guess. But it sure scared the heck out of this forty-something!

On a lighter note, one of my friends, the lovely Karina Bliss, has a new book out: What The Librarian Did. I loved this one to bits! It made me laugh and it made me cry — you can’t ask for more than that! Karina’s a wonderful writer, and this book’s getting rave reviews…. which doesn’t surprise me at all.

Here’s the blurb and a link to Karina’s website:

Is Rachel Robinson the only one on campus who doesn’t know who Devin Freedman is? No big deal except that the bad-boy rock star gets a kick out of Rachel’s refusal to worship at his feet. And that seems to have provoked his undivided attention.

Devin, the guy who gave new meaning to the phrase ’sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll’.

Devin, the guy who somehow becomes wedged between her and the past she’s kept hidden for years.

It’s up to this librarian to find out first-hand just how ‘bad’ he really is. Because her secret – and her growing feelings for a man who claims he’s bent on redemption – depend on his turning out to be as good as he seems.

Which is really, really good.

That’s it for now. Here’s my July reading list:

• Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie & Bob Mayer
• Goddess of Love by P.C. Cast
• Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton
• The Kitchen Witch by Annette Blake
• The Laughing Corpse by Laurell K. Hamilton
• Beastly by Alex Flinn
• What The Librarian Did by Karina Bliss
• Circus of the Damned by Laurell K. Hamilton
• The Lunatic Cafe by Laurell K. Hamilton
• Bloody Bones by Laurell K. Hamilton
• The Killing Dance by Laurell K. Hamilton
• Gale Force by Rachel Caine
• The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong
• Vampire Knight 9 by Matsuri Hino
• Unwind by Neal Shusterman
• Percy Jackson and the Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan
• Burnt Offerings by Laurell K. Hamilton
• Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich
• Wake by Lisa McMann
• Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev
• Captivate by Carrie Jones
• Cape Storm by Rachel Caine
• Hostage To Pleasure by Nalini Singh
• Eighth Grade Sucks: The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod by Heather Brewer
• Chosen: The Lost Books 1 by Ted Dekker
• Thirst #1: Black Blood by christopher Pike
• Thirst #1: Red Dice by Christopher Pike

:-)

M