Romantic Novelists’ Association Conference 2013

Roses in the Botanical Gardens Sheffield

The Romantic Novelists’ Association Conference (RNA) was held this year in Sheffield University at The Edge. Lovely campus set among established Victorian houses with many mature trees (given the wonderful hot summer weather, this was important) and a rolling expanse of parkland behind the dorms.
After stuffing goody bags on Friday morning, I set off for the Botanic Gardens where the bees were hard at work making honey.
One of the main attractions of the conference is the social side. Writing can be a solitary, even isolating activity, and it’s great to get together with folk who are like-minded.

MuseItUp authors Helena Fairfax and Marie Laval

My fellow MuseItUp authors, Helena Fairfax and Marie Laval came along on Saturday for the day.
Scots based writers were thin on the ground this time, but Eileen Ramsay, Scarlet Wilson and Susan Bergen all made the trip too. I also met the delightful Ruth Long who has an uncle and aunt living round the corner from me in Edinburgh! And Canadian based Diana Scott who trained as a nurse in the ERI. One of my flat buddies is an ex-pat Scot, Jacqueline Cooper, and she distinguished us by coming third in the Elizabeth Goudge trophy comp. Congratulations, Jacquie. the brief was the first 2,000 words of a novel with the theme Ice.

Morton, Jacquie, Kate – top trio, elizabeth Goudge Trophy 2013

Two first for me this year. I appeared on a panel as a New Writers’ scheme graduate. I signed up to do a report of a talk: Food revealing character. No idea why I chose that one. Oh well, maybe a little idea. You can read that in a future Romance Matters if you’re an RNA member.

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