Monday, May 3, 2010

Romancing The West!



As you know I spent the weekend in Perth attending the Romancing The West writing conference. It went FAR TOO FAST but was absolutely fabulous. Here's a quick run-down!!

I picked up the lovely Janette Radevski from the airport Friday arvo and then went out to dinner that night with Janette, Nikki Logan, Fiona Lowe, Fiona Palmer and Tracey another writing buddy. We chatted writing non-stop throughout dinner and despite them never delivering our hot chocolates, it was a fabulous and inspiring night.

Next day was RTW!! I was the MC for the day and was nervous cos I haven't done any public speaking in a very long time... but I really enjoyed the experience. I went to Fiona Palmer's workshop first up, about First chaps and even First Paras. She made us rewrite the beginning of a famous nursery rhyme in a number of different ways and I found it a much useful exercise.

Next I did Nikki Logan's workshop on Branding. I'm still in the process of working out my romance brand (ie. what I want to offer my readers, so they know what they'll get when they pick up a Rachael Johns book) but Nikki's workshop really helped and I'm getting closer. I've changed the tagline on my website to 'Fun and Quirky Feel-Good Fiction' but I still need to work out a positioning statement!

Finally I did Fiona Lowe's Tension workshop and had light-bulbs going off left, right and centre in what was a very tired brain by that stage of the day. We did a bit of brainstorming about how to create tension in our own work and I worked on my next MH idea, which I'm soon gonna write up a synopsis for. One thing that really stood out was making sure my characters start out as opposites in a lot of things.

Of course... for someone who loves to talk! Especially about ROMANCE... probably the best part of the day was catching up with my romance writing mates and just hanging out chatting with them.

I'll attach some pics of the event to this post (postscript - I can't seem to add pics and position them properly anymore so they are ALL at the top)!!! First pic is of three good writing friends on the Saturday Night- Audrey Barton, Janette Radevski and Leah Ashton. The second photo is the bunch of us who had dinner on Friday night!

More photos are available on the Romancing The West FB page - of which you are ALL more than welcome to join! Click on the RTW link at the top of this post.

19 comments:

Jackie Ashenden said...

Oh, sounds like you had an awesome time! So totally jealous! Ah well, looking forward to Sydney! Though I have to say, you lot all look so glam, I'm going to seriously have to have a makeover before I even get anywhere near you. :-)

Janette Radevski said...

Was a fab weekend - am making it a yearly trip!

Fiona and Nikki's workshops were beyond great.

Rach was a fab mc and special thanks to Rach and leah for being my taxi!

Rachael Johns said...

Oh it was fab Jackie but Sydney will be AWESOME too! ME? GLAM? Must have been the lighting cos I am anything but!! LOL!!! But Janette is quite lovely!!!

Rachael Johns said...

Janette - was so fabulous to hang out with you! If only it could have lasted longer :(

Scarlet Wilson said...

So jealous! It looks as if you had a wonderful time and the workshops sound fab!

Fiona Lowe said...

It was a great weekend! Thanks for looking after me in Perth, Rach!

Mel Teshco said...

What fun you guys had!!! I so wish I could have been there!

Rachael Johns said...

It was fab Susan - are you going to the RNA conf!?

More than welcome Fiona!

Next year, Mel, next year! Join the FB group!

Lacey Devlin said...

Still sooo jealous! I really wanted to be at Nikki's workshop on branding.*Pount*

Leah Ashton said...

I had such a great time, too! Lots of light bulb moments, I need to review all my notes and make some sticky notes to stick on my PC :)

Was so nice to catch up with you Rach, and to get to know you better Janette! And Fiona - thaks for answering my numpty questions at dinner :)

Rachael Johns said...

Lacey - you should come next year too!!

Leah - its always so nice catching up with you. Pity we can't do it more often :(

Eleni Konstantine said...

Glad you had a wonderful day at Romancing the West.

Joanne Dannon said...

sounds fantastic :) so glad you had a brilliant time!!

Cathryn Hein said...

Sounds like you had a fabulous time, Rach. Wish I could have been there.

Great pics!

Joanne Coles said...

It sounds fab and you all look fantastic! Looks like an amazing time, you lucky ladies.

Michelle Diener said...

Rach, it was great meeting you at last, and you were a fantastic MC. I absolutely loved the whole day, and I'm so pleased I had time to chat with you at lunch. Looking forward to next year!

Sussan Marz said...

Wish I could have been there!

Christina Phillips said...

It was such a great day, and I can't believe it was almost a week ago already! And you were a fab MC, Rach!

Rachael Johns said...

Thanks Eleni, Joanne, Cathryn, Joanne again and Susan - lol - start saving pennies for next year -lol!

Michelle - absolutely fab meeting you too!

Christina - ah shucks, you'll make me blush!