The story’s working title is ‘Echoes of Daniel’ (thanks, Jenn, for brainstorming that!) and it’s a romantic suspense – and yes, it was a challenge writing a romantic suspense story in 1500 words! But a fun challenge, once the idea came to me

My take-it-easy strategy meant that I didn’t register for the workshop on Friday, and I was glad of that decision! Instead, I went into Newtown (an inner Sydney suburb) and met up with my good friend, librarian Vassiliki, for morning tea, in one of Newtown’s many cafés. Then a stroll down King Street, and short visits to an amazing button shop, a bead shop, and A Coffee and a Yarn. I managed to resist the temptation of pretty things, however, and didn’t buy anything.

Friday afternoon was the booksigning, organised by the Australian romance Readers Association in conjunction with RWA. It was great fun! We authors were seated alphabetically – so I was between my good friend, Valerie Parv, and fellow Outback Romances author Fiona Palmer.

After the booksigning came the cocktail party. There’s always a fancy dress theme, although no requirement to dress up. I had originally planned not to wear a costume, but then had an idea that fell in to the Fantasy theme, and was easy to execute. I fast-forwarded to 2012, and wrote up a series of frontpage newspaper articles, announcing major literary prize wins for various romance authors. I stuck them onto two sheets of cardboard, which I wore as a sandwich board. It was a fun bit of fantasy, and gave a few people a good laugh.

Highlights of the rest of the conference included, of course, the awards dinner on Saturday night. It’s always a lovely night, friendly and buzzing with positivity, and this year was no exception. I didn’t win the R*BY award in my category, but huge congrats to my good friend Tracey O’Hara, who did! The winners in the short romance categories were the lovely Sharon Archer, and wonderful Madam Res of RWA, Amy Andrews. The long romance category went to historical author Sophia James, who I haven’t met, but I’m sure she’s fantastic, too!

The workshops on Sunday included a very interesting, if somewhat unsettling one, by a Forensic Pathologist. A lot of very valuable information, sensitively delivered, about investigating the cause of death. After lunch, I attended quite a different workshop, delivered by a martial arts expert who trains the military, police, journalists going abroad, and airline staff, in fighting techniques. Not only did he know his stuff, he was a great performer, too, with expert comic timing. I guess it was less serious because we’re fiction writers, and not frequently confronting potentially dangerous situations in real life ourselves. But I learned heaps, both of relevance to writing fight scenes, and to real life. Hopefully I’ll never have to use any in real life, but at least I have more knowledge than I did!

Another part of my take-it-easy strategy was to stay on in Sydney on Sunday night, instead of racing home Sunday afternoon. I am SO glad I did. It was so much more relaxed, and I enjoyed the winding-down with friends, having a cocktail in the bar with a few others, then going out to dinner with a small crowd.

On Monday, I drove home with the wonderful Kelly Hunter, and we had a great trip. She drove, and I took notes while we brainstormed ideas for her next book series. It was a heap of fun, bouncing ideas and possibilities around, and now I can’t wait for her to write the series!

Since getting home, life has continued on, quietly busy. I’m still waiting on word about my next surgery, but it may be some weeks yet before I know the date. In the meantime, I finished putting together a photo album for Gordon’s mother’s 80th birthday, and posted it off – only a day or two late! (She didn’t seem to mind!)

Yesterday was another pleasant trip ‘down the hill’ to Bellingen, two hours drive away, for a meeting of the north coast 4 Points Author Network group of RWA. It’s a a great group of women, and a lovely drive amongst the peaks and ridges of the Great Dividing Range to the Dorrigo Plateau, and then down the escarpment to Bellingen, nestled into the river valley at the foot of the hills.

I’ll leave you with a couple of views from the road to Dorrigo:

I’ll be there, signing Dark Country and As Darkness Falls, and fellow romantic suspense author, Helene Young, as well as Fiona Palmer from our Outback Romances and Mysteries group. Plus there will be another 40+ authors, including big names such as there’s some big names, such as paranormal authors Keri Arthur, Nalini Singh and Denise Rosetti; historical romance authors Anna Campbell, Anne Gracie, Christine Wells & Elizabeth Rolls; and contemporary romance authors Bronwyn Jameson, Kelly Hunter, & Melanie Milburne… and more!

The event is open to the public, although there is a small $5 entry fee for non-members of the Romance Readers Association. You can bring your own books to be signed, or buy books there.

The details are:

Date: Friday 13th August

Time: 4.30pm to 6pm

Place: Terrace View Rooms, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Coogee Beach, Sydney

It should be fantastic fun, so do come along if you can!

Neither of us won our categories, but that’s okay – we had a lovely morning, and it’s such a huge honour just to final in the RITA’s!

I’d like to congratulate ALL the winners in the Golden Heart and RITAs – with a special shout-out to Laura Griffin, who won the RITA for the romantic suspense category, AND won our category in the Daphne du Maurier Award on Thursday; and an extra-big, happy-dancing shout-out to Australia’s own Kylie Griffin, who won a Golden Heart Award in the paranormal romance category for her manuscript, Bloodborn.

Huge congrats, Kylie! I couldn’t be happier for you!!

Coming back from Bellingen, about 20 kms from home, I realised that the car was making a vibrating sound that it shouldn’t. So on Thursday I took it t the Toyota place, and one of the mechanics took it for a drive, and then put it up on the hoist for a quick look. The initial verdict is that there’s a problem in the gear box. Hopefully I’ll hear on Monday just how much of a problem, and the cost to fix it. In the meantime, since we’re regulars there for car services etc, they’ve very kindly lent me a car for the weekend – much newer than mine, but the particular shade of green is definitely not my taste! (I have described it as metallic, bright, radioactive-baby-poo green!)

As July disappears and August looms, I’m counting down to a few things: the Romance Writers of Australia conference starts in less than 2 weeks, and I’ll head down to Sydney on August 11th for 5 days. Dark Country is a finalist in the RWAus Romantic Book of the Year Awards, which will be announced on Saturday 14th. I’m also counting down to the Davitt Awards, coordinated by Sisters in Crime, which will be announced in Melbourne on August 28th. And I’ll soon be counting down to my next surgery – no date yet, but I’m expecting it will be late August/early September. I’m not looking forward to it, but I am looking forward to getting it over and done with, and getting back to a normal life!

But the BIG thing I’m counting down to – the one that’s really close – is the announcement of the winners of the RWAmerica RITA Awards – and that’s only about 15 hours away! Dark Country is a finalist in the romantic suspense category, along with some other wonderful books and authors, so the competition is stiff!

There are three Australian RITA finalists – Elizabeth Rolls, in the Regency Historical category with Lord Braybrook’s Penniless Bride; Kelly Hunter, in the contemporary series category, with Revealed: A Prince and a Pregnancy; and my book, Dark Country. Elizabeth was able to go to the RWAmerica conference in Orlando, so she’s over there now, and I’m hoping she’s having a fantastic time! The conference is a huge event, with 2100 attendees, and having been to a couple of them, I’m sure the buzz is building now towards the excitement of the gala awards night.

Kelly is a good friend and lives not far from me, and neither of us could go to Orlando this year. Saturday night Orlando time is Sunday morning here, so we’re getting together for brunch at a café in town tomorrow morning, where we’ll celebrate finalling, and follow the award announcements on Twitter and on the RWAmerica website. Wintry Sunday mornings in Armidale don’t call for evening dress, so we’ll be dressed rather more informally (and warmly!) than our fellow finalists, but I’m sure we’ll have fun, anyway And if either of us does happen to win, the café does have champagne for sale!

I have consulted the Oracle… er, I mean, I invited the wonderful Valerie Parv to judge the entries and she has contemplated them and sent me her decision:

As you predicted, it was quite hard to separate the entries. In the end I looked for a complete story with a beginning, middle and end, and a sense of plot, a lot to cram into 55 words. I kept coming back to Shayne’s entry, Foiled, which satisfies all the above with a plot, intrigue, deception…and dogs. How can you not love a dog story?

Second is Jane’s Celeste’s Redemption, beautifully written, a little gem complete with yarn for Bron

Third is Sandra Harris’s topical Explosion, vivid, concise and exciting with a kick-azz heroine.

If we had a highly commended, it would go to Azteclady’s delightful non-entry. She could teach writers a thing about editing even at age three!

Congratulations, Shayne, Jane, and Sandra! And Azteclady, too!

Shayne, you get first choice and can pick one book from the prizes. Jane, you can make your choice from the remaining two, and Sandra, you’ll receive the third book. The prize books are:
Helene Young’s romantic suspense, Border Watch,  Joanna Sandsmark’s delightful The Wisdom of Yo Meow Ma, and my romantic suspense, Dark Country.

I wish we could give more prizes, as I thoroughly enjoyed reading all the entries. So thank you, again, to all the entrants.

Coming up in the next week or so, I’m planning to have two more special blog guests – Valerie Parv herself, an amazing woman who has written more than 50 romances for Harlequin/Mills & Boon/Silhouette, and is an international bestseller, as well as a wonderful mentor to aspiring writers. And I’ve also invited Joanna Sandsmark to visit – author, voice actress, musician, comedy teacher – Joanna has so many talents she is an inspiration. So please keep an eye out for the upcoming guest posts!

Well-chosen words.

Bron’s Fast Fiction got me thinking about the precise placement of words. I’m a writer who tends to produce too many, which then necessitates culling a large number in the editing process. I had fun attempting my 55-word story for Bron’s comp, but I spent an inordinate amount of time doing it. Heaven help me if I produced a 90,000-word book in the same manner – I’d have dodgy knees and a wheelie-walker by publication date

Over the last two weeks I’ve indulged in a reading frenzy. I’ve devoured everything, from Lee Childs, to Tara Moss, to Nora Roberts, Linda Howard and on to Katherine Howell. It’s been sensory heaven. All the books were crime/suspense genre. All were very different. Tension was paramount. What struck me was the change in sentence length when the action hotted up. Nary an ‘and’ in sight, minimal adjectives, blunt verbs. The stories rocketed along, dragging the reader with them, not leaving time to breathe.

The arc of the story could be traced by the rhythm of the words. It was an epiphany. In particular, Lee Childs stood out. If I needed any proof that well placed words are powerful he provided it. He summed up his hero, Jack Reacher, in a couple of sentences. I envied every single word. He wrote dialogue that scattered words across the page like Morse code. No tags, no names, but still it was clear who spoke.

I start editing Book 2 this weekend and hopefully some of that sparseness of writing will have rubbed off on me. If not, there’s always an editor waiting with a sharpened pencil and a keen eye.

I’d love to hear how you approach editing. What authors influence your writing? Whose well-chosen words stay with you long after you’ve put the book down?

Thanks, Helene, for these thoughtful words about words! I loved the opening of Border Watch – I remember thinking ‘Wow!’ as I read the first paragraphs. Readers who haven’t yet read Border Watch are in for a treat: there’s an excerpt available at Helene’s website.

And don’t forget that entering the Fast Fiction contest gives you a chance to win it!

High above the crystal-blue waters of North Queensland, Captain Morgan Pentland patrols the vast Australian coastline. When Customs Agent Rafe Daniels joins her crew, she is immediately suspicious. Why is he boarding her plane when she isn’t there? And why is he asking so many questions?

What Morgan doesn’t know is that Rafe has her under surveillance. Critical information about their Border Watch operations is being leaked and she is the main suspect. Morgan’s ex, elite police officer Carl Wiseman, is back on the scene after she finally found the courage to throw him out. Is he trying to regain Morgan’s affections of are his intentions more sinister?

When Morgan and Rafe are shot down in a tragic midair attack, they realise they have to start working together – and quickly. One of Australia’s most loved icons is the next target and they have only nine days to stop it. Will they uncover details of the plot in time, or will the tension that is growing between them jeopardise everything?

July is also the month – although not until the end of the month – that the winners of the Daphne du Maurier Awards, and the RITA Awards, are announced. Dark Country is a finalist in both, which I am still very excited about – and excitement is also building across romance blogs, as the date draws nearer. I’m visiting the Romance Writers of Australia blog today, talking about the RITA nomination, and over at the Sisterhood of the Jaunty Quills blog later today, Robyn DeHart is highlighting the finalists in the romantic suspense category of the RITAs.

Given July is a good month, I figured it’s time for a celebration. Some years ago, my good friend Kate Rothwell held a few Fast Fiction contests – and they were a great deal of fun! So, what better way to celebrate good stories than having a Fast Fiction contest here?

What’s Fast Fiction, you ask? It’s a story – with a beginning, a middle, and an end – told in just (for this contest) 55 words. Yep, 55 words! Or less… but not more!

My friend, the wise and talented Valerie Parv, has agreed to judge the entries, and as I have some spare copies of some friends’ books, I have not one, not two, but three prizes to give away!

The prizes are:
A signed copy of Dark Country;
A copy of Helene Young’s fantastic romantic suspense novel, Border Watch; and
A copy of Joanna Sandsmark’s wonderful whimsical book, The Wisdom of Yo Meow Ma

Because I know many of my blog readers already have my book, the winner will have first choice from the three books above, the first runner-up will have second choice, and the third runner-up will receive the remaining book – but they’re all great!

So put your thinking caps on, get those fingers typing or writing, and start composing your entries! To enter, post your 55 word story in the comments. You can enter as many times as you like, and you have until next Friday, 16th July Saturday 17th July, to get those stories in. A title is optional, but if you have one, it’s included in the 55 word limit.

I’m looking forward to reading them!

Edited to add: As usual, anyone can enter, no matter where you live on the planet, and I will respect your privacy and won’t sell, giveaway or otherwise misuse your email address. Oh, and copyright remains with you, although by entering you do agree to have your Fast Fiction show in the comments section, and if yours is one of the winners, I may post it in a blog post announcing the winners.

To give you some examples, I’ve posted below the fold a couple of ones I wrote for Kate’s contests, a few years ago.

Forgiving.

“This is for you.”

Her mother’s silver brooch, tarnished, like the memories. From the Other Man. The home-breaker.

“She loved you,” he said.

“She left us for you.”

“Yes.” Not pride, only sadness.

“Was she…happy?”

“Without you, never entirely.”

“But you loved her.”

“Yes.”

Cool metal, against her fingers. Perhaps it could be polished.

Legacy

She wove her love into a blanket. Blue for the sky. Yellow for the sun. Wool for warmth.

Long past his childhood, he kept it still, although faded and worn with age. Made for him, because he mattered. Always wrapping him in love.

He chose blue and yellow for his own son’s blanket.

The major news is that, after months of struggling with it, my publisher, agent and I have decided that the book I was drafting and redrafting and redrafting – the third Dungirri book – just isn’t going to work at this point. Yes, that was a hard decision to make, and I know some readers are going to be disappointed (part of me is, too), but I know that it’s the right decision for now. It took me some days to come to terms with it; it’s very hard to let go of a book and characters that I’ve been working on for a long time! However, my plans now are to power on with a brand new book – new characters, new setting, new story – but at some stage, once that’s finished, I probably will write the third Dungirri book – although how, when and where it will be published I don’t yet know.

Now I’ve got past the disappointment stage, I can confess I’m feeling excited again – I’m no longer struggling to push a story uphill, and I can enjoy the thrill of starting a new idea. While I haven’t actually written a heap of the new book yet, I have the beginning, and the hero and heroine have been taking shape in my mind. I like them They’re not perfect; they each have some flaws or edges that should make them interesting. I think I’ve also worked out the initial crime and the person behind it, and yes, that will keep my protagonists on their toes! No news on publication date, yet, but probably mid-late next year. (I know, it’s a long wait. I’m sorry about that. But since I have major surgery ahead, and we can’t guarantee how much concentration I’ll be able to focus on writing in the next few months, we can’t commit to earlier than that.)

The weekend before last, G and I went for a long drive, partly to visit an area which I wondered about for the setting of the new book. Plus, we like driving through wilderness areas. By the end of the day, I’d decided that the setting wasn’t quite right for this book – I envisage it further west – but we had a lovely day out, anyway.

We drove north and a little west, up to the tiny community of Torrington, where we drove down the main road:

and conversed with some of the residents:

(The road through Torrington is also a common, where the cattle calmly graze.)

We then wound our way through the eastern edge of the Torrington Conservation Area (not quite a National Park, but similar):

which is granite country, rugged and rocky:

Then on through the rolling hills of the tablelands, up to within coo-ee of the Queensland border:

We then travelled west along the Bruxner Highway for a half-hour so, before turning south and coming home via Ashford and Inverell – but the wind was chilly, so I didn’t hop out and take any more photos!

Although the Torrington area is a wonderful place, this new book is telling me that it wants to be set further west. So, I’ll probably have to plan another trip or two soon; perhaps a couple of nights away, to revisit some places I’ve been to numerous times before, but this time with a writer’s eye.

in the meantime, I’ve got two new characters to get to know even better… and I’m thoroughly enjoying that!