I’m on my way home from San Francisco and have some time to pass in Auckland airport en route to Adelaide, so I’m posting a round-up of my experiences at RWA National Conference in San Francisco.

First up was the ‘readers for life’ literacy autographing. I was amazed at the size of this event. I knew there were going to be 500 authors signing, but the number of people visiting was mind-boggling.

Another enjoyable event was afternoon tea with the authors of the Harlequin/Mills and Boon Romance line, and editors from the London office. We went to a quaint teashop called Lovejoys which is apparently a popular location for wedding showers. I could see why.

I attended a fascinating workshop by Blake Snyder after which three other Romance authors and I took a walk to Dymocks to purchase his book – yes, it was that good. It was a lovely, sunny day and we had our photograph taken in Union Square – below from left: Jessica Hart, Trish Wylie, Melissa McClone and me, Claire.

 

Another workshop of note was presented by three Romance line authors - Jessica Hart, Barbara McMahon and Barbara Hannay – and titled ‘Emotion, Emotion, Emotion’, an apt description of the Romance line.

These are just some of the highlights. There were others, of course, including the Harlequin Party and the Rita Awards, but I’m sure you’ve read about these elsewhere. The whole conference was great and I’m so glad I had the experience. My thanks to ArtsSA, the Arts Council of South Australia, for awarding me a professional development grant which enabled me to attend this year’s national conference.

The workshops were educational, the functions spectacular and the networking opportunities plentiful, but for me, it was the opportunity to meet other authors writing for the same global series as myself that was especially pleasing.

That’s all for now, I have a flight to board.

Claire