I’ve just returned home from the national conference in Melbourne. It was held at the Langham Hotel, Southbank, and was just fabulous.  In my opinion, these conference get better every year.

Southbank, Melbourne

I attended a wonderful workshop by Barbara Samuel on voice and “layering in lusciousness”, and a fantastic tutorial by Margie Lawson on rhetorical devices.

Of course, there were some great talks by local authors, and we were lucky enough to have several editors from international publishers attending to explain their requirements and hear pitches.

One of those editors, Jenny Hutton, came all the way from London to reperesent Harlequin Mills and Boon and she was kind enough to invite the Romance line authors to have afternoon tea with her at the Langham. Here we are, pictured below, just before the delicious food arrived.

From left, me (Claire Baxter), Michelle Douglas, Nicola Marsh, Jenny Hutton, Ally Blake, Jennie Adams.

Harlequin also treated all of its Australian (and some New Zealand) authors to a beautiful dinner at The Deanery. Here’s a picture from that occasion as well. I’m sitting with Michelle Douglas (Romance) and fabulous Harlequin Presents author, Annie West.

The Harlequin dinner at The Deanery

 

Catching up with friends and fellow authors is a big part of the conference and here I am with Jennie Adams, Nicola Marsh and Bronwyn Parry, new Australian author whose first book “As Darkness Falls”  was launched at Dymocks during the conference. The four of us found time to nip out for a coffee and a chat.

Catching up over coffee

The prestigious R*by Award was presented on Saturday night and the winner of the short category prize was – for the second year in a row – Anne Oliver. Anne’s book, One Night Before Marriage was published by Harlequin Mills and Boon in the Modern Heat line. Congratulations to Anne, a worthy winner and a fellow South Australian.

So that’s it. Conference season is over for another year.

I’m looking forward to the next conference which will be held in Brisbane, but we all have lots of work to do before then.

Claire