Returning with a different angle

Hi all

I've finally been able to make entries to this blog again — a technological glitch that locked me out of blogger and google for several years. But now I'm back. And I'm thinking that as well as my blog that's linked to my website, I might run another blog that's for writers, rather than readers, with an emphasis on craft-of-writing and other writing-related topics.

What do you think?
Is it a good idea? Would you be interested?

If you prefer a more general blog, you can follow my other blog, here, and sign up to have new entries emailed to you.

I'm going to Romantic Times.

I'm getting a gorgeous new website, and as part of that process, I'm moving to another blogging platform, so it will all be coordinated. This will be one of the last posts from this site, but I wanted to get this news in before we move.

I'm going to the RT convention in Las Vegas April. I'm so excited — it will be my first RT convention.

I'm going to be on a "Meet the Authors from Downunder" reader event with my friends Keri Arthur,  Nalini Singh, and Khloe Wren. They're all paranormal writers (and fabulous ones, too) so I'll be the odd one out, the lone historical writer in the group. That's on the Wednesday.

And on the Thursday afternoon, I'm going to be on a hero panel "Rakes Rogues and Warrior Poets" with my friends and fellow historical romance writers, Mary Jo Putney and Patricia Rice.

I'll be signing with Berkley, too. The full program is here.

I'm really looking forward to catching up with author friends, readers and meeting new people.
Hope to see you there.

Fame at Last! — I think I've 'nailed' it!

I received an email yesterday from romance writer Stef Ann Holm, who I've never met, but who clearly is a kind and lovely person, telling me my book was featured on page 10 of the August 3 issue of WOMAN'S WORLD.  She sent me this picture and this email:

I was eating lunch this afternoon, and glancing at the August 3 issue of Woman’s World magazine (The one with Dr. Oz on the cover and how to lose up to 400 lbs. by eating almond butter—going to pick me up almond butter in a moment. LOL)  Anyway . . . on page 10, they show how to make manicures special.  They used a paperback to imprint pages on your nails. I’m a romance writer too, and I always look at book titles.  Saw “SPRING BRIDE” and did a Google search.  There you are!  And this is YOUR book.  Thought you’d enjoy knowing that.  Here’s a picture of the page you’re on.  May all women use your book to paint their nails.  But only after they read it and post 5-star reviews on Amazon. 

And lo! Yes, that's text from my book, THE SPRING BRIDE on that model's nails.  So do you think I've nailed the Fame thing? Or am I trying to gloss over the destruction of a book? Do you use my books to paint your nails? Should I? And wasn't it lovely of Stef Ann Holm to let me know?

At Dymocks

Here's a pic of last night's Fantasy & Romance panel at Dymock's bookshop in Melbourne -- from left to right, Keri Arthur, C.S. Pacat, Melanie Scott, me and Sarah Fairhall, the panel moderator. Pic taken by the wonderful Maria Matina.

Don't you love the panels behind us? They're from the adult coloring competition that Dymock's ran — apparently coloring books for grown-ups is the latest thing, and seeing them all displayed here I can see the appeal -- such bright and lovely designs, like a wall of fabulous tiles.

The Author Photo

I'm gearing up for the promo as my book, The Spring Bride finally goes on sale. Some authors adore the whirlwind of promo, the blitzing of social media channels, the public "look-at-me-buy-my-book." The rest of us go there reluctantly, channeling Lady Macbeth and muttering, "Screw your courage to the sticking point and we'll not fail."

I'm in the latter group. I do my best to embrace the world of social media, and most of the time I enjoy it. Not when it comes to telling everyone to to buy my book, though.  My natural tendency is to do that from the bottom of a deep well, while wrapped in a blanket and wearing a gag. A  natural salesperson I am not. And I know I'm not alone in that.

Mary Jo Putney once told me writers' conferences are full of introverts pretending to be extroverts. Many writers on social media are much the same. It's a bit easier, because you can do it from the comfort of your cave, hiding behind the computer screen, doing what you do every day anyway, creating a world and characters — only the character you're bringing to life is you. Authorly you — the one who is interesting and glamorous and lives a fantastically exciting life. Not the one who lives in track pants and trainers, who never goes anywhere because, well, that's how you write books, dammit! 

But it seems people —publishers — expect you to project some kind of image. And to this end, they require you to provide — horror of horrors!— an Author Photo!

Read the rest of this post here:

Australian Romance Reader Awards

Every year ARRA (that's the Australian Romance Readers Association) announces their awards, and I'm delighted to announce that my book, The Winter Bride, has been nominated for several awards in the 2014 awards:
Favourite Historical Romance
Favourite Continuing Romance Series
Favourite Australian Romance Author 2014
and my hero Freddy is nominated for the The Sexiest Hero from a romance published in 2014
The full list is here.

Thanks to ARRA for organizing this Reader's Choice Award and thank you to those readers who nominated my book.
The winners will be announced at the ARRA Convention in Canberra in March 2015.

Regency Dresses

Yesterday I was putting together some thoughts for the cover conference for the cover of my next book, The Spring Bride. I'm still writing the story, but in my case, because Im not a speedy writer, the cover is always finished long before the book.

They'd asked for some suggestions, and so, because the title is The Spring Bride, it'll be no surprise to you that there will be a bride on the cover. And it will be spring.

So I went looking for a few regency-era dresses for Jane, my bride.  Daisy, her sister, will be making the dress for her. Jane remembers her mother telling her about a beautiful pink dress she wore the day she met her future husband, and so Jane wants to get married in pink. It doesn't have to be all pink -- a cream dress with a few touches of pink would be fine.

Pinterest -- otherwise known as The Endless Tunnels of Gorgeousness. A place so easy to get lost in. Honestly, I could spend all day looking at stunning regency clothes. But I did manage to resist all the other gorgeous period collections. And I came up with a few possibles: So what do you think?

We'd need to make this one a little less apricot and paler for Jane, but I love it as is and I love the embroidered net overlay.

Such a pretty dress and the touch of pink roses around the hem and train are gorgeous. Not sure about the ninja scarf around the bride's face, though. :)

I loved this one with its lace overlay — this was very popular on FaceBook when I showed it.

Of course we'd need to do this in pink instead of blue, but otherwise, it's lovely, isn't it?

This was popular on Fb, too. I'm not so sure about the leaves. I do like the idea of appliqued and embroidered leaves, but these are a bit big for my taste. But the fabric of the gown is beautiful.

A lace veil or possibly a shawl. It's Spring, after all, and in England, so the weather won't be guaranteed sunny.

Or how's this if the weather is a bit nippy — a gorgeous cream pelisse, fastened with shell buttons.

I'm nowhere near writing that scene yet, so it might not be any of these dresses. In the meantime, oh dear, I might have to wander down The Endless Tunnels of Gorgeousness. I can justify regency clothes  because it's 'research' but there are luscious clothes from all eras, and all kinds of other beautiful things.

Which I must and shall resist. She says firmly. 

Really!

Do you have any favorites from the ones above?

Short Interview with New South Wales Writers Centre

I did a short interview with the NSW Writers Centre in Sydney, in preparation for the Romancing the Page workshop I'm doing there, and thought I'd post it here as well. Please note that the workshop date has changed — it's now on May 4th 2014

How did you get into romance writing?
Initially I thought writing romance would be a quick and easy way to fund a more "literary career" -- I knew nothing about romance then, only the urban myths that abound about the genre. But once I started reading widely within the genre and saw the huge range of stories published, I realised I could write the stories that I wanted to write, that I didn't have to write "to formula" as I'd assumed.  I found that writing romance isn't easy, but it is a lot of fun. I've never looked back.

Sixteen books published! How do you stay inspired and find fresh stories?

It's easy. New story ideas come all the time, and the genre itself is constantly reinventing itself and expanding. But at the heart of every romance novel there are people, and people are endlessly fascinating and surprising. The difficulty isn't about staying inspired, it's finding the time to write all the things I want to write.

Do you consider yourself a hopeless romantic? 

I am in lots of ways. I do believe in the power of love to change people and inspire them  to change their lives. Its one of the most transforming things in our lives. I'm a "Love Actually" kind of romantic, though -- the sort that sees all kinds of love in all kinds of people. I've spent my life working in underprivileged areas and with people whose lives are often in crisis, so I'm not blind to the problems in society. But I still believe in love and I see it all around me.

Who is your favourite literary lover?

That's a hard one-- there are so many to choose from. I'm going to avoid all the literary lovers who ended up dead -- I like a happy ending, thank you. I'll go for Damerel, in Georgette Heyer's Venetia. He's a wicked funny, poetry-spouting, flirtatious bad boy, a nineteenth century rake who, when he falls for the lovely Venetia, tries to stay away from her for her own good. Of course she's a spirited heroine who gives as good as she gets, and she won't stand for such foolishness.

Anne Gracie's next book, The Winter Bride (Berkley USA and Penguin Australia) is on sale from March 26th.

Getting the RITA news

Last Thursday I got the news that my book, The Autumn Bride was a finalist in the Romance Writers of America's RITA Award. Usually RITA finalists get a phone call telling them they made the final cut.

But I was away from home, in Queensland, on my annual writers retreat with eight other writers, and not near my phone. This is where we go. (Yes, it's a tough life, but someone's got to do it.)

We each have our own rooms so we can work undisturbed. Mornings are for quiet writing time, then we meet for lunch, and a writing-related discussion. After lunch, we continue writing — we're all multi-published writers and we all have deadlines. In the evening, we either buy our dinner and bring it back for a working dinner, or we go out to a restaurant.

On the Wednesday night we'd gone out for a night of pure socialization — one of the group had to leave early next morning, so after an evening workshop we went to the local surf club for a meal and some live jazz. Followed by a few more drinks back at the hotel. Late night.

So Thursday morning at 7.30 am (crack of dawn!) I was still in a really deep sleep. Persistent banging on my door. I stumbled to open it and stared blearily out. Three of my friends stood there in wet swimsuits and towels. I blinked, still half asleep. They started leaping up and down, grinning and babbling about something.

I fixated on the leaping. My friends are not normally leapers. Frogs, I remember thinking. It's something to do with frogs. It's a charade or something maybe. Did we talk about frogs last night?

So busy was I trying to work out the significance of the frog theme that it took me a few moments to hear that they were telling me I'd finalled in the RITA.

It hadn't been on my radar at all. I had no idea of the date.
They'd been so kind as to let me sleep while they'd gone for their 6.30 am swim.

Later I checked my email and there was a lovely email from RWA President Terry McLaughlin.

So I didn't get a call, but I had frogs and an email instead.

 And a wet patch on the front of my nightie, from all the hugging.

Pretty special, I think.

I had a lovely day — almost the whole day I was answering emails and messages on FB and twitter about the RITA. It was like a party. And of course, that night we went out again and celebrated.

So thank you to everyone for the warm wishes. And the frogs.

The full list of the RITA finalists is here.

THE WINTER BRIDE - Snippet #3

Mrs Jenkins (Damaris's employer) on  our hero, Freddy:

“Tomcat in gen’leman’s clothing, that’s what ’e is—a rake through and through.”

“Rake? You thought—”

Mrs. Jenkins snorted. “I knew what he was the instant I clapped eyes on him! Dressed like that in his fancy duds at this hour of the mornin’. The cheek of ’im, thinking he could seduce away one o’ my girls in broad daylight.”

“But he wasn’t—”

“Bless you, my dove, you’re too young to recognize a Wicked Seducer when you see one, and I grant you that one is an ’andsome devil, and charmin’ as an oiled snake, I have no doubt!” She fixed Damaris with a gimlet eye. “But it don’t do for a girl like you to catch the eye of a gentleman, take it from me. He’ll soften you up with sweet words and little gifts and . . . and poetry, and you’ll think ’e’s ever such a nice fellow, then in the twinklin’ of an eye, he’ll ’ave your skirts over your ’ead, and there you’ll be, rooned forever!”

“But Mrs. Jenkins—”

“Rooned forever!” Mrs. Jenkins repeated firmly. “And we don’t want that, do we? Now, I’ve given him a piece of me mind—blistered ’is ear’oles good and proper, I did—and if ’e knows what’s good for ’im, he won’t be back to bother you again, so let’s get to work.”

"A romantic winner, with Gracie's typical witty charm and sweeping emotion." Kirkus reviews

More at:  bitly.com/1c6gAY7

I have books!

Hooray! The advance copies of my new book, THE WINTER BRIDE (an RT Top Pick!) have just arrived.

Normally they don't get here until just after the book comes out, so I'm thrilled to have them a little bit early. Of course I ripped open the box and tossed them onto the rug to take a photograph.

They look pretty, don't they?

I have a couple of friends who've been waiting impatiently to read this, so they'll be pleased.

The rest of you will have to either wait until the book is out (April 1st) or visit me on the various blogs I'm touring and leave a comment. I'll be giving away a book at each blog.

You'll be notified about the blog tour here, and also on Facebook and Twitter, where I'll also be posting snippets of the story (there's one below this post —scroll down) and the occasional review.

The Australian cover

Two advance copies of my Australian edition of THE WINTER BRIDE arrived in the mail today. So pretty.

Mary Jo Putney will be interviewing me about the book on the Word Wenches Blog, and I'll give one of these away to a North American commenter. Stay tuned for the interview date. I'll put it on FB and twitter -- and here too.

The thing about facebook

I'm on Facebook, of course — it's pretty much necessary as an author, but I've been advised by those who know this stuff that I really ought to be using my author page most of the time, instead of my personal page.

I've resisted this for a while — I feel more comfortable with a personal page, and I have heaps more "friends" on it than I do on my author page. But I've been eyeing off the "reply" function on some other authors' pages and I have to say I covet it. So much better being able to reply to a comment right underneath it, than doing it twenty comments later.

So now I'm biting the bullet and asking people to move across to my author page. But it's a really weird process.  What do you say?

Option 1: Please like me. Which sounds pathetic and needy.

Option 2 : Please click my "like" button. Which sounds vaguely pornographic.

Oh well, you decide. Pathetic and needy or pornographic -- it's over here.

Thank you.
Anne

Look what just arrived on my doorstep.

I'm smiling.

 

I remember when they gave out the first RITA finalist pins — it was at the 2000 (I think) conference in Washington, and it was my first RWA conference, and my first book was a RITA finalist.

The pins were new and it was a surprise for everyone when, as we registered they gave them out. They gave pins retrospectively as well, and some people were pinning on three, four, twelve or more and everyone was grinning and exclaiming over them with delight.  It was SUCH a buzz, and all through the conference it looked like little silver ladies were dancing across people's chests.

This is my fourth RITA finalist pin and the buzz doesn't get any less. It's a thrill every time, and the arrival of this beautiful little silver lady on my doorstep just made my day/week/month.

More pics from ARRA

I promised you some more photos from ARRC (The Australian Romance Readers Association Convention.) I didn't actually take many — I was too busy speaking  (on panels and on stage as well as to lovely ARRA members) to take photos, but I did manage to get a few, mainly on the awards night, where I didn't have much to do. So here's me, with the other keynote speakers, the wonderful Kristan Higgins and Rachel Vincent.

This pic was taken at the end of the Historical Romance panel. I'd brought a bunch of bright feather fans, to get us all in the mood, and at the end, when we posed for photos, well, things got a a bit silly. :) And for once, it wasn't my fault. I blame Cathy Maxwell for this one. LOL

And here's Aimée, a Melbourne ARRAite with a wicked sense of humour — appropriately attired. 

 Kristan Higgins did a wonderful job. She performed all her duties brilliantly — and still managed to get herself photographed with a bunch of firemen. If I didn't know better I'd suspect it was she who set off the fire alarm.

 Two ARRA heroines — Rose and Debbie P.

One of the features of ARRC is the "bling-off" at the awards night — everyone wears fabulous bling, and there's a competition for the best bling. Here are some of the competitors, lining up.

And here are the two joint winners — and don't they look fabulous?

It was a brilliant conference. Thank you Debbie Jay (Convention Coordinator), Debbie Phillips (ARRA Prez) and all the amazing ARRA volunteers who worked so hard to make everything go so beautifully. It was an honor and a privilege to be part of such a wonderful event.

At the Australian Romance Readers Conference

I'm up in Brisbane, capital city of Queensland, at ARRC— that's the Australian Romance readers Conference, which is held every two years.

Friday night was just the kick off. We started with Lady Jane's Salon, which is an event that usually takes place in New York. It's a salon where romance writers read from their books, while the audience — a mixture of readers and writers and interesting blow-ins, sip wine and listen. Fun and very civilized.

I attended a New York one a few years back, taken there by Andrea Pickens/Penrose/Cara Elliot, along with Mary Jo Putney, Joanna Bourne, and Kelly Hunter. We descended into this dimly lit cellar-type room, filled with eclectic furniture and paintings and people -- masses of people. It was extra crowded because so many people were in for the RWA conference. We found seats and wine and settled in for a fun night. . .

So it was lovely to have Lady Jane's Salon held in Brisbane, and though there was no cellar, and the walls weren't red and covered with interesting artwork, there were authors reading excerpts from their books to a very appreciative audience. Here's a not-very-good photo of the participants — from left, Hope Tarr (who organized it), Amy Andrews, Keri Arthur, Anna Campbell and Cathy Maxwell.

After that came the ARRC welcome reception with drinks and nibbles, and the big surprise for me were these particular three options in the drinks menu — cocktails named in honor of the three keynote speakers, of which I was one.

So it was very cool to be drinking an "Anne Gracie" with my friends — it was a margarita, really, which happens to be one of my favorite cocktails. The "Rachel Vincent" was a mojito and it looked fabulous, stuffed with mint leaves, and the "Kristan Higgins" was an apple martini. Lots of fun!

I'll report on the rest of the conference in a few days.

Live Chat and Big Contest

For US readers — I'm going to be doing a live Spreecast video chat chat with fellow historical romance authors - Madeline Hunter, Julia London, Jennifer Ashley/Allyson James, and Juliana Gray. It takes place on Wednesday, February 27th at noon EST (that's USA time -- 4 am in Australia)

The chat will launch a special contest with a $250 gift card to an on-line bookstore of the winner's choice and 5 bundles of books containing a past title from each of the authors concerned. For legal reasons this competition is open only to US readers only, sorry.  You can check out the details and sign up for the chat here.

Click on the little blue RSVP button in the top right-hand of the screen and you'll get a reminder.

For details of how to enter the contest, go here.

The Autumn Bride — blog tour

My new book, THE AUTUMN BRIDE comes out on 5th Feb, and I'm launching it with a small blog tour. At almost every blog, I'm giving away a book to someone who leaves a comment.
I hope you'll join me.

31 Jan  Fresh Fiction — winner Sharon D (California)

1st Feb  Romance At Random  — winner Diane (MO)

Also on Feb 1st Mary Jo Putney interviews me about my book on the Word Wenches    

2 Feb  LoveRomancePassion

4 Feb  Romance Dish  — winner Donna  (New Jersey)

5th Feb  The Book Binge

7th Feb Tote Bags 'n Blogs

8th Feb Word Wenches

10th Feb  Bookworm 2 Bookworm

Also on 10th Feb Risky Regencies — winner, Crystal (KY)

12th Feb Happily Ever After

Also on 12th Feb SOS Aloha

13th Feb The Jaunty Quills

14th Feb  Interview with the wonderful Kate Forsyth, who also reviewed my book.

Also on 14th Feb — if you live in Melbourne, I'm taking a class on writing at the Northcote Library. (Booked out)

14th Feb  Live Writers Space chat at 9:00 PM ET in the USA (Australia Friday 15th 1pm)

SPECIAL HISTORICAL WRITERS VIDEO EVENT

Feb 27 at 12.00 noon (ET USA) -- (in Australia 4 am on Feb 28)  Special video chat event with Jennifer Ashley, Madeline Hunter, Julia London, Juliana Gray and me. Stay tuned for further details.

An Exciting Package

A courier just came to the door with a lovely big box. Great, I thought, copies of The Autumn Bride in time for Christmas. But no, instead, the box contained a pile of foreign editions of my books.

There were two in Indonesian (they're the ones in the pic with the title in English), all four French editions of Les Archanges Du Diable (love that French series title — The Devil's Archangels, instead of the Devil Riders), a copy of Princessa Furtiva, (Stolen Princess, or maybe Secret Princess in Spanish) and a Japanese edition of the Accidental Wedding. 

The titles in other languages aren't always the same as the ones in English, and I always find it interesting to see what they've named them. The only ones I can read are the French ones (and then not all that well, so please forgive me if I've translated the titles wrongly or clumsily) and from right to left in the top line of the photo, they are "Rider of the Storm,"(The Stolen Princess),  "Lady of my Torments," (His Captive Lady),  "A Lady to Marry,"(To Catch a Bride)  and "Nothing But Passion," (The Accidental Wedding.)

 I love getting my foreign editions — and so do the libraries I usually donate them to.

More conference pics

I promised you some more photos of the RWAust conference and here they are. Eloisa James giving a fabulously inspiring speech.

Three gorgeous galz in red — Bronwyn Jameson, Fiona McArthur and Trish Morey talking to Rachel Treasure, who was at her first RWA conference dinner.

 The fabulous Helen Bianchin is the inaugural Australian Romance Hall of Fame member. She got a standing ovation, naturally. That's Barbara Hannay with her in the pic.

Mark Antony.... or perhaps Richard Burton at the 1950's cocktail party. 

 Christina Brooke and Denise Rossetti in their 1950's cocktail frocks.

The wonderful Emma Darcy with editor Jo, who was wearing her "womanfuzzy" headdress— it's a fun award we give at the Harlequin author dinner.

The authors at the ARRA signing — all but Eloisa James who was delayed at the airport and arrived just after the photo was taken. I'm right up the back on the left.