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.

Newsletter Bouncing

I just sent out a newsletter yesterday and there have been an abnormal number of bounces, mainly from g-mail and Big Pond (a popular Australian email server) -- and since this particular newsletter is partly about Australian readers finally getting access to my early Harlequin historicals, it's very frustrating.

So I'm posting a web link to my newsletter here. Sorry for the inconvenience.

https://madmimi.com/p/2390a6?fe=1&pact=32773160136

I'll be blogging soon about the Australian romance conference but in the meantime, here are a couple of photos as an appetizer. That's me, at the costume party, which was themed "Fresh, Flirty or Famous" and I chose "famous" and went as Dame Barbara Cartland, complete with dogs — that's a dog on my foot as well as one on my arm. Also with me is crime/thriller writer Kathryn Fox, and the sinister fellow holding onto his beard with his knife is Harlequin author Marion Lennox -- who came as Johnny Depp, also carrying dogs.

Below are Fiona McArthur who writes medical romance for Penguin Australia and Harlequin, Trish Morey who writes Rural romance for PanMcMillan and Harlequin Presents, and Bronwyn Jameson, who writes for Harlequin Desire. Trish is dressed as the conference logo.

 And here is Stephanie Laurens with Harlequin editor Princess Sue Brockoff.

Until next time

Anne

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.

Romance and Fantasy Event

If you're in Melbourne this coming Thursday evening, why not come past Dymocks in Collins St for a great discussion of romance and fantasy with me and my friends Keri Arthur, Mel Scott and CS Pacat. It starts at 6.30 pm. Hope to see you there.

An Evening of Fantasy & Romance

Like to read? Talk books and writing and storytelling? Meet authors? Come join me and three of my writing buddies in Melbourne on June 18th at Dymocks Bookstore in Collins St in the heart of Melbourne. 

It's free, but you need to RSVP for the event at www.trybooking.com/HXNC Bring along a printout of your ticket to win a book pack including 2 signed titles from each of us!

Hope to see you there.

An Anniversary & a Giveaway

The word wenches — the historical romance authors I regularly blog with — are celebrating their 9th anniversary. That's a long time in blogland.

We're celebrating with a series of posts about our first ever book, and with a giveaway. Eight winners will win one of these books, and one winner will win all eight of the books!

To enter the giveaway contest click here: http://bit.ly/WordWenchesGiveaway

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.

Revisiting the past

I spent yesterday afternoon at a high school I used to work at many years ago. It's closing down after 85 years fine service to the community, which is a very sad thing. I don't know if the lovely old brick building will be knocked down or turned into flats, but either way it's a shame.

 It was a good place to work — the kids were fantastic, and there was such warmth and goodwill between most of the kids and teachers. Even the ratbags had their fair share of charm and spirit. It was also fantastically multi-cultural — the teachers as well as the kids coming from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds, which made for a wonderfully rich soup of culture and experience—and one which the school always celebrated in a variety of different ways.

I nearly didn't go — I'm always a bit apprehensive about revisiting the past, but this turned out to be lovely. I caught up with so many kids I used to teach -- it was an absolute blast seeing them and hearing about their lives now, and their reflections about their school days. I think I was still smiling when I went to sleep hours later. 

Trifles — and something exciting.

No, I'm not talking about the dessert made of cake, jelly, fruit and custard that I used to see when I was a kid; I'm just talking about small things— paper earrings — and then I remembered I should mention something not so small, and quite exciting (for me, anyway.)

 I haven't been posting a lot recently, as I'm deep in book-world, but I thought I'd just dive in quickly with a small insignificant thing -- ie a trifle.

Last year, for the ARRA (Australian Romance readers Conference) I made a few origami-style paper earrings from the cover of my books, and gave them away. I blogged about it here. So this year I made some more paper ones, only in a different style — little paper Autumn Bride books.

I'm thinking of going to the US to the RWA National Conference in Atlanta in July, so my question is, should I make some paper earrings to give away there? 

Oh, and I just realized I haven't put this on the blog — the something exciting — why might I go to the US conference? Because my book, BRIDE BY MISTAKE is a finalist in the RITA competition, the romance writers' Oscar, which I'm thrilled about. 

So. . . decisions, decisions.

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.

Men in Trees

I have a very large gum tree in front of my house. It's the biggest tree in the street, and I do love it. In spring it's always filled with rainbow lorikeets, feasting on the red blossoms, and chittering with delight, and there's a possum who lives there, too.

But gum trees are notorious for dropping branches without warning, and each time we have a storm or a big wind, I've worried that the branch that overhangs the house might fall on it.

Yesterday I had a tree man come to talk about removing a fig tree from the back garden. Don't get me wrong — I adore figs and if this tree ever produced an edible fig it'd be the most pampered tree in the garden, but it doesn't. The figs are always dry and inedible, so I've finally given up on it and it's being removed right this minute.

Anyway I asked the tree man about the gum tree — I was worried he'd say the best thing was to chip it down, but he said "Yep, we can prune back the overhanging branches and it'll be fine." So yay, I have a bad fig tree gone, and a newly pruned gum tree, so the lorikeets will stay happy and the possum will still have a home.

And if you ask me, tree men are heroes.

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.

Diamonds are a girl's best friend

I recently returned from the annual conference of Romance Writers of Australia. The conference always kicks off with a cocktail party sponsored by Harlequin — but it's a cocktail party with a difference. It's a costume party and it's always huge fun. This year the theme was Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend.

When I first joined RWAustralia, the cocktail party used to be called the Harlequin Meet the Authors cocktail party, and it was a quiet, elegant, fairly intimidating affair. A lot of people didn't attend. Those who did either watched the authors from a discreet distance, or were the authors. It wasn't really what you'd call a social mixer.

Then about twelve years ago, the conference was in an old historic hotel in Melbourne (my home town) and the organizer decided to make it a dress up affair — "Dress retro" we were told.

It was great — some came in gorgeous vintage outfits, some had made their own outfits, some simply wore a long scarf or a feather boa. (There's a funny story here from that first conference— about buying feather boas.) But it was fun and friendly and people talked so much more easily — the costumes were an icebreaker.

That first cocktail party, about a third of the attendees dressed up — these days it's getting on toward 80% or 90%  but there's no pressure to dress up if you don't like it. It's the ice-breaker aspect that's important, not whether you're in costume or not.

We've had some fabulous themes in the past, and i have fond memories of some of the overseas guests who've joined in good-naturedly.

So this year the conference had the theme of "Diamonds" with the cocktail theme being the 50's. I'm not one for glamour, but I love Marilyn Monroe and her Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend, and it occurred to me that Marilyn in her 50's might have let herself go, just a little bit... in pink jammies, dressing gown, rubber gloves, headscarf, and loads and loads of bling. Here's me with my friend Bron, who also managed to come to the party in  a blonde wig and her jammies.

In fact there was a positive rash of Marilyns. Here's me with Young and Gorgeous Marilyn, from Harlequin Australia.

The queen (aka Jennifer Kloester) graced us with her extremely regal presence.

The Queen, the King and an old version of Marilyn

Some took pink to extremes and still managed to stay tasteful.

And the Marilyns continue...

Thanks Harlequin Australia and RWA for a fun night.

I'll post some more of the costume pics in a day or two — the non-Marilyn ones.

PS: Just had to add in another couple of pics — my friend Keziah Hill took a photo of my hands in the rubber gloves, covered in bling — and had it made into a post card which arrived in my post box today. 

 What fun!

Thanks Keziah.

RWA conference & Destiny Launch

I've been away at the Romance Writers' of Australia conference, and I thought I'd share some photos. It was held in the QT hotel on the Gold Coast, so while it's cold wintry weather where I live, on the Gold Coast it was warm and balmy. This was the view most days from my room. Nice, eh?

And since it's the east coast of Australia, each morning we woke to bright sunshine streaming in the window. A couple of mornings I even woke at dawn and snapped a few pictures of the rising sun.

It was a busy conference for me, even though I'm no longer involved in any organizational work. On the Thursday we had Author Day — for published authors only — and a very informative day it was indeed. The first panel was on self-e-publishing, and that was brilliant. After that was a presentation by Louise Sherwin-Stark on Google hangouts and . . . all I can say is expect more of these hangouts from me in the future. I did one on the Saturday following with Eloisa James and Christina Brooke and some others and it was fun, even though I was battling with server problems and kept dropping out. I'll write more about it in a day or so — I'm limiting my time on this — need to be working on a book. See the hangout here.

In the afternoon, Penguin Australia organized all their authors for cover photos, with hair and makeup professionally done. That was equal parts of traumatic and hilarious — I am not photogenic! Some people were also interviewed for the Destiny website (see below)

On Thursday evening we launched the new romance digital-first line for Penguin Australia, Destiny. It was a brilliant launch, with pink champagne and strawberries, and yummy nibbles, and a few brief speeches, and then the four launch authors and I read a 2 minute excerpt from our stories. It was lovely — you could have heard a pin drop in the crowded bar.

Here are the launch titles. I've read the first one—Wish—and it's fabulous.

 And then they gave us each a beautiful bunch of flowers! How nice was that?

A friend of mine came up afterward to congratulate us (a famous author whose initials are AC) and she  SAT ON my bunch of flowers! Right plop on top of them!  

I shrieked and shoved her off them and . . . amazingly the flowers survived. LOL.

And why was I up there? I'm not a launch author, but my Scottish story "The Laird's Vow" will be given away free with the launch titles in the first month of launching. 

Here are all the Destiny authors who were at the launch, along with Sarah Fairhall and Carol George from Penguin Australia, the commissioning editors.

Thanks Penguin, for a brilliant launch.

Tomorrow I'll put up some pics of the cocktail party, which is always a mad dress-up affair. The conference theme was Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend, and there was a 50's theme for the cocktail party, and it was all huge fun.