Last weekend I was in Leeds Trinity University at the RNA
annual conference. It’s the highlight of my writing social calendar is it gives
me the opportunity to catch up with writing friends spread across the country,
attend lectures and go to appointments with industry professionals.
I stayed in student accommodation. Here is the view from my
window.
I went to lectures given by the ladies from Mills and Boon and a very entertaining talk by Mark Stay.
The highlight however had to be two lectures which prompted light
bulb moments for me. Alison May gave a lively talk about self-editing and how
to do it effectively. Fiona Harper spoke about the structure of romance books
and how the three act structure applies to love stories, using pretty woman to
illustrate her points.
I also finally met in person two people who I originally met
online. Jen Gilroy who travelled all the way from Canada for the conference and
Tora Williams. Some other delegates are travelled from Switzerland and Norway
while we were treated to speakers from the US.
It was a full on weekend that didn’t stop and I’m sure the
ideas will percolate through my writing for some time.
