I’ve just come back from this year’s Festival of Romance, held in the centre of Bedford at various venues (all thankfully within walking distance of each other) and it’s been a great weekend – mostly because our own Liz Fenwick won the Reader Award for Best Romantic Read with her novel A Cornish Affair! It was extra exciting because I got to read out the result and present her with the award, which felt very special :-) So huge congratulations to Liz from all of us!
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| Liz and Christina at the Romance Fair |
I should really
start at the beginning though - here in the UK we are not spoilt for choice
when it comes to romance festivals and/or conventions, like authors are in the
US for example. Here, the FoR is
it. Literally. So as an avid romance/romantic fiction fan,
as well as an author, I was very keen to be there and support it – any event
that celebrates romance sounds great to me!
And it was huge fun – a varied programme of events, talks, workshops
and, of course, the awards ball.
The
festival kicked off on Friday night with an Art and Romance Evening at the
newly opened Higgins Museum, where attendees were given a quick tour before the
serious business of author readings began.
There were some fascinating pieces of furniture – both Georgian/Regency
and Arts & Crafts painted pieces – all of which I would have loved to own! The readings were by authors of historical
novels and I was one of them. We’d come
dressed in period costume and my outfit was that of an ordinary woman of the
1640s. Not very easy to wear while
reading anything out loud, I have to say, as the bodice was kind of tight!
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| Liz and the other shortlistees in her category |
Saturday
was super busy, with a Romance Fair running all day where we set up stalls to
sell our books and various other bits and pieces. Several talks and author panels, plus
readings from authors, went on during the day, and some of us were also running
workshops.
The finale
was the awards ball though, where the winners and runners-up were cheered on by
an enthusiastic audience. And this was
when our Liz triumphed – woohoo!
I do hope
the Festival of Romance can keep going as we need more romance/romantic fiction
events in the UK and I’m already looking forward to next year’s!
It was a fabulous weekend and I am still pinching myself. Winning was so unexpected! And it was so much more special to have the award presented by you Pia! lx
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed it. Great to finally meet (or to meet again) several of the writers I chat with online (and read).
ReplyDeleteNext year, I'll try to do the Fair and the Ball.
John
John-it was brilliant to meet you and i was so surprised and alighted to see you at the festival! Looking forward to next year already!
ReplyDeletelx
My first event was made more special by the fact I sat next to an award winner at the reading session. Congratulations to Liz. Well done to all.
ReplyDeleteI do hope to attend FoR 2014 as this year has inspired and motivated me.
Glynis it was a pleasure to meet you! I'm still not used to that award winning bit! Looking forward to next year…lx
DeleteWell done, Liz! Sounds like you all had a great weekend. Really hope to make it over next year x
ReplyDeleteThank you Kate. It was a fabulous weekend!
Deletelx
Fantastic news! Was sorry not to have been there. Congrats my very clever talented friend
ReplyDeleteWe missed you
Deletelx