Celebration Time!

The Heroine Addicts have been a bit quiet for while, but now we really have something to shout about so here goes – our very own JULIE COHEN HAS BEEN SHORTLISTED FOR THIS YEAR’S RoNAs (the UK’s prestigious Romantic Novel Awards) with her novel Where Love Lies!!!

We are all so thrilled for her and are breaking out the champagne.  Please join us while we catch up with Julie with a few Q & A’s:-

How do you feel about being shortlisted for the RoNAs 2015?

Absolutely thrilled. I joined the RNA in 2002, when I was an unpublished author, and they absolutely helped me to become a professional author. In 2004 I was shortlisted for the Joan Hessayon New Writers’ Award (didn’t win) and in 2006 I was shortlisted for the RoNA Rose Award (didn’t win) and now I’ve been shortlisted for the main RoNA award. I don’t really mind if I don’t break my losing streak … I feel like I’ve grown up. 

Was this book special to you in any way?

WHERE LOVE LIES is very special to me. Most of the time, writing a book is an exercise in making your original vision smaller and smaller and more flawed. But WHERE LOVE LIES is the first book I have ever written where I felt, after it was finished, that I had achieved exactly what I had set out to do. That might sound weird but I think most authors will understand it. 

You’ve sort of switched genres from the type of books you were first published with (steamy, delicious HM&B’s!) – was that something you always aimed for or did your writing just evolve that way?

It’s something I’ve always aimed for. My agent and I have had a strategic plan for my career and we’ve always moved towards it. I’ve gone from steamy M&Bs to quirky romcoms to chick lit with emotion to emotional book club women’s fiction, and I’ve enjoyed writing it all. The most important part for me is to keep feeling challenged.

Are you still writing about blue robots in your spare time?  (Do you even have spare time?!?)

Alas, the blue robots have finished for now as my alter-ego Electra Shepherd is having a hiatus, but I will admit to writing filthy Hannibal TV show fan fiction online when I really should be doing other things.

What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done in the name of research?

Does it count to say that I came down with pneumonia whilst writing WHERE LOVE LIES and got first-hand experience for all the hospital scenes?

And a couple of quickfire questions:-

Favourite ice cream flavour? - Grape Nut. (It’s a Maine thing.)

Are you used to Marmite yet? - Love it now—though when I first tasted it, expecting chocolate, I got a shock!

Do you collect anything? - I am obsessed with knitting owls.

Which of the four Musketeers would you want for yourself? - Can I have Mads Mikkelsen as the baddy Rochefort? 

Huge congratulations on your shortlisting – now let’s party!

Where Love Lies - Blurb:-

Felicity believes she’s happily married, until she starts to experience a strange phantom scent, closely followed by the overwhelming feeling of being in love—with a man who’s not her husband. The feeling is so strong and urgent that she begins doing things that no one can understand. Where does love lie—in the heart, or in the head?

Christina x

Isn't it romantic?

Instead of starting an original discussion here, I'd like to continue one that's already begun over at the All About Romance blog, which asks the question "How Do We Define Romance?"

The AAR blog post was inspired by the Romance Writers of America's recent decision to eliminate the "Novel with Strong Romantic Elements" category from its RITA and Golden Heart Awards, and to ask writers of those novels to "re-examine" whether we really qualify to be full members of their organization.

You can read the details in the post I've linked to, above, and learn even more by following the links they've provided, as well, but for the sake of brevity I'll just re-post what my own answer to that question was:

“Do I think I write romance? Yes. But for me, a romance novel, besides having an HEA or HFN, only has one other key requirement: that the love story be essential to the plot. In other words, if you pull the love story out of the book, the story falls apart, because everything—every other element—has been stitched to that one central seam. That’s my own, admittedly personal, definition of a romance. And that’s what I write.”

(HEA and HFN, for those unfamiliar with the terms, are romance-writer-speak for "Happily Ever After" and "Happy For Now").

As a Canadian, I am used to walking on that border between the American and British ways of viewing something, but I have to say this whole thing's made me very grateful I'm a member of the RNA as well, where I have never once been made to feel my writing doesn't fit the definition of "romance", or felt that I might not belong.

But I confess to being curious: What is romance, to you? Or, if that's too hard to define, what is the most romantic book you've ever read?

(And come back Thursday, to read Julie's post)

Best Reading List EVAH

As a reader, I find choosing a good read sometimes a bit of a chore. I have high standards! I like romantic fiction, but I get stuck sometimes in a narrow genre because it delivers what I’m looking for. I want to dip my toe in the ocean of fabulousness that is romantic fiction, but I’m frightened of being disappointed.

As a writer, too, I want to read more. I want to know more about the UK market, about what readers are enjoying, about where genres are heading. But where do I start?

Then the RoNA shortlist came out, and I realised my problems were over.

I have, now, what has to be THE best romantic fiction reading list ever devised by woman. I’m going to be reading my way through it this year, exploring genres I don’t often dip into, discovering new authors, and new books by old familiar friends.

To find the same reading list, click here. To find out more about the Romantic Novelists' Association’s Awards, go and browse around this site. And look out for RoNA stickers and shortlisted books in your local bookshop!!!

(P.S – my first two purchases off the list were Christina’s Highland Storms and The UnTied Kingdom by Kate Johnson. *wiggle*)

Liebster Award

We Heroine Addicts were very happy this week to learn that the five lovely writers of Novel Points of View had given us the Liebster Award.

On looking up the Liebster Award and its affectionate journey around the blogosphere, I found a few varying takes on what the rules for it actually were, but everyone seems to agree on its purpose: it's given to a blog you enjoy and admire, and one you think deserves more recognition. So thank you, Gwen, Gill, Jenny, Mary and Linda, for making us feel very Loved and Appreciated!

When you receive a Liebster Award, you're supposed to list five random facts about yourself, but since there are actually six of us Addicts we're going to follow the lead of our friends at Novel Points of View and fudge the rules a bit by each listing one random fact:

Anna: I once played Grumpy in a school production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. In French.

Brigid: I can raise my left eyebrow independently. Like a female Sean Connery 'The name's Coady. Brigid Coady.'

Christina: I was once a Hell's Angel (or rather the girlfriend of one) but I wasn't much of a hellraiser!

Julie: I can touch my nose with my tongue.

Susanna: I was seriously into Taekwondo when I lived in Korea as a teenager, and I have a first-degree black belt.

Now, we weren't able to track Liz down in time for this post, she's been so busy, but we all agree she has the Best Fact of All, so we're going to share it for her: She has just been shortlisted for the Joan Hessayon New Writers' Award for The Cornish House! (Yay!)

So that's us.

Now, as with all good things given, we are bound by the rules of the Liebster Award to pass it on to someone else. Well, actually we're supposed to pass it on to a few others, but again we're going to fudge the rules and pass it on to one blogger we all love: Sarah Duncan.

If you haven't ever read her blog, you really ought to.

Which blogs do you love the best? Do share.

And come back Thursday, to find out what Julie's up to.

A Real Writer

I joined my local writers' group over ten years ago, when I decided I wanted to become a Real Writer. I remember bringing in my first chapter of my first romance novel to a critique group session, and having one of the members tell me, kindly but strictly, that having a character look into the mirror so that she could be described to the reader was a horrible, horrible cliche. (I haven't done it again.) A letter-writing workshop led me to my first publication in the UK: a letter to a supermarket magazine about Marmite, for which I received £10. I bought a Barry Manilow CD.

It's a varied group: until he passed away recently, we had one member who had belonged since the 1950s, and we have another member, now a university graduate, who joined when she was 14. There are men and women, and people from countries around the world. We've had members who write everything by hand or on a typewriter and photocopy it, and others who bring laptops or tablets to the meeting to take notes. We have poets and science fiction writers; we have memoirists and journalists; we have romance writers and children's writers, thriller writers and literary writers. We have some members who aren't quite sure what they want to write yet—they just have a burning desire to get the words on paper. We have some members who write every day, and some who haven't written for years. Some of us are published, and some are not. Two of us are professional writers who rely on our writing income to live, but many more of us write for the pure joy of writing, and regard any income as a bonus.

Our secretary, Don, used to field all the enquiries for people wanting to join Reading Writers. He would tell each person who asked: 'The only requirement to join is a love of writing. We celebrate each member's successes, whatever they might be.' It made, and still makes, for an egalitarian, supportive, respectful group.

When Don was diagnosed with malignant melanoma, he made light of it. He called the radical surgery he had to have on his face to remove the tumours his 'face lift'. He continued to bring in his stories, wonderful, gritty, humorous slices of what he called 'the lives of low-lives': small-time thugs, drug dealers, hookers, drunks, all with vulnerabilities and hopes. Although he'd been a copy writer for many years he'd never had any fiction published; he told me that he enjoyed sharing his stories with the group, and he felt he learned a great deal by listening to our comments and revising his work. That was enough for him.

He took me aside during the tea break at one meeting and told me that the cancer had spread to his liver. He had about six months, he said. He was getting everything ready—writing his will, planning his funeral, making provisions for his beloved wife and family. He was also still working on his stories. 'I'd like to make a gift to Reading Writers before I go,' he said. 'You can use it as you like.'

Between the group and Don, we decided to create an annual award in his name, to be given to a member. But Don was vehement that it shouldn't necessarily go to the person who was the most obviously successful in a writing career. It should go to the person who has made the most significant personal progress with their writing, whatever that success might be.

Don himself showed us what kind of personal success he meant. He kept on coming to meetings for as long as he could. He kept on writing and reading others' work. He put aside time, in the midst of his other arrangements, in the midst of seeing his family and saying goodbye, to improve his stories and submit some of them to the group anthology we were doing. In hospice, he made jokes, told stories.

He was a writer all the way till the end.

At his funeral, we all got terribly, stinkingly drunk, because he'd told us to. Twice now, we've voted for the winner of the Don Louth Writers' Award. Last night Don's wife presented it to Don's hand-picked successor, the current secretary, Josh.

And we remembered what being a Real Writer means.

(Come back on Sunday to hear from Anna...)

RNA Conference 2011

The RNA Conference is always a highlight of my year. I love re-connecting with old friends and making new ones. I love the workshops and the celebrations.
I do find it all a bit dazing, though. All those voices in small spaces, all those faces and names... by the end of the first evening I'm always reeling a bit, in danger of losing my voice and with a ringing in my ears usually only experienced after an AC/DC gig.

So, though my ringing ears and reeling brain, and delivered to you in a croaky voice, these are my impressions...

Lizzy Kremer did a fantastic overview of contracts and what to look out for. She reminded us to read a contract with an eye to the best and worse case scenarios - will this clause work for me if the book bombs? And if it takes off, what then?
Louise Allen, Elizabeth Chadwick and Jill Mansell showed us (whether they meant to or not) just how hard working award winning novelists are, and that there as many processes in writing a book as there are authors writing them. Oh, and Louise mentioned that one of her working titles was once rumoured to be Gonad the Barbarian...

I met someone who edited memoirs of soldiers in the Peninsula War, someone who (like me) is fascinated by the breakthroughs of early scientists, someone who recently signed a six-book contract and someone who is interested to find out if pregnancy hormones are going to make her write the best book ever, or the worst book ever...

I learned that there are three golf balls on the moon.... and that shoe envy can be offset by knowing that said shoes are really, really painful.

Louise Allen ran through some of the basic mistakes that all authors can be prone to, for the benefit of our New Writers' Scheme members, including the ones about punctuation, Point of View, and that if you're moaning that a reader "didn't get it" then you're not doing your job as an author.... (and I've caught myself moaning that one myself once or twice!)

Valerie Webster taught us that Regency dances were all about flirting, that men were happy to skip and occasionally formed a couple in the dance if there weren't enough women, that a deep curtsey is Victorian, not Regency, and that I have two left feet.

Elizabeth Hawksley reminded us that characters that feel real have to be seen in their world in the round - showing how they relate to themselves, friends, family, their work, passions, goals... and that at some point a hero must develop emotional goals and recognise them for that.

When Cally Taylor won the Elizabeth Goudge Trophy, and Liz Fenwick came second and I was in the shortlist of six, I remembered what talented company I was in.

And all in all I remembered just how lucky I am to be an RNA member, and how priveleged to be part of this crowd of talented, hard working, savvy, no-prisoners, creative women, with hearts as big as the world.

(If you're on Twitter, follow the fun on #RNAConf11)

Something to Celebrate

Today, instead of rambling on about myself, or what I think, or how I work, I'm going to use this space to spread the word about one of our own, the lovely Christina Courtenay, who's just achieved something rather wonderful and special, and who's far too shy and modest to say anything about it here. So I will say it for her:

Her first novel — and let me repeat that: her FIRST EVER novel, the beautifully-written Trade Winds — has just made the shortlist for the Romantic Novelists' Association's 2011 Historical Novel Prize!

That's Christina, standing second from the left, above, with fellow nominees Elizabeth Chadwick, Joanna Fulford, Kate Furnivall, Rebecca Dean and Jane Jackson.

The shortlist of six, which like all the RNA's Pure Passion Awards is selected by actual readers, now passes to a final panel of three judges: Richard Lee, founder of the Historical Novel Association, Elizabeth Hawksley, author and creative writing teacher, and Diane Pearson, president of the RNA since 1987. And the winner will be announced, along with the winners of the other awards (for the Romantic Comedy Prize, the Love Story of the Year, and the Romantic Novel of the Year) at a champagne reception at One Whitehall Place, Westminster, on Monday, March 7th.

Christina is one of those quietly generous people who's always the first to help somebody else, so it's lovely to see all that good karma flowing back at her. She was, in fact, one of the very first friends that I made in the RNA, and it was because of her that I met Julie Cohen, so without her we might never have begun this blog at all.

When I suggested she post something here about her nomination, true to form she shied away from the idea, not wanting to brag...but since an occasion like this seems to warrant a wee bit of bragging, I'm happy to do the deed for her!

We're all so very proud of you, Christina, and we have our fingers firmly crossed for Trade Winds.

(You can read the full list of award shortlists here, and be sure to come back again Thursday to read Julie Cohen's next post).