Nurturing writers

Yesterday, I was an invited guest at the Melbourne Romance Writers Guild 20th anniversary celebrations.

Had a ball catching up with people I hadn't seen in years, some people I 'knew' via Twitter & Facebook, Haylee Kerans from Harlequin office in Sydney, and author buddies like Fiona Lowe, Joan Kilby, Anne Gracie and Ebony McKenna.
(MRWG head honchos Elvina Payet & Serena Tatti, with moi)

I'm a past member of MRWG, the group that nurtured me when I first started writing in 2001. While there are many new faces, the old ones (and I mean that in the nicest possible way!) are still smiling and happy and giving.

Long live writing groups like this.

(Elvina Payet, YA author Ebony McKenna, moi, Emmie Dark, Harlequin Super-Rom author Joan Kilby)

(PS. Serena, if you're reading this, thanks for saying you can see I've lost 3kg!)

A kindness never forgotten

When I first started writing, I joined the Melbourne Romance Writers Guild.
I had no clue about publishing.
I didn't know what a synopsis or a partial was.
All I knew was that I wanted to write a book.

So after plugging 'Melbourne' and 'Romance writing' into google, I came up with MRWG, contacted them and traipsed off to my first meeting feeling like an absolute fraud. And very nervous. It was like my first day at school all over again.
I wouldn't know anyone.
I knew next to nothing about the main reason I was attending.

At this first meeting, I sat next to a lady who made me very welcome. She chatted to me, she encouraged me and as I couldn't help but stare at her arthritic-riddled hands and wonder how she penned so many novellas, I admired her.
This lady was Joan Hunt, who has just passed away.
I've never forgotten her kindness to me when I took the first step along my road to publication.
RIP Joan.
And as a fellow MRWG member said, "may you write in peace, every author's dream."