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I hadn’t been to NZ for over thirty years, and was excited to be going again.  The thought of all that sight-seeing and reminiscing got my blood boiling.
 
Until I realized I wouldn’t be there long enough to do the tourist thing during this trip. <sigh>

I arrived in NZ a day early as I’d been invited to an ‘international guest speakers’ get together that night. It was an exciting time for me, as this would be my first foray ‘across the ditch’ (as they call the trip from Australia to NZ), but there was also trepidation.  Firstly because I hadn’t done any public speaking for several years, so nervousness had set in, and secondly because I was about to rub shoulders with some of the biggest names in the industry.

Margie Lawson and her husband Tom were fabulous; warm and friendly, and very natural.  As I got to know her better over the weekend, I found Margie to be incredibly knowledgeable, as well as entertaining.
Margie’s Friday workshop “Empowering Character’s Emotions” was an all-day workshop, and I hadn’t intended to attend for that very reason.  I knew it would be fabulous; I’d heard so much about Margie’s legendary teachings. But I also knew I’d be exhausted at the end of the weekend if I attend.

After meeting Margie, my gut told me I had to attend that workshop, so I did.  And I am so glad I did.
 
Yes, I was exhausted, and had information overload, but boy oh boy, it was so worth it.

It’s made me look at my writing in a whole new way.  And the other writers who attended the workshop said exactly the same thing.

Jenny Hutton (HM&B) was there as well.  Apart from a brief exchange, I didn’t get to mix with Jenny much, either on the get-together night, or the rest of the weekend.  Thursday she was jet-lagged, and for the remainder of the weekend she was busy with taking pitches, presenting workshops and giving talks. 
Cindy Hwang was also at the get-together.  She was very open and easy to talk to.  Cindy had brought her mother with her to NZ, but her mother was incredibly shy and I didn’t sight her for the entire five days I was there.

Cindy had me and the conference committee enthralled with the stories of her arrival in NY city.  Life in the US, especially NY seems to be so different to what we experience in Australia and NZ.  We compared some of the cultural differences, and it opened all our eyes.  A lot.

Interestingly enough, I had my non-fiction brain picked during the evening.  One of my areas of expertise is non-fiction, including creating ebooks and selling via the internet.  Many others there were quite interested in this side of my writing business.

It was a very enjoyable night.

After the workshop, which ran from 9am until 5.15pm.  A few of the attendees were heading off to the local shopping centre to grab a light dinner, and invited me along.

I had a wonderful time and got to know these ladies very well.  Some of them were pitching to me the next day, and said it made them felt much more relaxed about the process.  Ditto from me, since I was probably more nervous than they were. <g>

Friday evening was the traditional cocktail party.  This is a theme event with each conference, and the theme this year was cats. (Category romance = cat-egory = cats.)

We could use masks, ears, tails, whatever took our fancy.  It was all in the name of good fun, and surprisingly everyone dressed up to some extent.

At this point I’d only been in NZ for a day and a half, but I was exhausted.  Totally and utterly. My head barely hit the pillow and I was asleep.

Saturday morning was abuzz with excitement.  The conference was officially opened by Pat Snellgrove, President of the RWNZ.
 
This was followed by Margie Lawson’s All About Style workshop, which was presented to the entire conference. Friday’s workshop was costly, but so worth it.  Saturday’s workshop was terrific too, but I had to leave in the middle of it to take pitches. Disappointing, but it was recorded so I was able to buy it and listen to it over and over again.  Not so disappointing after all.

This was to be my big day – as one of the ‘editor/speakers’ and pitches throughout the remainder of the day.  I was sooooo nervous!

I did my talk mid-morning, and everyone told me they enjoyed my talk more than the big-name editors.  Hmmm.  Not sure why, except I did include quite a bit of information about TWRP. (Or maybe they were just being polite? lol)

A few of the other ‘entire conference’ workshops included one on internet marketing and promotion.  This is such an important aspect of a writer’s life, yet so many neglect it.  I was really pleased to see this addressed.

As tends to be the case with both the Australian and NZ conferences, a Pink Lunch was held.  The NZ committee organized a silent auction, where everyone placed a written bid for the book or books they wanted.  All proceeds of the auction went toward breast cancer research.   This was repeated on Sunday, and from memory, over $600 was raised.

There were some really terrific workshops throughout the weekend, and I came away with quite a few ‘ah-ha’ moments which I now need to put into practice. One of my favourites was on time management.  This was conducted by multi-published author Yvonne Lindsay, and included some absolute gems.
I also attended a workshop on synopsis writing, because like every other author in the world, I hate these with a vengeance. Although I’ve sold books via the dreaded synopsis, I do feel I don’t do a particularly good job of writing them.  Cathy Sneyd’s workshop “How to Write a Compelling Synopsis” helped a lot.

We’re all constantly told to add more emotion to our writing, and those who attended Gracie Stanner’s “Writing with a Global Voice” workshop will now be able to dissect our work and find the areas lacking in emotion (and more).

These were just three of the workshops I attended, and they were all great.  I’ve been to many workshops in the past where I’ve gained no new knowledge, but I couldn’t say that of anything I attended at this conference. My only regret is I couldn’t go to all of them.  I often felt I was being pulled in two directions, but unfortunately this is what happens at all conferences.

As if to show unpublished authors that writing is an ongoing learning experience, like most writers’ conferences I’ve attended in the past, this one was packed to the rafters with published authors.  They included Anne Gracie, Yvonne Lindsay, Tessa Radley, Fiona Brand, Robyn Donald, Susan Napier, Melanie Milburne, Sara Hantz, Yvonne Walus, Amanda Ashby, Clare Scott, and many more.

It was nice to finally meet many people I’ve been conversing with over the internet for years, and reconnect with old friends.

And the food!  There were truckloads of fabulous food.  It felt like we never stopped eating. (I’m sure I’ve added at least two kilos to my body weight.  Okay, it’s probably five.)

Every tea break saw piles of muffins, scones – with jam and cream (yum), or a variety of Danishes.  There was also fresh fruit, sausage rolls, and party pies.

They had tea of every description; English Breakfast, a variety of Green teas, herbal tea, and much more.

Without fail, I had writers come up to me at every break asking about TWRP, writing, and more.  Everyone was so friendly and warm, and interesting.

No matter where you were, or what you were doing, you could feel the buzz of excitement in the air.  Everyone was so exited and happy to be at this conference!

I have to admit this was probably my most favourite conference ever.  The RWNZ conference is smaller than most with around 130 attendees.  This helps keep it more intimate and friendly.  By the end of the weekend I knew a lot of people by name. (And I’m terrible with names!)

Everyone went home with heaps and heaps of romance novels – at least a dozen per person. Much of that was due to Barbara and Peter Clendon who own Clendon’s Bookstore in Auckland, and also sponsor and run ‘The Clendon’ writing competition, which is one of the most prestigious competitions in Australia and New Zealand. The results of The Clendon were to be announced at the Saturday night Awards Dinner.

I had at least twenty novels to bring home, and probably more.  I was convinced I’d have excess baggage going home, and in reality only just scraped in for my 20 kg limit!
 
The great thing about getting all those novels is I’ll now read books by authors I may not have contemplated previously.  We all have our favourites, and I don’t know about you, but I tend to stick to those I know and love.

The Saturday night Awards Dinner is a highlight of most writer’s conferences, and this one was no different.  The room was alive with anticipation, wondering who was going to win the Clendon.

This was probably even more evident for me, because long-time friend, Chris Weston, was a finalist.  Unfortunately she couldn’t attend for the announcement, but she was definitely there in spirit.

Details are as follows:

Finalists

Sandra Hyde

Maree Anderson

Rowena May O’Sullivan

Kylie Short

Chris Weston

Kendra Deluger

 

Highly Commended

 

Diana Holmes

Lisa Anderson

Nicola Beynon

Susan MacKay

Mary Robbins

Allison Withers

Maree Anderson  

 

Commended

 

Maree Anderson

Shirley Wine (twice – with two separate ms’)

Kris Pearson
And the winners are…

First place - Chris Weston (Australia)

Second place - Rowena May O’Sullivan (NZ)

Third place - Kylie Short (Australia)
Congratulations to all winners, finalists, highly commended, and commended writers.  Getting to this point is a major achievement in itself.

Each finalist will have their work personally read by Leslie Wainger of HM&B. many past Clendon winners have gone on to be contracted, so as you can see, this truly is a prestigious contest.  One of this year’s finalists, Sandra Hyde, received ‘the call’ at the San Francisco RWA conference just weeks ago.  

Probably the most disappointing part of the conference (for me) was not catching up with many of TWRP authors.  I understood there were to be 6-8 there, but only met up with three.  Mind you, those ladies were pretty darned awesome!

Christina Phillips (whose paranormal erotic romance, Foretaste of Forever, will be release as a Scarlet Rose soon)  blogged about the conference.  Go here for details:
http://christinaphillips.blogspot.com/2008/08/rwnz-conference-2008.html

If you scroll down near the end of the post, you’ll see a photo of me with a couple of Aussie friends. (I’m the one with the overly colourful cardigan!)

With the NZ conference behind me now, I’m already planning for next’s year’s conference which will be held in Wellington.

The RWNZ is an awesome organization with a bunch of terrific people. I felt as though I’d known everyone for years instead of only days.

Learn more about the RWNZ here:  http://www.romancewriters.co.nz/

* Photos for this conference can be seen at my author website.  Click here.