The Romaniac Sparkle Weekend
The weekend of December 12 – 14 saw the first Romaniac Sparkle event – two and a half days of work-shopping, writing, cultural visits and tons of Romaniac fun and laughter.
Hosted by the lovely Debbie Fuller-White and attended by five more Romaniacs, with Celia and Jan holding the fort at HQ, we put together a new, fresh and exciting Romaniac agenda for 2015.
For now, we present our Romaniac Sparkle Christmas Album, with more to follow next week.
We’re all very excited at Romaniac HQ as this weekend our virtual world will be real! As writers, we don’t have an office, but we chat to each other every day thanks to the internet. So it makes sense that we get together for a writing retreat/pre-Christmas Sparkle weekend.
There’ll be chatter, merriment, gluten-free Christmas cake, and SPARKLE! What more could a girl want? A Christmas jumper, of course. We’ll all be wearing one and it just so happens that today is Christmas Jumper Day organised by Save The Children. A day of celebrating the Christmas Jumper for a good cause, what could be better?
We’re all going to be texting TEAMROMANIAC to 70050 to donate £2. We’d really appreciate if you would like to do the same. The more donations we get, the more photos we’ll be willing to share from our SPARKLE weekend. Lucie might even crack out her gruffalo impression, so go on… Good cause & the potential of us sharing our lunacy with you!
With my daughter and son growing ever closer to independence, and with Christmas drawing near, I find I’m in a reflective mood.
This time last year, I was gearing up for wrist surgery, knowing I’d be spending several weeks in plaster, including the entire festive season. I was called into hospital at short notice, and didn’t have time to do much in the way of preparation for the Big Day, but I needn’t have worried. Gajitman and one of my lovely friends made a beautiful job of wrapping presents, my daughter baked an incredible gluten-free, vegetarian pie for my Christmas dinner, and with her dad, cooked the entire celebratory meal. My son made sure I was comfortable, and on the day, helped me unwrap my gorgeous gifts.
I remember our daughter’s first Christmas. She wasn’t old enough to furniture cruise, but had learned to stand and lean. My parents bought her a walker that year. With a crash course in how to use it, she was soon pushing it around the living room. A few years later, it was passed to her baby brother, who was more interested in the mechanics of it. However, not long after establishing what the wheels were for, he was zipping around, careering into sofas, and belly-laughing at his new found, if a little hazardous, sense of freedom.
I love my children for who they were and who they are now, and wouldn’t want it any other way, but seeing photos of when they were younger evokes strong emotions in me – immense delight and happiness, tinged with a touch of melancholy.
It is a little like being taken back by the ghost of Christmas Past …
Laura x
As some of you may be aware The Romanaics all met through the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s New Writers’ Scheme and we are all members of the RNA in one form or another. We have met some lovely writers through the RNA and there’s always a special bond with fellow new writers. Nikki Moore was one such new writer and last year her debut novel Crazy, Undercover Love was published by Harper Impulse. Today, the first of her #LoveLondon series comes out – Skating At Somerset House – so it’s a big Happy EPub Day from us!
The first short story in the fun & flirty #LoveLondon series from exciting new chick lit author Nikki Moore!
There’s nothing Holly Winterlake loves more than Christmas and skating, so working as an Ice Marshall at London’s Somerset House is a dream come true.
Noel Summerford hates the festive season and is a disaster on the ice, so taking his godson to Somerset House is his idea of the nightmare before Christmas!
Things are bound to get interesting when these two collide…
With a forty foot Christmas tree, an assortment of well meaning friends and relatives, and a mad chocolate Labrador, will this festive season be one to remember … or forget?
(Available to download from Amazon)
The Romaniacs 