Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and a fabulous 2016.
And since it’s Christmas, we thought we’d add extra content … 😀
Thank you so much for the fantastic friendship and support you’ve provided over the last twelve months, and we look forward to seeing you in 2016.
Love from
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Then there was
We have one more post this year, but what an amazing year it’s been, and we’d like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your wonderful support and friendship.
Thank you.
Last weekend saw the second Romaniac Sparkle – an event where we Romaniacs travel from far and wide to gather in Church Stretton for a straight forty-eight hours of laughter, writing, shopping, eating, drinking, strategic planning, drinking, eating, partying and laughter. In that order.
We have our plan for 2016 and will be polishing the blog so it sparkles as bright as New Year fireworks … but no spoilers here 🙂
Seven of the eight Romanaics were able to attend, with our lovely Jan holding the fort back at Romaniac HQ.
Our Sparkle video is still in production, but for this week’s Something For The Weekend, we thought we’d give you a sneak preview of what happened …
A new version of The Twelve Days of Christmas, perhaps …?
On the first day of Christmas …
The last three months have been hectic here at Romaniac HQ, with multiple publication days, debut news and an award!
It’s a jam-packed round-up, and our last for the year, but we shall return in 2016 with our regular Life Cycle of a Writer posts.
Laura: My big news was the publication of my third Choc Lit novel, titled, What Doesn’t Kill You, which is spearheading a brand new imprint – Dark Choc Lit. I announced the news on my blog in October, here. I attended a Dorset Writers Network event as a panel member, and I had notifications through that I will be speaking at the Purbeck Literary Festival in February, and the Weymouth Leviathan Maritime Literary Festival in March 2016!
Vanessa: My highlight of the last few months was our wonderful media award win at the RNA winter party!
Jan: I had the thrill of seeing my debut Choc Lit  novel As Weekends Go published this month, which rounds off a wonderful year for me.Â
Catherine: I’ve been allowed into the HarperCollins offices TWICE! Once for the fantastic Carina Christmas Party and the other time for a meeting with my fantastic editor, Victoria Oundjian. Those, along with winning the Media Star Award, are moments I will treasure. After all, the rest of the time I’m perfecting the art of the slummy mummy/author. I also got to announce the title for my debut is Waiting for You and is available for pre-order.Â
Lucie: The last few months for me have been a crazy whirlwind of writing – but unfortunately not of the fiction kind. I have been doing endless coursework for my degree. However, at the recent Romaniac sparkle weekend, I was able to delve back into my story and make some great headway with planning. I have the whole of January off university so I am planning to finish my edit by the beginning of Feb. So watch this space for 2016. Here’s hoping some Romaniac sparkle Will rub off on me next year…
Celia: Like Lucie, my writing year has been dominated by work-based projects such as reports, policies and school plays, but my third book, Living the Dream, somehow managed to pop out in July and my next, Moondancing, is due on January 12th. Onwards and upwards!
Sue: In the last couple of months I’ve self-published The French Retreat which is the first novella in a series of French based stories. Since then I’ve been working on the second one and waiting for news on book 4 which is out on submission.Â
Debbie: My ongoing health problems (and domestic chaos) continued to put pressure on my time and mood to write. However my highlight of the year had to be finishing my first novel after a very long four years! I’m letting it breathe after a mixed NWS Report so watch this space to see whether it ever gets submitted …Â
We hope you’ve enjoyed our weekly LCOAW posts. It’s interesting to look back over the last year and see our highs and lows, and to know we’re moving forward all the time. Our past posts can be found by scrolling down the page and clicking on ‘Life Cycle Of A Writer’ in the Categories column.
There will be plenty more to come in 2016, but for now, we’re heading off to decorate Romaniac HQ with a million sparkles.
Stay tuned for our Christmas blog …
This is a very special Something For The Weekend.
As Weekends Go won the Choc Lit and Whole Story Audiobooks Search For A Star competition 2014/2015, and we are immensely proud of and thrilled for Jan. It is a fabulous novel, with a stunning cover. Jan’s warmth oozes from the pages.
Under normal circumstances, Jan is custodian of the Romaniac Honkometer, but we liberated it from HQ so we could do this:
And now for a few words from the Romaniacs …
Laura: Jan, many congratulations on the release of your debut. It’s a huge achievement and I am absolutely delighted for you. Not only are you a wonderful writer, but a genuine, supportive and warm-hearted person, who I am very lucky to be able to call my friend. Have an incredible day – take it all in, enjoy it, have fun, and watch AWG fly 🙂 xxx
Vanessa: HUGE congratulations, Jan! I’m thrilled to bits for you and your wonderful book. Enjoy publication day!! xxx
Debbie: Woo hoo!  HONKETY HONK! Dearest Jan, I’m sounding the ‘honkometer’ on your behalf today. Our little treasure; you’re the first to encourage, support and congratulate our fellow writer friends. Today the spotlight is on YOU although knowing you as I do, I don’t suppose it will come easily being centre stage, seeing as you’re always one to hide your light under a bushel! However for today, I wish for you to bask in the celebration of your publication day, immerse yourself in the experience and revel in the celebrations our writer friends cast in your direction.
This is what you have been working for, Jan. It is so well deserved and I’m sending you, my lovely Romaniac friend, heartfelt congratulations and every success with XXXX. This is your moment!  This is the time …
Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life’s dream. And no-one deserves it like you! xxx
Catherine: I was slightly concerned that as chief honker in Romaniac HQ that the rest of us wouldn’t be able to use the HONKOMETER without Jan backing us up with some kind of IT support! Turns out we only needed to give it a jiggle to sound the honkets! And they are so well deserved after all your hard work and support! Like the girls said, bask my lovely, for today is your day!Â
Sue : Ah, my lovely friend, I am so pleased for you!!!!!! Â As everyone knows, you are such a fabulous supporter of other writers and here at Romaniac HQ we are thoroughly delighted for you. I absolutely can’t wait to read As Weekends Go and I definitely want a turn of the Honkometer – if I can wrestle it from the others! Have a brilliant day! xxx
Lucie: oh my goodness, Jan! Your debut novel is up, up and away! And fly it will! You are an incredibly supportive, genuine, kind hearted person who deserves every second of this. You are always there, bigging everyone else up. Now it’s YOUR turn to enjoy it. This is SO well deserved, I’m so proud of you. Love you millions xxx
Jan, our lovely supportive buddy – you so, so deserve every success in the world. You never fail to prop me up when I’m down, you’re hugely talented and I’m sure you’re going to be a honkmungous success as a published author (see what I did there?) Love you squillions, Celia xxx
It’s not long before we, The Romaniacs, gather for our annual Sparkle event, a new tradition started last Christmas. It was billed as a mini writing retreat, but it turned into so much more, with workshops, meals out, party games and a plan for 2015.
Here’s a reminder of our inaugural Sparkle weekend, to help us prep for this year’s.
The past few months have been particularly busy for me, both writing wise and home wise. Sometimes it’s hard not to get bogged down by it all and feel under pressure from all directions, however, I’ve taken comfort and strength from all the positive things that have also happened in my writing world.
My novella The French Retreat has been out for just over a month and, I’m pleased to say, is holding its own amongst my other titles. The sales have been steady, although the reviews have been slow. The reviews I’ve had have been positive so no complaint there, even if one of them, on the face of it looks poor. However, once you read the additional comment, the reviewer makes it clear they got muddled up with another book and I appreciate they’ve made the effort to point this out.
Another positive was meeting up with my lovely Romaniac pals at last week’s RNA Winter Party in London. Not only that and the wonderful company of all the other members of the RNA but we won the Media award! Click HERE for our post on this.
More positive news, in that we are taking the Life Cycle of a Writer blog feature on tour, having secured our first booking with Chichester library in the new year. More news on that with our Sparkle Round-Up next week.
Carrying on the positive theme, I’ve started my next novella, The French Affair, which I’m hoping to publish by the end of February. The cover is coming together nicely and hopefully I’ll be able to share that in the not too distant future. Also, my full-length novel which has been out on submission has had some encouraging interest and I’m hoping to have news on that very soon.
And lastly, next weekend I shall  be meeting up with The Romaniac gang again as we have our Christmas Sparkle Weekend in Shropshire!
So, I’m ending my first year of Life Cycle of a Writer posts with a positive, which I hope to continue on into 2016.
The Romaniacs 