Life Cycle Of A Writer – Roundup

Here, at Romaniac HQ, we’re preparing for spring and all the loveliness it brings – fresh hope, new ideas, Easter eggs …

This is what happened over winter:

Laura: I’ve had a busy three months, starting with a chest infection in December, when three of the James household were knocked out by the awful cough and cold virus that swept the nation. Thankfully we were on the mend come Christmas and New Year as I spent the last part of December gearing up for the paperback launch of What Doesn’t Kill You. I took the Romaniac bus on a virtual blog tour starting on launch day, 9th January, and gigging all over the country right into the following week. No hotel rooms were smashed up, but there was plenty of celebrating and digesting of cake. I had a short story printed in February’s edition of Your Cat Magazine, and a book signing event at the ever-supportive Waterstones Dorchester on February 18th. And yesterday I received my first WH Smith shelfie. I knew WDKY was going into WH Smith Travel stores, but I hadn’t seen one for myself until Sue posted the photo.

Celia: I edited my NaNoWriMO children’s novel and slashed and burned my way through a grittier adult one, then threw myself back into the WIP which is nearly half completed, hooray! Also attended my first ever RNA committee meeting ready for my new role organising the judging etc. of the RONAs, which is going to be great fun if a bit scary…

Vanessa: After coming away from my writing retreat at West Dean College thoroughly inspired, I have almost finished the first draft of my new WIP. I’ve also been working on edits from my agent on the other book and trying not to get mixed up between the two! (Although… that could be an interesting mix-up!)

Debbie: Everything is much the same here since my last Life Cycle Post . I’m still writing, albeit sporadically, in between hospital appointments and the usual domestic chaos. However I’ve had a bit of a compelling change of heart. Instead of working on Novel two, ‘Country Strife,’ I’ve returned to the original, ‘Living in the Past.’ Yes, the one I’d almost given up on. It’s the nearest to completion and something inside me won’t give up on it. Not yet! I’ve also discovered I get more writing done when I work in local cafe bars and tea rooms. Who’d have thought it?

Sue: My fourth book with HarperImpulse was released in January and has been doing very well in the charts. I spent a long weekend on a writing retreat in Hampshire with Laura, Catherine and Lucie which really helped move my wip along. I’m in the very last stages of finishing it and will be sending to my agent in the next couple of weeks. After that, I’m going to catch up on some long overdue reading.

Jan has been hard at it, gathering research and working on her second novel which is coming along nicely. While Lucie is doing a marvellous job juggling her university studies with editing her debut novel, The First Time Mums’ Club which is due to be released in May. Catherine has been working on a secret project which has involved some super-speedy writing and is currently working on her edits for this, not to mention running round after her twin girls – we have no idea how she manages it all.

Romaniac HQ Presents … Author, Kirsty Ferry

We are delighted to be part of Choc Lit author, Kirsty Ferry’s blog tour, celebrating the paperback release of her novel, The Girl in the Painting, and looking forward to the imminent release of The Girl in the Photograph.

Take it away, Kirsty.

Life Cycle of a Writer: Paperback Writer.

Paperback Writer

What a busy, fun and exciting week this is. Yesterday, we Romaniacs celebrated our 5th birthday and cheered Sue’s fantastic thriller, Sister Sister, as it hit the top 5 on Kindle, today is Valentine’s Day, and Saturday, I’ll be at Waterstones Dorchester signing copies of What Doesn’t Kill You.

I was at Waterstones Dorchester on Valentine’s Day two years ago, signing copies of my second novel, Follow Me Follow You. It was such a lovely day. The table was perfectly decorated with red love hearts, books were wrapped in paper and bows, enticing customers to go on a blind date with their next read, and I spent the time chatting with people about books and authors.

I’m really looking forward to Saturday’s event. To have a paperback is special, even more so with What Doesn’t Kill You, as the front cover sports an author quote from my good friend and fellow Romaniac, Sue Fortin. Neither of us could predict that happening when we first met five years ago. There is also a depiction of a well-loved landmark on the front – Portland Bill lighthouse.There will be copies of the book available for purchase on Saturday, and I will have one of my trusty Pentel pens in hand, but which colour should I use?

Do I go with blues and greens to complement the cover? Or should I stick with traditional black ink? I might just have to take my pencil case and decide on the day. What would you do?

I look forward to seeing you all on Saturday. Dorchester is a fascinating Roman town, and it has literary links, too – Hardy referred to Dorchester as Casterbridge – so please do come and spend the day, and pop into the wonderfully supportive Waterstones.

I’m going to leave you with this classic Beatles hit 😀 https://youtu.be/xmVwo2DxkGg

Have a great week.

Laura x

From The Romaniacs To You: Huge Heartfelt Thanks

It’s hard to believe that the Romaniacs are five years old today, because it barely seems five minutes since we met and formed this bundle of humanity that we loosely call a writing group. Most of us bumped into each other (literally in some cases, as wine was taken) at the Festival of Romance in 2011, and since then, we’ve laughed, cried, written books, had some of them rejected, had some of them published, and propped each other up through lots of turbulence.

So this a post is for anyone who’s ever read our blog, commented on it, been Sparkle-Videoed at the conference, joined the Romaniac Sparklers, had interviews on here, sat through our panels (with or without pom poms) or generally just been there along the way. A very big THANK YOU!

 

Celia: I’m making a gigantic chocolate fudge cake as we speak, so do feel free to pop by Romaniac HQ and help yourself to a big sticky slice of it. And there’s fizz. There may even be gin in the fridge…

Laura: I cannot imagine my life without The Romaniacs. Is it really five years only? I feel we’ve been together several decades – in a good way. An excellent way. Several decades of cake. Often Prosecco. Always laughter. Rib-aching laughter. The best kind. And you, lovely readers, our friends, have been with us throughout. Thank you. It means a great deal.

Now, big breaths and pucker up – the candles need extinguishing.

Sue: I can’t really add much to what’s already been said at the beginning but a HUGE thank you to everyone who has supported us in all the different ways, it’s been a tremendous amount of fun and we really appreciate you being there. xx

Jan: Five fabulous years and hopefully many more to come. I love being part of the Romaniacs and feel very grateful for all their love, laughs and friendship. As I do for the unwavering cheers of support everyone out there has given for our blog. Grab yourselves a seat, a slice of Celia’s latest yummy creation, and join in the celebrations. Cheers! Xx  

Catherine: This is a sick note, as Catherine is somewhat under the weather at the moment, probably due to an overload of superbly creative stuff and not helped by a nasty germ or two. Wishing her well and hoping her bounce will be back by the time she reads this.

*Party? Did someone say party? I’m not sick, honest. *sniffs* I can’t believe five years have passed and so much has happened! Babies, books, and no where near enough alcohol.*

Debbie: A few years ago, a wise person shared a piece of prose/quote called, ‘Reason, Season, Lifetime.’ If you haven’t heard of it, just ‘GOOGLE’ the phrase. It may resonate. It has stayed with me ever since. A good example is my Romaniac friends and how we found each other. Five years on and we’re still going strong. I suspect we’ll be pals for a lifetime. This also applies to our RNA and other writer friends, some of whom are thousands of miles away. Somehow, we found each other over the ether of the world-wide web or social media. So many of you have supported my sporadic writing journey through the ill-health and domestic chaos. You’ve helped bat away those crows of self-doubt that periodically peck away on my shoulders. So, I’m also adding loud and heartfelt thanks and celebration to ALL my writing friends. Here’s to many more years of friendship … xx

Lucie: Wow, what can I say? It has been a crazy 5 years with these wonderful women and I seriously couldn’t imagine my life without them. They are there for me through thick and thin and always around to tell me to stop moaning and just bloody write! Yes, I’ve needed a few of those over the years! When I became a Romaniac I was a newbie writer, with eyes wide as I stepped into the realms of writing – a sort of ‘rabbit in headlights’ moment. Since then, I’ve achieved some amazing things, things I never EVER thought I would, and it is not only thanks to the other girls, but a HUGE thanks to you, our readers, our supporters, our family. We really couldn’t be The Romaniacs without your unwavering support and constant love. Thank you so much. Love and hugs xxx

Vanessa: I just want to echo everything the others have said! A HUGE thank you for all the support and here’s to the next 50 Romaniacal years 🙂 xxx

Life Cycle Of A Writer – The Secret To Being Organised

*Descends into manic giggles early on in the post*

Organised?

*Uncontrollable maniacal laughter*

I’d love to think my life is organised, but currently it’s as far from it as it possibly could be. I’ve just finished what I once would have considered mission impossible: writing a novel in three months while my twins are only at preschool part-time. It’s not a surprise to find I’ve come away from the event slightly bewildered and confused.

Very messy desk syndrome

I’ve spent the week following being entirely unproductive. Not for lack of stuff to do. More an overwhelming amount of realising I don’t know where to start. It’s very hard to balance time when you don’t have much to spare and it won’t be long until I’ll be back to writing, leaving me with even less time. So, knowing I’m going to be a bit pressed, I decided I’d revert back to a system I used to use at university. It involved a notepad and highlighters and a weekly TTD list.

This time, I’ve evolved the system. I typed up a master TTD list with ten sub-categories (yes, my life is that busy) and has started off with seventy-ones things that I need to do. I’m sure there are things I’ve forgotten, but I’ll add them when I remember. I’ve then prioritised those in pretty colours (red, orange, yellow and green) so I know what needs to be sorted out first.

New system – champagne hiding #secretproject info 😉

I’m then transferring all of the items in red onto a TTD list for the week. This is so I’m concentrating on the important things and not getting distracted. This week, I have enough on that list to keep me going, but as the weeks go on I hope to cross off some of the orange things to do.

The idea is, that at the end of each week, I can update my lists. I’ll cross off the items completed, add any new tasks, and for every four weeks that a task is on there, it’ll go up a priority level so that there’s not things remaining on the list for ever more. Then from the main list, I’ll create another new list for the week ahead. It means I can tackle major tasks one step at a time. Rather than feeling like I’m not getting anywhere, even if I’ve completed one thing towards that overall task, it’s a step forward.

Notepad for the weekly manageable TTD list

This won’t stop me being the person that never sends birthday cards on time (or ever). Or stop me from leaving things to the very last minute. Or stop me from occasionally making cups of tea with two tea bags. But in the very least, it’ll help stop me feeling quite so overwhelmed when faced with so many things to do, that I get lost on knowing where to start.

So, the title of this list is a little misleading. A bit like every click-bait piece of media that exists on social media. There are no epiphanies here because I’m very much on a learning curve. I don’t know the secret, but if anyone does, please let me know…

Especially because there’s a strong chance this will only carry on for three weeks and I’ll be back to wearing tops back to front and neglecting to headcount the twins.

*returns to laughing excessively*