A tiny oak door opened into the warmth of the Romantic Novelists’ Association event, and a hearty welcome glowed from Lynda Stacey and John Jackson. The guests of the RNA York charmed me, and I fell in love with a family of romance writers.
Besides admiring books, I discovered gems of advice from the writers. Authors told me about the magic of Canva, Photoshop and Word Cloud.
Chat with the authors encouraged me to talk about writing my book. I found myself spellbound by Milly Johnson. Milly reassured me the writing process is still agony for her after sixteen books. Rhoda Baxter joined the conversation, and I could have listened to the comedy duo all afternoon. If only I had recorded the conversation. I am in awe of how Milly and Rhoda manage to write comedy with such flair. They explained that comedy is channelled through the characters and flows naturally – words of comedy experts. In a classic comedy moment, I fumbled with my phone to take a selfie with Rhoda and Milly but had the lens pointing at the table in front of me. Flummoxed by technology, I felt ‘as daft as a brush’, but the grand lasses just laughed.
Guest speaker, Jean Fullerton, spoke passionately about her writing journey. She also celebrated popularity or the romance genre and challenged prejudice. Congratulations to Jean on her successful historical fiction novels set in the East End of London. According to Jean, ‘to write about life is to write about love.’ She handed over her gift of hope that, ‘sometimes, just sometimes, love does win and dreams come true.’
That day, I fell in love with the RNA.
Congratulations to Lynda Stacey on a wonderful event. Best of luck with the release of her new book, ‘The Fake Date’. I am looking forward to interviewing her, with the book due to be released on 18th September.
Earlier this year, I chatted with Rhoda Baxter about my blogging adventure and was delighted to feature on the RNA website.
Please see all my adventures at Handbag Adventures and my website and blog at JessieCahalin.com.