It's difficult to stay motivated to keep writing sometimes. Everyday life takes over, fills your time, dulls your imagination and inspiration runs dry.
Just before Covid started I decided to focus on writing category romance as I felt the word count and genre suited my voice and style and I was getting great detailed feedback on my submissions. Alas, a couple more rejections proved I haven't quite got it right yet.
I lost my two miniature schnauzers within six months of each other to cancer and have reached that perimenopause stage of life where brain fog is a common occurrence. Throw in day job stress and some home renovations and my ability to put words on the page has diminished considerably. since I first set about trying to get published.














































But no matter how often the thought of what am I doing, am I wasting my time crosses my mind, the next day I have a thought about my current WIP or open my computer and am compelled to write just one more sentence.
The Romance Writers of Australia conference in Sydney in August 2023 was a great motivator (as RWA conferences always are!) and now this year I'm about to start a writing course devised by the wonderful and talented Ally Blake, Amy Andrews, Clare Connelly and Jennifer St George - How to Write Love. howtowritelove.com/
I'm excited and looking forward learning and to finishing and submitting my next story.

Exciting news! My short story Her Sweet Forever will appear in Romance Writer's of Australia Sweet Treats Anthology to be launched later this month. A bit more about Her Sweet Forever....
The chaos of a cupcake baking competition forces best friends bakery owner Melanie and rugby player Aiden to finally come to terms with their romantic feelings for each other.
​If they win, love might be the icing on the cupcake. 

I'm excited to share I'm a finalist in this year's Sweet Treats short story competition. The anthology with all of the finalists stories will be released in print and ebook in August 2020. Congratulations of the winners and the other finalists!!!

I'm editing a couple of manuscripts and came across these handy tips for removing filler words...I'm happy to say I've improved on leaving most of these out.
Source: ​https://www.grammarcheck.net/filler-words/

Yay! I'm a finalist in Romance Writers of Australia 2019 First Kiss Competition! Winner to be announced after a final round of judging by Rachel Donovan from Harlequin Aus.

My entry came from my work in progress - Wildfire, a rural romance about a reclusive, grumpy wine making farmer with a dubious and troubled past and an independent tree-changing Doctor looking for refuge and a new beginning and a homestead that they both want for very different reasons.

Good luck to all the other wonderful finalists.

I'm very excited to attend this year's RWA Conference. Last year in Sydney was my first RWA Conference and what a mind blowing experience it was!. 
​I’m an introvert.
I have never been comfortable making small talk. The thought of going to a conference and socialising with a few hundred people who I didn’t know was terrifying but being finalist in the Ripping Start Contest and the enthusiasm of a friend who attended her first conference the year before helped me to gather the courage to register.
I even registered to pitch to a publisher and an agent!
Then decided to volunteer for the Committee, but that's a story for another time!
Having a friend who I knew well outside of RWA did help but I didn’t want to be the needy friend hanging off her arm all day, she had made new friends the year before (who also welcomed me).
I was still the person wandering around smiling, fan-girling (quietly off to the side), saying hello, starting conversations and then being unable to finish them (I promise to try better this year!) but every single person I met or sat next to was friendly and many were clearly in the same boat as me.
The “newbie” attendees were supported by a group of wonderful, lovely and generous members (big shout out to Lisa Ireland, Clare Connelly, Nina Campbell and many others). The pre-conference Facebook chats were invaluable in easing my need to know what I was doing before I attended.
RWA members are a lovely, talented bunch of people and I’ll talk more about my experiences in the lead up to the Melbourne Conference.

My current work in progress is a rural romance with a twist of suspense - working title Wildfire. For the first time I decided to put together a collection of images for inspiration. What do you think?