kiwi conference madness

Obviously, I couldn't get enough.

Last week was RWAust and Brisbane. This week, the Romance Writers of New Zealand 16th Annual Conference, and my very first visit to New Zealand and Auckland. Like Australia, except cheaper. And the grass is greener. No, really, it is. More water in NZ.

(P.S. Same deal with the lj-cut. Sorry, scrolling peeps. Can you say counter-frickin-intuitive? Times this function has worked for me: never. Don't get. Please explain.)

On with the fun!!

The Friday night 'Leather and Lace' cocktail party went off with a bang. A selection of guests:

Sara, Giovanna and Clare:

Glenda, Michelle and Margaret:

Annie West (yay! for sheikhs and goats!!) and Amanda Ashby (yay! for zombies!):

Here's me basking in the glory of the fabulous award-collecting Kylie Short. And, me with the famous peeps: Melissa Jeglinksi from the Knight Agency, Melissa's mum, and the ultra-cool Nalini Singh :)

And from the 'Touch of Fantasy' awards dinner: Jedi Master Kylie; and Technicolour Gracie and Wicked Witch Pat.

The scrumptious food!! Our scrumptious table, brimming with contest finalists!!

The inspirational Mary Jo Putney and the Strictly Single finalists. 

Executive Editor Mary Therese Hussey from Harlequin/Silhouette and Clendon Award finalists.

Devil-winged Barbara Clendon, Peter Clendon, Mary Therese Hussey and all the Clendon fabulousness, including the outstandingly talented winner, Kylie Short sans light saber. 


And, awesome downunder authors Maree Anderson (Red Sage Publishing) and Annie West (Harlequin Presents/Sexy).
A fab time had by all. Now, I'm tired...

downunder conference madness

Romance Writers of Australia's Hot August Nights conference. It was huge. It was awesome. It was exhausting. Sanitised pictorial evidence follows. You've been warned.

(Oh, and sorry, folks. The lj-cut just WON'T WORK. Apologies if you didn't want to scroll through this. Nothing I can do. LJ? You listening? Why is this function so FRICKIN' HARD to use?)

We began with the Friday night cocktail party, sponsored by the good folks at Harlequin and themed 'Arabian Nights'. A good time and much free alcohol and nibblies were had by all.

Here's the incomparable and resplendent 'Queen of Romance', Valerie Parv, and me. 

My costume? Think yourself lucky you can't see the white stay-up fishnets and the red whore heels. What does this excellent tarty outfit have to do with Arabian Nights?? Well, besides that teddy bear having come all the way from Kandahar?? I'm the Sheikh's Reluctant Dead Keen Virgin Bride, of course.

A Harlequin-themed joke. Ha! The H&MB folks were so flattered, they awarded me the costume prize. I now have a hawt-man-titty-shaped bottle of chocolate schnapps on my desk. Awesome!


Oh, okay. Here are the fishnets. A warning, you got. And, me and my best buddy AJ.

Some fab costume action that probably really should have won the man-titty schapps:

On Saturday, there were, well, you know, workshops. I attended an excellent one on emotional punch by historical author Anne Gracie, and a fascinating talk by Superintendent Shane Chelepy from the Queensland Police.

And then the awards dinner on Saturday night, where my best buddy AJ Macpherson won the Emerald Award!!! for best unpublished manuscript. She is so AWESOME. She didn't win any man-titty schnapps, though.

Here's Avalon author Elisabeth Rose, AJ and the Big Green Trophy of Glory, me basking in AJ's reflected triumph, and Eos author Tracey O'hara (

traceyo

 ) all from Canberra.

After that, Sunday was a bit anti-climactic. I talked on a panel of newly signed authors, with 

traceyo

 , Ellora's Cave author Mel Tescho and others. I hope those who attended got something out of it.

Conference was awesome. Now, I'm tired. Tomorrow. I'm off to Auckland to the RWNZ conference, to do it all again :)

on labels and delisting your brain

The recent Amazonfail mutancy got me thinking about how labels can drive our behaviour, even though we aren't necessarily informed about where those labels come from.

It's amazing how many times one hears comments to the effect: "I won't read Author X, because I have it on good authority s/he's a homophobe/racist/bigot/[insert species of socially mutated idiot here]".

Uh huh. You know what? Fine, don't agree with them. Don't condone their behaviour. Don't buy their books if it makes you feel better not to give them royalties. But isn't refusing to read them on that basis and that basis only merely exposing yourself to just the kind of cultural censorship and brainwash that made that author the repellent person they are?

Rather, refuse to read them because their books suck.

I happen to find anti-Semitism repulsive, for instance. But I don't care if Mel Gibson is or isn't an anti-Semite. It won't stop me from watching his films. Tom Cruise apparently does weird Scientology stuff, and jumps on couches on national tv. That makes him an amusing spectacle and a walking commentary on the price of fame. But it doesn't make him a bad actor.

His bad acting does that :) nah. Just kidding. Actually, I rate the baffling Mr Cruise as an actor. But you get my drift.

Certain authors tend to rant on the internet, to many fans' disgust. That behaviour makes them ranters, not bad authors. Only bad books make you a bad author. And reading those books doesn't mean I agree with everything the author believes.

Same goes with writing and critting. I'm a fiction writer, not a social commentator. Writing a murder mystery doesn't mean I condone murder. Nor does reading one.

And if I'm reviewing or critting a story, I talk about fiction. Not about the author's values or lifestyle or experiences. Frankly, unless I know you personally -- and sometimes even then -- I don't give a damn about any of those things. And I flatter myself that I have at least a small clue about what makes readable fiction. If I suggest a story's broken, there's at least a slim chance that it is, in fact, broken. Even if the broken part is dear to your heart, some point you're just dying to make.

I don't care about your point. I care about good fiction. Sigh. Why do people take things so personally?

Read. Watch. Consume information. Know your enemy's failings. Pretending they don't exist won't make them go away.

And neither will delisting them on Amazon, apparently.