50 Shades of Minxiness - The RNA Conference 2012

I chose the title of this post partly because people googling '50 Shades' might end up visiting our blog but also because in virtually every conference session it got a mention. Publishers seemed very excited (if you'll excuse the accidental pun!) about the current erotica trend and are unsurprisingly very open to having the next '50 shades' submitted to them.

However, if you can't write the word 'naked' without blushing, fear not - the overall message of the publisher talks I attended was 'what we can do for you' as opposed to the 'what you can do for us' of previous conferences. They are actively acquiring in all sorts of areas and are open to something 'new'.


One of the highlights of the conference for me was Julie Cohen's talk 'Learning story structure from Pixar films'. Although she made us cry by showing the prologue to "Up", the lessons she taught about circular story structure, repeated motifs and character arcs as reflected in external conflict were invaluable and will hopefully help me write better stories.

Jane Wenham Jones also had us in tears with her talk 'What a way to earn a living' but this time it was tears of laughter. Her stories were wildly entertaining  and I don't think I've ever laughed so much.

That brings me to my favourite part of the conference - meeting lots and lots of friendly people (including Sally and Romy Minx and the lovely Susan Wilson :-), having a great time and going home excited about writing again.

If you attended you might have noticed the Minx contingent - we were carrying Minx bags (see photo) and were the ones acting like goofy idiots whenever we saw India Grey. And yes, she is just as lovely as she seems, not to mention glam and…okay will stop there before I embarrass myself again.

Penrith Conference 2012

Since I'm typing up this post while on a train headed from Penrith to London, and on Monday I fly out to South Africa, this post is going to be short and sweet. I'll post a more in depth report on my own blog on Thursday.

The best thing about attending the conference was getting the chance to meet fellow Minxes. There were three of us in Penrith this year: Lorraine, Sally and I. This was the first time I'd met Sally, which made the occasion extra special. It really is odd meeting someone you know so well online in person for the first time. You know so much about them... yet they're still strangers. Luckily, by the end of the conference, we were definitely no longer strangers!

The Minxes

Sally Clements, Scarlet Wilson, Lorraine Wilson (no relation!)

 

Sally with The Irish Contingent

The workshops were interesting, the food rather good, and the weather dry. All three of us Minxes got to have our fan girl moments with favourite Harlequin author India Grey, but really every author present was just fabulous.

For even more pictures, check out Liz Fenwick's Facebook page.

Huge thanks to the conference organisers, Jan Jones and Roger Sanderson for a lovely, smooth, educational and entertaining weekend.

Roger Sanderson