busy but exciting

What an exciting and busy time these last weeks have been.
First, there was the pleasure of receiving my new book, An Independent Woman, from the publisher. There’s always the worry it won’t look as good as you hoped, but I was thrilled. The quality is excellent and I just love the cover. I was particularly concerned about this as I’ve always been disappointed with the cover of my first book, Inheritance, but this one is beautiful, just as I had envisaged it.

Added to this I received a 5 star review from Sarah Cooke, the well known independent editor, reviewer and author here in Australia. I was quite overwhelmed by her praise for the book. If you’d like to read it, the full review is on my website
www.kateloveday.com/books.html

Then of course came the excitement of the book launch. The people at the Bulahdelah Historical Society were very helpful to me while doing my research for An Independent Woman, which is set predominantly in Bulahdelah in the late nineteenth century, and when Malcolm realised my book would be ready in time for the biennial re-union of the residents of Bulahdelah and Myall Districts he invited me to participate, an invitation that I was delighted to accept. After all, what better place to launch a book than in the town where the story is set?

Many of its citizens, both past and present, attended and it was wonderful to meet so many of them and hear their many stories of the old days. The Historical Society had done a wonderful job creating special historical displays in the Old Court House, which is now a museum. It was all very interesting and I think everyone enjoyed themselves immensely.

As if that wasn’t excitement enough, later in the week Peter and I drove to Brisbane for the annual Romance Writers conference. It was the first time I had attended one of their conferences and what a great experience. I participated in several workshops, run by well-known names among the authors. The star guest was Mary Jo Putney, a writer from the US who has written twenty nine books. Imagine! She has made all of the national bestseller lists including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USAToday, and Publishers Weekly. She was wonderfully interesting to listen to, and easy to talk to. Her workshop was fun as well as informative. A couple of her quotes were – ‘We writers have the world at our fingertips, and our fingertips at a keyboard.’ And ‘ successful writers are talented, persistent and a little bit crazy.’ I can certainly relate to the last two! Thanks Mary Jo.
Apart from the many interesting speakers it was wonderful to meet and socialise with so many other writers. The pre-conference cocktail party was a fantastic ice-breaker. The theme was ‘Arabian Nights’ and the room contained more dancing girls and slaves, (with a sprinkling of sheiks as well amongst the brave partners accompanying them,) than you’d find in the harems of Araby. If the decibel level in the room had gone one notch higher I think the roof would have lifted. A good time was had by all! If you check out the photos I’m sure you’ll agree.

And now it’s back home, with a lot of knowledge from the conference. Party time’s over and lots of writing to do. The second book in the trilogy-A Liberated Woman -is due for release next year and that means more research, more computer time and (hopefully) the pleasure of continuing the story.