Last weekend saw the inaugural Rockingham Writers Centre Book Fair take place. It started off with a fantastic launch. Anna Jacobs gave a wonderful speech, talking about how she first got published and how things had changed over the twenty plus years she'd been writing. Anna has written over seventy books now and she really is an inspiration.
The opening night also had the launch of Rocky Romance, a short story romance anthology, with all stories set in Rockingham and published by local publisher Serenity Press. I picked up my copy of the anthology signed by all the authors and I'm looking forward to reading it. For some of the authors, this is the first time they've been published and it was lovely to share in their excitement.
On Saturday I was at the arts centre bright and early to help out where I could and then at ten o'clock, Shona Husk and I did a joint author talk. It was so much fun. When Shona and I get talking about writing, it's hard to shut us up, so we had no trouble talking for an hour. We chatted about where we get our ideas from, how we research and what our writing process is like. The audience also asked us a number of questions and I was told afterwards that it sounded like we were having a great time, because everyone kept hearing us laugh!
After the chat, Shona and I signed our books. I discounted The Texan Quartet so that attendees could get all three books for $50 and I was absolutely amazed when everyone chose to buy all three. Thank you so much to those that were there! You made my day. I actually sold out of What Goes on Tour, so I'll have to order some more!
I'm currently in the middle of edits for my publisher so I wasn't able to stick around for as long as I wanted to. I'm told that Sunday was also a great success with a good turn out for the other author talks and a lot of books sold. It was so popular that the Rockingham Writers Centre is considering holding the event twice a year. That would be fantastic. I love chatting to readers and talking about writing. I could quite easily do it all day!
My next in person event is still being finalised, so I can't announce it yet, but keep an eye out on the Events page of my website. I'll add the details as soon as I have them. Or of course you can sign up to my Reader Group because I always announce my news there.
