ARRC2013: Concurrent session 1C

Continuing our series on the concurrent sessions, today we are talking about session 1c. This session is about location, location, location. Does the location of the book influence whether you buy the book or not? Are there certain locations that will automatically grab your attention? The authors on the first part of this panel will be discussing the virtues of city versus country locations and then for the second part the authors will discuss those exotic places that many people can only dream about.

Concurrent session 1C–Location, location, location

>>> Part 1: City vs country

Are you the consummate city girl or are you the country girl at heart? Do you wish that you could spend time in the other place just to see what it might be like?

This part of the session will answer the question: what is better, city settings or country settings? Will the city authors be able to convince you to stay in the city or will the country girls be able to sway you to come visit for some small town hospitality? Or are the country girls as wild as the city girls can be?

What about the proliferation of books commonly known as rural romance? Why are they becoming so prominent now? And what cities are the most popular settings?

The panellists

Paula Roe is a former office manager, fitness instructor, theme park hostess and workplace trainer. Now an award-winning author, Paula is currently writing category romance for Harlequin Desire, and has sold over a quarter of a million copies world-wide. Paula’s books have been shortlisted for Romance Writers of Australia’s RBY Award, won Australian Romance Readers Association’s Favourite Short Category Romance in 2009 and 2010, and she was shortlisted for Australian Author of the Year for 2009, 2010 and 2011.  Paula is a web designer, experienced workshop presenter and contest judge, and a founding member of TWC Press, a publishing co-operative of writers.  Besides category romance, she also writes hot erotic romance, novellas and medieval fantasy.

Amy Andrews is an award-winning author who has written 31 romances for Harlequin Mills and Boon in both the Medical and RIVA/Presents/KISS lines. To date she’s sold over a million books and been translated into over a dozen different languages, including her most recent–a Manga! In 2010 she took out the sexy category in the prestigious Australian Romantic Book of the Year Award. Amy recently launched a couple of separate writing ventures with the release of Sister Pact by Harper Collins Australia in May 2012, a contemporary women’s fiction novel that she wrote with her sister, Ros Baxter, as well as the release in August 2012 of her first foray into the digital scene with Entangled Publishing. In what she euphemistically likes to call her spare time, Amy works part time as a paediatric intensive care nurse and was on the national executive for Romance Writers of Australia for six years, during which time she organised two national conferences and undertook a two-year term as president. She’s been married for 22 years and has two teenagers. She lives on acreage on the outskirts of Brisbane with a gorgeous mountain view but secretly wishes it was the hillsides of Tuscany.

Rachael Johns is the author of four novels, including rural romance for Harlequin Australian and contemporary romance for Carina Press. She is an English teacher by trade, a mum 24/7, a supermarket owner by day, a chronic arachnophobic, and a writer by night. Rachael started writing when she was 17 after a break up with her first boyfriend, turning writing into therapy (and killing the boyfriend off in the story). Almost a decade later after many attempts at different types of novels she joined Romance Writers of Australia and learnt about the craft of writing. Rachael lives in Goomalling, Western Australia, with her hyperactive hubby and three mostly gorgeous heroes-in-training.

Cathryn Hein was born in South Australia’s rural south-east. With three generations of jockeys in the family it was little wonder she grew up horse-mad, finally obtaining her first horse at age 10. So began years of pony club, eventing, dressage and showjumping until university beckoned. Armed with a Bachelor of Applied Science (Agriculture), she moved to Melbourne and later Newcastle, working in the agricultural and turf seeds industry. Her partner’s posting to France took Cathryn overseas for three years where she finally gave in to her life-long desire to write. Currently living in Melbourne, by the time ARRC rolls around Cathryn will be enjoying a new life in the Blue Mountains. Her debut rural-set romance, Promises, was released in 2011, followed by Heart of the Valley in 2012. Cathryn’s third novel, Heartland, is due out in May 2013.

>>> Part 2: Somewhere more exotic

City and country are great places to be, but what about an exotic place that you’ve never been to and would like to visit? With locations ranging from the desert to New York, Singapore and Santorini, these authors know how to write a story that is authentic to their exotic location. Naturally we can also ask these authors, have you been to an exotic place and what secrets they might tell….

Or what about creating your very own country? How much fun can you have making up all the rules yourself? How difficult is it in the contemporary setting where you need to keep to the expected norms?

The panellists

Annie West is the author of 18 contemporary romances, mostly published in the Mills and Boon ‘Sexy’ category. She’s a USA Today bestselling author, winner of a 2012 Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award and has been a finalist in ARRA book awards. Annie got hooked on romance as a teenager and while studying at university Annie met her own romantic hero. She has travelled extensively, which provides inspiration for some of her locations. Annie lives at Lake Macquarie on the New South Wales coast.

Nikki Logan lives on the edge of a string of wetlands with her partner and a menagerie of animals. She writes captivating, nature-based stories full of romance in descriptive natural environments and believes the danger and richness of wild places perfectly mirror the passion and risk of falling in love. Writing is the perfect opportunity to blend what she loves reading with what she loves doing and maybe sneak beautiful creatures and their environments into fertile reader imaginations all over the world through her contemporary stories for Harlequin Romance and romantic suspense for Entangled’s Dead Sexy line.

Kelly Hunter was born in Australia and hit the road early in life; she has never regretted it. She’s been a breakfast cook in Vancouver and a sheep herder in Wales, a station hand in the outback and a research scientist in Malaysia.  She considers culture shock a gift and loves incorporating her experiences into the stories she writes. Stay a day, see a landmark. Stay a week, find the good food. Stay a year, discover the heart. Kelly writes for Harlequin’s new KISS imprint, for Destiny Australia, and for Entangled Publishing and loves writing to the short category form.

Lisa Heidke, once upon a time, made a New Year’s resolution to write a book. Like most people, Lisa woke up on 1 January with a headache. Unlike most people who’d made resolutions the night before, she took two Nurofen and started writing. The result was Lucy Springer Gets Even (2009), followed by What Kate did Next (2010), Claudia’s Big Break (2011), and Stella Makes Good (2012), all published with Allen & Unwin. Lisa also teaches Intro to Chick Lit workshops at the Sydney Writers’ Centre.