Every year romance writers in New Zealand (and from Australia!) come together to celebrate their craft, and learn more from each other about the world of romance writing. This year Lizzy got to go along for one of the days too!
I was so excited to attend this conference - not just as someone in the crowd chatting with authors and learning about AI and marketing, Romance Tropes, and everything else, but also as a panelist who got to engage in a big discussion about Romantasy as a genre along with 2 amazing NZ Romantasy writers, Ivy Cliffwater and Ashley Andersen. The panel also included the wonderful Sarah Younger who was a publisher that some of the authors were planning to pitch to throughout the weekend, and we were chaired by the wonderful Catherine Robertson. I had the best time, and learned a lot about this group of writers.
1. The Variety!
There were romantic suspense writers, paranormal romance writers, romantasy writers, YA writers and more! What I loved was chatting with various wonderful authors, and each one had like three different sub-genres on the go plus one more they wanted to try out next. There was a sense of flexibility and fun with being able to try new ideas out, play outside one particular genre, and some of the sub-genres they mentioned I had never even heard of.
2. Sense of Found Family
Most of these amazing people already knew each other, and I was there as someone brand new. Yet after half an hour waiting for a coffee before the conference had even officially begun, I had made friends with absolutely wonderful humans (shout out to Morgan and Holly, and every other wonderful author who made me feel right at home!).
3.The Generosity
From authors telling me their treasured reference books that they use constantly, to sharing such enthusiasm and encouragement for each other’s WIPs, to the keynotes who shared their knowledge on day one (and no doubt beyond) on everything from tropes to how to market books in a world of AI, I was just blown away with the community of writers who all backed each other 110% and wanted their neighbour to succeed as much as them. They treat writing like a team sport and it made me want to start writing just so I could be a part of it.
4. The Creativity
Apart from all their absolutely incredible sounding books, if I ever needed a reminder that romance writers are a dedicated and creative bunch, a romantasy inspired cocktail evening to wrap up day one did quite the job. From exquisite jewels, handmade gowns that were breathtaking, dragon wings, angel wings, demon wings(?!), crowns of sticks and flowers, and so much more. These amazing writers inspired me to look for ways to live a more creative life - whether it’s through writing or just through taking the opportunities to bring a bit more magic and whimsy to the every day.
5. The Love
Romance writers love love, no big surprise there.
But they love their craft too - the act of bringing a story from their head into the hands of readers. A lot of them were indie published/self published which means that as well as writing every word of their book, they are also marketing it and publishing it and distributing it - a process takes so much love for the readers who they want to be able to match match the right book with.
Their passion for their work was truly inspiring.
If you're a romance writer I would highly recommend becoming a member of the Romance Writers of New Zealand and coming along to the conference next year! It's an incredible experience and I'm fairly certain every single author there left ready to get stuck into writing more, marketing more, and selling more! It even left me inspired to get back to writing. A huge thank you to RWNZ for inviting me along and giving me the chance to meet so many fantastic people!
