Wednesday 13 August 2008

Heidi Rice ... Media star in the making

Had to pop in and say that I did my first ever media interview yesterday in Richmond. Got a last minute call the day before from the Marketing Department at M&B who were on the lookout for an author who could give a BBC journalist the low-down on writing romance. 

I high-tailed it up to Richmond in my smart-casual best, met with Sophie, the very friendly BBC journalist who would be interviewing me and Giselle the camerawoman. We then popped down to a local church yard where I answered a few questions about the joys of romance writing and being a M&B author. All of what I said is a complete blur - wish I could have been one of my heroines at this point and had three hours to think of lots of sassy comebacks to the questions. Hopefully it wasn't all total twaddle though. Will post the interview here if it ever pops up on YouTube. The word is it's due to be shown on BBC News Channel tomorrow morning. 

I shall keep you posted.

Monday 11 August 2008

Confessions of a Conference Virgin. Part Two

Part Two: Or How I Was Having Far Too Good a Time to Bother Blogging

Sorry, have been terribly remiss again. I've been back from Frisco for almost a week and spurred on by my experiences to get stuck into my latest story (a workshop with Susan Elizabeth Phillips will do that to you, you know) haven't even bothered to download the few photos I actually managed to take.

First up, here's me looking totally petrified before the literacy autographing. Please note my RITA finalists flag which I took home with me and it now has pride of place on my desktop (well, a girl can dream right, you never know I might get nominated again one day).


And here are a few more of my personal highlights: Sightseeing at Haight Ashbury with Abby Green and Sharon Kendricks, going to the Top of the Mark before dancing the night away at the Harlequin party at the Four Seasons (apparently right next to Nora Roberts, but noone bothered to point that out to me, thanks again Biddy Coady, grrrrr), Sandra Marton's lovely pizza party with a lot of the Presents authors and our own Trish Wylie, the RITA awards in my posh frock (which I forgot to take a picture of, I know, what was I thinking), high tea with the Presents editors and authors (and a chance to meet my new ed for the first time face to face) and a really wonderful dinner with Sharon and Sandra and Abby at the lovely Annabelle's restaurant.

And just in case you think I spent my whole time partying and didn't actually bother to do any workshops I did manage SEP's fab talk on how to write a Bestseller ('Follow your instincts, but don't get stupid!'), SEP and Jayne Ann Krentz's one about the Secrets of the Bestselling Sisterhood (are you beginning to see a theme here?), Linda Howard's showcase at the PAN retreat (I'm never keeping Llamas that's for sure) and a chat with Nora Roberts (who I'm glad to say had bickering sons, too!)

Now all I've got to do is keep my fingers crossed that I can go to next year's bash in Washington DC, which I guess means getting back to writing this darn book.