Guest Post: Eleni-Fest – Romance Fiction Rules OK!!

Today’s post is written by Eleni Konstantine as part of Eleni-Fest!

While I write fantasy and paranormal stories, I love to include romantic elements in them. But I also love reading romance in all its various forms – from sweets to the hawt stuff and everything in between in all subgenres – historical, suspense, medical, speculative fiction and the list goes on.

I’ve loved romantic stories since I was a child – I think Walt Disney films and fairy tales have a lot to answer for – but in a good way 🙂

I’ve been a proud member of Romance Writers of Australia for about 10 years (goodness). I have made fantastic friends and have learned so much about the craft of writing. And the place where these two mesh is at a conference. Is it any wonder why I wanted to go? The buzzing of a conference it something that I had missed as well as being surrounded by people who didn’t think you were crazy for hearing voices in your head! Instead of telling you to pop some pills, they understand that characters just want their story told. 🙂

I haven’t been able to go to a conference due to CFS and the lack of finances. Luckily I applied for and received a grant (Richard Llewellyn Arts & Disability Trust via Arts SA) and a small local council grant.

Who would have thought they would give a grant for attending a ‘romance’ conference. Certainly not me. But they did and without them I would have begged or borrowed (I would have stopped short of stealing), have my credit card laden to the brim, or just not gone.

Missing out would not have been good for my writing soul. It needed this as people need air to breathe. It needed to be fed, nurtured, challenged and inspired – and the answer was the conference. It lived up to the challenge and I met up with like-minded kindred spirits whom were a joy to chat to, to learn from, and be inspired by.

And it is because of those grants that I am here now as part of Eleni-fest. When applying I stated that I would some promotional work after the conference. September was halfway though when I thought I would do an ‘Eleni-fest’ for October 🙂. But I was not prepared for how huge this would become. I thought maybe there would be a guest a week and visit a couple of blogs. Instead, I have over 15 guests on my blog this month and appear on 6 other blogs (including this one).

I really want to thank Erica Hayes (whose debut book Shadowfae was released yesterday – go Erica!) for bringing her Shadowfae tour to Eleni-fest on the 20th. This made me realise that more people maybe be interested and led to emails to e-loops and sending invites. The response has been very humbling and I want to thank all my special guests and hosts for wanting to join in.

It has turned out as a showcase of authors of different types of romance or books with romantic elements, and I’m loving that.

Urban Fantasy/Paranormal romance – Tracey O’hara (whose debut book is up as a giveaway on my website), Erica Hayes, Keri Arthur, Mel Teshco, Anna Hackett, and Christina Phillips.
Shorter fiction – Mel Teshco, Anna Hackett, Christina Phillips
Fantasy – Denise Rossetti
Historical Romance – Anna Campbell, Anne Gracie, Elizabeth Rolls
Category:
Silhouette Desire – Rachel Bailey, Paula Roe
HM&B Romance (Sweet) – Nikki Logan, Claire Baxter, Barbara Hannay
HM&B Presents (Sexy) – Trish Morey
HM&B Modern Heat (Sexy Sensation) – Anne Oliver
And pre-published in novel format but in Little Gems anthology for this year, my CP, Fiona Gregory.

Pretty good line up eh? See romance rules!

Thank you all for wanting to be involved. Again, the generosity of our members is unbelievable – the support, the encouragement has been fantastic. Where would I be without RWAus? I have no idea. Certainly I have found what Anna Campbell calls her ‘wolf pack’. Yes indeed. I wouldn’t have been a member for so long if I hadn’t felt at home with RWAus. Thank you my writing family!

Eleni-fest is an online celebration about writing, the writing community, the RWAus conference, grants, and genres. I didn’t realise how much of a big project in itself this would be and how much work it will take to (hopefully) pull this off successfully. It’s exhilarating and exhausting but I’m having a great time.

I loved shopping for the writer’s packs (for some blog giveaways) and also decided to have competitions for two books. I chose Heart & Craft because it’s a book on the craft of romance writing and it has so many of our members in the book.

I was lucky enough to get a copy signed by the authors at the Brisbane launch (Valerie Parv, Elizabeth Rolls, Alexis Fleming, Robyn Donald and Kelly Ethan). I decided I wanted a fiction book and what better book than Tracey O’hara’s ‘Night Cold Kiss’? It’s her debut book, an urban fantasy, and just been released. Hat trick!

These two competitions have some questing involved to answer the questions. The Heart and Craft one has stumped a few because I put a very tricky question in there related to my website banner. Though I have been giving hints in my blog posts and on the questionnaire. With Night’s Cold Kiss, you can visit Tracey’s site for some answers. The fantasy writer & ex-librarian in me came out for these  – needed some sort of quest to unearth the information! * wink *
I hope you all enjoy the festivities and join in – there’s still plenty of time to come along and play.

Full details of Eleni-fest are on my website. Special guests make their appearance on my blog, Eleni’s Taverna.

Now for your chance to win Writer’s Pack and a Souvenir Pack*, just make a comment from today until 21 October. Competition has closed.

Thanks Diane and the blog team for having me on the blog. It’s a blast to be here!

~Eleni

* Souvenir pack includes some chocolates from Flaschengeist who donated the ‘Adam’ liqueur bottle for the conference. I couldn’t offer alcohol for this, so next best thing, chocies!!

And the winner of the Souvenir Pack is Mel Teshco. Congratulations Mel!

Posted by Diane Curran on October 14, 2009

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