FanCATstic Acievements!!

I've just come back from the annual Romance Writers of New Zealand Conference in Auckland. It was, as usual, a wonderful weekend filled with good friends, enthusiastic readers, and great catch-ups with friends.

The weekend started for Louise, Sue and I on Friday afternoon with our friend Iona and then we were off to the cocktail party where we caught up with Yvonne and all the other conference delegates. I realised that it was my TENTH conference, and I remember hearing very inspirational speeches from Sue and Yvonne when I first joined so I know they've been attending longer than that. 

It was my very great honour to be asked to MC the awards dinner on the Saturday night and was so

excited to see Sue and Yvonne both go away with a Koru Award for Romance of the Year (and

Yvonne was third in her category as well!) Here are a few pics of the fab weekend.

 

Yvonne and Sue at the book signing.

Yvonne with her Koru Award in the Short, Sexy category for "Wanting What She Can't Have".

Sue celebrating after her win in the Short, Sweet category for "A Family this Christmas".

Louisa and I getting ready to cheer the cats on.

All the NZ LoveCats together!

Here's to another great year for the Lovecats and all our wonderful readers.

2014, The Lovecats' Year in Review

2014 has been another grand year for the Lovecats Down Under and with that year careening towards a close, we thought it the perfect time to reflect upon -- and bask just a little* in -- our achievements.  
*Note, it will be a very little as the Cats prefer to bask in sunshine while preparing to launch into another big year of writing and reading and living the DownUnder life.

As a group, we achieved the following in 2014:

• Published a combined total of 39 books
• These titles represented a range of genres, from contemporary romance to romantic comedy to romantic suspense to young adult and, of course, our favourite category romance
• Published in 12 different category series or imprints 
• Published titles with 5 different publishers, as well as independent releases 
• Made the finalist short-lists in 8 different awards or contests
• Won 4 different reader or reviewer judged awards
• Hit bestseller lists including USA Today, Bookscan and the Amazon Top 100

The writing highlights from our year:

• Michelle Douglas was a double-finalist in both the Booksellers Best and the Golden Quill awards in the US
• Amy Andrews became a USA Today bestseller for the first time with No More Mr Nice Guy
• Barbara De Leo won RWNZ's Koru Award in the Short Sweet category with Last Chance Proposal
• 3 Yvonne Lindsay titles hit the Bookscan top 50 
• Louisa George won RWNZ's Koru Award in the Short Sexy category with How To Resist A Heartbreaker
• Rachel Bailey presented workshops at the Romance Writers of Australia conference and for the Melbourne Romance Writers Guild
• Annie West attended the Love Letters Reader Convention in Berlin
• Stefanie London published her debut novel, Only The Brave Try Ballet, AND moved to Canada
• Jennifer St George represented romance as a panelist at the Byron Bay Writers Festival
• Amy Andrews won the ARRA Award for Best Contemporary Romance with Holding Out For A Hero  
• Barbara De Leo's Last Chance Proposal was a bestseller with both Barnes and Noble and Amazon, hitting #2 on the Series Romance bestseller list
• Annie West and Yvonne Lindsay were finalists in RWNZ's inaugural Koru Awards
• Louisa George's A Baby On Her Christmas List hit #1 on the Amazon Medical Romance list in both the US and the UK
• Jennifer St George made the Amazon Top 100 Bestseller List in the US
• Yvonne Lindsay and Amy Andrews were finalists in the RWA Romantic Book of the Year Awards
• Annie West published her first novella and her first independent release 
• Claire Baxter and Rachel Bailey published debut titles in new genres (romantic suspense, young adult and single title romantic comedy)
• Amy Andrews was short-listed as Favourite Author in both the ARRA and AusRomanceToday Awards
• Jennifer St George, Michelle Douglas,  Annie West and Amy Andrews (double-finalist) were short-listed in the ARRA Awards for Favourite Short Category Romance
• Barbara DeLeo's Last Chance Proposal was a finalist in the Booksellers Best Awards
• Michelle Douglas's university awarded her a Publication of Excellence Award for her romances
• Amy Andrews made the DABWAHA tournament as one of the best category romances of the year
• Yvonne Lindsay published her first novella with Tule Publishing Group
• Jennifer St George's The Billionaire's Pursuit of Love was a #1 bestselling book on Google Play

In other news, Michelle Douglas succeeded with her New Year's resolution by taking up yoga; Annie West has declared 2014 her most productive writing year ever, and Yvonne Lindsay is celebrating reaching the end of the year without going *completely* crazy. 

At year's end we are not only raising our glasses to celebrate our achievements, but -- most importantly -- we are toasting our wonderful, dedicated readers.  You are the reason we write, the reason we strive to write better, and the reason we look forward to publishing even more funny, touching, hot, sweet, suspenseful, sensual, heartwarming stories in 2015. Thank you one and all.

Annie, Amy, Barbara, Bronwyn, Claire, Helen, Jennifer, Louisa, Michelle, Rachel, Sharon, Stefanie, Sue and Yvonne

Sunday Smooch with Sue Mackay.....

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!


Today we have a smooch from  The Gift Of A Child by Sue MacKay........, but first ...

the winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is -- Laney4

Congratulations Laney4, can you please contact Michelle Douglas on ....... michelle(at)michelle-douglas (dot) com to receive your copy of The Cattleman's Ready-Made Family ....

Also, the winner of Leisl Leighton's Killing Me Softly was Tina! Please contact Leisl at ....leisl (at) leightonromanisfamily (dot) com ...... 

And now for today's Sunday Smooch from The Gift Of A Child by Sue MacKay........

The Gift Of A Child.....

Jodi Hawke will do anything to save her desperately ill toddler. Including facing the only man she's ever loved, the only man she had to walk away from — her son's father, Dr Mitchell Maitland.

Mitchell never thought he would see the one woman to haunt his dreams ever again. But the return of his beautiful Jodi comes with another bombshell — he's a dad, and his little son is sick. He's the boy's only hope. Finally, Mitchell has his chance to prove to Jodi that he can be the man she needs and the father Jamie deserves…

Show more

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Scene set-up: [Last night the one woman Mitch never thought he’d see again after she dumped him has turned up, looking very different to the classy Jodi he used to know three years ago. What’s more the Jodi lookalike dropped a bomb - he’s a dad, and his son is gravely ill.]

Kiss Scene  

At the park Mitch pulls up beside Jodi’s vehicle and climbs out.

‘Mitch?’ Jodi tilted her head back, blinking as the autumn sunlight caught her eyes.

‘I need to find you.’ He tapped her sternum with a finger. ‘Somewhere in there is the Jodi I once knew.’

And then he took her shoulders and pulled her close. His lips covered hers as she gasped. Hot air spilled into his mouth. But he didn’t pull away. Instead, he eased into her, hauling her up close against his chest, his stomach, his thighs. And tasted her, recognized her. This was his Jodi. Not that worried woman holding him to ransom. This warm, responsive woman not pushing him away but sliding her hands around his neck – this was the real Jodi.

He breathed her in. She still used lavender-scented shampoo. His hands splayed over her waist. His tongue danced across hers. Finally everything was beginning to make sense. This was the real deal.

Which meant so were the problems she’d brought to town.

The Gift of a Child is the first in a duet about the infamous Maitland brothers.

How to Resist a Heartbreaker by Louisa George is the follow on story

Do you like reading duets, and why? Let me know and you’ll go in the draw for a copy of The Gift of a Child.

Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced -- and a smooch from The Girl Least Likely To Marry ....... by Amy Andrews will be posted!

Sunday Smooch

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!


Today we have a smooch from Playboy Doctor to Doting Dad by Sue MacKay, but first ...


the winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is -- TashNZ!


Congratulations, TashNZ! Can you please contact Liz Fielding at

liz (at) lizfielding (dot) com

and she'll send you a copy of Chosen as the Sheikh's Wife.

And now for today's Sunday Smooch from Playboy Doctor to Doting Dad by Sue MacKay, a Mills & Boon Medical Romance which will be released Downunder in April!


A&E doctor Kieran Flynn with his delicious Irish charm has always called the shots – until now!

Arriving in Nelson to run the A&E department for two months, Kieran is greeted with not one but three life-changing bombshells:

1) He’ll be working with nurse Abby Brown – he hasn’t seen her since their magical night together two years ago…
2) He’s now daddy to a bouncing tot called Seamus!
3) His buried feelings for Abby make this hospital’s new playboy want to swap all-night parties for reading bedtime stories to the son he can’t imagine being without…



So he intended staying here for the evening. Then she’d make the most of having him around. Maybe even get a bit further ahead with integrating him into the children’s lives. ‘How’re your bathing skills?’

‘I’m very capable of taking a bath, though I do prefer a shower.’ His smile widened into a grin.

Heat flushed her cheeks as an unbidden picture of a naked Kieran in the shower winged through her mind. Of course he’d be naked. How else did anyone have a shower? Naked. It had been hard enough seeing him in his swimming shorts at the beach. That broad expanse of chest, those firm muscles that rippled every time he moved. She swallowed. A flutter of excitement tripped across her skin.

‘It sounds perfect.’ Then it dawned on her what she’d said. ‘I mean, the wine and dinner, not the -.’ Shower. Getting in deeper here. She drew air into her lungs. Held it, counted to ten, twenty. Felt Kieran standing beside her. Breathed out, and turned to look at him. And immediately wished she hadn’t. Similar emotions reflected back at her.

His finger lifted her chin up until their gazes caught, held. ‘It does, doesn’t it?’

His mouth came closer to hers, and closer, until slowly, tenderly, his lips brushed over hers, came back and covered her mouth. The kiss was long and slow, and filled with promise, igniting the tiny flame of need that had mostly sat curled in the pit of her stomach since the day Kieran had arrived, so that now it flared through her body, making her tremble and reach her arms up and around him. To hold him, to feel his lean body against hers, to taste his mouth on hers - bliss. She gave herself up to the moment, to Kieran, knowing full well this was as good as it was ever going to get.

‘Abby, are you kissing Uncle Kieran?’

Olivia’s high voice screeched across her senses, slamming her back into reality. Jerking away from Kieran she stared down at her niece as though for the first time ever.

Kieran saved her from having to answer. ‘No, Olivia, Uncle Kieran was kissing Abby.’ Then he looked at her, his eyes the colour of the sky on a hot summer’s day. ‘Guess we’ll have to finish this later. Which am I doing first? Bathing?’ He grinned. ‘Or shopping?’



To be in the draw to win a signed copy of Playboy Doctor to Doting Dad, answer the following question:

In this book Abby loves Kieran’s Irish lilt. Does it have the same effect on you?


Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced -- and a smooch from The End of Faking It by Natalie Anderson will be posted!

A Gaggle of Romance Writers

by Emily May


Reading: The Masqueraders by Georgette Heyer

Listening to: Twinset

Watching: Pride and Prejudice (BBC miniseries)

Making me smile: a visit to Wellington, the most wonderful city in the world!



Conference registrations have just opened for the 2011 Romance Writers of Australia Conference and I've been trying to decide what the collective noun is for romance writers. A pack? A swarm? A gaggle? A clutch? A mob? All in all, I think I like gaggle best -- to me it comes closest to implying all the noise and excitement and energy of a romance writers' conference -- but the word 'gaggle' isn't quite BIG enough, because there's A LOT of noise and excitement and energy at a Romance Writers conference!


The annual Romance Writers of Australia conference is always something to look forward to, but this year's conference is more exciting for me than usual. Not only because it's RWAustralia's 20th conference, but also because ... the LoveCats have put together a panel! It's called The Learning Curve, and we'll be talking about what we've learned about the craft of writing and the business of writing since selling to Harlequin Mills & Boon.

The very first Romance Writers conference I ever went to was back in 2003 on the Gold Coast, when I'd just started writing seriously again. That conference was just The Most Amazing Experience -- the energy, the wealth of information, and the sheer marvellousness of being around so many other people who had the same dream as me was intoxicating. I went there knowing absolutely no one (and rather terrified actually) and utterly clueless about the romance writing industry. I came back filled to the brim with information -- and knowing that one day I would achieve my dream of being published.

I have many wonderful memories of that conference -- and one of them is of listening to a panel of newly published authors talk about their path to publication and what they'd learned since publishing. I did more than listen -- I drank up every word they said!

Last year, when the call for conference proposals went out, I remembered that very first conference and I realised that the LoveCats are in the perfect position to give that panel back to other conference attendees! The upshot was the Learning Curve panel on Saturday afternoon, where seven LoveCats, writing for seven different lines, will talk about what we've learned since selling and answer any questions people may have. I hope those attendees who choose to come to our panel will find it as valuable as the panel I heard way back in 2003!

Those of us taking part in the panel are:

Rachel Bailey (Desire)
Zana Bell (Superromance/MIRA)
Michelle Douglas (Sweet)
Robyn Grady (Desire/Sexy Sensation)
Nikki Logan (Sweet)
Sue McKay (Medical)
Emily May (Historical)

and our super duper moderator is Barbara Jeffcott Geris!






The Learning Curve panel is featured on the Romance Writers of Australia blog tomorrow (March 10th), so come along to find out more about what we have planned for our session -- and also check out the other workshops and sessions on the conference pages on the RWA website. I guarantee you'll want to register once you've seen the line-up!

I'm just as excited about this year's conference as I was about my very first Romance Writers conference in 2003. (And just as terrified, too -- I've never presented anything before. EEK!) I hope I see some of you there!

So tell us ... are you going to any conferences this year, Romance Writers or otherwise? Will we perhaps see you at the 2011 RWA conference in Melbourne??? I hope so!

(And can anyone tell me what the proper collective noun for a loud and enthusiastic group of romance writers is?)