In a few weeks I’ll be heading up to Sydney, to conduct a one-day writing workshop for the NSW Writing Centre (Writing NSW) on writing romance.

The workshop is on May 18th, and it will cover all areas of romance writing (that I can fit into a one day session <g>) I love running workshops. It’s always interesting meeting the variety of people who come, and seeing people who are often at the beginning of their writing career. 

The details are here, if you’re interested.

I’m just back from Sydney where I attended the Australian Romance Readers annual awards dinner.  It’s always a lovely event —  meeting up with readers and fellow authors, talking about and celebrating books, and eating good food in a lovely old hotel.

Our table — that’s us in the photo — ended up celebrating quite a lot, as three of us (Kelly Hunter, Keri Arthur and I) won awards.

From left: Jacqui Greig,  Keri Arthur, Kelly Hunter, then I’m across the table next to Alli Sinclair and Jo MacKay (from HarperCollins). Kariss Stone took the photo.

My book, MARRY IN SCANDAL, won Favourite Historical Romance. 

The full list of winners is here. 

Here’s me with my award. 

It was a lovely night, and I’d like to thank Debbie Phillips, the ARRA organizer, and the wonderful volunteers and readers who make ARRA such a special organization.

I’m just back from Sydney where I attended the Australian Romance Readers annual awards dinner. I’ll post more about that later. I went up to Sydney a few days early as I wanted to catch up with some friends. One of them took me to The Marble Bar, a heritage-listed and very ornate Victorian-era bar in the heart of Sydney (in the basement of the Hilton).

Originally built in 1893 by George Adams (of Tattersalls sweepstakes fame) and costing a massive 30,000 pounds, from the amazingly ornate ceiling, to the massive arched columns and  the carved and gleaming bars,  every surface is lushly decorated either with marble, stained glass panels, mirrored surfaces, carved mahogany, or large, elegant paintings.

The site faced demolition in the 1970’s, but sanity ruled, so piece by marble piece, the entire interior of the bar was painstakingly taken apart, and reassembled in the Hilton Hotel in 1973. 

That’s me having a drink in a quiet corner, surrounded by Victorian-era gorgeousness.

If you ever get to Sydney, drop in and visit this remarkable place. I promise, you won’t regret it.