shoes, ships, ceiling wax

Oh dear, I’ve taken my time updating this poor old blog, hey? Well, there’s plenty to discuss today, so let’s get on with it!

#ROSACon2014

This past weekend was the inaugural South African romance writers’ conference, nicknamed ROSACon, held over a day in a half in Johannesburg. I think all of the attendees would agree it was a complete success! (Full disclosure: I was on the organizing committee.)

ROSACon2014 audience

Rapt audience at #ROSACon2014

We had about 30 delegates, and the activities ranged from Skype pitches to editors at Mills & Boon and Harper Impulse, to a first-page critique session by a panel of authors, to a fabulous talk on category romance writing from our local celebrity Joss Wood. Other than the massive highveld storm during Saturday night’s gala dinner, the weekend went without a hitch and it was a fantastic opportunity not only to meet so much of the South African romance writing community, but to be energized and enlightened by a variety of experts on a whole range of writing-related topics. On that note…

Facebook

Having learned during Tristan Banha‘s social media talk at #ROSACon2014 that Facebook is the most popular and fastest-growing social media outlet in South Africa, I’ve created my very own Facebook fan page: facebook.com/rebeccacrowleywrites Will I be better at updating it than this blog? Doubtful! But in the meantime feel free to cruise on over and check out the gorgeous banner the Samhain marketing team made for my next release. Which brings me to…

The Homefront Trilogy

This set of military-themed novellas is steaming ahead! I’m currently working on edits for the third installation (Thunder Running) and have just posted the cover for the second book (Alive Day) on the Books page. Meanwhile, tomorrow is release day for Homefront #1, Boots on the Ground!

Boots on the Ground

Sexy Sergeant Grady Reid and his erstwhile heroine Laurel Hayes are already garnering some lovely reviews, most notably from USA Today, Desere at Romance Book Haven and Nanee from Up All Night. If you haven’t already pre-ordered, you can one-click your copy tomorrow wherever ebooks are sold.

Last But Not Least

In case you didn’t spot my subtle announcement on Contemporary Romance Cafe (cleverly tucked in after the gratuitous photo of Jensen Ackles), the biggest news of all is that Baby Crowley will be having his or her own release day somewhere in between Alive Day and Thunder Running (March 3rd, to be precise). The good news is there’s no need to book a blog tour or organize a release-day blitz. The bad news, well… 😉

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ROSACon2014

 

It’s official! The first-ever Romance Writers of South Africa national conference will be held 25-26 October in Johannesburg! The inimitable Romy Sommer and Elsa Winckler are just two of the amazing South African authors who’ll be in attendance, and we’ve already booked Tristan Banha from The Juice Box to tell us how to maximize our authorial social media (which I desperately need to know). It should be a fun, informative couple of days as well as a rare chance to unite the South African romance community.

Click the image above for the official announcement, and watch this space!

#ROSACon2014

Just a day after registration opened for RWA ’14 in San Antonio – and which I considered trying to attend for about five minutes before realizing how many books I’d have to sell to cover the entry fee alone – I am kind of ridiculously excited to share that the inaugural ROSA Conference will be held in Johannesburg in September!

http://saromancewriters.blogspot.com/2014/01/announcing-rosa-conference.html

Every year I watch enviously as Twitter fills with people at the RWA and RT conventions in the US. And while it’s still a little unlikely that Nora Roberts will be heading down to Jozi for ROSA Con, but I’m still super psyched to have the opportunity to network with South African readers, writers, bloggers and reviewers.

I’ll post more details in due course, but in the meantime I want to offer a hearty sanibona to anyone interested in attending! You won’t get shot, I promise.