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Best Book Launch Party – EVER!
On a cold and miserable February morning, June Kearns, Mags Cullingford and I set out to catch the 11.32 from Leicester to St Pancras. We had our friend Maisie with us and were looking forward to meeting our bestie, Jan Brigden later that day. Why were we there? Why, only to attend the BEST BOOK LAUNCH PARTY – EVER for Adrienne Vaughan’s latest novel, That Summer at the Seahorse Hotel.
‘Seahorse’ is Adrienne’s fourth full length novel but she has also written a book of poems and short stories, and produced two collaborative works. You can find out more about Adrienne, here.
After lunch at the fabulous Betjeman Arms we sallied forth for some retail therapy, homing in on the new MAC shop where I bought some makeup brushes and WHISTLES where Mags bought a fabulous tunic . An Author has to look glamorous, right? And the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s annual awards (aka the RoNAS) are just around the corner. Anyhoo, I digress . . . At 4.30pm we rocked up the a private room in the Betjeman Arms where Adrienne was waiting to greet her guests.
As friends, family, and fellow writers gathered, the excellent and attentive staff made sure that no one’s prosecco glass went unfilled. Adrienne, her agent and publisher Lisa Eveleigh and Natalie Keene, Associate Director at AVA PR, had ensured that the room looked fabulous and books were available to purchase. Many of us had already downloaded Summer at the Seahorse Hotel but were keen to obtain a signed copy for our bookshelves.
Upon arrival, each guest was asked to choose a tarot card from a set proffered by Adrienne. I drew The Emperor and then settled down as Adrienne read extracts from ‘Seahorse’. Click here to read the first few chapters of That Summer at the Seahorse Hotel. You will also be able to download a copy here, too. 
Earlier, Christina Courtenay had drawn THE KNIGHT OF SWORDS from Adrienne’s pack and that was declared as the winning tarot. Her prize was a copy of ‘Seahorse’ and a some chocolate to take home. Readings over, books purchased, we all queued up to congratulate Adrienne, and then had a great time catching up with friends. RNA members in attendance were: June Kearns, Mags Cullingford, Lizzie Lamb, Sue Moorcroft, Jean Fullerton, Cathy Bramley, Pia Fenton and Julie Vince.
All that remained was to gather New Romantics Press together for one last photo before catching the train back to Leicester.
Fabulous blogger Anne Williams who’d written a review of ‘Seahorse’ earlier that week was also in attendance. You can read Anne’s review here. Two other bloggers/book reviewers have also reviewed Adrienne’s novel, Many thanks to Rosie Amber and Jessie Cahalin for their support.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone, I’ll be spending mine within the pages of ‘Seahorse’, I can smell the briny and hear the waves crashing on the shore from here.
New Romantics Press welcomes Julia Wild
An Interview with talented novelist – Julia Wild
Firstly, I must thank Lizzie Lamb for inviting me onto this wonderful blog.
Julia, you have always been unfailingly kind and supportive of New Romantics Press so it is our pleasure to have you on our blog. So, pull up a pew and tell us something about yourself.
I’m the current Hon Secretary of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, I’m just beginning my third year in the position. The post involves dealing with day to day admin of the RNA taking and producing minutes after meetings. I’m lucky to be working with such a fabulous bunch of hard-working committee members. Until I joined the committee, I had absolutely no inkling of all the effort that goes on behind the scenes of the RNA.
My writing life began in childhood when I would dream up stories to star in. As time went on, I wrote stories for chums, involving them and their choice of pop star/film star – or boy in our class. It was always romance, at its most innocent.
Before I married I had a variety of jobs, bank work (was politely asked to leave due to numeric dyslexia, which I didn’t know I had) Nightclub waitress (mini-skirt, butcher’s apron, white knee boots) loved it – but had all my tips stolen from apron pocket. Needlewoman Shop assistant in Regent Street, legal secretary…
As you do I married, had children, and then one fateful Saturday in 1989, I was given a Saturday job looking after a double glazing showroom. Well, as you can imagine, it wasn’t the busiest shop in the street! Once I’d done a bit of dusting and hoovering, I pulled a romance book from my handbag and began reading… And pretty soon thought: ‘I can do better than this.’ Anyone who writes knows – it’s seriously not that easy and there is so much you can only learn by actually writing. The obsession began. I wrote tomes – a contemporary crime/romance, three whopping historicals – 250 thousand words each – typed and retyped many times!
In 1993, I won a competition to spend a week on a historical writing course and whilst on this, one of the tutors, the late Pamela Cleaver said I must join the RNA. I joined the New Writers’ Scheme and spent until 1997 submitting a variety of historical, contemporary romances and medical romances until in 1997, my book was accepted for publication. It was called Dark Canvas and went on to win the RNA’s New Writers’ Award (now the Joan Hessayon Award). Since then I had another four books published and Illusions won the RNA’s First Romance Prize (now the Rona Rose) in 2003.
The publishers closed though in 2003 and in 2014, when I was made redundant from my library post of 18 years– I decided to go through the process of publishing my backlist. Once I obtained the rights back, with the help of the Society of Authors, who are amazing. I had help and advice on self-publishing from several RNA members – Lizzie Lamb included (thank you, Lizzie!) Freda Lightfoot and Jenny Haddon. I’m sure there are more who I spoke with – apologies for not mentioning your names.
One of the highlights of self-publishing was to bring out a new book, Moon Shadow – a book that was accepted by two publishers but never made it to print. In 2016, I brought this one out and it felt wonderful to free it from the office drawer at long last. A lovely university art graduate called Bori worked on the covers for me, and as anyone who has been involved in this process will know – it does take a lot of tweaking.
To read a sample, buy or share this book, click here.
I write as Julia Wild and have recently freed my 18th Century romances from their corsets in the cupboard. One of them is currently with my editor friend who will tell me honestly whether it is worth working on! I hope so – I did shorten it from 250 thousand words to 96 thousand words, and I think when you do that, you can never be sure it has worked! Time will tell.
Before I leave, I must say thank you again to Lizzie Lamb and the New Romantics’ Press Blog for generously inviting me along here.
The pleasure has been all ours, Julia. See you very soon.
Julie Vince (Writes as Julia Wild) – do go over to her Amazon page for reviews, blurbs, and much, much more about her books. 
Take a chance on New Romantics Press –
It doesn’t seem possible that four years have passed since New Romantics Press was launched. At the time, we each said: “We’ll be happy just to see our novel in print.”
Since then, we’ve been bitten by the writing bug and gone on to write further novels, win accolades, reach the finals of a prestigious book award and achieve bestseller status (historical romance>Scottish) on Amazon. Not to forget, hosting a wonderful book launch at Waterstones in Kensington. Between us, we’ve written ten fabulous novels and gained a host of readers who are hungry for more! With four new novels in the pipeline, we thought it time to thank our wonderful readers/supporters and to celebrate our achievements by uploading a kindle book, containing the first two chapters of each of our novels to share with you.
The kindle is almost a novel/novella in its own right – almost forty thousand word in all!
So . . . if you have never read any of our novels, now’s the time to
TAKE A CHANCE ON US
Within the pages of the kindle you will find: romantic heroes and heroines aplenty; men in kilts, cowboys, Victorian Misses, Twenties Girls, wild Irish actors who bear more than a passing resemblance to Pierce Brosnan, feisty heroines who live on remote islands in the Atlantic, academics, priests, enigmatic heroes – and women ‘who love not wisely, but too well.’ In short, ten ideal summer reads to take to the beach with you – a book for every mood.
click here to pre-order your copy of Take a chance on us
and, from all of us – thank you very much – have a great summer!
Lizzie, Adrienne, June and Mags
PS – keep your eye open for Lizzie’s forthcoming SUMMER NEWSLETTER when you’ll have a chance to win a FREE signed copy of Scotch on the Rocks. But you have to be a subscriber to win . . . so, join 350 of Lizzie’s lovely readers today, and join in the fun.
Happy Christmas from New Romantics Press
What Christmas means to us . . .
click on each photo to put a face to a name !
First up – June
My grandma would make 100 mince pies and 100 lemon curd and jam tarts every year at this time, before giving the house a thorough bottoming! Here the toaster has just exploded and I already have hurricane hair.
Soon though, every room will be full, every bed occupied, and like most of us, shutting myself away to write won’t be an option. I’m bound to be inspired enough by chat and conversation though, to keep scribbling notes on scraps of paper. (Must remember to keep them safe – not risk finding one stuck to the bottom of a Piccalilli jar in February, like last year.) One son recently met a person who studied photography as I did, in the ‘60s, then worked for BBC (and on Evita) as a make-up artist in ‘70s and ‘80s. Great background for my novel, so there’ll be some surreptitious scribbling about that!
Take it away – Adrienne
I love Christmas, always have. Luckily we live in a village with a church and a pub so we make the most of it. And with two cocker spaniels, there’s always a great excuse to trudge off excesses across fields, rewarding ourselves with a nice glass of mulled wine and mince pies in front of a roaring log fire. I do all of it! We’re going to visit family in Dublin too, which will be really special, the lights in the city are fabulous and we’ll head to the coast and then into the mountains for lunch, wonderful.
I’m completing the edits of my new novel Scandal of the Seahorse Hotel currently which will take me through to New Year, when we will be in sunny South Devon. I always start a new novel, fresh notebook, coloured pens at the ready while I’m there. The walks on the beach, steaming seafood chowder and local cider help get the brain cells working again – it’s all rather inspirational, so Christmas and New Year is a time of thanksgiving for me, I know how lucky we are.
How about you, Mags?
Mags is working on her third novel which features ‘heroine in jeopardy’ as its central theme. She will be spending Christmas at the beck and call of her cat, Tina – no change there – who deserves to have a novel written just about her.
And, finally, Lizzie
I’m dreaming about hitting the road in 2016 with our caravan, computer, parrot and husband to research number four. Highlands of Scotland, here I come. For me, Christmas is all about being with friends and family and taking time to do those things which the madness of modern life seems to push to the back of the queue – loving, laughter and sharing experiences. I’m very enthused about #4 which I’m currently writing and which features a wayward laird who is at odds with his son, an eccentric family of cousins and a missing ‘treasure.’ Hopefully you’ll be able to download it by the end of 2016.
It simply remains for us to thank you all for your continued support – whether it be downloading our novels, reviewing them, subscribing to newsletters or just chatting to us on Facebook. Have a great Christmas and a healthy and happy New Year. Soon the shortest day will have passed and we will start journeying towards the light.
Here are the links to our amazon pages if you would like to download one of our novels . . .
June , Adrienne, Mags and Lizzie
New Romantics Press 