In December, A Romantic Rendezvous, ARR2021, is happening on the Gold Coast. In the lead up to the event, ARRA is profiling the authors who will be signing their books at the event. Today it was my turn!
Check it out at https://australianromancereaders.wordpress.com/2021/10/14/author-spotlight-caenys-kerr/ I hope to see you there to join me and the other outstanding authors.
Merry Christmas, Liebchen was first published in “All wrapped Up: A Christmas Anthology” two years ago. That’s no longer available. But Karl and Jolene want their story back out there so I’ve given their novella a life of its own.
It a lovely story of loss, love and Christmas reunions. It’s not available on Amazon because it has been published before, but there are plenty of other options: https://books2read.com/Merry-Christmas-Liebchen. It’s available for 99c.
The Emerald Pro is one of the premier awards for Romance Writers of Australia. It is awarded for an unpublished work by a published author writing in a new sub-genre. So each of the entrants has tried out a new style. Perhaps an author usually writes fantasy and they’ve tried something different like historical, or contemporary or paranormal, or the other way around. You get my drift.
The winner will be announced at a Gala Dinner held in conjunction with the annual conference in Melbourne in August. Whatever the outcome, I’m chuffed to be on this list.
It takes a lot of effort organising competitions such as this and RWAus does it magnificently, relying on volunteers like Tracey Rosen who was the curator for this comp in 2019; volunteer judges who offer insightful feedback over two rounds, and the final judge who is an industry professional. Huge thanks to everyone involved. It’s an awesome program, especially for those of us new to the discipline of writing romantic fiction.
The first two Rosettis books have found a home…
Three weeks ago I entered a SavvyAuthors pitch session and got requests from Passion in Print for the first three chapters, final chapter and synopsis for both of the books I pitched. Then there was the follow up request for the full manuscripts.
I did a check of the usual sites that warn writers about potentially difficult publishers and was pleasantly surprised to find no adverse comments about PinP. Such sites have made me wary, previously, about even following up on some pitch requests. I checked out the PinP web site and found that many of their publications were somewhat racier than what I write and their main brand ManLoveRomance was established to meet the need for a gay romance market – another genre I haven’t even tried to write.
My books are fairly tame by comparison – only a couple of sex scenes and then only within an established relationship. I write strong, independent women who don’t stand for nonsense. Their men have made their own mark in the world and have usually had to overcome some physical or emotional adversity along the way. So a bit different from the PinP catalogue, I thought.
But someone at PinP had read my stories. The quick turnaround times for requests, follow up requests and contract offers made me feel that they truly wanted my books.There was no havering. There was no “let ’em sweat” arrogance.
Two weeks ago, I signed the contracts. In the first week I was given approximate publication dates for August and September, and this week, I find I am already trying to decide which of the wonderful cover selections to choose for ‘Happy with the Millionaire’.
The people at PinP are wonderful to work with and highly efficient. I’ll be running to keep up!
I don’t want to put the mockers on it (Australian expression meaning to jinx) but I can’t wait for the next part of the journey. And I’m looking forward to alerting you to the publication of “Loving the Celebrity Chef” and “Happy with the Millionaire” later in the year.
And here it is – the cover for Ellie’s Return.
Cover Art by Kellie Dennis
at Book Cover by Design
http://www.bookcoverbydesign.co.uk
Thanks to the wonderful example of Rowena Candlish <http://rowenacandlish.blogspot.com> @rowenacandlish, I’ve decided to publish my short story, “Ellie’s Return”. I’ve had the cover for a few weeks now, waiting for me to get all my ducks in a row. I’ll do the reveal of that next week, so that it’s closer to when I’ll publish the story. Having the opportunity to access the Scarlett Rugers Self-Pub Hub, at the RWA conference later this month, was the ultimate catalyst to getting myself organised. The text goes off today for epub formatting. Nervous anticipation!!
Caenys Kerr, Author 