Festival of Romance guest author - Charlie Cochrane

You may have seen that along with lots of other authors I'm going to be at the Festival of Romance at Watford on 21st and 22nd October. To get the ball rolling some of the authors are visiting other blogs. Here's my guest; Charlie Cochrane.

1. What are you looking forward to at the Festival of Romance?


Meeting people. Networking with other authors online is great, but you can’t beat meeting face to face, and sharing experiences (successes and horror stories alike). And, as an author of gay romance, I like to make sure that our part of the genre has a presence at these large events. We had our second UK Meet for authors of GLBT fiction this year; while it was fantastic, being among like minds, there’s a value in mingling with a wider mix of people. I’ve learned so much at, for example, RNA events and I want to carry on learning.



2. What will you be doing at the Festival of Romance?



Taking part in a panel called ‘Not what your mother might expect’ with Erastes and Jo Myles, explaining about gay romances and why they’re different from (and exactly the same as!) het romances. The title is based on a cover quote from the anthology I had my first published story in, ‘Speak Its Name’, which was described as being “Not your mother’s historical romance”. My daughters think that’s hilarious, because it is their mother’s historical.



I’m also hoping to take part in the Novel Openings slot, reading the first words of one of my books. Good luck to whoever has to run that session (I think I may have volunteered), keeping everyone to 150 words, or whatever the magic number is.



3. Why should romance readers come to the Festival?



How much space have I got to answer that?

a) Many readers are themselves aspirant authors. What better way to find out about the business than to come and hear the all the different stories about how we got to be published?

b) There are some really good panels, with the opportunity to ask authors the questions readers might have always wanted to ask and were too scared.

And

c) they can meet those authors face to face, of course—and that’s not in an “Oh wow, look who’s there, swoon,” sort of way. It’s great for us to meet readers (whether they read your books or not) and find out what they want from stories, and from the market. Please come and tell us!
Visit Charlie at Her Blog
To find out more about the Festival of Romance Go Here!