Fantastic Festival of Romance – a whistlestop tour

October 24, 2011

First let me apologise to the people who had to witness me face down on the plush carpet of the Marquee at Hunton Park, demonstrating how *not* to surf. I’d just finished my research talk, was stuffed full of hand made chocolates and a bit high that people had asked me to sign books for them.

In short, I got carried away. As usual!

You should be able to find lots of reports and photos from the Festival on other blogs and I’ll try and get the links later. This is is just a whistlestop tour of the Friday sessions.

The main thing about the Festival was that it was tremendous fun.

The venue is gorgeous. Hunton Park is a De Vere hotel and the conference facilities are tip top. I so wish I had stayed over and gone to the Festival Ball.

I arrived half way through the Talk of the Ton, a discussion about Regency romance, a genre I’m just discovering. Then I joined in a fun workshop on writing romance led by Sue Moorcroft. I discovered I start most of my books with a hero and that I love writing the Damaged Hero type.

A delicious hot and cold buffet lunch was followed by a quiz on romantic films and books. To our amazement, our team of Nell and Alison, a Scottish historical author we’d only just met, won! We were one woman short in the team, but thanks to the brilliance of Alison, we managed to get at least some of the answers.

Gillian Green from Ebury press then gave a presentation on a new sexy romance line called Rouge, which caused a real buzz. A new line being launched by a big publisher is such a refreshing change in these hard times.

Then it was time for the Research panel. Seven writers told the audience about their niche areas of research, from horses to Regency Theatre and WWII. I fessed up that I write my books to enable me to do the research rather than vice versa, and regaled the audience with some of my attempts to abseil, surf and live in a campervan. But I have to say, Cara Cooper stole the show by sweeping Roger (Gill) Sanderson off his feet for an impromptu Argentine Tango!

The day ended with chocolate. What else? We listened to some extracts from two Choc Lit books while sampling the gorgeous themed chocs made by the Choc Chick.

Finally, after I’d done my carpet surfing, it was off to the bar for a delicious (but very expensive) glass of wine with Nell Dixon, Jean Fullerton and Stevie Carroll before dashing off to the station.

I met so many people I’d only known online, new authors, fellow writers, publishers, readers…if you were there, please come and say hello here or follow me on Twitter and/or Facebook.

I’ll definitely be going to next year’s Festival.

UPDATE: You can find in-depth reports on both days of the Festival at Stevie Carroll’s Live Journal HERE.

Comments

1. On October 24th, 2011 at 4:28 am
   Talli Roland Says:
   

   Yay! So nice to meet you – what a wonderful event. Next time you must stay longer!

2. On October 24th, 2011 at 4:59 am
   Catherine Miller Says:
   

   Lovely to see you there, Phillipa. Will have to stay long enough to see the surfing next year! x

3. On October 24th, 2011 at 5:02 am
   Laura James Says:
   

   Carpet surfing, erotica, historicals, cakes, chocolate, authors, writers, readers …. No wonder we’re all worn out! Brilliant event and much laughter and friendship. A romance all of its own. Great to meet you.

4. On October 24th, 2011 at 5:13 am
   Celia Anderson Says:
   

   So much fun and useful info packed into one short weekend. Great to meet you all, and handy to know how to carpet surf, sure it will come in handy somewhere… x

5. On October 24th, 2011 at 6:15 am
   Moira Briggs Says:
   

   You really aren’t old enough to be allowed out on your own, are you? Carpet surfing indeed.

6. On October 24th, 2011 at 6:28 am
   Nell Dixon Says:
   

   It was enormous fun, and I got to indulge myself (bore everyone else silly) by talking about my secret passion for buildings and cathedrals.

7. On October 24th, 2011 at 7:18 am
   Debs Carr Says:
   

   I thought for a moment that you’d fallen over. I’m always tripping over nothing at all, very embarrassing.

   Glad you had such a fun time and wish I could have seen your surfing. Hopefully I’ll be able to attend the festival next year.

8. On October 24th, 2011 at 10:35 am
   Rachel Lyndhurst Says:
   

   Sounds brilliant! I’ll have to be there next year! XX

9. On October 24th, 2011 at 10:55 am
   Phillipa Says:
   

   Talli, catherine, Laura and Celia – great to meet you all, or at least chat briefly. Wish I could have stayed on.

   Moira – you know me far too well. 🙂

   Nell – your talk was great and you made us all laugh, which is the best way to learn!

   Debs – I keep staying this but one day, our paths will definitely cross. I hope so.

   Rachel – you would have loved it.

10. On October 25th, 2011 at 7:03 am
    Stevie Carroll Says:
    

    It was brilliant to meet you at last, but a shame you missed out on meeting Charlie and Jo. I need to drag more people along next year.

    And I’ve started reading ‘It Should Have Been Me’. Great stuff!

    Thanks for linking to my posts by the way.

11. On October 25th, 2011 at 7:13 am
    Phillipa Says:
    

    Stevie – thanks for the reports! I hope you like ISHBM. Let me know…

12. On October 27th, 2011 at 4:33 am
    Judy Says:
    

    Sounds fab and great to catch the highlights with your excellent round-up. Shame I missed out! jx