Weekend Event: Romance Writers of Australia (RWA) 2013 Conference + Claytons

This weekend the Romance Writers of Australia (RWA) kick of their annual conference, this time located in Fremantle. They have a fantastic line-up of author talks, writing workshops and book signing events. Guest speakers include Julia Quinn, Kim Hudson, Nina Bruhns, Sarah Wendall, Laura Bradford and Abby Zidle. Aussie authors Shona Husk, Isolde Martyn, Anne Gracie and Jaye Ford are some of the great authors on showcase at this year's event.I've been a member of RWA for one year and it was one of the best decisions I ever made in my pursuit of becoming published. There are so many useful resources available on the website and I love receiving my monthly Hearts Talk newsletter. There's a supportive network of Australian romance writers that you can network with in the forums and at events such as RWA. I've also linked up with a couple of writing critique partners which has truly been an invaluable experience in improving my writing and my current work in progress.This year I had every intention of attending RWA in Fremantle, but with wedding plans and an overseas honeymoon I returned a little short of cash. So, unfortunately I had to make the tough decision of not going to the RWA this year. I will definitely get there next year though! Instead, this year I am going to log online to the Claytons conference as I did last year and at least get a taster of what I'm missing out on in Freo.There are online workshops held by Alexandra Sokoloff, Sue Grimshaw, Mel Teshco, Tracey O’Hara, Zana Bell and Valerie Parv. There's even a cyber cocktail party on Friday night and a pyjama party on Saturday night! I probably won't log into every author chat but there's definitely a few that I have my sights on and I think will be really worthwile.