Spent an afternooon at Buckler's Hard in the New Forest . Great  place for inspiration if -like me - you write historical romance which involves chapters set at sea. Some of the ships that took place in the Battle of Trafalgar were built here.
As well as the maritime history, the recontructed parts of the village give a great insight into eighteenth century  life. Add the tranquility of the Beaulieu river and a sunny day ...bliss

Hello, just thought I'd let you know about promoting with a free novella, in case anyone would like to know some details.  I Indie published, or self-published, a paranormal novella in May 2011.  It didn't make many sales so I thought I'd make it free to get my name out there as more books are coming out soon.  I didn't expect it to do much.  I live in Canada and publish in the USA through Smashwords and Amazon.  I made the book free at Smashwords, but could not do that at Amazon, but they…

For immediate release

Shortlists for Brand New Romantic Fiction Awards Announced

26 September 2011. The Festival of Romance is delighted to announce the shortlists…

I would love to hear from folks out there regarding your book shopping habits. I'm a big fan of going into a book store and lazing about the aisles, gazing at covers, reading the back summaries, and finally deciding which books to…

Hi there, everyone! I'm looking for some friends and readers over in the UK! I'd love to send my angels on over to ya. The Brethren are the perfect group to head your way. They are enjoying a robust following here in the US, but would like to extend their reach.

I'd like to share  blurbs for my first book in the Brethren Series,…

You may think that's…

In August the Festival of Romance polled 58 UK romantic novelists about the attributes they thought made the perfect man. Over the last month, UK women were invited to take the same poll and here are the results.

The poll asked whether a long list of different attributes were "essential", "desirable" or "not important". Romantic…

Can men get into Romantic fiction?

My name is Justin, I am an administrator on Festival of Romance online and Mr Kate Allan. I have read one conventional romantic novel in my life if you do not count Pride and Prejudice, the Lady Soldier by my wife and Michelle Styles.

I am a history teacher by trade and can day dream and empathise with soldiers of the First World War or medieval people or practically any period of history. I am…

How to add the exciting world of RSS (Really Simple Syndication) from Festival of Romance online to your blog or website!

Want to show the latest posts from any page (including your my network page), blog, group or forum from Festival of Romance online on your website or blog?  If you do:

1)  Look for the RSS symbol (usually at the bottom of the page).

 …

Hello everyone. In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m a bloke. But Kate Allan said you wouldn’t mind if I dropped in here. So you know who to blame if it all goes horribly wrong.

The next thing I should say is that I’m not really a writer of romantic fiction, or indeed (generally speaking) a…

This weekend has been quite the whirlwind for me. I found out yesterday morning that I've been nominated as DEBUT AUTHOR OF THE YEAR at Authors After Dark! This is a very big deal. So big, in fact, AAD has its own week long conference every yearfor all things paranormal.

I introduced myself earlier this year to all of you, but haven't…

What happened to the good old slogan competition? You know those advertising straplines that are just so memorable: 8 out of 10 cats... Beanz Meanz... Vorsprung Durch Technik, Compare the Meerkat. Well, it's back!

The Festival of Romance is on the search for a slogan and here's your chance to win a super prize. There is a pair of day tickets (worth…

Being a full time author is the dream of many a writer. Recently, I quit a job that I'd been working at for 10 and a half years and kind of leapt into the abyss. Though my novel, The Time Baroness, wasn't yet selling enough copies to live off of, it was steadily gaining in Amazon sales each month since its release in April of 2011. I needed time to complete the second book in my series, as well as to spend time promoting The Time Baroness, connecting with readers, and networking with authors…

Within the last month, two major British publishers have announced new romance imprints. At the beginning of August Transworld relaunched the famous Loveswept line as a digital imprint. Loveswept was a major romance publisher in the 1980s and 90s and published 917 titles between 1983 and 1999. The line launched many now big name authors including Tami Hoag and Janet Evanovich and will make classic Loveswept romances…