Did you know ...

That Anne Gracie is a person? Yeah - a human person with two arms, two legs and a head just like you?

It's funny because I've read nearly all her books and to me she is an Author. An author is a sort of demigod, who sits at their computer casting spells over their characters and vola, alakazam - a book is magically birthed out into the fiction world for me to down load onto my iPad  and read with a cup of tea. Of course I know it isn't that simple and that a lot of blood sweat and tears go into every page. But they are demigods because they can do it - they can bring a book to life.

But she is a person - like me. She is a lovely person and was very happy to talk to a small group of women about the joys of writing. Full of enthusiasm for writing and the Regency era, she made the somewhat daunting task of getting published seem achievable to everyone in the room - for which I am entirely grateful! The horrible presence of doubt is obviously one of the major stumbling  blocks in the isolated business of writing. And yet when you talk to someone in the flesh it doesn't seem so sinister. So Anne Gracie is a person - just like me; I can be an author too. I will fight, spill blood, kill people, torture people, make them cry and kiss and then eventually I'll make them fall in love, and I too will be a demigod.

For me it was a nice experience to meet face to face an author I admire, and also my first human contact with another RWA member. I did come across the first negative for buying digital books - you can't get them signed! But was lucky enough that she was selling copies of her latest book 'The accidental wedding', which is the only one of her books I don't have, at a bargain price (!) and she even signed it for me - yay!

Thanks Anne; see you at the conference in August!