ROSA

Last night I had the pleasure of sitting around a table with seven other South African romance writers. EIGHT of us in one room: that must be a new African record, let alone a South African one!

The time sped past. A quantity of wine was drunk, good food was eaten, and a great deal of laughter and conversation was enjoyed. We shared the stories of our writing journeys, debated the merits of alpha heroes, and laughed over Histerical romances (you had to be there!).

We are all from different backgrounds, originally from different parts of the country (and in Mandy’s case a different continent), we all write different genres of women’s fiction, and we’re all at different stages in the writing journey.
What do we have in common? We love to write. We love to read. We want to be published. Five of us will bravely be doing the NaNo challenge together next month. (NaNo in a Nutshell for the newbies). Four of us are Geminis, three are Scorpios and we had one Libran present to keep us all in balance.

In spite of the wine (or perhaps because of it) we agreed that we like the idea of starting an association for romance writers here in South Africa, and we even voted for a name. The verdict was almost unanimous.
In the interests of democracy and transparency, the votes were tallied as follows: [Considering the number of Geminis present, it’s not surprising we had so many votes!]

ROSA (Romance Organisation of South Africa) – 7 votes
RWSA (Romance Writers of South Africa) – 4 votes
SARW (South African Romance Writers) – 1 vote

Or perhaps that should be Romance writing Organisation of South Africa?

A massive thank you goes to Delene who hosted us, and to Anthony for keeping order and taking notes. Congratulations go to Bronwyn and Anthony whose debut novels for Nollybooks will be on sale in a CNA or Exclusive Books near you on Valentine’s Day, and also to Annemarie who discovered that her ‘rejection’ letter was really a request from an editor.

I highly recommend that the writers in Cape Town and Natal arrange a get-together. Even if it’s just over a cup of coffee at a convenient Mugg & Bean. I hope you enjoy meeting other romance writers as much as we did, and that you come away as inspired as I did!