ANN PATRICK

Where Dreams become Reality

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WELCOME TO MY WORLD - THE WORLD OF WRITING

ANIMALS AND WRITERS

Have you noticed how many writers seem to be animal lovers?  Is it something that goes together do you think?
Most of them have more than one animal as well.  Some have dogs, some have cats, some have a real menagerie of pets.
What do animal do you have.  Does he want to be with you all the time, especially when you are sitting at the computer.
My dog certainly does.  At 14 he is now starting to slow down, is completely deaf and his eye sight is starting to fail as well.  But as you can see below he is still healthy in all other ways.  In fact when I was outside enjoying the first signs of spring, he was running around like a two year old.
I'd love to hear your animal stories.  Do you as a writer think that we as writers gravitate towards them.  Are they part of our make up.  Is there something within a writer that says, to be complete I must have an animal.  All food for thought.

CONFERENCE TIME

July and August is conference time for writers.  First we have the Romance Writers of America conference, then comes Romance Writers of Australia and finally Romance Writers of New Zealand conference.
If you have never been to the RWA conference in America then it is something that you should plan on doing.  It is massive.  The number of people attending is mind boggling, and the number of workshops is even more so.   I was lucky enough to attend one in 2000 in Washington DC.  I was not prepared for the scale of the conference nor the fact that if I wanted to attend my choice of workshops I would have to run between rooms.  Would I attend it again. Very definitely.
I have been to two Romance Writers of Australia conferences and have thoroughly enjoyed both.  The friendliness of the people is fantastic.  They go out of there way to make you feel welcome.  Its like meeting people that you have known for years.  It is on a smaller scale to the RWA conference, but there still a lot of people and a lot of workshops to attend.
As for the Romance Writers of NZ conference it too is very friendly and welcoming.  On a slighter smaller scale again from both of the above conferences, it nevertheless manages to give value for money as far as workshops go, and again the choice is very hard.
If you haven't been to any of these conferences, I would suggest you start saving now and make an effort to attend at least one.

LOOKING AHEAD TO CONFERENCE

Only five weeks until our conference.....read more here 

WHATS HAPPENING 

We are all gearing up for the Romance Writers of New Zealand coming up in
August.  This is the major event of our writing year... read more here.

WINTER A TIME TO STAY INDOORS

Winter has really set in now here in the Wairarapa of New Zealand...
read more here.

WELCOME TO MY WORLD

 The world I live in a lot of the time is about books..... read more here.