Writing and the Novelistas by Anne Bennett

Anne Bennett writes:

 

All right, I thought it time to write about me and about the lovely Novelistas group that I am part of.  Who are we?  Well Val has told you already, but altogether there are twelve of us and we were formed initially as one of the writing groups affiliated to the Romantic Novelists' Association, that they called Chapters.  What  has evolved from that is a feisty bunch of us who write children's books and fantasy, as well as sagas, historicals and straight romance, both in traditional books and those in e-book format.

I feel this diversity is an enormous benefit and the support given one to another whatever their chosen genre is amazing and what most of our meetings are about, when we all have a chance to relate news as we do a round robin.  We cheer people's successes and commiserate with bad news, and  we also have  a lot of fun and much laughter and we really know how to celebrate launches when people have books published.  Many of you will have seen pictures of these adorning Facebook pages with the cakes and the bubbly and why not?  Life could get very dull if we didn't make time for a little jollification now and then.

And what do I think about the publishing world today?  This is a question I have been asked many times at talks etc around the country.  Well, I think it is an exciting time for writers especially those not as hampered by technology as I am, for if a book cannot be published in the normal way it can be published as an e-book on the net.  Never before has it been so easy to do that, though I am sorry for the publishers that have gone to the wall in the recession.

And what of the future?  Who knows what that will bring? No one does so let's look forward to a new technological age, even if I have some trepidation, it must be overcome because that is the way the world is going.  However difficult it is I feel we must embrace it or be left behind and that is where the Novelista's help is so invaluable.  Thanks to each and every one of you.