Last Thursday I attended my first RNA summer party – my first ever RNA ‘do’ at all – and what a blast it was. To meet other writers – many of whom I’d only met online before – and celebrate a clutch of new writers for the Joan Hessayon Award was the very best kind of fun. Special big fat congratulations to the indomitable Brigid Coady who was 2015’s worthy winner. Brigid’s book – No One Wants to be Miss Havisham – sounds fantastic and she gave a blinding acceptance speech: funny, modest, touching. She even cried though she said she wouldn’t!
It was fantastic to catch up with people I work with – like Hazel Cushion, MD extraordinaire of Accent Press, and Helen Corner, the powerhouse and inspiration behind literary consultancy Cornerstones – and fellow authors like Liz Harris (whose photos I’ve filched for this blog post), Sue Moorcroft, Georgina Troy, Julie Cohen, Nicola May, Lynne Shelby, Alison Knight and many, many others. I’d bore you rigid if I listed everyone here.
Quite honestly, I wasn’t sure if the RNA was my ‘tribe’ – after all, my work isn’t straight-down-the-line romance, though love is a recurring theme, and in my forthcoming novel Redemption Song (January 2016) it is a dominant theme, along with forgiveness and, durgh, redemption. But after Thursday evening, I don’t really care if my work isn’t classic romance because RNA members are a gorgeous and wonderful bunch and I’m honoured to part of the clan. Here are a few photos.
Laura Wilkinson 
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