We laughed and laughed all through the weekend, in fact it started in the taxi on our way there. The taxi driver asked where we were heading and we said to a romance writers conference…. big mistake!!! He then handed us something he’d written, complete with pen, and asked us to look at it. Luckily for me I can’t read in a car because it makes me feel sick. So, Amanda took charge. After assuring him several times that it was very well written, and that no it didn’t need any more emotion (it turns out it was a sermon he was giving about the composer Hayden and his religious beliefs) he allowed us to pass it back to him. But then, having discovered that Amanda’s husband is a composer decided us regale us with his version of Ave Maria (hummed!!).

The conference was so slick, the workshops amazing and getting the chance to meet all the people I’d only known online was awesome. And of course catching up with people I already know, and love, was fab too.

So here are my some of my photos:

Amanda and Christina (my fab CPs) also known as the Tiara Girls, or as we’ve now decided to rename ourselves the Tiara Mafia…. which we thinks sounds more kickass!!!!

Me by the Sydney Opera House, it was awesome!

The Tiara Mafia at the cocktail party

Cocktail party: I can’t remember the name of the person on the left, sorry, who we met; Amanda, Christina, Giovanna, Kris, Trish Morey.

Me, Emily Gee/May, Amanda at the cocktail party – Emily is trying on the Tiara for size.

It was fantastic to meet Vanessa Barneveld again and she came out to dinner with us on the Sunday.

At our YA workshop: me, Amanda and the fabulous Robyn Grady who introduced us, and lived to tell the tale!!

Emily and Barb enjoying drinks in our room before the awards dinner!!!

That’s it for photos, I wish I’d taken more. I can’t believe I don’t have any of the fabulous Rachel (soon to be neighbor), Amy, Allison Rushby, Anna Campbell, Maxine Sullivan, Kerri Lane, Louise, Nalini……. I could go on forever.

Next year I’ll try better!

Please will you tell us about your latest book:

My debut book “The Millionaire’s Seductive Revenge” was a February release in the USA and will soon be a June release in Australia and New Zealand. It’s the first book in the miniseries called “Australian Millionaires – Affluent, Influential… Impossible to Resist!”

I’m thrilled to say that on its release in the States, it reached #3 on the Waldenbooks Bestseller List for two weeks in a row.

How long have you been writing and what made you start?

I’ve been writing forever. Actually, it’s well over 20 years because I have a rejection slip from Mills and Boon dated 1986. But I was writing even before that, though back then I had no idea I should keep records so I could talk about it twenty years later. J

As to what made me start, it’s my mother’s fault. Yes, she willingly takes the blame for this. She’s an avid romance reader, who got me hooked on all those early romances back in the seventies. I can still see those covers and remember my favourite authors, and how excited I was when it was time for a new supply of books to be released.

Everyone loves a good call story, what was yours?

I decided to enter the eHarlequin Desire logline contest, where I submitted a couple of sentences about my story and won the chance with 9 others to do an online pitch to the senior editor of Desire, Melissa Jeglinski. So I did an online pitch to Melissa on 9^th January 2006. She asked a couple of questions about the manuscript and said to send her the full, which I did on 16th January.

Not quite two weeks later I was sitting down having my first cup of coffee, reading through the writing digests, when I got an email from my agent saying that she hopes I get her email before going to work and to please call her. I froze. I told my husband and he said to get on the phone. I said I couldn’t and that it was probably a rejection anyway. Talk about fear of success!

But I bit the bullet and picked up the phone. My agent said she had some good news for me – that Melissa had called her and she loved my manuscript and wanted to buy it. I was stunned, then I said I had to tell my husband. I threw open the study door to tell him but he was already waiting on the other side and had heard me talking. So we were laughing and talking and I was saying I couldn’t believe it. I’m not one to scream and shout but you can bet I was happy, if not a little numb.

Then my agent and I got down to the details of the sale. I had some minor revisions to do first, but thankfully the senior editor was interested in a second manuscript, and also in a third one that I hadn’t completed at the time. Those three manuscripts ended up being the “Australian Millionaires” miniseries.

What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

Believe in yourself and in your stories and don’t ever let anyone take that faith away from you. And whether you get enough rejections to kill a tree or not, it doesn’t mean that you can’t write or that your stories don’t have value. But also be prepared and know that most writers need to ‘pay some sort of dues’ first and accept that’s the way of the universe. So take that time and learn all you can about publishing and the writing itself. It will come in handy one day.

Can you tell us about what you’re working on now and what books are coming out in the future?

In 2006 I sold 4 books to Silhouette Desire. The first three are all set in tropical Darwin, in the Northern Territory of Australia, and are a part of the “Australian Millionaires” miniseries. The heroes in those three books are best friends who find their match in some feisty heroines.

My second book in the series, “The Tycoon’s Blackmailed Mistress” will soon be published in May 2007 in the States, and then Down Under in July 2007. The third book, “The Executive’s Vengeful Seduction” will be published in August 2007 in the States, and October 2007 in Australia and New Zealand.

And I’m very excited about my fourth Desire, which is part of the “Diamonds Down Under” continuity series with five other Australian and New Zealand Desire authors. The first in the series is due to be published in January 2008 by Bronwyn Jameson, followed by Tessa Radley in February 2008, myself in March, Jan Colley in April, Paula Roe in May, and the final book in the series by Yvonne Lindsay in June 2008. It’s an exciting series that is going to be something really special.

Bio:

Maxine Sullivan’s dream came true in January 2006 when she sold her first book to Silhouette Desire. Maxine currently lives in Melbourne, Australia and is delighted to be one of the few Australians to write for the Silhouette Desire line. She can be contacted through her website at http://www.maxinesullivan.com

Thank you so much, Maxine. It’s been an absolute pleasure.