Trope Actually, the 2024 Romance Writers of Australia conference

KaetrinConventions / MiscAustralia / RWAus24 / South Australia13 Comments

The Annual Romance Writers Australia** conference was held in my home town of Adelaide over the weekend of 17 and 18 August. So I had to go. It’s the rules.

(**Romance Writers of Australia uses the acronym RWA over here. Of course, RWA in the US means something different, so for ease of understanding, I will refer to Romance Writers of Australia here as RWAus and (the late) Romance Writers of America as RWA (US).)

I’m not an author and it is a writer’s conference so a lot of the presentations didn’t apply to me precisely but it was still interesting seeing a little bit of how the sausage is made, learning a few things about writing craft and, of course, meeting authors – including Christina Lauren (yes really!), BJ Daniels, Amy Barry and Anna Hackett as well as re-meeting authors – Rachael Johns (The Other Bridget will be released in the US in September so I can finally tell you all about it) and Jodi McAlister (author of, among others, Here for the Right Reasons) in particular. Plus I had a chance to catch up with people I’d met in the publishing industry and the blogosphere before, including Kate Cuthbert, co-host of the What Would Danbury Do Podcast which discusses all things Bridgerton (definitely recommended for fans of the show).

For me, the conference kicked off with the Book Signing Event where I hobnobbed with authors and readers and collected signatures and swag – as you do.

Pins are a tradition and culture at RWAus so I got in on the action and ended up with a lanyard covered in them but this was my pride and joy. Tessa Bailey wasn’t there but this pin gave me Wells Whitaker/Burgess “Sir Savage” Abraham vibes. Isn’t she pretty?

After the book signing was the Welcome Cocktail Party, where guests were encouraged to come along dressed as their favourite trope. There were multitudes of runaway brides, various fake boyfriends (usually involving carrying a blow up doll), single dads (fake beard and plastic baby in a carrier), billionaires, Christmas romance, office romance (moi) and one enterprising gentleman who came as “mediocre white guy” among the crowd.

Saturday morning the conference kicked off in earnest with a Welcome to Country from a Kaurna man (pronounced “Gahna”), Robert Taylor,  representing the Aboriginal people on whose land the conference was held. As Australia continues to grapple with the damage of colonialism and white settlement to First Nations people, it is increasingly common to include a welcome or acknowledgement of country – part of our efforts towards reconciliation. At my day job, I start off training sessions with a brief acknowledgement that we stand on Kaurna land and pay respect to elders past present and emerging. Robert’s Welcome to Country was far more than that though – gracious, educational and humorous, as he shared a little about his culture and family.

Then it was BJ Daniels talking about her journey to publishing; there to tell everyone it’s never too late to become an author, having sold her first book at age 50.

Speaking of 50 – Harlequin/Mills & Boon celebrate their 50th anniversary of operation in Australia and New Zealand this year and the conference showcased the history of the publisher from all the way back in the UK and Canada, to what it is today, followed by a panel discussion from HQ and Mills & Boon authors and Dr Jodi McAlister who knows ALL the romance history and has the PhD to prove it.

AI was a big topic of discussion the “What’s Hot and What’s Not” panel featuring representatives from traditional romance publishers in Australia but for the most part it’s pretty obvious, at least at present, if AI has been used within a manuscript and these submissions are quickly rejected. Apart from anything else, AI cannot be copyrighted so authors and publishers need to be wary. I was pleased to see that audio originals and full cast recordings are “hot” and to hear that listening to an audiobook is too reading (there’s even science behind it). But as far as trends? The common theme was that the journey to publishing traditionally is so long that if someone is chasing a trend, it will likely be over by the time the book comes out. The overall message was “write the book that resonates with you”.

I went to the Christina Lauren panel because of course I did. They were delightful and funny and talked about how to co-write. Basically, it involves a high level of trust, open communication, similar ethics and goals and a starting point of believing in the good intentions of the other person. Yes, they do finish each other’s sentences.

After that I attended a panel on building emotional resonance in writing which even for this non-author was fascinating. Then it was off to glam up for the Gala Awards Dinner where authors from Australia and New Zealand are celebrated based on reader vote for the Romantic Book of the Year (RUBY awards) and by author/member panel for the other awards, including those for yet-to-be-published authors. The winners are listed here.

Sunday’s crowd was, understandably, a little more subdued than Saturday’s. Elana Johnson gave a keynote talk about her journey in indy publishing and then there was a panel where the international guest authors “spilled the tea”. I learned that Lauren started out writing fanfic of Days of Our Lives when she was 11. Hearing “Jack and Jennifer” and “Patch and Kayla” took me back.

Afterwards, there were more panels, on tropes and building character, on marketing and Tik Tok, on wills and legacies, with the conference wrapping up with Christina Lauren’s keynote presentation “Tropes, HEA and female joy: how to enjoy longevity in your romance career”. Everyone was tired but happy and bubbling with new ideas by the end of the conference.

~

That was all very fun but I had a more serious mission going into the conference.

There was a panel I had been particularly interested in: “Representation or Appropriation?”. Just before lunch on Sunday, I had the pleasure of listening to a panel of authors, including Jack Bridges and Anita Heiss. Dr Anita Heiss is the first Indigenous woman to be traditionally published in romantic comedy in Australia. (Melanie Saward, with her novel Love Unleashed which released in August this year is only the second.) Dr Heiss, a University of Queensland professor, an author of both fiction and non-fiction, is a Publisher at Large at Bundyi Publishing, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Jack Bridges is a disabled queer trans man who writes romantic and erotic fiction. He is also the chair of the RWAus DEI Committee (and a member of the RWAus Committee and the Conference Committee.

The panel acknowledged publishing and romance is still mainly, white, straight, cisgendered and able-bodied. That perennial question arose: should an author write from a perspective not their own? Dr Heiss had a nuanced answer: everyone does – she writes straight men all the time and that’s not her experience. But she knows straight men. They’re in her life and have been for a long time. She interacts with them daily. Approximately 30% of the Australian population were born overseas. Dr Heiss commented that living in Australia, if you’re not interacting from people with diverse backgrounds every day you “need to get out more”. She encouraged authors to write from their experience and the people around them – to write what they know. Unspoken was to know the people around them.  Is the depiction empowering or merely perpetuating stereotypes? She was careful to say that what she’s asking from white authors is not to write First Nations main characters (frankly, she’d very much prefer that to be left for First Nations authors) – but to include First Nations characters in their stories – the hairdresser or the shop assistant, the lawyer or the teacher. Make them visible and show an authentic version of the contemporary world. Dr Heiss also pointed authors to resources such as from the First Nations Australia Writers Network and Creative Australia to help non-Indigenous authors write respectful First Nations characters.

Jack Bridges’s message was mainly to those writing queer and especially trans characters: Be kind. He said that particularly trans kids need, especially now, gentle loving stories. Authors who write from a queer perspective may be queer, they may be straight, or, on a journey to understanding their own queerness and writing a story “opens a window” in their own life. He shies away from assuming the sexuality or gender identity of the author or of demanding to know it. (Of course, exploring queerness and sexuality in a novel is completely different to a white person “exploring Blackness” in novel. One is okay, the other not.) Jack goes on to say that it’s not just disability or gender identity, sexuality, race or ethnicity that writers need to consider – there are any number of biases and lenses we see things through that ought be examined and possibly, challenged. He suggests to consider privilege, stereotypes and prejudice in all the things.

As for the role of publishing in including gender and sexual diversity, racial and ethnic diversity and better disability representation – well maybe we need to change the gatekeepers. There’s not a lot of that at present. Dr Heiss hinted at an announcement later in the year but for now it’s mainly just her efforts at Bundyi Publishing to support First Nations creators from authors, to proofreaders, graphic artists and printers.

After the panel I spoke with Jack Bridges. Most everyone reading this knows that RWA (US) imploded over racism and bigotry. I asked him, as Chair of the DEI Committee, what was RWAus doing to avoid the same fate? He acknowledged it’s a risk RWAus is only in the early stages of addressing. There has only even been a DEI Committee for a couple of years. As he put it, doing just one thing was a “100% improvement”. Jack is vision-impaired and spoke to me of the Committee’s efforts to make this conference accessible, with aisles marked clearly and a quiet space complete with colouring pages and fidget toys for delegates who were overwhelmed by the noise (it was loud pretty much all the time) or who just needed a quite space away from the crowd. I spent a little time in the Quiet Room afterward, writing up my notes and taking in the glorious silence.

I asked Jack what RWAus was doing to increase the diversity in the membership. We agreed that the attendees were predominantly white. Could RWAus have a “nice white ladies” problem just like RWA (US)? Jack acknowledged it was possible, but also said he’d personally been made very welcome and had been treated well by all at the conference. But efforts to actively increase diversity in the organisation have to await the structures to support them – such as a Code of Conduct and Grievance Policy – a project which may take up to two years by the time the words are drafted, run by the lawyers and then put to the membership at an AGM. As he said to me, “we can’t ask people to come unless we can show them they will be safe here”. Will the membership balk at an influx of people from non-white, non-cis, non-straight and/or disabled backgrounds?  Jack and I looked around at the people attending the conference. Of the 400 or so people in attendance, just around a quarter of them were “newbies”. And of them, many of them were young. I commented that I’m heartened by the young people in my trans daughter’s life – who have accepted her in almost every case without a blink. The alpha generation have grown up expecting diversity and accepting it. Whatever happens, Jack tells me, RWAus is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. It’s going to take some time but it will be done.

The comparison between RWAus and RWA (US) is not direct. There is a vast difference in sheer population numbers (roughly 336M to 27M) and a difference in the cultural mix in the two places. As yet, in Australia we don’t have the same level of political tribalism and my thinking is that had its own impact on RWA (US). Still, both places are grappling with very similar issues. RWA (US) failed in its attempt. I wish for RWAus to have success.

~

As I drove home from the Glenelg foreshore I reflected on a comment one of the publishers said at a panel on the first day of the conference: Australia punches well above its weight when it comes to reading and writing. From all reports, the conference was a smashing success – the most well attended one in, well if not ever, a very long time, with the most newbies attending. Romance writing is flourishing in Australia. If the conference is anything to go by and, if it can build on the DEI start it has made, it has a bright future ahead.

With thanks to RWAus for their kind invitation,

~ Kaetrin ~

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