I got some seriously exciting news a month or so ago that I’ve been bursting to tell you about…and now I can…

Ready?

I’ll be presenting a workshop at this years Romance Writers of Australia Conference- Love Gone Wild.

This is huge for me – and will represent the achievement of a bucket list type goal.

My workshop is on how you can use basic astrology to help develop your characters and create the conflict that all storylines need. I wrote a bit about how I do it here, but will be talking a whole lot more about it at the Pullman Hotel in Brisbane in August.

It’s a workshop that’s aimed at anyone with an interest in understanding what makes people tick – and how this can be used to identify the deeper motivations and deal-breakers of the characters that come to life on our keyboard. You don’t need to have an understanding of astrology at all – although you might learn something about yourself if you know your own sign.

Doing presentations like this is one of the things that I pinpointed when I sat down to do my marketing strategy and document my longer-term business goals. I committed to do something this year that would align with this goal – and so I have.

Am I scared? Absolutely. Excited? Absolutely.

I’ve spoken in front of large groups of people before in a corporate environment, but this is different. For a start, this is a subject – and a group – that I care about. I certainly can’t say that about any of the work presentations or training sessions I’ve done in the past. Hopefully none of my bosses – past or present – are reading this.

Seriously though, of course I care about my job, but anything that happens in the partition world is towards the achievement of someone else’s business goals and, as a result, I was detached (to a certain level) from it. This, though, integrates the two subjects I’m most passionate about – astrology and story-telling. And yes, I’m aware that in some circles astrology is story-telling.

The organising committee have shown a lot of faith in me – and having a subject like astrology in the workshop schedule is a departure of sorts from the usual topics offered. I won’t let them down.

Will I see you at this years Romance Australia Conference – Love Gone Wild – in Brisbane? Registrations are now open.