From the committee
The EdNSW committee met on 8 March for its monthly meeting via Zoom, with four apologies.
Minutes of the February committee meeting were accepted and actions from previous meetings reviewed.
Written reports received included:
- branch budget commentary with preliminary estimates for February 2022
- membership
- mentoring
- networking
- news editor’s
- presentation schedule and evaluation survey summary.
Reports were received from our delegates to the Accreditation Board and the Communications and Style Standing Committee.
Our speaker presentation on 1 March was What’s in a world? World-building in fiction presented by Jess Gately. World-building in science fiction and fantasy writing is one of Jess’s favourite topics and this was evident in her excellent presentation. (See the report in the General Interest section in this issue of Gatherings.) A recording of the meeting will be available for online purchase (and free if you paid to attend).
There will be no speaker presentation in April, as is now our custom. Our next speaker presentation is on 3 May 2022. Wendy Davies will present The heart of editing a romance.
Thanks to all registrants who completed our evaluation survey after the last speaker presentation. It showed a high level of satisfaction with Jess’s presentation and we received some great ideas for future topics. The committee has established a new working group for speaker presentations and we are already planning next year’s events.
Thanks to all members who responded to our callout to the regions to organise future editors’ lunches. The response was enthusiastic and we look forward to confirming some of these networking opportunities for our members soon.
Four new IPEd Associate members joined the branch in February.
Our financial position remains sound. Preparations have begun for our Annual Branch Meeting in August 2022 and continue for our 2022–23 budget.
By Paul Anderson and Russell Noakes
Events
Many EdNSW events will continue to be held via Zoom.
Members: check your email for the latest information on any event.
Bookings via the IPEd Events webpage.
There is no speaker presentation planned for April.
Details of our next events are below.
The heart of editing a romance – speaker presentation
Date: Tuesday 3 May 2022, 7.00 pm AEST
Location: online via Zoom
Details: Editing a romance is so easy…right? Well, no, it’s not. Editors need to be aware of many factors if they want to venture successfully into this very popular marketplace. The talk will look at differences between editing romance stories and other fiction, and the need to look out for things like point of view changes; recognising the author’s voice; deep characterisation; and the biggest no-no of all: telling, when showing would enrich and deepen the reader’s experience. The talk will include a live demonstration of editing a romance story, showing valuable hints and tips and anecdotes based on the speaker’s editorial experience.
Presenter: Wendy Davies, Vice-President of the Romance Writers of Australia, is an award-winning romance author who is, at heart, an editor. She recently relocated to NSW after living in Melbourne her whole life.
She has worked for the Victorian Education Department as a Senior Online Editor; as a technical writer; and has edited or written many professional and business documents before turning to writing romances.
Wendy has entered or judged almost every Romance Writers of Australia (RWA) competition, winning one in 2017. She has had two of her short stories included in the RWA annual Spicy Bites and Sweet Treats anthologies. Wendy was the development editor for the 2020 Spicy Bites anthology and proofreader (not her favourite activity) for the 2021 Sweet Treats volume.
Wendy writes under the name Wendie Daniels, creating romantic suspense stories, and also some small-town, rural romances.
Book: here.
Copyright in relation to online presenting and training – speaker presentation
Date: Tuesday 7 June 2022, 7.00 pm AEST
Location: online via Zoom
Details: TBC.
Presenters: Rosanna Arciuli and Virginia Morrison
Book: here.