I don’t know how things are where you are, but here we are still working remotely, staying close to home, and trying to help flatten the pandemic curve. For me, that means I’ve been staring at the same walls for quite some time now.
I’m definitely ready for a fun distraction.
Fortunately, I found just the thing in my news feed the other day, thanks to a post by Julia Quinn. I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the Australian Romance Readers Association (I wasn’t), but if you’re not, now may be a good time to remedy that.
On the weekend of August 1-2, they’ll be running a Romantic Rendezvous (Locked Down) event on their YouTube channel. Here’s the blurb:
In March 2020, with all of Australia locked down due to COVID-19, we started planning for a very special event … A Romantic Rendezvous (Locked Down). The basic idea was pretty simple—contact all our very favourite authors and ask them to record a short interview for us. We would then post all those recordings to our YouTube channel on the weekend of 1–2 August, as an online convention.
The idea grew—a lot! We now have a program that boast 50 separate sessions, with nearly 70 authors taking part. As the convention is taking place online, it means that you can take part from wherever you are. Don’t miss this opportunity!
We’ll also be running two fabulous competitions over the weekend …
Authors participating include many familiar names including: Anne Stuart, Eloisa James, Ilona Andrews, Julia Quinn, Suzanne Brockman, and Jennifer Crusie.
You can find the full program here.
Even if you don’t have a full weekend to spare watching YouTube videos, there is bound something to catch your interest. And, since the event is via YouTube, it will be accessible for viewing later.
I’ve got a few sessions penciled in including:
Feature interview: Jennifer Crusie
Collaborations: Anne Stuart and Jennifer Crusie
Feature interview: Julia Quinn
That ought to brighten up my weekend and, fingers crossed, be just the thing to jump-start my creativity. Now I just need to convert the session times from Australian Eastern Standard Time to Pacific Standard Time and I should be good to go.
So, what have you found to distract you recently? Anything fun to share?
Eight Ladies Writing 
This sounds like a lot of fun! Thanks for the tip, Elizabeth. I’m in.
I’d love to hear what you think of it afterward. I hope we both enjoy it.
Oh, thank you! There’s so much cool stuff going online with the CoronaTimes, and I just never feel ready to commit to it. But this sounds like a must-watch. I put it on my calendar!
I hope you enjoy it, Michaeline.
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