Sunday 24 August 2014

The Birth of Breathless In the Bush

The Breathless in the Bush blog officially launches today. Welcome and thank you for visiting. 

One of the longest-established groups affiliated with Romance Writers of Australia, BITB is a group who love romance fiction. RWA’s inaugural President, Lynne Wilding, formed the first group which met once a month to critique, network and share knowledge of all things romance writing. Then one day a sad thing happened. The group had slowly lost its way and Lynne had no choice but to close it.
Lynne Wilding

Some members accepted Lynne’s decision easily. Others weren’t as keen. Enisa Haines (RWA founding member), Malvina Yock, Lynne Boyd, Helene Cowan and Katrina Oswald loved romance fiction and their desire to write was too strong to let go. What to do? Malvina suggested we five members form a new group and she would lead. Each of us responded with an enthusiastic ‘yes’ and this new group came into existence. We let it be known that new members dreaming of publication in romance fiction were always welcome. New members came, and the group grew.

We were official. We were real. We needed a name for the group. Suggestions abounded, some greeted with frowns, others with lacklustre shrugs. Then Enisa said, ‘How about “Seduction in the Shire”?’ Groans echoed around the group. Not giving up, Enisa tried again, this time suggesting Breathless in the Bush.

Everyone smiled as a chorus of 'Yes' rebounded round the table. The name reflected not only our area, suburbs mere steps away from bushland and bordered by eucalyptus trees, but also revealed our love of romance. A perfect name.

An eclectic group with a common goal
BITB started as a small group of aspiring writers. Today we are larger and stronger, currently with thirteen members. We write contemporary, historical, romantic suspense, paranormal, speculative fiction, and sweet. We have published authors and those yet-to-be published, each willing to share their writing journey with you here at the Breathless in the Bush blog where we "love to love, love to laugh, and love to learn".


We LOVE TO LOVE the RWA conferences, catching up with old friends and making new ones. Sydney was sensational (thanks to Shannon Curtis and her wonderful team) and the Melbourne conference promises to be just as fantastic (Go girls!). We’ll kinda miss the blood-spatter curtains, though.


We LOVE TO LAUGH at ourselves. Devils’ eyes, what devils’ eyes??


We LOVE TO LEARN anything and everything about romance writing.


But what we’d really love is for you to visit our blog each 
Monday and get to know us and our take on the romance genre that we love. 


A prize for one lucky commenter each hour throughout the day. Please check back after 5pm to see if you are a winner.