I love living in New Zealand, and being able to meet other writers online. I’ve made some good friends, who are very supportive.

However, there are times when I feel a little isolated geographically, especially when I read about great opportunities there are for other authors. Hopefully one day I’ll be able to get to a conference overseas, and meet some of you in person.

A couple of months ago I met up with an author friend from Christchurch for brunch when she was in Wellington for a family wedding. Gillian St Kevern and I had a wonderful brunch at Gotham, a local café. We chatted for hours about writing—and caught up as it had been years since we’d last touched based in person. In doing so we realised what we’d been missing by not being able to meet up with other authors, and both felt the need for a New Zealand writers group for those of us who write LGBTQ romance. Due to both of us being busy—and a nasty bout of the lurgy that is hitting everywhere here this winter, it’s taken us a while to get organised, but now we are, we’re raring to go.

So, if you’re a Kiwi author primarily writing LGBTQ romance, we want to hear from you! You can find me here and Gillian’s contact details are here.

New Zealand Rainbow Romance Writers are a group of NZ based authors who work primarily in the LGBTQ romance genre. As such, we face a number of challenges specific to our global location and writing genre. The NZRRW is a support group for us to share our experiences, ask advice from people writing for similar audiences, support and encourage each other, set and achieve goals and compare our marketing strategies.

The group consists of a private Facebook group where we share our news and resources, ask questions and give advice. Once a week, a goal post will go up, where members can post their weekly goals. At the end of the week, members can reflect on their progress, promoting accountability.

We’re looking for highly motivated members who are keen both to learn and to share their experiences in a respectful, inclusive environment. As we grow and get a feeling for what our members needs are, we may expand to include finding critique partners, creating anthologies of member’s work, online and offline write-ins, and possibly meet-ups. Any level of writing history is welcome, as are publishing methods–unpublished, self-publishing, traditional, and hybrid authors all welcome.

Founders:
Gillian St. Kevern.
Gillian writes paranormal romance, urban fantasy, historical fantasy, contemporary comedy, and is branching out into mysteries in 2017. She is published with NineStar Press and self-published, and currently based in Christchurch. She is a member of Romance Writers New Zealand, and in addition to writing, works as a freelance editor.

Anne Barwell.
Anne writes across a range of genres, although her favourites are fantasy, SF, and historical. She is published with Dreamspinner Press and DSP Publications, and lives in Wellington. As well as writing, she works in a library, and plays violin in a local community orchestra, so often music has a role in her stories and/or her characters are musicians.