The Editing Cave

Last month I was admiring my award ribbons and reflecting on my success at the Romance Writers of New Zealand (RWNZ) 2025 Conference where Masquerade—Choosing Family Book 1 did very well against internationally successful authors, including multi-published Harlequin Mills & Boon authors placing second in long romance and third in overall book of the year (e-book available from all major booksellers, while a paperback version can be bought through Amazon or Barnes & Noble).

This month, I’m late with my newsletter because I’ve been buried in edits.

I tend to become very focused when I receive my edits for a book. I lock myself in a room until I think I’ve addressed every question, plus tidied up phrasing where I realise I should have been more precise.

This book is a bit different for me. Finding Cleo is a standalone contemporary romance set in Helsinki, Finland where two Australians meet almost by serendipity. It releases in March 2026. I love it, but I love all my books, when I’m knee-deep in the creation process.

There were two main triggers for this one. One was falling in love with Helsinki on a very brief stay there a few years ago. Mixed up with that was my interest in the obscure—as then—unsolved assassination of the PM of Sweden, Olof Palme in 1986 while walking home from a cinema. I’m not writing an historical novel, but I could imagine how an unsolved assassination in a peaceful country could tantalize and fascinate investigative journalists and writers over generations.

My lead female character, Cleo Montford, is the daughter of an investigative journalist, Hugo Montford who was with her father in Sweden eight years ago, when Hugo was working on the story. Unfortunately, he was killed in an accidental gas explosion on his way to meet a contact.

My main male character is Jack Spencer, a successful Australian author with severe author’s block (yep, we’ve all been there). Jack’s read Hugo Montford’s work in the past, and seen the annual stories of Hugo’s death—portrayed by his wife as a political assassination. While Olof Palme’s death is a genuine mystery, Hugo’s death was very much a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The contrast intrigues him, and he decides to follow Hugo’s last investigation as the basis for a thriller.

You’ll have to read it to find out what happens next. I know, I know, you’re already wondering what I did with those characters and details.

Anyway, back to first edits, the grind of reviewing page by page, paragraph by paragraph, scene by scene to see if the story works. Editors do this, and I’ve learned not to overlook a single question asked, or suggestion made, or poor transition identified, or “a WTF just happened because it sure as hell wasn’t clear” reaction.

Editing is time consuming, and my editor needs track changes, so the pages can get very messy. I also need to see the text from a variety of angles. So, I print a version and scroll through the lot to see if there are easy fixes. Then I focus on more complex questions and rewrite those sections in my computer-based version. When I think I’ve got that sorted, I save the document as a pdf, so I can review a clean copy as a final book. I read as an editor might, looking for inconsistencies that have resulted later in the book from fresh changes I’ve made. Then, I fix what I find there. And yet again, I print and check every individual question and query. Would you believe, this time I found something I hadn’t addressed smack bang in the middle of the first page?

Whew! Done. They’re be more rounds of edits, but this is the major developmental one, and I find I save myself time in the long run if I devote lots of concentrated time to this first round.

Upcoming 1: Taylor’s Law—The Anderson Sisters Book 1

Taylor’s Law, Second place in RWNZ 2023 Koru Awards—Best First Book will be discounted to $0.99 from 10-24 October 2025. Don’t miss your chance to pick up a copy if you don’t already have one, or buy it for a friend.https://jenniferrainesauthor.com/anderson-sisters/

Upcoming 2: A festive anthology

I’ve done something completely different, or different for me. I’ve written a short story in first person point of view (POV), just to see if I can. RWNZ runs  a short story competition (1800 words only) with the best stories included in a e-booklet to members. Merger placed third. Boy was I chuffed, especially because there were some short story specialists in the finalists. Mixing it with the top performers gives you a real lift as an author trying to find her place in a very crowded market.

My publisher, Inkspell Publishing, Melissa Keir decided to do a festive anthology of short stories by authors in her stable. So, I added some depth and words to Merger and it will be released in October 2025 under the title Inkspell’s Enchanted Holidays, so watch this space.

Upcoming 3: Australian Romance Readers Association’s (ARRA’s) annual author signing for 2026.

I’ll be signing at ARRA’s A Romantic Rendezvous in 2026 in Sydney. I’m looking forward to chatting with you about TBR piles, what I’ve got coming out, what we love about romance, our favourite bookshops and trends. ARRA has been hosting romance book-signing events since 2009, and they are always so much fun. I can’t wait to see you there!

Want to be the first to know when tickets and special prizes drop? Join the official Facebook group to keep up to date with all announcements: https://www.facebook.com/groups/arr2026attendees

Tickets will go on sale in October, but in the meantime you can put your name in the draw to win the Golden Ticket. One lucky reader will win an all-day access pass (panels, lunch and signing) to the city of their choice—Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne or Perth.

Just fill in the entry form to go in the draw: https://forms.gle/k5LrU3cEsz3khGFb9

And don’t forget to join the ARR2026 Facebook Group for all the latest news.

You can find me and my books here: website FaceBook Instagram

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You can also contact me directly via the contact page on my website if you have any other questions.

Heart of a Story

This last weekend 15-17 August 2025 was the Romance Writers of New Zealand annual conference held in Auckland NZ this year, and entitled Heart of a Story.

I’d forgotten how much I love RWNZ’s conferences. I haven’t been there since before Covid, but this year I decided to attend. Okay, I confess, I was nominated in the 2025 RWNZ Koru Awards in the Best Long Romance section for Masquerade—Choosing Family Book 1. The categories are long romance, short romance, novella, best new book, with marks also used to choose the finalists in the Overall Book of the Year Award.

In case you’re interested, the e-book is available from all major booksellers, while a paperback version can be bought through Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

And to be scrupulously honest, I wanted to be in the room when the results were called, just in case. The competition was fierce so, I arrived with my heart in my mouth.

In the Best Long Romance list, I was up against Alison Roberts, Alyssa J Montgomery and Caroline Corvin. All published by some of the big traditional publishers, whereas I’m with a small independent US publisher called Inkspell Publishing, and believe me, size does matter when you’re trying to find your place in this industry. I was over the moon with my second place, and my table at the Awards dinner, comprising people I didn’t know or had met that day, cheered for me. That’s another thing I like about RWNZ conferences—everyone is a supporter.

Next surprise—my name appeared on the Koru Best Overall Book of the Year. The smile on my face was growing wider and wider. The Award went to Fiona McArthur’s, Healing the Baby Doc’s Heart, (short romance) but I came third. More cheers from my table. You’ve got to love a loud and supportive crowd. To even be in this list is a huge honour.

I’m putting in links because you might fancy checking out their sites to see what sorts of goodies they offer, apart from books, that is.

I couldn’t make it to the Friday workshops, but by all reports they were a huge success.

  • Anna Hackett’s was Short Story, Big Impact (<7,500 words). I’m playing with short stories at the moment, so the program notes were particularly helpful. One of the teasers in the program said:

Where does beauty come from in the short story?

Beauty comes from form, from development of idea, from after effect. It often comes from carefulness, lack of confusion, elimination of waste.

Eudora Welty.

Saturday started with keynote speakers. The titles alone are enough to spark your interest, and the author presenters delivered humorous, informative sessions which made me think as well as inspired me.

  • Sarah MacLean, The Romance Revolution; The power and purpose of the romance novel in a fast-changing world.
  • Rachael Johns, Finding your ‘why and hanging on through doubt, burnout and everything in between
  • Steffanie Holmes, Behind the doors of a 7-figure author business.

Impossible to attend all the afternoon sessions, but I chose one on using AI translation services to monetize your backlist and a second on marketing strategies, partly to address my ignorance on AI translation services and to re-energize my marketing approach. What marketing strategy, you may ask? You can see why I needed this session.

More keynotes and panels on Sunday, but the standout of the day for me was Daniel Watterson, The impact of AI on creative rights, a topic every creative needs to learn more about. Daniel has a history as an actor, lawyer and is now protecting creatives’ rights. He was fascinating and provided enough links on where to start in understanding AI’s impacts on writers. I don’t use AI in my writing, apart from spell check and google searches because it’s my stories I want to tell, but the use of AI in a variety of ways from writing a synopsis to a blurb to improving your prose is a live and controversial issue.

A fabulous weekend, all organised and run with the generosity and skill of volunteers. I’m still smiling.

An end point:

As writers, we can always learn, so participating in conferences, joining writers’ groups, touching base with like-minded people always sparks ideas for me. In a recent Australian Romance Readers Association newsletter (Issue: 191 June 2025-available to subscribers) Kelley Armstrong was interviewed. She made a comment that really resonated with me.

What tropes do you most enjoy writing?

My favourite tropes to write are second-chance and friends-to-lovers. Both allow me to start with an established relationship. The characters have a past together, which fast-tracks the romantic arc. Otherwise, I may end up with a very slow burn.

I’ve written a friends to lovers and recently, a second chance novella, but they’re not my preferred tropes. However, I do want my characters to get to know each other before they tumble into bed, despite almost immediate attraction. My books have been described by some readers as slow burn. Please note: not “very slow burn””. Kelley Armstrong gives a very good reason why.

You can find me and my books here: website FaceBook Instagram

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You can also contact me directly via the contact page on my website if you have any other questions.

Getting Published in Romance

I recently participated in a podcast where I was asked a number of questions by an indie romance author. The discussions in her podcasts are guided by questions she has about the industry, and which she hopes will resonate with other writers just starting out. She’s preparing a few podcasts before she goes live, but she was particularly interested when I mentioned associations.

That got me thinking. I joined Romance Writers of Australia (RWAus) very early in my writing career. A family member spotted an ad for a conference and suggested I attend. I felt very alone in the crowd, but I signed on as a member. I eventually did some time on the executive as the editor of the monthly newsletter. In those early days, it was a print and post to members newsletter which is very different from today’s attractive web-based version.

Reflecting on my past experiences, and where I am now, and what I know now, joining RWAus was an accidental, but brilliant, first step to becoming a published author. It opened up opportunities in a collaborative, supportive environment to enter writing contests, to attend conferences, to pitch to international editors and publishers, and to network with other beginning writers and published authors who have offered varying levels of support from being cheerleaders to mentors to early readers of my various masterpieces!

Along with the networking, membership of an association ran in parallel with the development of my craft. I expanded my membership of organisations to include Romance Writers of New Zealand (RWNZ), Romance Writers of America(RWA.org) and the Australian Romance Readers Association (ARRA).

The writers’ organisations all offered craft workshops either as part of a conference, online or via the monthly newsletters. Advice was  provided by multi-talented teachers and authors. Initially, most organisations and chapters offered competitions with editors and publishers as final judges. Winning a contest can be a great way to find a home for your manuscript. RWAus and RWNZ still offer competitions for both published and unpublished authors, but changes around 2020 in RWAmerica mean that fewer competitions are available to US chapter members.

I stopped writing for a while—life getting in the way—and when I started again, I reactivated my memberships. I was a bit of a silent member, sitting at the back of conferences, feeling uncomfortable about butting in on existing groups of friends or colleagues, but hey—get over it! Whether you are published by a large publisher, or a small one, or take the indie road, you are expected to sell yourself through social media and public appearances.

I found the perfect re-entry point through the Sydney based RWAus members. They have a monthly catchup and share writing progress, industry gossip, trends, and achievements or failures. Other members have answers to questions I’ve mulled over in private for some time. I go home invigorated and inspired after a meeting.

In fact, it’s as a result of this group that I attempted my first short story in 2025, and while I usually write third person POV, I experimented with first person POV, so I was thrilled to final in the RWNZ Story in a Chapter competition and to place third.

Writing is a solitary endeavour, and I take quite a long time to get to know my characters, so I can do justice to their story. Having encouragement from a wide romance writing community makes all the difference.

My latest release is An Accidental Flatmate—Choosing Family Book 5, although all my books can be read as standalones. The elevator pitch:

🔺Casildo and Beatriz, chance flatmates, friends to lovers, family expectations, and promises we come to regret …🔻

You can find me and my books here: website FaceBook Instagram

Find me on

You can also contact me directly via the contact page on my website if you have any other questions.

Accidents do happen!

Once upon a time, a friend told me that readers like series.

I’d always written standalones.

“Readers enjoy dipping in and out of the lives of characters they’ve already met”, they said.

So I girded my loins and decided to tackle a series. The Anderson Sisters. Two books. I’m not sure that actually counts as a series. The titles are Taylor’s Law and Grace Under Fire, but because I don’t want readers to feel they’ve been left hanging by a thread or one step from the edge of a cliff, they can each be read as standalones.

Have I said, I like standalones?

I decided to be bold for my next series and make it three books. I started with two sets of identical twins. Six individuals. One twin from each set fell in love with each other (Masquerade-Book 1), but the other twins found their true loves elsewhere (Quinn, by design-Book 2 & Betrayal-Book 3). The series is called Choosing Family.

I also started with the idea that life sometimes delivers thorns when you want roses, that is, you wake up to find yourself in a dysfunctional family. Families may have gone pear-shaped for any number of reasons—death, divorce, war, forced separation, ill-health, violence, poverty or just bad luck. But to balance that, all my books also offer examples of loving close families.

Yes, Virginia, there are happy families in the world.

In March 2025, I added A Just Man-Book 4 to the list. I had an idea looking for a home, and with some sleight of hand, it fitted the theme of Choosing Family.

And so we come to An Accidental Flatmate—Book 5 releasing on 8 July 2025. Although pre-orders are available now from your favourite bookseller.

Accident:

  1. an unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury
  2. an event that happens by chance or that is without apparent or deliberate cause

In this book, I opt for the second definition. Neither of the main characters intended to share an apartment. They each arrived believing it was empty. But, hey, now we’re here, let’s see what happens.

And without conscious thought—can I say that when I actually created these people?— they both come from biggish, loving families. An accident? Or kismet?

Casildo and Beatriz both love their families, but sometimes love comes with obligations. Many migrant families struggle to gain their feet in a new country. Parents may carry obligations to support other family in their home country, as well as helping their children to flourish in a new land. Children may feel responsible to help their parents when their peers have no such responsibilities. Love is complicated. That’s what An Accidental Flatmate is about.

But as I often say, I write romance, so I look for the triumph of love and loyalty.

I’m taking a break from the Choosing Family series. It may be permanent, or I may discover characters who insist on being part of that world. The current set includes:

Masquerade—Book 1 🔺 a masquerade, a road trip, a steamy attraction and Kate & Liam discover the steps they took to protect their hearts might break them🔻

Quinn, by design—Book 2 🔺antiques shop owner Lucy vs woodworker Niall, a debt vs a gift, opposites attract, and then there’s that will…🔻

Betrayal—Book 3 🔺accidental enemies Anna & Hunter, a shared project, explosive secrets, but passion has its own rules …🔻

A Just Man—Book 4 🔺Kelly & Mick, old enemies, job sharing, house sharing, unexpected lovers, until the present bears an eerie resemblance to the past .. 🔻

An Accidental Flatmate—Book 5 🔺Casildo & Beatriz, chance flatmates, friends to lovers, family expectations, and promises we come to regret … 🔻

My next book is a standalone entitled Finding Cleo. It’s set in Helsinki, Finland with Australian characters due for release in March 2026. More about it later. Plenty of time for you to pick up one of my earlier books, if you haven’t already, and let me know what you think.

You can find me and my books here: website FaceBook Instagram

Find me on

You can also contact me directly via the contact page on my website if you have any other questions.

Hero or heroine—same, same but different?

I found myself going down this rabbit hole after reading  a recent article by Anastasia Safioleas on ABC online— Romantasy isn’t just hot, it’s shaping modern day fairy tales.

The article interviews Australian romance author and academic Dr. Jodi McAlister and some devotees/Tiktok influencers about their passion for the genre. As Dr. McAlister reminded us romance only has two rules, a central love plot and a happily-ever-after. Fantasy is about imagining impossible or improbable things.

Romantasy roughly translates as romance plus fantasy, and while the genre isn’t new, the term is. Current romantasy probably steps up the “steamy, graphic” sex compared to earlier stories, but world building is the genre’s strength. The appeal for many is the escape into a new, different and potentially wonderful world.

I was struck by the comment of one influencer, Sabine, who says she enjoys romantasy because “real life doesn’t cut it”.

“While contemporary or urban fiction is great and all, it doesn’t take me far enough. I want a full-blown escape. Send me to live with the Fae, teach me healing magic, and throw in a dangerously attractive, brooding ancient MMC  who falls hopelessly in love with a seemingly ordinary female lead. Bonus points if he’s ready to burn the world down for her. It’s the ultimate fantasy.”

MMC or main male character is a modern term, used instead of protagonist or even hero. FMC is a female main character, and if you pick up a romance with two MMCs, then you know what you’re getting. But how do these terms relate to hero and heroine?

The quote above talks about an action MMC ready “to burn down the world for her”, and a “seemingly ordinary female”.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell, 1949  outlines the hero’s journey, a common narrative archetype, or story template, that involves a hero who goes on an adventure, learns a lesson, wins a victory with that newfound knowledge, and then returns home transformed.

Campbell’s work started an ongoing debate especially about what a reader thinks when they say or hear the word hero or heroine. I’m simplifying this for the purposes of my blog, but a lot of scholars and individuals have been uncomfortable with the assumption that hero and heroine are interchangeable words, when in fact they imply that certain “heroic” characteristics are only associated with males. 

The Afictionado blog argued in 2017 that 

“we generally think of some sort of masculine Herculean or Superman-ish figure when we think “hero”

whereas the same characteristics are not associated with the word “heroine”.

In fact, a lot of people would assume a heroine simply means a main character who is a girl, or even a love interest. The word “hero is associated not just with main characters but with character types”— “active, strong, powerful”, whereas the word heroine is associated with passive terms.“

The same article quotes David Emerson  who identifies this split of traits between “heroes” and “heroines” quite neatly, categorising masculine traits as “physical strength, courage, independence and self-reliance, and the tendency to use force […] as opposed to traits identified as ‘feminine’ such as empathy, nurturance, connection with community, and negotiation”.

Another article and another theory. Lewis of The Novel Smithy, March 2022 suggests that the hero’s journey and the heroine’s journey are not the same thing:

(the hero’s journey) “is primarily about overcoming physical threats—and thus attaining physical mastery”, … whereas (the heroine) “starts out in the same known world, suffering from a similar inner struggle—but, rather than set out on a physical quest, they leave home in search of their true self. This journey is all about wisdom, identity, and internal connections…”

Interestingly, the main characters in a romance usually have both external and internal story arcs, both external and internal goals, motivations and conflicts.

The definition of a hero came up for me because I’ve been editing my upcoming release An Accidental Flatmate—Choosing Family Book 5 (July 2025), and actually have a character, the main male, Casildo, say his father is his hero.

“Courageous, determined, sure of his path. He’s both an inspiration and kind to his employees. He’s also totally honest.”

 I realised that for me a lot of heroic characteristics are gender neutral. For example, loyalty, honesty, bravery, courage, determination, kindness. There are also layers within these characteristics—courage can be physical, intellectual or moral. Which is most important to you when seeking a lover or a life’s companion?

Remember I noted that fantasy is about imagining impossible or improbable things—they can be sexual or romantic. Casildo’s definition of a hero works for me. I don’t actually want anyone to burn down the world for me—I can’t help feeling that innocents will get caught in the crossfire—although I want my MMC to make me burn for him. 

So I find myself right back in the middle of contemporary romance grappling with what makes love work in the here and now and which heroic characteristics I want my main characters to have.

You can find me and my books here: website FaceBook Instagram

Find me on

You can also contact me directly via the contact page on my website if you have any other questions.