{"id":7798,"date":"2017-02-07T10:25:49","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T10:25:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=7798"},"modified":"2017-02-07T10:25:49","modified_gmt":"2017-02-07T10:25:49","slug":"reaching-for-the-tissues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/uncategorised\/reaching-for-the-tissues\/","title":{"rendered":"Reaching for the tissues"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_7799\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7799\" style=\"width: 228px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7799\" src=\"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/LGL-cover.jpg\" width=\"228\" height=\"350\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7799\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This is a book that means a lot to me.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I can finally let you all in on a secret I have been keeping for a little while now\u2026.<\/p>\n<p>The Romantic Novelists Association has announced the shortlists for the Romantic Novel of the Year Awards \u2013 and my book, Little Girl Lost, is there. Yes \u2013 I cried when I heard the news a few weeks ago. And once or twice since then, I have jumped up and down and made squeeee noises \u2013 excited, but so frustrated that I had to keep it a secret.<\/p>\n<p>Little Girl Lost is shortlisted for the Epic Romantic Novel of the Year \u2013that\u2019s for a book which has a strong romance at its core, but also deals with wider issues beyond the romance.<\/p>\n<p>Being shortlisted for this award means a lot to me for several reasons.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>First of all, the RNA is a wonderful organisation for which I have boundless respect and affection. I\u2019ve been a member for many years and tried, where I can, to do my bit to help the organisation that helped me so much when I was first starting out as a writer of fiction.<\/p>\n<p>I am also sharing the shortlists with writers whom I admire and, in some cases, have the honour of calling my friends. My dear writing buddy Jean Fullerton and I are both nominated for the same award. I\u2019ve read her book and I have to say it would be a worthy winner.<\/p>\n<p>Little Girl Lost holds a special place in my heart. Some of the issues it deals with have touched me personally. As I wrote it, I had my doubts about the book \u2013 but people I love and trust supported me and urged me on.<\/p>\n<p>So \u2013 thank you to the RNA and the award readers for this honour. The winners will be announced at a ceremony in London in March. I have already purchased an outfit. Win or lose, that evening is going to be rather fab-u-lous!<\/p>\n<p>You can read more about the awards and the shortlists on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.romanticnovelistsassociation.org\/news\/entry\/2017_romantic_novel_of_the_year_awards_shortlisted_authors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">RNA website.\u00a0<\/a> There looks to be some wonderful reading there. I\u2019ve already added a couple to my to-be-read pile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I can finally let you all in on a secret I have been keeping for a little while now\u2026. The Romantic Novelists Association has announced the shortlists for the Romantic Novel of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7798\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}