Valentine’s Day was the perfect day to launch the BLUSSH Romance Festival. Filled with films, author talks, market stalls, poetry readings and more this festival was designed for lovers of love.
I grabbed my valentine and walked the pink carpet before our screening of the wonderfully heartwarming rom com film, ‘ Bridget Jones – Mad About the Boy.’ We laughed, cried and revelled in catching up with our favourite characters.
Saturday brought the first of many author talks with the Rom – Com Revival panel. Romance author, Ally Blake was in conversation with the USA Today bestseller Amy Andrews, local romance author Louisa Duval and Australia’s reigning rom com queen, Rachael Johns, who was in town to promote her latest rom com novel, ‘ The Bad Bridesmaid’.
The group talked about the historical heyday of the rom com citing favourite films like ‘ Notting Hill’ and ‘ When Harry met Sally’ before discussing how a new generation are discovering rom coms thanks to streaming services and tik tok’s popular book tok recommendations.
After exploring the market stalls and having my new book signed by Rachael Johns I caught up with my publisher Sarah Williams from Serenade publishing who had a table at the market. Many of her titles sold out!
Midday brought a special ‘ Lit to Lens’ panel who shared examples of books being adapted to film. This was followed by a screening of Brisbane author, Kylie Scott’s book ‘ Lick’ which has been made into a film through Passionflix. We all enjoyed this spicy rock star romance starring the Gold Coast’s Brooke Lee.
The Romantasy panel shared their thoughts on this popular genre which includes witches and dragons, urban fantasy and aliens. It is one of the hottest romance genres right now. Capably led by H.M. Hodgson the panel featured Melanie Pickering, Elena Moriarty and Demi Clorissa.
Exiting the cinema we bumped into the cast and crew of ‘ A Royal Proposal – A Royal in Paradise Two’ who were strutting their stuff on the pink carpet before a special advanced screening of their film which will be in cinemas later this year.
Our hearts were full as we made our way home after a wonderful festival which was kind, inspiring and lovely. Thanks to the hardworking organisers, Sue -Anne Chapman and Kylie Pascoe for a truly wonderful event.
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