ARR2023: wrap-up

Our Romantic Rendezvous tour is over for another year. It had been a while since we’d been able to do this, so we were so excited to get out to these events, and the whole tour was just fantastic.
We can’t begin to tell you how wonderful Julia Quinn and Audrey Carlan both were. They had such an infectious enjoyment of meeting readers and made the entire trip a joy.
First stop on the tour was Brisbane, with an ‘in conversation’ talk on Friday 10 February with Julia, Audrey and Charlotte Nash. The talk went for two hours and it was fascinating—and best of all, it was recorded, so you can watch it here .

The following day was the first signing, with 45 authors signing at Royal on the Park. This was a new venue for us, and we really liked it. The room was enormous, which gave everyone room to spread out.
The room was buzzing all morning, and after a relaxing lunch break we had another two hours in the afternoon. Then it was straight to the airport to head to Sydney.
The room at Boulevard was not quite as large, but there was still plenty of room for the 42 authors to set up their displays, and it was another busy day.

After this event our guests had five days to enjoy Sydney and Melbourne before we met up again on 18 February for our High Tea in Melbourne.
The food at the High Tea was fantastic (and very generous) and the venue was just lovely. Audrey and Julia also did an impromptu photo shoot in the foyer.


The next day was the signing at Novotel. The venue was lovely and there was more than enough room for the 38 authors signing. The photo above shows one half of the room. This room had lots of natural light so it was really lovely. After yet another busy day, we were off to the airport again. As Audrey was not going on to Perth, we had to say a tearful farewell to her in Melbourne.
The time change in WA meant we could enjoy a few extra hours sleep, which was very welcome.
As would be expected, Perth was a smaller event, with just 19 authors, but it still fun.

Julia and Audrey both had a fabulous time at ARR2023, and were very appreciative of the opportunity:
Julia: Thank YOU! As I told you repeatedly, I was so impressed by how well-organized and run the events were. I had a marvellous time at all four events.
Audrey: Again, thank you so so so much for everything you planned. It was so well done and I felt very comfortable.
And Julia was happy to report ‘Operation Quokka’ was a success!
As usual our VIP tickets were popular, and the bag of goodies all VIPs received were impressive:


Here are the author photos from each event:

ARR2023 Brisbane, 11 February 2023

ARR2023 Sydney, 12 February 2023

ARR2023 Melbourne, 18 February 2023

ARR2023 Perth, 19 February 2023
That’s a wrap for 2023. Stay tuned for details for ARR2024, coming soon!
[This article first appeared in ARRA’s March 2023 newsletter.]