Pretoria romance author Francine Beaton published her first book at age 55. She is now celebrating her 50th release, with her nationwide Fabulous Fifties Tour, which includes an appearance at the Indie Authors Rise-Up Festival in the Helderberg this weekend.
Her writing journey began on a flight home from New York in 2016, when she outlined five rugby-romance novels. “That Monday I unpacked the muse along with my dirty laundry and started writing,” she recalled.
In 2017 Beaton attended a Romance Masterclass with Sarah Bullen from The Writing Room, who became her writing coach and mentor. The two will now share the stage on the “Let’s Talk Romance” panel at Flagstone Winery as part of the festival.
Beaton is also the deputy chairperson of the Romance Writers’ Organisation of South Africa (Rosa) and its Pretoria chapter leader. At the festival she will moderate the “Finding Your Voice: Writing Romance”, leading the Rosa panel, also at the Flagstone Winery, on Saturday 23 August at 10:00.
On Sunday 24 August she will join “Taal is my identiteit”, at Imibala in Somerset West, where fellow Rosa author Elsabe Welman from Riviersonderend will interview her. Admission to each event costs R60 each and includes a glass of Poetry wine.
