Catching Up and Looking Forward

I made it back at last.

Thank you so much to everyone who left me Happy New Year messages- Nicolette, Nature Nut (Nancy) Madeline, Jenny and the Nooligan (though I think Flora is a Nooliganess) Cryna, Anna, Anne McA, T'Other Kate, Jan, Nell, Rachael, Sandra, Tammy, MammaDuck, Lee and Lidia - thank you all and Happy Happy New year wishes right back (only a little late).

And Rachael a very special thank you to you - the Christmas Cake was wonderful and delicious and was much admired and enjoyed by many visitors to our house at Christmas. And I did admit that I hadn't baked it but you had. Thank you!

I'm not quite sure what happened to last week, except that I seemed to blink and found it had gone past. There was a lot going on in there - New Year rituals, kittens - well, just one kitten but she's as crazy as a bunch of small furries. Nicolette asked me if Flora had had a mad half hour yet? A mad half hour? This girl had mad half days. She treats the house like a race circuit - out of my office, along the corridor, through the kitchen, along the hall, up the stairs, round the bedroom, over the bed, back down the stairs . . .. The Gentlemen Cats would like a little peace and quiet please and they are most happy when she finally fall asleep.

Oh yes, and as you're all watching with fascination the growing 'romance' between Sir Sidney and Flora the Flirt - they have finally started sleeping together - but only in separate beds.

What else happened in this week?

Well in this family, the final Christmas/New Year celebrations don't stop until 12th Night - because the feast of The Epiphany on January 6th is the day we celebrate the birth of The Offspring quite a few years ago. It does mean that when everyone else is starting to settle down and think of getting back to work and Resolutions and things like that, we are still planning parcels and parties and such. Having a baby on January 6th was not exactly the best planning - but then I didn't plan it. In fact, he wasn't due for another 2-3 weeks. He was supposed to be a last week in January baby . But then a combination of a major thunderstorm, a panicked elderly neighbour, a visit from my Mama all combined to bring the event forward - one or other or all of them created a huge spike in my blood pressure. I suspect it was my Mother's influence - she wanted to see her new grandchild and if he didn't arrive during her visit, she would be back at work and miles away when the actual event occured. So she probably muttered some sort of incantation behind my back and The Offspring was induced on January 6th in time for Granny to celebrate the feast of the 3 Kings with a brand new grandson.

But I did also have to get back to work - my Christmas post from my new editor was the proofs of the just-finished book now glorying in the title of Bedded By The Greek Billionaire but known to me and to my blog readers as The Black Angel,. So I had to correct Angelos's proofs and get them back on my editor's desk. Which I have done.

Also on the work front, I was delighted to receive a card from everyone at eHarlequin and specially thrilled when I found this message inside:

Kate, ebook readers love their Presents, and in 2007 you had two of our most popular titles! . . . .

Of course then I was intrigued and wanting to know which titles had been so successful. Thanks to my Editor, I've been able to find out that those two of the most popular titles were The Italian's Forced Bride (which I suspected as that sold at #1 in Waldenbooks) and my 50th title The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge. What a great result for that special book.

So a great big Thank You to every one of my readers who contributed to this success. I couldn't have done it without you.

In the email, my Editor also said that she'd also been told that my Mini Round Robin title Stolen by the Sheikh is a consistent top download on eHarlequin.com. I had such fun with that Writing Round Robin on the eHarlequin site and that;s when I got to meet a wonderful group of people who call themselves The Hoods. Nancy/Nature Nut - if you're reading this and you're still in touch with The Hoods please say Hi to them from me and let them know of the great success of our story together. And thank you too to the Hoods who contributed to that success.

The rest of the week was filled with reading - The Offspring gave me The Thirteenth Tale as part of my Christmas present I'm on the last section now and it has held me riveted for some nights. Unfortunately I couldn't say the same about one of the films he also gave me - Scoop - with Woody Allen and Scarlett Johansson - and some guy called Hugh Jackman. Let's just say this film did not hold me riveted - even with Mr Jackman in a swimming pool scene.

Oh yes and one thing that gave me a lot of pleasure was being able to buy the Essential Medicines from Oxfam Unwrapped as your Christmas Card from me. Thank you again for all the books you bought and the votes you posted so that I could do this for the second year running.

The Christmas Stocking prizes went out and I've heard from Julie in Scotland that her parcel of books has arrived - I envy her the chance to dive into all those books and I hope that Dawn's prize has reached her safely too. And all the 12 Days of Christmas prizes, together with the specials from my Newsletter list, have gone in the mail too. So that's the contests for 2007 - but there will be more coming up in 2008.

The rest of the time I have been planning and organising things - a new book, a series of guest blogs, celebrating special books with some author friends, new contests, new teaching plans, some events . . . and of course a very special year for Mills & Boon.

But this blog is already long enough so I'll come back later with Part Two - the Looking Forward bit.