Coming soon . . .

I'm deeply involved with a certain brooding Spanish hero - Santos Cordero - who has finally (finally!) decided to stop brooding and start taking action. So now I'd better let him have his head while he's in this mood.

But I thought I'd give you an couple of updates on books coming out later this year. One I knew about and hoped would happen soon - the other is totally unexpected.

So the first of these, the one I knew was coming up because I'd been working hard on it, is the 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance. The one that was sold out. Totally sold out now as far as I can see. Amazon.com/co.uk/Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository . . . all have no copies left - so, as I said, the publisher and I have been working to bring you a 2nd edition of this book so as to get it back in stock just as soon as we can.

And not just a 2nd edtion but a revised, updated and expanded second edtion with even more information and help for those of you who want to write romance for publication. And the good news is that I've just heard from the publishers (Studymates Limited) that it has finally been sent to the printers ready to get it on the shelves. It will also have a new, slightly different cover which you can see on the right, and it will be in a slightly smaller format from the first edition.

All this is aimed at getting the book out to more people who were looking for it before but couldn't find it in shops, only on the internet, It seems that bookshops prefer this slightly smaler edition so hopefully that means more of them will stock it. And - most importantly - for everyone in America who has written to me to say they can't get hold of it - it should mean that you can order it more easily and maybe even that it could appear on the bookshop shelves just to pick up if there's enough interest. Barnes & Noble are considering taking some to stock in their shops which would be great for everyone who has had such a problem getting hold of it before now.

At the moment you can preorder it on Amazon.co.uk but I haven't spotted it on Amazon.com yet. Later, I'm hoping that The Book Depository will stock it because they have great deals and free delivery worldwide on books they stock. I'll keep you up to date on this.

But I've come up with an idea that might help make ordering it in America easier for anyone who's interested - and if there's enough interest by word of mouth then that might persuade B&N or other bookshops to stock it. Thanks to lovely Lee Hyat at Author Sound Relations, I've had some bookmarks made which have all the details you'll need - the ISBN, and the USA distributors so that any bookshop should be able to order it for you.

If you're in the USA and you'd like one of these bookmarks - and a free Kate Walker pen - then

send an SASE (USA postage naturally) to:

Lee Hyat

Kate Walker Goodies

4411, 76th Ave. West # 2

University Place,

WA 98466

If the envelopes are addressed as above, then Lee will know what you're interested in.

And as I get more news about this second edition, I'll let you know. At the moment, the publication date is officially 8th April - though Amazon has April 30th - but as soon as I know more I'll pass the news on to you.

And as I've already said, I'll be running a special launch party for this 2nd edition with more details about the book and that special Writers' Q&A when I have the actual launch date confirmed. So keep sending in those questions. And thank you to Jacqueline, Lorraine and Johanna who've already sent in their queries.

The other news I have is that I just learned that another of my older titles is being republished in the By Request collections here in the UK. At the moment, I only have the title of this collection and the date it's published (July 2008) I don't even know for sure which of my books is in this collection, but as the title is Her Passionate Italian , I suspect that it will be my 2001 book Her Secret Bridegroom as that's the oldest of my Italian books - of course it could be The Italian's Forced Bride being reprinted already, but I think Vincenzo's story is more likely. Unless of course, one of the earlier Sicilian books is the Italian they mean. I'll let you know as soon as I find out!

I'm thrilled to discover that one of the other authors in this collection with me is Michelle Reid who is one of my favourite authors and favourite people in the world. We're shelf mates in November too, so I can look forward to seeing our names side by side several times this year.