Transition time

It's the last week in August. Summer seems to be coming to an end. Though here it suddenly seems to be starting up again as the temperatures climb a bit higher than before and the rain has eased off a bit.

Talking about the rain - a certain young Maine Coon does NOT like the weather and the other night when there was a severe thunderstorm and a torrential downpour was, as far as she was concerned, just too much! Her long fur is easily soaked and she came in from the garden looking like a drowned rat. Her loud complaints were clearly meant to tell us to turn that wet stuff off - right now!

Even the comfort of a nice big bowl of meat failed to appease her.

So she's been very happy to see some sun recently.

But the summer holidays are ending. Tomorrow the Offspring goes back to teaching, the schoolchildren will start walking past my window in the mornings and the new term will officially have started.

And when September starts I will have a new book - Bedded By The Greek Billionaire - out in the shops. Knowing the way some shops put the books out early, it might even be out this week.

And then in other places, The Alcolar Family will still be on sale for this last week.

Meanwhile I'm busy with a brooding Italian hero called Ricardo who is dealing with the fact that his errant wife has just reappeared in his life and he's none too happy about it. So, like the month and the weather I feel sort of in between different stages of my writing.

But the one I need to really concentrate on is Ricardo. So I'll be busy with him for a while. But I have the prizes for the Tote Bag Contest all packed up and they will be one their way to the lucky winners just as soon as I can get to the Post Office now that it's reopened after the Bank Holiday.

And if you didn't win a prize in that contest - I do have some news of another one that I'm running with a very special friend of mine to celebrate the fact that we both have books out in September.

Kate Walker and Michelle Reid's Super September Contest

As you may know, Michelle Reid is a great friend of mine and a favourite author too. It's not often that we have books on the shelves together but this September we do - in the UK at least.
Bedded By The Greek Billionaire and The De Santis Marriage will be published as Mills & Boon Modern Romances. The De Santis Marriage will also be published in Harlequin Presents, and Bedded By the Greek Billionaire will appear in Presents in November.

But we're giving you the chance to win a signed copy of each of these great books

in advance. There are two prizes of a signed copy of Bedded By The Greek Billionaire and The De Santis Marriage together with a copy of the By Request 3 in 1 volume Her Passionate Italian which contains my A Sicilian Husband and Michelle's The Passion Bargain.

What do you have to do?
Just answer this simple question:

What are the names of the hero and heroine in each of these September books?

Send the name of the hero and heroine of Bedded by The Greek Billionaire and The De Santis Marriage to me at the email link on my web site.

Please put the title Super September Contest in the subject line.

Closing date is September 5th after which I'll get Sid the Cat to pick out my winner.

You can enter this contest from both my site and from Michelle's site so that you will have two chances of winning this great prize.

Good Luck!

PS. And don't forget that simply by staying on my Newsletter list you are also in the running for the special Newsletter Draws where you don't have to do anything - or answer any questions, just stay right where you are and you never know, Sid the Cat might pick your name in one of the random draws. That's just one of the extra benefits you get for being one of my extra special readers! So why not sign up today and join the Newsletter Group?

Oh yes - and a special message for Carol Townend (thanks again for contributing to the Tote Bag of Books, Carol) who wrote, in yesterday's comments section -

I am curious, does Sid get to eat the other crunchies, later on? (After all he did work very hard with his choosing)

Carol - the answer is a definite yes. The first few crunchies that Sid picks count as the winners for any contest but then he gets his reward for all his hard work by being free to eat as many of the crundhies as he can manage. This is why he's always very pleased when there are lots of entries for a contest.

So don't forget to get your entries in and make a hardworking cat very happy!