Interesting Q&A

Life has been a bit hectic  and I've had my head down focusing on the revisions for the latest book -  all quite straightforward, it's just that things keep happening  that have interrupted my work time.

Anyway, this focus has meant that I foolishly forgot to mention that there is a great  books site (interviews, reviews etc) for romance and Women's Fiction   - called Bookish Jottings,  This is run by Julie who used to review my books on the  now sadly defunct  Cata Romance site.

Bookish Jottings is  Julie's own venture and  she asked if I would do a Q&A with her when Indebted to Moreno came out. I did - and then promptly got buried in  stuff and  forgot to let everyone know about it.
But today I've remembered  again - and I'm posting about the interview before I forget.

You can find the Bookish Jottings Q&A here 


And if you're interested in Julie's reviews - she reviewed Indebted To Moreno here    and she's also read the 12 Point Guide To Writing Romance and has reviewed that here

Thank you for the lovely rreviews, Julie - sorry I was so late letting everyone know about them!!   The Trouble with this writing job is that sometimes  one has to focus on writing!!

Special celebrations

At the beginning of October I  mentioned that  the latest Kate Walker title -   Indebted to Moreno  - was my 65th title for Harlequin. was supposed to be a ‘sky blue’ celebration. – which sounded lovely.,

But last weekend I was away on a break with some wonderful friends and they came up with a fabulous gift to mark this special milestone book and this was it:

A  scarf, printed with all the names of all the heroes and all the heroines in all my 65 books.  (There’s an extra one in there for me and my dh The Babe Magnet as well so that makes 67 names!) Someone went  to a lot of trouble to find them all and design this scarf with them on.  And that means so much to me.

Not sky blue but much more my colours.

Isn’t it wonderful?

So now I’m reminded of one of the little things in my writing that I’m very proud of  - I’ve never repeated a hero or a heroine’s name  in any of my stories. Sometimes it’s be  difficult, sometimes downright hard – but so far I’ve always managed it.  It helps me to feel that I’m writing about someone new, someone whose story I haven’t told – if they have a name I haven’t used before.

So now I’m on my 66^th book. The revisions  (tweaks) my editor asked for are just about done and I’m planning the  follow up – hopefully the 67^th. I already have names for the hero and heroine of the 66^th – they’re  Imogen and Raoul. And the follow up  already has the names in place as  these 2 characters appear in the 66^th – so they are Ciara and  - well,  her hero’s name started out being Aidan,  but it just wouldn’t work.  Even though he’s meant to be Irish – or part Irish – the name just wouldn’t ‘gel’.   

hen I realised why. Back in 1999  - and almost forgotten – I had a hero called Aidan. He appeared in a book called The Groom's Revenge. And I’d already told his story – so I needed a new 

name.  Somehow when I looked at this name and just moved letters around a bit I found a new name that worked perfectly  – Adnan. And that felt just right. But it changed ‘Aidan’ completely and the differences altered the story – for the better, I think!

So Adnan he is and I’ll be telling his story next just as soon as I’ve sent Imogen and Raoul’s story off to my editor.

And a HUGE thank you to the special friends who made my  weekend - my year!0- with this unexpected and lovely celebration.

"New books"

There are two "new" books of mine out next week  -

Well, they're new out, but they're not new titles and I wanted to make this clear as I don;t want people to be caught out and not realise that they are new issues but not new stories.

This is because when my previous editor was leaving, she checked through some things for me and discovered that two titles of mine were not available individually in ebook form.  People had been asking about individual copies of  the two linked books - The Sicilian's Wife and A SIcilian Husband.
These books are a linked duo, with Cesare  Santorino, the hero in one of them  (The Sicilian's  Wife)   who is the half-brother of Gio Cardelli the hero of A Sicilian Husband.

One book has appeared in a  3 in 1 By Request reprint -  so if you've got a copy of Claimed By The Sicilian then you'll have a  copy of   The Sicilian's Wife  together with Sicilian Husband, Blackmailed Bride and The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge.  But I know that a lot of readers had enquired about finding the 2nd book linked to The Sicilian's Wife to find out about Gio's story.   Many of you fell in love with him when he appeared in  Cesare and Megan's story - which is what happened to me, I hadn't planned on writing a linked duo until  Gio walked into the book and demanded  that I tell his story.

So both
of these books are now issued as individual titles if you want to catch up on them. Or if you;ve lost your original copy and would like an ebook edition.

THE SICILIAN'S WIFE
Marriage to Cesare Santorino is all Megan has ever wanted, although never l
ike this! She's in deep trouble and, with no other choice, agrees to Cesare's offer of a mutually beneficial, convenient marriage.
Cesare makes no secret of his attraction to her. But what about love? Megan can only hope that her proud Sicilian husband might eventually come to see his young wife with more than just passion….


A SICILIAN HUSBAND

One night: The time it took Terrie Hayden to fall in love with a stranger.
One night: Was all that Gio Cardella thought he wanted from
her.
However, one night proved to be not enough. The proud Sicilian
had thought his heart was totally insulated, that he would never let himself feel anything again. But Gio was being driven by desire, a need to possess…


I have included the original UK copies of these books so that you can check if you already have a copy of them and don;t need to buy  the re-issue - unless you particularly want it in ebook form!

Both titles are available from November 15th.

Remember Me

I've written very similar posts to this but I make no apologies for reposting this.

Almost 20 years ago, in another  year when November 3rd was on a Friday, we received a shocking phone call.  The Babe Magnet's beautiful and beloved younger sister  had set off to work in her new car   and never arrived. She was involved in a terrible accident and the appalling head injuries she received meant that she never recovered consciousness.

She was the BM’s little sister – the baby in the family – she had two young children, then  aged ten and twelve, and her death devastated us all.

The following July her birthday came round as a desperately empty date. There were no presents to wrap and deliver, no cards to send. But we had to mark the day somehow, So the BM and I went to the local garden centre where I bought a beautiful rose bush. The flowers are a deep, burnt orange colour with a golden centre, and the rose’s official name is ‘Remember Me’. We planted the rose bush in our garden, with the other roses we have.

It has now been there for nineteen years. The other rose bushes grow and flower and are beautiful all the summer. This rose, known as Julie’s rose, has three separate flowerings Every summer, it puts out leaves, then buds, tightly curled buds that only unfurl slowly- slowly. Other roses around it flower much earlier, but this one seems to wait to open into full bloom , without fail, in the week of July 5th – my sister-in-law’s birthday. The next time the beautiful blooms appear is in September when it should be her wedding anniversary. And then, in November, the week of her death, in spite of the cold and greyness of the weather, there is always one last flurry of flowers  opening up as if in memoriam.

I’m not quite sure what this really means. I’ve tried to do things in ways that might change them slightly – prune the rose bush slightly differently, feed the roots more - or less . The weather conditions should surely affect the way it flowers? But nothing seems to change its flowering pattern in any way. And this week, it's just the same. This is the anniversary of that accident  week  and the rose that illustrates this post is her rose, photographed this week, blooming beautifully, right on cue. I thought it was the only rose we had in flower in the garden - until I looked closer.

Next to this rose bush we had tried to plant other roses, but none of them stayed, not until Julie  and the BM's  mother - my mother in law died. Then we planted  a deep red  In Memoriam rose bush next to it. And today, while all the other roses have finished flowering, I noticed that  that rose

has a single, beautiful  flower blooming on it.

 I don’t have a great explanations for why this happens except that as a message of love between Julie, her mother,  the BM and me, it’s just about perfect.  And why we should never let those we love go without telling them how we feel about them. It's as if  Julie is saying - 'Don't forget me' - as if we could ! Or her mother.

And it reminds me once again that love is the strongest possible force humanity has. Love is the strength we have to carry on in the face of horror, tragedy and loss. That’s why I write about it.

I wish every one of you the special warmth that love can bring in your hearts today – and always

Pink Heart Society Day

It's the 3rd of November - so it's my day for blogging over on the Pink Heart Society blog  today.

So that's where you'll find me - still feeling celebratory about my 65th title - and about the lovely people I've met in person or through emails or messages as a result of this writing story of mine.