On-line course with the Pink Heart Society

I  have some more courses coming up - in November at Lilleshall with Relax and Write -
But perhaps you can't find the time to share a weekend with other writers - or you're not in the UK so the travel is impossible for you,

Well, I have perhaps the next best thing for you.  To mark the publication of the revised and updated  new version of the 12 Point Guide To Writing Romance,  the lovely  editors of the Pink Heart Society have invited me along to their Aspiring  Authors Forum  where I'll be running a special 12 Points Course  with new information, advice and questions and answers every   day.

I'm sure you've seen the Pink Heart Society  but if you haven't you really should take a look and discover what  they have to offer - every month there are new  and

fascinating articles on   Romance and Romance Writing -  advice for writers and readers - and  a special giveaway section with free books to win as  prizes!

And if you join the forum  the Aspiring Authors  section will offer workshops, advice, discussions . . .

So that's where you'll find me.  We've already started discussing writing from the heart  - and tomorrow we'll look at the first of the 12 Points for this workshop.

See you there? Hope so

Book Challenge Day 7

Day 7 of 7: I've accepted a challenge from Ali Williams who is obviously as nosey as I am about the books that people love! Each day for seven days, I will post the cover of a book I love with no explanation (well, maybe a little comment if I feel like saying something!)and no reviews. Each day I'm supposed to invite a friend to join the challenge. I'll pass on the 'tagging' bit of this because I know how sometimes it can be a bit too much to take on something else - but if any friend cares to join in (yes - I really am nosey, just dodging the issue!) the please tag me to let me know so that I can visit your Facebook page and satisfy my curiosity - and maybe collect a few new titles for my mountainous TBR pile - like that is something I really need!

The last book for the last day of this challenge . . . what can I choose? I could easily pick another 7 - or more - but this one is a personal pick for me. The blurb on the back says:

Passion for the Park is a celebration of the ordinary lover of the beautiful game, the dedicated lads who turn out week after week in the hope of beating another works team. In park football the kit is never washed, there is no spare ball, studs are never inspected, there are holes in the goal-netting, the referee is always looking the wrong way, and the only spectators are an old man and his dog. This funny and irreverent memoir charts the author's own undistinguished football career, playing for two Sunday league teams and idolising Don Revie's Leeds United, and his attempts to inspire steelworks apprentices with a love for English literature.

Why did I choose this one - well, in the words of a certain Bronte heroine - Reader I married him!🙂 And as August 1st is Yorkshire Day -- I thought I should mark it a little early with a book set in God's Own County.

Book Challenge Day 6

Day 6 of 7 - I've accepted the challenge from Ali Williams to post the cover of a book I love every day for 7 days than this one.

. Well, today there couldn't be any other book than this one:

I was just ten years old and living just a few miles away from Haworth where the Bronte sisters grew up when one day, at school, to distract us - appropriately enough - from the wild thunderstorm outside, the teacher started to tell us the story of Wuthering Heights. We only ever heard the start of the story - up to the moment when Heathcliff turned his back on Cathy and walked away to make his fortune - so I didn't know what happened until I found a copy on my mother's bookshelves and found out what happened in the rest of the book. I was hooked instantly - and have been hooked ever since.

If you read my post of a couple of weeks ago, you'll know that I was part of a panel on Romance and The Brontes for the Romantic Novelists Association- not that I think Wuthering Heights is a romance, it's a book about passion, power and possession - and that I wrote my MA thesis on the childhood writings of Emily and Charlotte and their influence on the adult books the sisters wrote. I even wrote my own tribute to Wuthering Heights as a Modern Romance called The Return of the Stranger.

So today there can really only be one book that I'm posting about. I do still have the small, dark blue Nelson Classics edition of Wuthering Heights - the one that saw me through both my degree and my MA - and was used by my mother in her degree studies too. It's full of scribbled notes by both of us - well it was a study aid! But today I'm posting the treasure that a very special friend gave me because she knew how much I loved the book. It was enough of an amazing gift 30+ years ago - but now of course it's over 30 years older and even more antique. In fact even this book is 160 years old this year!

Happy 200th Birthday, Emily Bronte! I just I had the time to sit and reread your amazing novel - and some of your magnificent poetry - to celebrate the big day., today there couldn't be any other book than this one.

Book Challenge Day 5

I forgot to post this yesterday when it was  due - though I put it on my Facebook page for Sunday.  So this is a little catch up before I post  the book for July 30th, which is a rather special one. 

Day 5 of 7: I've accepted a challenge fromAli Williams who is obviously as nosey as I am about the books that people love! Each day for seven days, I will post the cover of a book I love with no explanation (well, maybe a little comment if I feel like saying something!)and no reviews.

 Each day I'm supposed to invite a friend to join the challenge. I'll pass on the 'tagging' bit of this because I know how sometimes it can be a bit too much to take on something else - but if any friend cares to join in (yes - I really am nosey, just dodging the issue!) the please tag me to let me know so that I can visit your Facebook page and satisfy my curiosity - and maybe collect a few new titles for my mountainous TBR pile - like that is something I really need!

Today's book is more - well - today's author. I really didn't know how to choose one of Michelle Reid's books. But again I'm going to cheat - the first book A Passionate Scandal is the first book I ever talked about with Michelle - when I first met her over 24 years ago. The other - well, it's just a favourite. As are so many of Michelle Reid's romances. So I'm not really choosing a book - but an author and a friend.

12 Point Guide Course

Do you want to learn to write?
Do you wish you could join me and other  would-be writers on one of my courses?  (You should -

they're fun   - we laugh a lot - and learn a lot!)

But perhaps you can't find the time to share a weekend with other writers - or you're not in the UK so the travel is impossible for you,

Well, I have perhaps the next best thing for you.  To mark the publication of the revised and updated  new version of the 12 Point Guide To Writing Romance,  the lovely  editors of the Pink Heart Society have invited me along to their Aspiring  Authors Forum  where I'll be running a special 12 Points Course  with new information, advice and questions and answers every   day.

I'm sure you've seen the Pink Heart Society  but if you haven't you really should take a look and discover what  they have to offer - every month there are new  and

fascinating articles on   Romance and Romance Writing -  advice for writers and readers - and  a special giveaway section with free books to win as  prizes!

And if you join the forum  the Aspiring Authors  section will offer workshops, advice, discussions . . .

So that's where you'll find me tomorrow - with the first of the 12 Points for this workshop.

See you there? Hope so

Book challenge and a change in the weather

So here's a bit of a change. Charlie the Maine Coon, after weeks and weeks of wanting to be in the garden and staying out for hours came rushing in this morning to complain that there's something

wet pouring from the sky and it has soaked through his fur, making him look like a drowned rat.

Would we please make it stop!

Day 4 of 7: I've accepted a challenge from Ali Williams who is obviously as nosey as I am about the books that people love! Each day for seven days, I will post the cover of a book I love with no explanation (well, maybe a little comment if I feel like saying something!)and no reviews. Each day I'm supposed to invite a friend to join the challenge. I'll pass on the 'tagging' bit of this because I know how sometimes it can be a bit too much to take on something else - but if any friend cares to join in (yes - I really am nosey, just dodging the issue!) the please tag me to let me know so that I can visit your Facebook page and satisfy my curiosity - and maybe collect a few new titles for my mountainous TBR pile - like that is something I really need!

I suppose these are two separate books, but really I can't separate them. The first one (Josephine Tey) led to a lifetime's obsession - which the second one (Sharon Penman) fed as a result.

As a small aside, Sharon Penman also has to get the award of the most courageous and hardworking author who, after the manuscript of this book was stolen from her car, she set to and rewrote the lot of it - all 1248 pages!!😯 It was so worth it.

Book Challenge 3

Day 3 of 7: I've accepted a challenge from  who is obviously as nosey as I am about the books that people love! Each day for seven days, I will post the cover of a book I love with no explanation (well, maybe a little comment if I feel like saying something!)and no reviews. Each day I'm supposed to invite a friend to join the challenge. I'll pass on the 'tagging' bit of this because I know how sometimes it can be a bit too much to take on something else - but if any friend cares to join in (yes - I really am nosey, just dodging the issue!) the please tag me to let me know so that I can visit your Facebook page and satisfy my curiosity - and maybe collect a few new titles for my mountainous TBR pile - like that is something I really need!
Today's book is a bit of a cheat - it's what I'd call my Desert Island book if I was ever put on Desert Island Discs and had to choose one book to take with me.

One book?! 😯

I would have to ask for the whole series to be in one collected volume so I could

take all six with me! I could quite happily read all 6 books through and then go back and start at the beginning. A complex historical novel with a complex and ambiguous hero - spying, intrigue, betrayal - kings, queens, Knights Templar, battles . . . . And at the centre of it all an amazing, heart twisting love story.

Remember those photos with friends and fellow authors posing as the heroine for my book A Proposal To Secure His Vengeance? Well now the editors are getting in on the act - Raoul Cardini had better watch out because Flo Nicoll is Senior Editor for Presents and she won't take any nonsense from any hero - alpha or not!

I thinks she works very well as  my heroine Imogen O'Sullivan because she's much as I have described  Imogen.

Book Challenge 2

From my Facebook page

Day 2 of 7: I've accepted a challenge from Ali Williams who is obviously as nosey as I am about the books that people love! Each day for seven days, I will post the cover of a book I love with no explanation (well, maybe a little comment if I feel like saying something!)and no reviews.

 Each day I'm supposed to invite a friend to join the challenge. I'll pass on the 'tagging' bit of this because I know how sometimes it can be a bit too much to take on something else - but if any friend cares to join in (yes - I really am nosey, just dodging the issue!) the please tag me to let me know so that I can visit your Facebook page and satisfy my curiosity - and maybe collect a few new titles for my mountainous TBR pile - like that is something I really need! 

The only comment I have (need to make) on this book is that it was old when I first read it - honest! Another decidedly ambiguous hero!!

Book Challenge

On my Facebook page -

Day 1 of 7: I've accepted a challenge from Ali Williams  who is obviously as nosey as I am about the books that people love! Each day for seven days, I will post the cover of a book I love with no explanation (well, maybe a little comment if I feel like saying something!)and no reviews.

 Each day I'm supposed to invite a friend to join the challenge. I'll pass on the 'tagging' bit of this because I know how sometimes it can be a bit too much to take on something else - but if  but any friend cares to join in (yes - I really am nosey, just dodging the issue!) the please let me know so that I can visit your Facebook page and satisfy my curiosity - and maybe collect a few new titles for my mountainous TBR pile - like that is something I really need!

The only explanation for today's cover is that it's one to make Ali jealous - she knows why!  (She's as big a Mary Stewart fan as I am.)

PS To the last post

Wow! I was just checking the Amazon.com page for a link to the 12 Point Guide and I find this - already! A lovely little orange sticker as a bestseller!

 I should point out though - that the Amazon page says the book is 180 pages - er - no - I have a copy right here and it's a nice, substantial book of 274 pages- much better value for money.

 Thank you to everyone who has already stirred up interest in this new edition.

(Re)publishing news

I love the RNA Conference but so many late nights, so much talking, leaves me needing to catch up. 

Add into that mixture the fact that the BM and I had a wedding anniversary to celebrate, then meeting with friends in Harrogate and I just about think I've completed the washing/packing/unpacking/washing/packing/unpacking/washing cycle. At least I have had no trouble getting the clothes dry in this heat!

So now it's a new week and I have some exciting news - as people realised from the bookstall at RNA - and thanks to the interest of a new publisher Straightforward Publishing/Emerald Guides I can now announce the publication of a new edition of the 12 Point Guide To Writing Romance.

 I've taken the opportunity to revise and update this and distribution should be more efficient too.  It's now available on Amazon.co.uk
and   
Amazon.com  

Also  The Book  Depository  


Looking at the Amazon pages for this, it seems the news has already leaked out - but I plan some extra publicity events, and perhaps some giveaways - an internet workshop too - so watch this space. I'm just glad to enjoy the special moment of a the parcel delivery and have the new edition in my hands.

Missing all the excitement at Romance Writers of America  Conference in  in Denver - specially missing meeting up with so many of my dear friends who are there.

But it seems that one of my books was well represented there - as Abby Green shared with me:

(though as you can see, there was something missing from the image!)

I thanked Abby for sharing, but pointed out that as my  heroine in A Proposal to Secure His Vengeance was Irish, the photo would be perfect with her face there - as my Irish heroine Imogen! 

She obliged and had her photo taken - with this result.  Thanks Abby!


 Also,  lovely Danica Favorite shared this pic with me so that I can see her smiling face and my great book cover at the event even if I can't be there. Thank you Dream - miss you!

It was obviously a popular photo opportunity this year - as then there was this . . .er  -  . . . starring  librarian   David Faulkener.

I wish I could have been there to join in all the fun - and see the cover photo opportunity for myself.

 Packing and planning ready to head for the RNA Conference tomorrow - via an overdue visit to a dear friend - and then to the Leeds Library for the Brontes and Romance panel tomorrow night - and then a fantastic weekend 'conferring' with so many friends from the RNA. I may have to drink a little wine

to stop my throat from getting too dry

My reading for the weekend - On Thursday evening I'm part of a panel at Leeds Library - discussing Romance and The Brontes. I'll be there with Janet Gover and Alison May

Date/Time: 12th July 2018, 7.30pm-9.30pm
Venue: The Leeds Library, Commercial Street, Leeds
To celebrate the 250th anniversary of The Leeds Library and 200 years of the Brontës, there will be a panel of RNA members discussing modernising Brontë classics and the enduring appeal of the themes. The panel will include ‘Juliet Bell’, the collaborative pen 

name of Janet Gover and Alison May, whose latest release is The Heights and Kate Walker, who wrote her MA on the Brontë sisters and their childhood writings. Kate is the author of a ‘Modern Romance’ reworking of Wuthering Heights entitled The Return Of The Stranger; part of a mini-series called The Powerful and The Pure, written for Harlequin Mills & Boon.

The event is free. Places are limited and can be reserved in advance Date/Time: 12th July 2018, 7.30pm-9.30pm
Venue: The Leeds Library, Commercial Street, Leeds

Return of the Stranger USA
To celebrate the 250th anniversary of The Leeds Library and 200 years of the Brontës, there will be a panel of RNA members discussing modernising Brontë classics and the enduring appeal of the themes. The panel will include ‘Juliet Bell’, the collaborative pen name of Janet Gover and Alison May, whose latest release is The Heights and Kate Walker, who wrote her MA on the Brontë sisters and their childhood writings. Kate is the author of a ‘Modern Romance’ reworking of Wuthering Heights entitled The Return Of The Stranger; part of a mini-series called The Powerful and The Pure, written for Harlequin Mills & Boon.  

The event is free. Places are limited and can be reserved in advance:http://www.theleedslibrary.org.uk/events/?eventPage=1

My reading? The Modern Romance Return of The Stranger that was inspired by Wuthering Heights. The interview I did for Laura Vivanco discussing that book - and my own - long ago MA thesis on the Bronte sisters and their childhood writings. (I thought I'd better remind myself of what I thought back then!) And then of course, there's the book itself - not sure how many times I've read Wuthering Heights, but I find I view it differently each time I do

.

Thank you

Thank you so much to everyone who expressed your sympathies and sent hugs on the difficult week.

 The memories were so poignant and I truly appreciated the caring support. But I do believe that the sorrow at loss is a real indicator of how much the people who had gone meant to us.

 Each time, it's a few days of remembering - and determining to tell the people we love how we feel while there are still with us. With my dear sister-in-law, we never got that chance and that's why it so important to do it now, while we can.

And a special thank you to all the friends who cared - believe me, you are so valued too!

If I needed any reminder, which I don't - this is why I write about love and how valuable it is.

Memories and Thoughts

Feeling melancholy today  - it's a sad memories week. 

 Monday marked the birthday of one of my dearest friends for over 35 years. She wanted to achieve that birthday so much - and she did. Just. She lost her fight with breast cancer just 5 days later. 

Today would be the birthday of my beautiful and beloved sister in law - who was only in her thirties when she died in a car crash. The rose we planted in her memory is blooming as always, in 

spite of the real lack of rain for so long.

People we love are not always with us. Luckily they both knew how much I cared for them. Hug the people you love - tell them you care while you still have them. Regrets are so hard to live with.