A Kate Bit - more on covers

Interesting post this morning - parcels from HMB Richmond and from Harlequin New York - neither of which were expected.

The NY package contained translations - one of my books obviously, but one I couldn't recognise because it was translated into a language that I couldn't recognise either. This was the cover ->

Err . . . ??

I tried to think of a book in which the hero and the heroine exchanged white doves - or where the heroine had incredible gold painted fingernails for that matter but I couldn't come up with one - so I took a look inside. It turns out that it's The Antonakos Marriage in Lithuanian. Which just goes to show that you can never guess what cover image a new country is going to come up with. The original Antonakos Marriage (Presents) as you'll remember cover was like this

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And this definitely is a new country for me - I've never had a book in Lithuanian before! But I think I may have had some visitors on this blog from Lithuania - my Neo counter shows 10 visits. So welcome to anyone from Lithuania!

The other parcel had large print copies of The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge (and that cover looks really good on the bigger book!) and another, unexpected, 3 in 1 By Request Bestseller collection called Mistress Material, which is coming out in October.

This anthology has a reprint of The Married Mistress in it which is something that I'm pretty happy about. If you remember the other By Request volume I'm in - Bound By A Baby - that's out in the shops now - that has Their Secret Baby reprinted in it. And as The Married Mistress and Their Secret Baby are slightly linked by the characters who appear in them (Rhys, the hero of TSB is the boss of Sara who is the heroine of TMM and he appears at the end of that book) then this means that anyone who didn't get to read both books the first time around now has a chance to read them both together this time.

A Kate Bit

Well, the Great Big Blog Party is attracting a lot of attention - from all round the world. In the last week, my flag count showing all the different countries of the visitors to my blog has jumped up to 106. I've had my very first visitors from Brunei and from Togo - and somewhere else - I suspect it was Uganda.

You're all very welcome. I hope you're enjoying the party and that you'll keep calling back. I have plenty more Guest Bloggers to post up and more are arriving all the time. It's fun for me too - and I'm welcoming back old friends - from the Bat Cave and from eharlequin and having a wonderful time. And yesterday I received my official 'you are 50' letter from Harlequin so I have an extra little celebration to look forward to in September. One I can share with a special friend (Waves to Kate Hardy).

And I have more good news. I was going to share this with you yesterday but the mother and father of all thunderstorms broke almost directly overhead and I had to switch off the computer. I spent the evening sitting watching the wonderfully dramatic storm and talking to the BM instead - which was well worth doing.

So - news - well, in the mail yesterday were copies of an unexpected extra publication this year - I have a reprinted book out in a 3 in 1 By Request collection in August. The collection is called Bound By A Baby. The book of mine that is included in this collection is Their Secret Baby which, coincidentally, was the book given away as part of the Offspring's prize only yesterday.

And in other news - remember The Alcolar Family trilogy? I know some of you do because in the fascinating discussion about the first Kate Walker book you ever read, started by lovely Julie Bonello (who has just sent me the name of her winner . . .) several of you mentioned The Twelve Month Mistress or The Spaniard's Inconvenient Wife as the book that got you hooked.

Well, if you remember The Alcolar Family, then you'll know that the very first part of that mini-series appeared as an on-line read on the internet both on eHarlequin and on the Mills & Boon website. I've lost count of the number of people who have written to me asking if it was available in print as they wanted a copy. And I've always had to disappoint them.

Until now.

Because now I know that Wife For Real is appearing in print in the 2007 Mills and Boon Annual which will be out in the UK in time for Christmas. I have no idea yet what the cover of the whole annual will look like . But I do have a picture of the 'cover' to my story so I'm posting it here for you to see. And it you're a real Kate Walker fan who wants to have actual print copies of everything I've written - here's your chance to get a copy of Wife For Real in your hands. I'll let you know when it's actually available.

If you're an ebook fan, then Wife For Real is also available in a Harlequin ebook Mini - in a rather less attractive cover - over on the eharlequin site

And talking of ebooks - I have to thank each and every one of you who bought an ebook copy of The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge since it was released at the beginning of the month - putting my 50th title on the Top Ten list as a result - and keeping it there ever since. Thank you!