Specially for Australian readers

Following this lovely review on the Australian Romance Readers Association site – and the fact that they posted it as a Featured book on their Facebook Convention page, I’ve had people asking me when Olivero’s Outrageous Proposal will appear on the bookshop shelves in Australia. Usually the Australian publication is pretty much simultaneous with the UK and  USA editions, but this time  the books have been changed around rather – so the news is that Olivero’s Outrageous Proposal will not be out in Australia until December.

So  I’m sorry to everyone who is waiting to read it. It is coming – promise!  - but there will be a little wait before it does.

But if it helps  you get through the weeks before that release date – I do have news of two other  releases in Australia coming up in the next few months.

Firstly there will be a reprint of a 2001 book  - Her Secret Bridegroom.  This will be in a special  Latin Lovers collection together with books by Miranda Lee and Lynne Graham.   I'm calling  cover of this book ‘the Chest’ – I’m sure you can see why.

Secondly, there will be a reprint collection of

the three linked Alcolar Family stories –

The Twelve Month Mistress

The Spaniard’s Inconvenient Bride

Bound By Blackmail

Which tell the stories of Joaquin, Ramon and Mercedes Alcolar – Proud modern day Spanish aristocrats – passion is their birthright!

I don’t have a copy of the cover to show you yet but the trilogy will be released under the title The Notorious Alcolars, and this should be out in September.

And just in case you wanted to  remind yourself of the story that started this all off – before you read/reread the trilogy  then don’t forget that the story of Alex Alcolar – Wife For Real – is available on the eHarlequin web site  here.

Life!

Hmmm - who was it - Kaelee's uncle who used to end his paragraphs in letters with Life!!
I think I'm going to have to adopt that habit.
LIFE!

I was away for a couple of days - it wasn't supposed to take so long and I'd hoped to be back and continuing witht the Advent Calendar before now  but - Life!

OK, life and freezing fog and a journey home that took much longer than we expected.  We had a great time though - a wonderful visit to the Airedale Writers' Circle and their Christmas Party  - thank you to everyone who made us so welcome . And specially to  our dear friend  and crime writer Lesley Horton  who with her husband gave us such lovely hospitality  - Oh, and the cats who welcomed us to and helped to make up for the fact that we didn't have Flora and Charlie to cuddle.

So - back to this calendar.
First of all  - I have to name the winners from the last giveaway - I has said 3 winners, but as I've missed a couple of days again and  as I love this chance to give something to two people - the winners of the books and those who  are the givers who get to see them smile - I'm going to send copiues to all the people who nominated their friends or family -
So -
Julie M
Joye
Manisha
Yadkny
Eli
Desere
SiNn

Please email me with an address to send the book too - also please tell me the name of the person I should sign it for. Some of you have named  your winner, but others have just said 'my mum' or 'my friend'. The point of this gift is that it is for  the other person and I want to sign it for them.

I only have 3 copies of the book I mentioned - One Night in Madrid - but I do have some other trilogies - Mistress Material where my book is The Married Mistress and Mistresses Shackled with Rubies where my title is Her Secret Bridegroom. So your chosen winner will received one of other of these.

Other winners from past posts  - the delay in getting hjome has meant a delay in getting prizes in the post but I will be doing that just as soon as  I can.

And I'll put up a new Advent Calendar post just as soon as I can.

Countdown to Christmas 5

Remind me again why I do this at this time of year - when it's Christmas and I have so much else to  do?. . . . Oh yes-  I remember  - I  do it because it's Christmas!

And because it's Christmas and there is something so special about  being able to give that extra touch of happiness to someone -  and because Charlie is SO greedy . . .well, the truth is that Charlie is greedy and so is Flora, so she helped pick winners for the giveaway of Claimed by The Sicilian.

Yes I did say winners. Even when Charlie and Flora had had their picks, I couldn't possibly have chosen between all the special nominations for this giveaway - so   because it's Christmas and as a once onlly - I'm giving a copy of the book to all the people  you have nominated  yesterday here and on the PHS - so
Adriana
Maria
Carol

- from the comments here
And
Marybelle
Rita
Kaelee
from the Pink Heart Society
I'd  love to send yuor special mother, sister, friend . . . an extra Christmas gift from me - and you. . .

So you know the drill  - please email me  - see the address at the bottom of the page  - and give me the address you want the book to be sent to - and please also tgell me who I should sign it for to make this extra special.  I do hope your  nominee will enjoy this gift -and I know it will warm their heart to know of the part you played in giving it to them.

One other prize - The Alcolar Family trilogy  - picking from the people who posted over on We Write Romance -  and the winner is -

Carol Woodruff

Carol please send me your postal address too and I can send the book to you.

Today's giveaway and question  -
The book I'm giving away today is another 3 in 1  - this one is called Mistresses  - Shackled with Rubies.
The collection has books in it by Lucy Monroe and Lee Wilkinson as well as my novel.  And the novel of mine that is in this collections is quite an oldie - it's  Her Secret Bridegroom that was originally published in 2000.


Bride by deception!

After a whirlwind wedding in Venice, Amy discovered that her brand-new husband had only married her to gain a priceless old ring. Fleeing Italy, Amy never told anyone of her marriage to ruthless billionaire Vincenzo Ravenelli.
Four years later, while Amy knew she'd never really love another man as she loved Vincenzo, she needed to be free of the past. The time had come to return to venice and confront her secret bridegroom . . .




And the question - well, I was going to ask this anyway but then I see that someone has already asked it over on the Pink Heart Society  too so if you want yo can go and add your comment there too

What was your favourite category romance read for 2011?

And no it doesn't have to be one of mine! - And yes, if you really can't decide then you can  give me your top five! But I'd love to know what you've enjoyed reading this year.

Advent Calendar Giveaway Day 14

Eeeek! Is it really Day 14? It's getting awfully close to the 25th - and I'm not in the least bit organised. I have akitten fascinated by a small tree I have in my hall - I'd still have to plough through some snow to get to the big one. He's going to love that! And we're promised (threatened?) there will be more of the white stuff coming down on Thursday/Friday - but the old stuff hasn't disappeared yet.

So I'm in a bit of a dash today as I'm heading into town for what I hope will be some last bits and pieces. I'm making a list and I'm checking it twice . .

So quickly on to yesterday's winner - and the name Sid picked out is Debby. (Debby 236)

Debby - I loved the idea of your special Christmas jumper. I hope that there will one of your kids home to see you wearing it. If not, then perhaps the prize of The Spaniard's Inconvenient Wife will give you something to enjoy at Christmas.

Email me please and let me know your postal address

Today's prize is a two in one with one of the most glorious covers of any collection my books have been in. It's an Australian reprint and the book of mine that's in it is the same that was in Mistresses Shackled with Rubies which was won over on Tote Bags 'N' Blogs so here's another chance to win Her Secret Bridegroom (2000) in today's Latin Lovers.

It's in this lovely collection with Claiming His Wife by Diana Hamilton.

Bride by deception!

After a whirlwind wedding in Venice, Amy discovered that her brand-new husband had only married her to gain a priceless old ring. Fleeing Italy, Amy never told anyone of her marriage to ruthless billionaire Vincenzo Ravenelli.
Four years later, while Amy knew she'd never really love another man as she loved Vincenzo, she needed to be free of the past. The time had come to return to Venice and confront her secret bridegroom . . .

And today's question is inspired by the fact that I've just had some Italian and Portugese reprints arrive - both for the same book. - a very appropriate one for this time of year. It's a book from 2002 called The Christmas Baby's Gift

So today's question is - do you love special Christmas stories at this time of year, or are do you have too much festive holly and tinsel around already so you don't want any more?

Tell me about your favourite Christmas story books - romance or not - in the comments to be in with a chance to win.

Advent Calendar Giveaway Day 5

The winners of yesterday's giveaway are

(yes, winnerS It was wonderful to see that so many of you had something special to celebrate - and some of those things were so very special so I was really glad I didn't have to choose. So I asked Sid to pick a couple of extra people to win copies of The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge too.

And he picked out:

Julie M

Dena

and Eva S

So ladies, will you please email me your postal address kate AT kate-walker.com and I'll organise your prizes. If you already have this book please let me know and I'll try to arrange an alternative.

How fabulous to see all those weddings and anniversaries - and grandchildren and so much good news. I'm really glad I asked that question.

There is an Advent Calendar giveaway today - but it's in a different place this time.

Today is the first Sunday of the month and that's when I blog over on Tote Bags and Blogs so that's where you'll find the giveaway question. I've been logging about the way that getting ready for Christmas is very much like preparing to write and the writing a book. So why no join me over there? You can post your answers to the Giveaway question there too - or here - it doesn't matter which!

The Giveaway book today is another 3 in 1 Collection - MistressesShackled with Rubies is a collection that came out at the start of 2010. It has stories by Lucy Monroe and Lee Wilkinson together with my own Her Secret Bridegroom which was originally published back in 2000.

Bride by deception!

After a whirlwind wedding in Venice, Amy discovered that her brand-new husband had only married her to gain a priceless old ring. Fleeing Italy, Amy never told anyone of her marriage to ruthless billionaire Vincenzo Ravenelli.

Four years later, while Amy knew she'd never really love another man as she loved Vincenzo, she needed to be free of the past. The time had come to return to Venice and confront her secret bridegroom . . .

Hope to see you over on Tote Bags. The December 6th giveaway will be on this blog as usual.

What is love?

The world of fiction lost two writers this week.

Robert B Parker died 'at his desk' at the age of 77. I learned this from Anne McAllister's blog. So if you want to know more about him, she can tell you more than I can. I never really read any of his Spenser detective novels. In fact the only time I was ever aware that Spenser existed was way back when, when there was a TV series starring Robert Urich that I watched for a while.




The other author who died at the weeked was Erich Segal who was 72. Segal was of course the a classics professor at Yale University who he wrote the book, Love Story which became an Oscar-winning 1970 film starring Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw.


Love Story was the film that was famous for coining the line that everyone went around quoting at the time - and that is :

Love is never having to say you're sorry.

That infuriated me at the time and really it still does. It was too simplistic, too neat . I never fully believed in it.

Thinking about my own writing now and the resolutions of my books where my hero and heroine have to sort out the conflicts between them to reach a happy ending, I think that if I had to say why I don't like this line it's because I'd need to say that loving someone means that if you're the one who needs to say sorry because you've hurt someone you love, then you'll really really want to say it.

And if you're the one someone has to say sorry to, then you know you're happy to forgive them - so in one sense they 'never have to say they're sorry' but you're so glad they want to say sorry because that shows they know they hurt you and they regret it.

Of course there are different ways of 'saying sorry' and actions can speak louder than words . . . but well now perhaps you see why I always found this line too simplistic and rather sentimental. That's also why I always find writing romance so fascinating and complex and I don't get bored with it.

But it made me think of an idea for a one off quick contest. Because yesterday I received some author copies of the bok from the Mistresses collection that contains one of my earlier stories. This is the book with the lovely cover. The full title is Mistresses Shackled with Rubies and my book in it is Her Secret Bridegroom.

I got far more copies of this book than I was ever expecting so I'm giving away one as a prize today.

All you have to do is to leave a comment completing the following sentence -

Love is . . . .

And I'll pick out a favourite and the poster will win one of the extra copies of Mistresses.

Rain

It would be nice to wake up one morning without the sound of the rain lashing against the window panes.

I grew up in a house on the side of a hill in West Yorkshire and so I got used to wet, fierce and often cold weather. And the Babe Magnet is a Yorkshireman through and through so he's not a sunworshipper by any stretch of the imagination. But even he is tired of the seemingly endless rain.

The cats hate it. I open the door in the morning and Flora looks at me as if I've ordered the rain as a personal insult to her. 'I'm not going out in that!' The trouble is that with her long fur, if she does go out in it then she comes back soaked through and dripping all over the floor.

And Sid is convinced that there is better weather somewhere - if he can just find it. If it's pouring down at the back door, then perhaps the front one might have a better climate . . . I'm sure he thinks that each door in the house opens on to some other world where the weather is different and the temperatures better.

So it's a relief to escape to my book and to the sunny Italian island where Ricardo and Lucy are dealing with their problems and I (hopefuly) am dealing with the concerns my editor had. It's been slow progress delayed by the migraine but now I hope it's getting there.

But it's no wonder that the fantasy element of the Modern/Presents line so often deals with the Mediterranean or some desert kingdom where the sun always shines. Right now with the rain thudding down on the roof of my office, I know that the temptation to curl up by the fire with a good book is almost irresistible. And I'd have to admit that if I was having a huge row with the love of my life and he walked out of the house in a fury then - even if he was Richard Armitage disgused as an Italian billionaire - I'd take one look at the torrents coming down from the sky and have serious doubts about going after him. I'd be far more likely to leave him to get soaked.

Which reminds me of the book that's just been reprinted in the Latin Lovers duo in Australia. Her Secret Bridegroom. I remember that when that first came out, a friend who lives in Cumbria wrote to me in great delight and commented that'They went to the Lake District - and it rained!" Like me, she has much experience of just how wet it can be there - why do you think they have so many lakes?

So while it's been fun - and warmer - to imagine my characters in the sunshine of the Italian Lakes, I have to admit that there's an itch at the back of my storytellers mind that's making me think of the extra little pressures, the heavy feeling - and the floods tat non stop rain for days can create.

And I think of some Sicilian or Greek used to the sun and the warmth and wonder how he'd cope . . .

Wherever you are I hope you're keeping dry. And if you've bought a copy of Bedded By The Greek Billionaire - or any other of my books - that they bring a little sunshiune into your life whatever the weather.

Lost weekend

Wasn't there a film called Lost Weekend? Well , in explanation I'll just say one word - migraine - and add a shudder at the memory. Don't even mention revisions . . . Catching up is not going to be fun either

One of the things I need to catch up on is the contest to celebrate the publication of Bedded By The Greek Billionaire.

At last Sid has managed to pick some winners from the comments. Thank you to everyone who contributed, I have some wonderful additions to my TBR pile (though when I'm going to get to read anything soon is another matter!)

The winners that Sid has picked out are Karen - who tempted me to go and reread Michelle Reid's Arabian Love Child (and that is a real temptation . . WIGTBBD - when I get this b.... book done) - and Robynl who recommended Gunslinger's Bride by Stacey Kayne.

Karen and Robyn please email me kate AT kate-walker.com with your postal addresses and I'll put your prizes in the mail. You win a signed copy of the Centenary novella The Duke's Secret Wife together with some other Centenary goodies.

If you didn't win this time, you might like to try your hand at the contest over on My Tote Bag where again I'm celebrating the publication of this new book. The question there is what honour was awarded to Bedded By The Greek Billionaire this month (I'm still smiling!). You need to go over to the My Tote Bag site to find out how to enter this one. The prize is a copy of The Greek Tycoon's Reluctant Wife and Spanish Billionaire Innocent Wife together with a Kate Walker tote bag and some other goodies.

Members of my newsletter group who also entered the special contest I run for them - I'll be announcing the winners today too.

What else? Oh yes - over on Amazon.co.uk I spotted a mystery book which was a reprint of my Her Secret Bridegroom together with Claiming his Wife by Diana Hamilton. I didn't know anything about this - and neither did my editor!

It turns out that this is an Australian reprint and I've managed to find a copy of the cover. So here's the original UK edition (I always liked that cover - it came out in 2001). And here is the new Australian reprint which is on sale in December - but is available now on the Mills & Boon Australia's web site right now.

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.