Making my day 2

To celebrate the USA publication day of The Konstantos Marriage Demand - coming up on March 16th in Presents EXTRA - I'm running an extra contest together with lovely Leena Hyat over on My Tote Bag.

You can win a signed copy of one of my backlist books and one of my tote bags together with one of my brand-new special 25th Anniversary celebration pens.

You'll find the contest here

And talking of those pens - for USA readers Lee is running a special giveaway from her Goodie Room where if you send her send a stiff or padded self-addressed envelope with at least $1.49 postage. She'll send you one of the pens and my special bookmarks.

Send your request to-

Lee Hyat - Kate Walker Goodies

12819 SE 38th St. #243

Bellevue, WA 98006

UK readers, I'll try to organise something for you once my delivery of the pens arrives - watch this space!

On the subject of The Konstantos Marriage Demand, this morning I received a copy of a fabulous review for this book from Larissa at We Write Romance. She gave it 4 out of 4 stars (she wanted to give it 5 but they don't go up to 5 stars!) and it has started me smiling early today -

Kate Walker's latest is brilliant! Devastatingly emotional, intense and fast-paced, The Konstantos Marriage Demand leads you down the fairytale path in reverse!

Once upon a time, Sadie Carteret had it all. She'd fallen in love with a beautiful prince charming and they were set to be married. Then reality set in and she realized that he'd used her as a pawn in an age-old feud between their families! But what Sadie didn't know was that Nikos Konstantos wasn't really the man her father had portrayed him—and she should have followed her heart. Instead she allowed herself to be used by her father to destroy Nikos.

In the end the laugh was on them, though, because Nikos didn't take it lying down. He built back up his empire and systematically tore apart Sadie's family fortune until there was nothing left.

What Nikos Konstantos hadn't counted on when he'd been pulling that last rug out from under Sadie's feet was her love for her mother and younger brother. She'd do anything to keep them from harm...even if that meant facing the devil himself. So when the opportunity for a little more personal revenge presented itself, Nikos took it. He arranged for them to spend time together away from the demands of outside influences. What they found was each other and the love they'd never really lost.

There are many books released from Presents each month, but by far this is one you must pick up. It's a twist from the meet, fall in lust, fall in love type stories out there. This one is most definitely more intense. And while each character is flawed, they are perfectly written to make you want to see them succeed and come together. I must say that Ms. Walker certainly gets better and better with each new book!

Thank you so much Larissa!

When you're fighting with a book that has been difficult to really get going, that sort of review is a wonderful boost. Pietro D'Inzeo had better watch out today. I'm planning on wrestling him into submission!

Great Big Blog Party #57 #58 #59 and #60 WInners

So to round off the Great Big Blog Party In have the final set of winners to announce.

Firstly - Anne McAllister's Prize

Anne says that her handsome hound "Gunnar has chosen Amanda and Christina as his winners of copies of The Antonides Marriage Deal. If either of them has it already, I can substitute another book if they prefer. "

Next I have the winner of Zoe Sharp's First Drop.

Biddy wins for her suggestion that the place for a murder mystery "would be Nashville and the time would be February/March when the country radio seminar happens there."

Jane Pollard has picked two winners of her book Dangerous Waters. Jane says:

It really was a tough call. I agreed with so many of their choices. But the two that stood out were
Kate Hardy - who chose Penitence Hurd and Henry King from The Vizard Mask by Diana Norman, and Ilona - who chose Leon/Leonie from These Old Shades and Devil's Cub by Georgette Heyer. (I adore Georgette Heyer. Her books are my comfort reading, and a constant reminder of how authentic and effortless true historical romantic fiction should be.)

And the very last winner of this Blog Party is RobynL who is the winner of signed copies of my books

The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge and Sicilian Husband, Blackmailed Bride

in the final Caerleon Special post.

So winners please make sure that I have your addresses and the final prizes will be sent out.

And once again my thanks to everyone who came to my Greate Big Blog Party and helped me to celebrate my 50th title - I hope you had as much fun as I did .

And huge, heartfelt THANK YOU to all the authors, family and friends - all 60 of you who wrote posts, came and visited and donated prizes for this special event - I could not have done it without you and your friendship and generosity is so appreciated.

Now all I have to do is write the books that get me to that 60th milestone!

And finally the winner of the Grat Big 50th Title Celebration Contest over on Leena's Goodie Room is Nathalie D. of Canada

Nathalie wins signed copies of the hardback editions of The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge and Sicilian Husband, Blackmailed Bride and the heart shaped necklace. Congratulations Nathalie!

And that's it - unless you've voted for your favourite Kate Walker Top Five Titles where I still have one more set of prizes to give out. (You still have time to VOTE for your favourite books if you want to enter - just send me an email listing your top 5 )

Watch out for another exciting contest coming soon.

Great Big Blog Party 54 - Lee Hyat

Today's guest blogger is a very special cyber friend - sadly, I've never yet me Lee Hyat in person. But we've known each other for . . .Oh, since Constantine's Revenge was published - and that came out in 2000 so that makes it seven years.

My first 'meeting' with Lee was through a message in a guestbook that I had on my very first web site. She visited, signed her name, and left me a lovely message. I responded and thanked her for dropping by.I'm so glad that I did because we've been together - working on web sites etc at first and later as friends - ever since.

Lee has been involved in romance writing and reading all the time I've known her and she's one of the most active and busy people on the internet that I've ever known. I've lost count of the number of web sites she's worked with, the reviews she's written, the message boards she's moderated. I do remember that one of them was called The Best Reviews - and that just about summed it up. Lee's read so many romances, so she always has a knowledgeable opinion on what she reads - and if she loves something she says so. It's an honour to get a positive review from her because she knows so much and has read so much.

Over the years, she's done interviews with me too and she always asks great questions - the sort of thing I'd want to ask an author myself if I was interviewing someone. Lee's worked on lots of web sites but now she's reached a point where she's set up her own set of sites and she manages those. If you're interested in Romance and want to read more about it - check out My Tote Bag - and if you'd like to get some freebies from authors and collect them, check out Leena's Goodie Room too. You can get your hands on Kate Walker bookmarks and pens that way if you do.

Because that's the other reason Lee's so valuable in my life. She's always there as a friend to chat about books and writers and life in general - but she's also a great back-up to me as an author. Living in the UK, I used to have problems getting things like bookmarks designed, printed - and distributed in America - it took time I didn't have and I am not skilled in design or anything like. But through her company Author Sound Relations, Lee comes to my rescue there. She designs and organises what I need, she distributes them to conferences etc - and I could never have managed to Great Big 50th title Contest that I mentioned in my last post without Lee's help. Just check out the wonderful Spotlight page she made for me - and then she deals with the entries, posts prizes out to the winners . . . and leaves me free to do what I'm supposed to be doing - writing.

Thank you for everything Lee - for your brilliant assistance with my publicity, for your friendship over the years, and for the love of my books that rbought us together. I hope one day we'll finally meet face to face and no longer been just cyber friends.

So here's Lee Hyat

Thank you, Kate, for inviting me to blog on your site. I’m delighted to be a part of your 50th book celebrations! I’m sure everyone’s been enjoying the celebrations with you and you’ve probably been looking back on your marvellous journey, feeling quite satisfied with this great achievement.

The word FIFTY takes on a bigger, more colourful dimension when one looks over all 50 gorgeous covers for Kate’s books, don’t you all agree? It’s like having all the colours of a beautiful rainbow on your bookshelf… delighting the senses and stirring the emotions. I’ve spent quite some time at Kate’s website this past month, reading all the summaries and making a list of the still-elusive Kate Walker books I need to get my hands on.

I know Kate’s mentioned it before in one of her posts but I’m going to repeat it anyway… Kate and I met several years ago when we both happened to discover, quite by chance, each other’s websites on the same day, at almost the same time. We had a good laugh over the coincidence later but it was sort of weird at the time. Like one of those wonderful incidents that hits home with a sense of déjà vu. I think we both knew that day we were destined to get to know each other better. And we did.

Her warmth, fantastic talent and caring attitude has been a great source of inspiration over the years. I think what I respect and admire most about Kate – aside from the fantastic novels she writes…. CONSTANTINE’S REVENGE being one of my all time favorites! – is that she takes the time to inspire aspiring writers and supports them in their achievements so enthusiastically. She always gives back 150% of what she gets. I don’t know quite how she finds the time to do all that she does but she’s brilliant at it.

Kate’s had several exciting events happening lately and I know, like me, lots of people have been checking out the books and summaries on her website. I’d love to know which cover(s) from Kate’s books are your favorites. I’m personally leaning towards all the older UK covers because they’re the colorful ones (before they all became blue), reminding me of the rainbow and in terms of titles, I adore the cover for HOSTAGE BRIDE and … of course…. CONSTANTINE’S REVENGE! So please, if you read this, let me know which cover(s) appeal to you. We all know the stories are fantastic and it’s more difficult to decide with those so I’m making it easy --- just mention the titles featuring the best covers. I’m going to ask Kate to let the marvelous Sid pick a winner from the comments and I’ll send the winner a goodie package with a few good Harlequin Presents novels.

Kate, I’ve enjoyed so many of your books and I’m absolutely thrilled to see you celebrate the 50th one! My heartiest congratulations! I’m looking forward to reading many many more from you in the years ahead!

Lee

GIVEAWAY QUESTION:

Which boks of Kate's do you think have your favourite covers? Which ones do you like the best?

GIVEAWAY PRIZE:

A My Tote Bag goodie package with some great Harlequin Presents novels.

PS From Kate - What a great idea, Lee - I'm so looking forward to the answers to this one. I'd love to know which of my covers you all like best.

For my self, I'd have to agree with Lee that the coer of Constantine's Revenge is wonderful - and I love Vito and Emily on The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge - and I think a lot of you do too.

Which gives me an idea - when Sid's picked a winner (that cat is going to be so busy!) I'll collect up some of the titles and the favourite covers and post then in a separate blog - I might also do one on the covers I like least.

Great Big Blog Party 23 - Winner

Heather Rae Scott has sent me the name of her winner and this time the lucky lady is

Ellie

Congratulations Ellie! You win a signed copy of The Last Thing I Expected.

And while I'm talking about prizes I think I should remind you all of the great prize there is to win in my Great Big Contest in the special Spotlight over on Leena's Goodie Room on the Author Sound site.

As well as signed hardback edtions of the two titles in my Sicilian Brothers duo (that's Sicilian Husband;Blackmailed Bride and of course The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge) you also get a chance to win a real gold heart shaped necklace.

So what do you have to do to be in with a chance of winning?

Well, every week, Lee is posting up a set of questions about my books - all those 50 titles on my backlist. All you have to do is to find the answers to each question - the answers can all be found on my web site in the backlist pages. Answer the questions and send you entries to Lee together with your full names, mailing address and of course the answers to this week's questions!

Every week seven winners will be picked out and each of those seven will win a first round prize of a signed book and one of my special bookbags. There are 50 of these first round prizes to win so you have plenty of chances.

Then at the end of the 50 questions, everyone who has answered all the questions correctly will have their name entered into the Great Big Prize draw and one lucky winner will receieve the main prize.

Now just in case you have missed the first couple of weeks' questions - don't worry . You can still enter the Main Draw! Just catch up on the questions you haven't answered - they're still up on the Spotlight page for you to see them. Answer all the questions - including this week's - and send them in to Lee then come back and answer the rest next week and the week after.

Each time you enter you'll be in with a chance for a first round prize - and everyone who get all the answers right, whether they're a Round One winner or not, will be entered into that final Main Draw.

So hurry over to Leena's Goodie Room - read the Spotlight - and enter the contest for a chance to win a really Great Big Prize.