New Year New Look Part 2

So I said it was all about the covers today - I'm sure you've heard the reports - the rumours, the buzz about the brand new makeover that Harlequin Mills & Boon has had coming up - and now it's here. Today is the launch date of the new look romance cover designs, across all the lines. They're very different - so what do you think?

Not only the covers but the Mills & Boon website, the blog, and Bookclub pages have all a makeover

r too. There will be lots of interesting activity and information to launch this new image - so take a look.

I have a new book out in this first appearance of the new covers. I'll post the details - and the book 'blurb' in my next post. First I wanted to let you see some images of the launch of this new way of seeing Mills & Boon that you'll start spotting in the shops from now on

New Year New Look Part 1

What's on my mind? It's all about covers this week - you'll find out more soon. But I just discovered that my 'Wuthering Heights' book has been given a mini makeover with a new 'modernised cover' - and a fabulous sale price of 0.99p

The Return of the Stranger used to look like this:

Standing high on the windswept moors, the lone figure of Heath Montanha vows vengeance on the woman who destroyed the last fragments of his heart…

Lady Katherine Charlton has never forgotten the stable hand with dangerous fists and a troubled heart from her childhood. Now the rebel is back, his powerful anger concealed under a polished and commanding veneer.

When ten years of scandal and secrets are unleashed, with a passionate, furious kiss, Heath’s deepest, darkest wish crystallizes: revenge—and Kathy—will be his!

Now - with the new look cover it looks like this:

What do you think?

New Covers Reveal . . .

At last I can show you all the new covers for my January book - A Proposal to Secure His Vengeance. 

As you know, Harlequin Mills and Boon  are revamping the whole look of their  books  and  the covers have been radically redesigned - the same with Australia -   so I've been waiting until I could show you all three covers for my next title.

Here goes: 

The USA  cover stays the same - designers think that the long established white cover, red band and hero and heroine in a circle is iconic and will stay the same.



The new UK design - out January - is very different. What do you think?
BTW - my hero doesn't have  a beard - and he has jet black hair (see the USA cover!)






Finally - the new-design Australian cover



I think I like this one the best - what do you think?


 And the back cover 'blurb' is this:
Raoul Cardini will have his revenge! His preferred method? Ruthless, irresistible seduction!
Imogen O’Sullivan is horrified when charismatic tycoon Raoul breaks up her engagement and makes her his own convenient bride! She once surrendered everything to Raoul — body, heart and soul. But as he stalks back into her life it’s clear he has punishment in mind — not just passion. Can Imogen resist Raoul’s potent brand of delicious vengeance?


PS Don't forget that you can still enter the Christmas book giveaway - just leave a comment, telling me the most unusual Christmas gift you've given - or received.

Not the 12 Days of Christmas afterall!

It is a well-known fact that having a chest infection/fluey virus that lasts over 10 days+ will ruin all carefully laid plans for Christmas cards/presents/giveaways. And, that being the case, a DH with the male version of the said virus (aka man flu) will mess things up even more and delay them even longer.

So my plans for a 12 Days of Christmas giveaway have rather taken a back seat lately! I shall rethink and regroup however - and the will be some sort of Christmas giveaway in the coming week - I hope!

In the meantime, as you'll know, Mills and Boon are busy giving glimpses of the new look makeover that will launch in 2018. A small package arrived today, with the very first copy of my own new- look book and a special card to mark the event - so here's your first sneak peak of the new-look Modern cover and the new line Dare coming soon.

More details to follow . . .

Kate's Corner and a contest

It's the 15th of the month so that means that it's my day for blogging in Kate's Corner over on We Write Romance.

Today I'm talking about the new cover designs and the changes that are happening in Harlequin Mills & Boon in the upcoming months. If you haven't seen the new designs then now's your chance - and they'll be out on the bookshop shelves next month.

And thinking of Kate's Corner reminds me. I've been asked to write another regular column on a great blog site, starting with the new year in 2011. Of course I've said yes.

But - and here's where I need your help - what should I call my column this time?

Heather at We Write Romance came up with Kate's Corner which I like a lot - but now I need another name for this regular column - so

CONTEST TIME -
I'd love it if you could suggest some possible ideas for the name of this new column
Walker's Warblings?
Kate's Crazies?
Queen's Queries?

I'm sure you can think of something much better.

How about posting your suggestion in the Comments section of the blog and I'll pick my favourite (s)

I can't guarantee that it will be the one that gets used but I will offer a prize to the winner
So - what are your ideas?

Oh - and my thanks to Marilyn who drew my attention to this good review of The Good Greek Wife? on The Good The Bad and The Unread

I'll be thinking of you on Tuesday Marilyn and hope that knee op goes smoothly and your'e soon up and about again

Thank you too to Lynne Connolly for the review

Where did the week go?

Is it just me or do you find that if you go away it takes longer to catch up than you were actually away for?

We had a wonderful weekend with Michelle Reid and her husband - the sun shone, we walked by the sea, ate wonderful meals, talked, laughed, talked some more. Michelle gave me an advance copy of her upcoming book - Mia's Scandal. This is the launch book for a new continuity The Balfour Legacy that starts in July. I'll have more info on that in a while and Michelle and I will be running a joint contest to mark the publication of our next books.

Mine of course will be The Good Greek Wife? and that's part of the mini-series The Greek Tycoons which has the shout line - Legends are Made of Men Like These! Some of the other books in the series are already out now and they are:

The Greek Tycoon's Achilles Heel by Lucy Gordon

The Power of the Legendary Greek by Catherine George

A Good Greek Wife? will be out in July

and the fourth book in the series will be

Powerful Greek, Housekeeper Wife by Robyn Donald (coming in September)

These dates are the UK ones. The first two books are out in Presents EXTRA in June and my book and Robyn's will also be Presents EXTRA in October.

Of course if you can't wait till then and you haven't already ready it, there's my other Greek book The Konstantos Marriage Demand still available on eHarlequin or Amazon. And as a sneak preview of good news, if you're buying from eHarlequin, from May 26th - May 31st they're running a BOGOF (buy one get one free) sale - so you could get twice the number of books for your money!

If you're in America, have you noticed the changes that have happened in the Presents line-up lately? This is how it was announced over on I Heart Presents:

On another note I wanted to talk to you, our most avid fans, about a recent change that you may have noticed within the Harlequin Presents line. In the month of May there are a few less Presents stories available than you may be used to, instead of 8 titles per month we will now be publishing 6 titles each month. We decided on this change for a few different reasons as we felt very strongly that we weren’t being fair to our authors or readers; with so many titles out there we noticed it was becoming difficult for our readers to keep up and we didn’t want anyone to miss out on any of the fantastic stories that were being offered.

The other change in the line-up is that the Presents titles that were originally Modern Heat/Harlequin Sexy in the UK and Australia will now be brought out in special collections in Presents Extra in America.

There will still be 4 Harlequin Presents Extras on-sale mid-month. Two of these will be regular Presents titles and two of them will be books that have been published in Modern Heat in the UK - these will now appear in their separate 'collection' in the Presents Extra instead of being in the first strand of publication when it wasn't easy to tell which ones had this rather different editorial content.

You should be able to tell them more simply now with the titles to the collections - Modern Heats will be in the ones with titles like Sex in The City/P.S. I'm Pregnant/Conveniently Wedded . . .And Bedded

And the traditional Presents authors' books will be in collections like: The Greek Tycoons/Her Irresistible Boss/British Bachelors. So there will still be 8 great 'traditional' Presents books each month - just split over the two lines.

Will this help you find the type of books you're looking for? And American readers - are you finding it easy to get hold of copies of the Presents Extras you want? OR even to get the info on which books are out in that line-up each month?

Oh yes - and talking about changes - there are some coming up in the UK lines as well. The number of books in the Modern line will be reduced to 8 - 4 in each two-weekly line-up and there are some BIG changes coming in the way the books will look.

I can't tell you more just yet but watch this space and you'll find out . . . (but looking at Michelle's book cover up above should give you a clue)