Happy New Year - and Pink Hearts

Happy New Year to all friends and readers. I hope 2017 is kind to you and that it is more gentle on the world. Last year seemed to bear out that old curse 'May you live in interesting times'.
It was a bit of a bumpy ride at times, but at least the end of the year spending time with loved family and very dear friends pink was a lovely way to wind down 2016. Ruby and Charlie have fallen in love with our welcome visitors and are now relaxing after their endeavours in choosing the winners of the prize giveaway over Christmas - hopefully the parcels have now arrived or will very soon. Thank you to everyone who has let me know their books and angels have reached them.
Happy 2017!

I'm so late with this that my New Year greetings to you all coms on January  3rd - which is also my day for blogging over on the Pink Hearts Society - so there's a proper blog over there today  too.

Life lessons from a cat!

Today is the 12th of January (remind me again how it got to be almost halfway through the first month of 2015!)  And the 12th of the month is the day I post my regular blog over on
Tote Bags 'n'  Blogs.
If you read my blog on the Pink Heart Society, you'll have read how I just don't believe in resolutions - at least not New Year ones. So some people have wondered what do I put in their place?   The answer is one word - what word? Well you'll have to read the blog to find out.

And the cat? Well, I'm taking life lessons from my black and white kitten Ruby and resolving to live life more as she does - she certainly seems very happy on it.

Belated but meant . .

I feel like the White Rabbit - I'm late . . . I'm late for a very important date! How can I be late to wish everyone a Happy New Year? Well, even if it's a bit late it's no less heartfelt - I hope that the New Year was lovely and that 2015 brings lots of wonderful, happy, loving days to create some truly special memories to look back on when the next new year rolls around.

I know that 2014 has been a tough year for some people so I wish you all a much happier and more peaceful time in 2015. May some dreams come true along the way. Looking forward to sharing this year with you.

Love Kate

Tote Bags 'N' Blogs

So today is January 12th.  How's your New Year so far? Have you settled in to 2014 or is it still all  bright sparkling and new to you?
Have you made resolutions? Kept any of them?

I've spent the last week or so sorting and organizing - oh, and throwing a ball for  a small, scampering kitten to chase  all over the place. I'm relieved to have the Christmas tree down so that she's give up climbing that!  And I'm particularly glad to know that she is no longer going to entice Charlie  to follow her up it!

So, as I mentioned a few days ago, there is a slight change in the way my guest blogs are organised for 2014 - and that means that instead of being on the first Sunday of each month, my post for Toe Bags 'n' Blogs will now be on the 12th of each month.

Which of course is today.

And Tote Bags is here

So that's where my post today is - all about some of the things I am looking forward to so much in 2014.

Pink Heart Society

Today is the first Friday of January  - the first Friday of 2013 - so that means that today's my day for my regular blog post over on the Pink Heart Society blog in my  Date With Kate column.

So that's where I am today - and  I'm talking about starting the New Year off right with - not resolutions - but a lot  of resolution.

Happy New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all

I hope that 2011 brings you lots of peace love, and joy

Happiness, success, some fabulous memories

and of course some really great books to read!

Thanl you for sharing 2010 with me

I look forward to being with you in 2011

2008 Looking Back

Well that was quite a year. It had to be really, when it was the year that Mills & Boon celebrated their centenary, with all the fuss and interest that came with it.The celebrations started off in February and from then onwards things didn't seem to slow down much for the rest of the year.

Interviews, TV programmes (about the company, not me)Book Festivals, Library events . .. and that was before we hit the conference season. I seem to have been here there and everywhere this year, snatching a breath as and when I can, and really there was just a bit too much crammed in there.

London, Lincoln, Manchester, Hale, Chichester, San Francisco, Guildford, London again . . . I'm not sure I want to reckon up how many miles I travelled to do workshops. give talks. It was great fun, but I wouldn't want to do it all again - not all in one year anyway! The best part of the public appearences was the oppportunity they gave me to meet people - readers and would-be writers who came to the workshops. That's always a delight and to everyone who came to one of these and stayed to chat or wrote to me afterwards - my thanks. It's always so special to meet readers face to face - and that includes the readers who say that my 12 Point Guide To Writing Romance has helped them.

Because of course 2008 was also the year in which the 2nd (revised and expanded) edition of the 12 Point Guide was published and I was really thrilled about that. I've been delighted and honoured by the way that I keep meeting people - or getting emails from readsers - or reading reviews on Amazon - that have nothing but praise for this book. Not being a teacher, I'm thrilled to find that I can communicate my love of the romance genre and the skills needed to write it - and that those of you who have bought this guide find it helps. And when those people end up with their very first published books in their hands and my 12 Point Guide has played apart in it, that's an even deeper sense of satisfaction for me.

Of course, the travelling of 2008 was also wonderful for the way that it gave me extra opportunities to meet up with friends from the writing world - and I do mean the world. Being in London and San Francisco meant that I could spend time with Michelle Reid, Anne McAllister (who later came to stay her and visit Sid of course) Trish Morey, Abby Green, Sandra Marton, Holly Jacobs, Susan Stephens, India Grey . . . So many friends from eHarlequin too. I also got to meet new authors Jennie Lucas and Sabrina Philips and - new to me anyway - Ellen Hartman. And in a 'before she was famous' moment there was also the Instant Seduction winner Lynn Raye Harris. The RNA Conference gave me a bit more time to catch up with wonderful writers I don't see enough of - and some lovely friends grabbed at the opportunities of the workshops etc when they brought me nearer to them. None of it was ever quite long enough but it was so valuable.

2008 was The Year of Flora - as I've already noted. At first I think Sidney the Cat of Superior Breeding felt that his handsome nose was a little put out - but how could I let that happen? And his fans are still there, ardent as ever (he thanks the two beautiful ladies Josephina and Theodora for their messages on my last post and of course as he helps himself to Greenies from his Christmas package, his dear Lady Across the Pond, Anne McAllister is in his mind too) Of course, there is one important job that Sid has always carried out and that is picking the winners of my contests - Flora is way too flighty to handle anything so important. And while there is a a crunchie that needs choosing, then Sid will always have the Upper Paw.

There were also a few books published in 2008 - some new and some reprints. Two of which I'm particularly pleased about - the publication of The Duke's Secret Wife as part of the special Centenary Collection of shorter novellas - and the reprinting of The Alcolar Family trilogy as a complete collection in book form in the UK and then as an ebook Bundle available on eHarlequin. And thinking about these other forms of publishing that seemed to take such a leap forward in 2008 - there was the use of my Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife as the free book to launch and highlight Harlequin's links with Daily Lit's publication of books in instalments by email.

There were the new books too - that Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife and then Bedded By The Greek Billionaire which gave me my first Romantic Times Top Pick - with 4.5 stars too. This book has also ended my year of a real thrill because it has been shortlisted for the Best Presents of 2008 by Romantic Times too. I've been smiling and Snoopy dancing quite a bit over that particular book!

And now we're into the last hours of 2008. It's time to stop looking back and start looking forward. I'm not one for resolutions, certainly not for great assessments of what I did right or wrong achived or didn't achieve last year. To me that seems to have too much of 'shoulds' and 'musts' that end up being just more sticks to beat ourselves when the inevitable realisation that being human means not being perfect kicks in. As the Jewish proverb says - only God ever created perfection. So I'm not listing any 'I resolve to . . . ' here.

Instead I'm looking forward to plenty in 2009 and hoping to make it an emotionally satisfying, personally satisfying, career-wise satisfying year with lots going on ( that's pretty much certain already) but also lots of balance and quality - because quantity, in achievements, in experiences, in love - is NOT the same thing as quality - not at all.

And I'll be back to tell you more about what's coming up but first I just want to say before midnight sounds anywhere in the world of my readers -

HAPPY NEW YEAR and I hope that 2009 and is a very special time for you. One that leaves you with some wonderful memories - of all sorts of things - when it comes to an end and you're looking back on it on December 31st next year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Thank you for all your support and interest through 2007 - I hope that you'll stay around for 2008 and whatever it will bring.



Once again the readers' gift will be essential medicines and medical equipment - a great choice. Thank you all for sharing in this gift by buying and reading my books.




I don't plan on running a Cat Calendar this year - Sid feels he has posed 12 times and a dozen is quite enough. And I've run out of ideas to represent each month - well, ideas that Sir Sidney would tolerate.

Besides, he is busy trying to decide just what he thinks of Flora the Flirt who is trying very hard to win his affection. Anne McAllister suggested that Sid and Flora's romance should be entitled The Alpha Cat's Feline Mistress - but is she The Alpha Cat's Innocent Feline Mistress - The Alpha Cat's Reluctant Feline Mistress or - surely not - The Alpha Cat's Blackm iled Feline Mistress?

As it is Sir Sidney is not yet sure if she is a true innovcent or in fact a gold-digger. Though, in this case, she is more accurately a 'fish -digger' as she has snaffled his New Year Salmon from right under his furry chin. I'm just stunned that he let her get away with it.

So here, to mark the fact that the dark and distant Alpha is perhaps melting just a little is the picture that might just mark the start of a beautiful friendship.



While, in the other toom, the two older boys, Dylan and Grandad Spiff doze by the fire in an attempt to recover from a long day of having their tailes chased by a flighty furry floozie.


Happy new year! I hope it's a fabulous one for you - a time that will leave you with some truly special memories to hold in your heart by the time the next January 1st comes around - and I hope you'll keep dropping by to see what's happening her. I'm looking forward to sharing it with you.