Coming events - a recap

As I've just been talking to the librarian in Hull who is organising the workshop there, I thought I'd just recap on the details of that and other events coming up where the booking details haven't been totally finalised before-

So - Hull Central Library Monday 8th February 1- 3pm
Workshop on Writin Romance
For details and to book please contact:
Jessica Leathley Senior Librarian here or phone: 01482 331365


Fishguard Writing Weekend 19th - 21st February - there are still places available on the Contemporary Romance course (but of course Historical Romance will be covered as well!) and if you put my name on the application form it should save you an extra £10. (Considering I just saw a different writing weekend costing over £500 , I personally think the £209 this weekend costs is a bargain anyway)
Details here: Writers' Holiday site


Residential Training weekend in Southampton
The course's web site is still down but you can find details and contact the organisers here:
http://hampshire.tk/events/writing-romance-with-kate-walker-at-new-place-shirrell-heath-southampton/

John O'Groats to Land's End . . .

(In case you don't know that means going from the most northerly point on mainland Britain (in Scotland) to the very southernmost spot at the end of Cornwall)

Well, perhaps not, but it almost seems like it. I spent yesterday organising the updates for myweb site and one of the things I had to fo was to revise and bring up to date my Events page. I've had some comments in the past from writers wishing that I might do a workshop or a coure closer to where they live- with Scotland particularly being the place that was missing out the most. But yesterday as I listed the events coming up between now and next November, I realised that I will be travelling the length and breadth of the country and hopefully if you're interested you will find a course or at the very least a talk that will be within your reach.

So I thought I'd give you some advance warning on these so that you can look out for the ones that are going to be closest to you - sorry to everyone in America and Australia and all other countries. But there's only one of me and I'm stretched pretty tightly as it is!

February 15th - belated Valentine's Day event.
An Evening With Kate Walker
Place: Central Library . Surrey Street, Sheffield S1 1XZ
Time: 6-8pm
Date:15th February
More details when I get them


February 19th - 21st
FISHGUARD WRITERS & ARTISTS' WORKSHOP WEEKEND
Course: Contemporary Romance
Details can be found here


March 25th and 27th
Highlands and Islands Arts http://www.hi-arts.co.uk/
I will be running a couple of events/seminars on romance writing organised by Highlands and Islands Arts. At the moment, things are still being finalised, but the probable dates/venues I have are:
Thursday 25th March 2010 (evening) Inverness
Saturday 27th March 2010 (afternoon) Ullapool
Full details and venues to be announced - watch my web site Events page for more information


RESIDENTIAL TRAINING
Event: a two day residential course on Writing Romance held in the beautiful surroundings of New Place Shirrell Heath, Southampton.
Dates: 24th - 25th April 2010
Venue: New Place, Shirrell Heath Southampton Hampshire SO32 2JH


ROMANTIC NOVELISTS' ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE
Place: University of Greenwich in SE London
Dates: Friday 9th July - Sunday 11th July 2010


WRITERS’ HOLIDAY AT CAERLEON
Dates: 25th July - 30th July 2010
I will be teaching a five part course on The 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance.
Further details and booking forms can be found here: http://www.writersholiday.net/

With the Babe Magnet teaching Writing True Crime

NAWG (National Association of Writers’ Groups) Festival of Writing
Place St Aidan's College, University of Durham, Durham,
Dates:September 3-5
http://www.nawg.co.uk/
More details when I get them

Hopefully one of these will be manageable for many of you. I'll look forward to meeting you somewhere. some time!

Reasons to be cheerful, Part One

So I finally got around to writing the cheery post - not because I lost any of the cheeriness, but because I found I could add more. Which is great - so . . .

1. The Greek is gone. My scarred Greek hero has left the building and is sitting on my editor's desk (now there's an image) waiting to see what she thinks of him. Zarek Michaelis is no longer my hero (until he returns, needing tweaking no doubt) and I can finally turn my thoughts to a Sicilian who has been waiting patiently since I thought of his story but had to put it aside for Zarek and the Greek Myth project.

2. The sun is shining. Well, it's a little early for that right now, but when I planned this post yesterday it was very definitely shining and creating a wonderful, warm and bright Indian Summer.

3. The flu is gone at last. It lingered like a bad smell, dragging me down, for far too long but yesterday it was wonderful to be back on my walk, in the sunshine (see above) and watchig the squirrels play in the fallen leaves, talk to all the dog walkers and their dogs, see the changing colours and hear those leaves rustling under my feet.

4. I heard from We Write Romance that they had reviewed Kept For Her Baby - and what a review -

"...a masterpiece that will live in the hearts...for many years to come!"
Kept for Her Baby by Kate Walker is sensuality personified with a touch of real emotional upheaval. The fire between the hero and heroine is palpable and intriguing. And while the subject matter dealt with in the plot is harsh, it is so real and well done that if you give Lucy a chance you'll not be sorry because it will make this story a true keeper.

Lucy Emiliani couldn't handle the emotions that came after childbirth. Running on highly unstable hormones and horribly negative thoughts, Lucy sought escape in order to save her child. Even knowing she was branded a bad mother, she braved returning under the cover of night to catch a glimpse of her baby boy. And hopefully catch her husband unaware so she might have a chance at getting what she was after.

Ricardo Emiliani is a rich Italian billionaire who felt as though he'd been trapped into marrying a pregnant Lucy. He'd thought she were an innocent and beguiling girl...until she'd found out who he was and how much money he had. Knowing she was probably just another gold digger didn't diminish the heat between them and he had to have her. While she gave herself and her innocence over freely, she'd also given him something else. The best thing in his life, Marco...before abandoning them both.

When Lucy returns after no word for months he's reluctant to let her back into his or Marco's life, but when his reaction to her is the same fast and furious appeal it had been the first time they'd met, when they'd been strangers, he decided he'd make her an offer she couldn't refuse. And in doing so they found the love that had been missing when they'd married.

Kept for Her Baby kept me intrigued from beginning to end. I was curious as to what could keep a woman from her baby, and not once at the beginning of the story did I imagine it would be mental issues. Maybe threats from someone or the like, but not mental. And those issues were very real and very well done by Ms. Walker. It makes those who might not have had those feelings and bad moments after childbirth see how real it could be, and how hard it would be to live with them and the real fear that you could be putting your child in danger just being with them.

Ms. Walker has created a masterpiece that will live in the hearts of the reader for many years to come!

A masterpiece! No wonder I was smiling all day yesterday.

And in the same email:

5. Again from We Write Romance, I learned that both Kept for Her Baby and my previous book Cordero's Forced Bride had been nominated for the 2009 Reviewers' Choice Award "for being the best in their respective subgenres." So now do you see why I was feeling so cheerful?

6. I've had some emails from readers and would-be writers in Scotland who feel - unsurprisingly - that the workshops I do in Wales (Fishguard and Caerleon) and Southampton involve too long a journey for them to get to. So I was wondering what I could do, if anything, to remedy the situation. And then I got an email from an arts organisation based in Inverness asking if I would be in terested in doing a romance event or maybe more with them early next year. So Scottish readers - watch this space . . .
(I will still be doing Fishguard and Southampton - so it's going to be a busy Spring - details of all events and the Inverness one when it's finalised can be found on my Events page.)

7. I'm blogging over on the Pink Heart Society today about one of my favourite types of reading - ghost stories - just in time for Halloween.

And finally -

Sir Sidney, Princess Flora and Dylan would like you to know that 29th October is National Kitteh Day which is a reason for the to be cheerful and they would like you to help them - and me - celebrate it . So when I'm celebrating I like to share and when Sid is celebrating her likes to - well - eat . . .

So if we combine the two - you tell me one (or more) of your reasons to be cheerful today and I'll get Sid on the job (er - offer him a few cat treats) to pick the names of couple of winners who will win a book from my backlist. I'll add in a pen and one of my brand-new bookmarks.

Let's have some more reasons to be cheerful.

Writing holidays and such

Sharon Martin says it's all my fault. Well, I suppose I have to take the blame seeing as I'm the one who agrees to do all the events in the first place - and then I write about them on here and people read about them and . . .

So in the comments yesterday, Sharon said:

It's all your fault Kate. Well at least I think it's your fault as it can't possibly be mine. There I was just casually browsing the internet when I chanced upon a link to a writing holiday. Sounds like fun I thought. Wonder what that's about I pondered.One completed booking form later and an Amazon order for your 12 point guide and here I am, embarking on a new career!Thank you for a wonderful blog which is clearly inspirational as I am now over £400 poorer than I was last week. Wish me luck and I'll see you in Newport.

What can I say in return? Well - first of all, thank you Sharon! For buying the 12 Point Guide and thank you from Writers' Holidays for booking a place on next year's event. You'll have fun, I know you will. I always do - and I go there to 'work' (OK I have fun too!)

And you'll enjoy the food. Only last week at the AMBA lunch, I was talking to Gill (Roger) Sanderson and when the name Caerleon came up his immediate response was 'They feed you wonderfully there!'

I don't know what the Babe Magnet and I would do in the summer if we didn't go to Caerleon. And we're already looking forward to going again next summer. This time we have some special plans to introduce a very special friend and writer to this great conference - more on that when I know the details are finalised.

But thinking about Caerleon remind me that I haven't brought you all up to date with the courses, workshops etc that I'm doing in the coming year. I know they are all listed on the Events page on my web site but they get more notice on here and I know that Carol W didn't know about the Calderdale Writers' Roadshow until I blogged about it . Now she's booked up for a session with my husband!

And the Calderdale event is the first one -

CALDERDALE WRITING DAYS
Event: One to one sessions in the morning. I',m meeting writers and talking to them about their work

Workshop: My husband Stephen Wade will be running a workshop on Writing the Past 1-3pm

Date: Saturday 10 October

Venue: Halifax Central Library Northgate Halifax HX1 1UN

E-mail: libraries@calderdale.gov.uk Telephone: 01422 392630

BARNSLEY CENTRAL LIBRARY
Event: A Day of Crime and Passion in Barnsley Library

I will be talking about writing Romance and working for Harlequin Mills & Boon. My husband Stephen Wade will be talking about his True Crime books as well — one of us in the morning and one in the afternoon.
Date: Wednesday October 14th

Times: 10-12 am and 2-4 pm.

Venue:Barnsley Central Library Shambles St Barnsley, S70 2JF

Telephone: 01226 773911

FISHGUARD WRITING WEEKEND

Event: Weekend Residential Writing Course

Course – Writing Modern Romance

Dates: 19 – 21st February 2010

Venue: Fishguard Bay Hotel Quay Road Goodwick Fishguard Pembrokeshire SA64 0BT

Cost: £209

This Writing Weekend is run by the same fabulous people who run Caerleon Writers' Holidays and you can find the details of both events here.

RESIDENTIAL TRAINING

Event: a two day residential course on Writing Romance held in the beautiful surroundings of New Place Shirrell Heath, Southampton.

Dates: 24th - 25th April 2010

Venue: New Place, Shirrell Heath Southampton Hampshire SO32 2JH

Cost: £285 – includes 10 hours of training, double room, all meals, tea and coffee, internet and use of swimming pool/gym

Further details can be found here

WRITERS’ HOLIDAY AT CAERLEON

25th July - 30th July 2010
Once again I’ll be going back to one of my favourite places and taking part in the Writers’ Holiday at Caerleon 2010.
I will be teaching a five part course on The 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance.

Further details and booking forms can be found here: http://www.writersholiday.net/

Cost: £399
Book online and save £10!

I've also had enquiries in the last week from Sheffield libraries and Walsall libraries about talks on romance or Crime and Passion events so watch for details on those.

And for the would-be writers out there, specially the ones who are planning on entering the Harlequin Presents Writing Competition 2009 - then make a note in your diearies for a very special event coming this week.

Wednesday, Sept 23rd, 11am EDT eHarlequin.com is hosting a live chat for you! The editors are coming to you to give you plenty of time to get your questions answered and your submissions in, so don't miss this chance!

You can find all the details here and if you miss the chat then a transcript will be posted later. So if you have questions, why not post them now - and log on to join in the chat on Wednesday.

And Sharon, I'll see you in Newport, Carol and Joanne in Halifax - and Rachel in Southampton!

Coming up . . .

One of the new plans I was talking about last week has now been finalised, so I can tell you more about it.

I was approached by a company called Residential Training who are starting a new venture near Southampton and asked if I would consider running a course on Writing Romance for them. We've been in discussion since and now we'v e finalised the details. And it won't just be me who'll be working with them.

So if you're in the south of England - ort anywhere within reach of Southampton, Hampshire, and you want to learn more about how to write Romance - or True Crime (with the Babe Magnet) how about this fabulous Grade 1 listed building as a place to stay- Well, the mews quarters of it, set in 32 acres of parkland -on a residential course? You'll also be able to use the swimming pool and it even has a tree house!

The Babe Magnet and I will be running a 2 day course there on 24th/25th April 2010. You can find the details here . Booking will start very soon. The details of Residential Training and contact information can be found here

Of course, if Wales is more accessible for you, I will still be running the Modern Romance course at Fishguard Writers' and Artists' Weekend in February (19th - 21st) 2010 with the wonderful Anne and Gerry Hobbs. That's at the Fishguard Bay Hotel in Pembrokeshire and full details of that event can be found on thr Writers' Holiday web site here.

And if you live in or near Derby, I'm hosting an event at the Central Library there this Wednesday

Here are the details:

Event: Reader Event – talk and Q&A

Date: Wednesday June 17thVenue: Derby Central Library Wardwick Derby

Time: 7-9.15pm, (Door open 6.45pm)

Telephone: 01332 641702 Enquiries and information

Complimentary drinks will be offered during an interval part way through the evening. Entrance is free but please ring to book.

There are more writers and readers events coming up throughout the rest of 2009 - details can be found on the Events page on my web site - where I'll be adding the Residential Training Southampton event details too just as oon as I can get organised.

Maybe I'll see you at one of them.