Foreign Editions - all over the world.

It's a good week for foreign editions - the Norwegian and Danish ones yesterday, and I found myself in a 3 in 1 collection with none other than Nora Roberts!  That's quite something.


 There were some German editions before that - and now today these great Manga editions.

I love the Manga versions of my stories and there's a special delight in seeing one of the graphic editions translated into English so I can read the words as well as delight in the illustrations.


So there's the Manga version of The Devil and Miss Jones with the runaway bride and her biker hero. 




 Then this fabulous collection of different stories with Miranda Lee, Sharon

Josephine Kendrick, and Chantelle Shaw has The Sicilian's Wife included, and finally the English-translation of the Japanese-translation of the Manga The Antonakos Marriage. 



 The covers are just amazing and you can really get the atmosphere and emotions of the books through the graphic novels inside. I  love them.

Busy busy . . .

The week is crazy busy - and now I'm packing for a trip to London and the annual Association of Mills and Boon Authors lunch with a reception afterwards at the Harlequin offices - just hope the weather is rather better than the icy showers we have here - it's only September!

 One bright spark in the cold dampness has been the arrival of a bundle of new foreign translations - German, Dutch, French and several from Japan - including my favourites - two brand new Manga editions.
 
One of these is The Return of The Stranger which seems to suddenly have had a new lease of life with people talking about it (and it being on sale at £0.99p) on Amazon. The other is The Antonakos Marriage. Great to

see these older books getting a new lease of life.


Now it's time to pack and head for the big city! I'll be back at the weekend.
Waving to everyone I'll see there - travel safe and I can't wait to meet up again.

Old books . . . New editions

One of the best things about writing for Harlequin Mills & Boon is the way that the books are published in so many different formats and countries all  over the world.  Every now and then a bundle of new foreign editions appears in the post and I have fun finding out which books they are and where they've been reprinted this time.

I've  had a flurry of these books lately and it's been interesting to see which 'old favourites' have turned up this time.

One is a reprint of a reprint  now appearing as a 'Select'  title in Japan. The Twelve Month Mistress always had one of my favourite covers and now I think it looks really powerful and  atmospheric in this new edition.

Another reprint of an older book appears in a French edition where I'm thrilled to be published together with my lovely friend Trish Morey - who just received her silver pin for her 25th title  -   In this edition  Trish's Secrets of Castillo Del Arco  has my  The Married Mistress included as a free promotional title - a great bargain. And Congratulations Trish on that 'silver' book!


In parcels of books arriving last week, I also  had an Italian edition of The Antonakos Marriage,   The Return of The Stranger in Greek, Spanish, Portugese, and  Hebrew. And The Devil and Miss Jones is out in France this month too.

It's been intriguing to see these foreign language editions appearing on Kindle - and so showing up on my listing on Amazon, where I can now spot German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portugese editons alongside the UK ones.  When I think back to how when I was first published, the books tended to appear on a shelf in a UK bookshop for one month and that was the only time I ever saw them on sale, this is such a great thrill to see  all these editions appearing now.

And then there are the older books, now being reproduced in the Kindle format -  after browsing on Amazon, I discovered that The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge has been brought out in this format last month -  sadly, without the gorgeous sexy cover  of the original. 

And it's great to see that in the top 100  Mills & Boon titles on sale on Amazon today, there  are four 'elderly' Kate Walker titles  listed there - The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife (in Mediterranean  Tycoons)  Kept For Her Baby, The Duke's Secret Wife  and, of course The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge. It's great to see them all enjoyuing a new lease of life  as Kindle books.

And who knows what today's post might bring!

What oldies but goldies romance books would you love to see reappearing on Kindle?

Tote Bags 'N' Blogs

Today is the first Sunday of July so  that means that it's my day for blogging over on Tote Bags 'n'Blogs so that's where you'll find me today. I'm talking about why I love July - for several rather special reasons.

And while you're over there, why  not  take a look at  the rest of the My Tote Bag site - over on the contest page, you'll find a chance to win two of my backlist books.

All you have to do is to anwer a simple question - this month the prize is a copy of The Antonakos Marriage and Bedded By the Greek Billionaire.  
You have until July 31st to enter.

Advent Calendar Day 23

Just about made it for the 23rd! What a day! Other people have stars or Angels at the top of their tree - I have a kitten!

I also have iced up pipes - and everywhere is so cold that I don't need to worry about whether I have enough room in my fridge as I have done in past years - I just put most things in the garage where the temperature is lower than the insidse of my fridge! As I write this I'm drinking a glass of white wine that has been chilled to perfection by leaving the bottle in the garden rather than the refrigerator!

Meanwhile my friend Trish Morey in Australia (Hello Trish!) is anticipating a temperature of 34c on Christmas Day!

OK - so yesterday's winner is Doris O'Connor -

Doris wins the copy of Kept For Her Baby. So Doris please email me with your postal address and I'll get the prize in the post to you. It will probably arrive closer to New Year now, but it will be on its way.

Today's book is another 3 in 1 collection - under the title Chosen By The Greek Tycoon


This has stories by Cathy Williams and Susan Stephens in the collection as well - and my novel is The Antonakos Marriage

The wedding ultimatum!
An ageing tycoon is blackmailing Skye Marston into marriage. But she’ll have one night of freedom first. One night of passion, with a man she’ll never meet again – even if he’s the man she could have loved…

Theo Antonakos, darkly irresistible and a tycoon in his own right, isn’t used to rejection. He’s furious when his passionate partner slips away without a word. And he’s still furious when he arrives on his father’s private Greek island to meet his stepmother-to-be – only to find that they already know each other, in the most intimate way…
Theo wants Skye back in his bed…as his wife!

I must just say again that although I've been too busy to answer you individually, I have loved having everyone join in this special Advent Calendar - and I've really enjoyed reading all your answers. As Julie, one of the winners said in her email to me -

It's been lovely reading how we all celebrate Christmas in our different ways.

Me too Julie - I totally agree.

So today's question - well right now I have a kitten and a bit of green string decorating my Christmas Tree. There are some baubles on there too - but Charlie keeps knocking them down as he carries his bit of green string up and along the branches!

But how do you decorate your tree? Are you stylists who have everything colour co-ordinated? Minimalist with just one colour? Do you have a real tree? A fake? A modern black or pink one?Or do you - as I know some of you have lots of traditional decorations collected over the years?

I'll let you into a secret. I have one real tree, one fake - one is the elegant tree - the 'ice' tree that has nothing but silver and white, gold and glass decorations. The other has all the fun and colourful decorations - the reds greens purples - some multi coloured birds, the old old decorations my sister in law and I made out of playdough when I was first married - and the little felt angel, snowman and Father Christmas I made for my son when he was small. So I thought I'd share them with you.

Advent Calendar giveaway day 16

Another quick dash in here today. I have to tweak the latest book - I should have had it tweaked and back to her by now but my editor's comments letter went missing in cyberspace so I've only just got to know about it! And we are on a tight dreadline with this so - only a brief post today.

Yesterday's winner of a copy of The Antonakos Marriage is Mary Reinert.

Mary please email me your postal address and I'll send the book on its way.

Today's book is much more up to date and very special to me because it's the novel that is short-losted for Best Presents Extra on the Romantic Times RT Book Reviews web site.

And that book is of course The Konstantos Marriage Demand.

The Greek's ruthless reunion.

Sadie Carteret and Nikos Konstantos were once blissfully in love. They planned the wedding of the year, and their union would create a powerful dynasty.
But business and pleasure should never be mixed. Nikos was accused of scheming for Sadie's money and title, and was systematically destroyed by her family. The wedding was cancelled, the relationship in tatters.

Now the ruthless billionaire has built himself back up from scratch. He will clear his name and demand what was rightfully his...

Sadie must love, honour and...obey...

Today's question is a little different - because December 16th marks a special day in the history of romantic fiction and writing.

Because December 16th 1775 is the birthdate of Jane Austen,

So to mark Jane's 235th birthday - my question today is do you read the 'classics' of romance/literature? Which Jane Austen is your favourite? Or do you have another classic author you prefer? Tell me your favourite classic read. Or say if you don't read them at all.

I have a special reason for asking - more later when I finish tweaking!

And just to say - again I'm so sorry I don't have time to comment on each individual comment but there are a lot of you entering - and I love it! But I do read every post you make. And to prove it - Valerie - eleven kids!! - you can have a real party all together - never mind the boyfriends/girlfriends! I hope you find time to sit down and read your prize book which will be in the mail to you today.

Advent Calendar Giveaway Day 15

I'm so busy today so this is a real dash in and out. Phone call with my editor - Kate's Corner over on We Write Romance (need to think of something to blog about!) and the annual big, Open House over on eHarlequin.

And a bit (lot of ) work too. But at least the great thing about going to all these 'events' is that I don't have to worry about getting dressed up and I can wear the same thing to all of them and no one will notice!

As always, ask a question about books and there's a lot of response. Milly - I have to agree, I love a good ghost story. One of my TV highlights over christmas will be a remaking of Whistle and I'll Come to You. I'm looking forward to that.

Today's winner is Valerie!

Valerie, I'm sure you know the drill but just in case you need a reminder - email me here and send me your postal address.
Oh and this is a point to say that I've had some email problems this past nweek so if you have emailed me with your address and aren't sure if you got through then please try again. Ros,your book went out in the mail yesterday - Dena and Alicia. I still need somewhere to send your prizes.

Today's book giveaway is The Antomakos Marriage (2006)

The wedding ultimatum!
An ageing tycoon is blackmailing Skye Marston into marriage. But she’ll have one night of freedom first. One night of passion, with a man she’ll never meet again – even if he’s the man she could have loved…

Theo Antonakos, darkly irresistible and a tycoon in his own right, isn’t used to rejection. He’s furious when his passionate partner slips away without a word. And he’s still furious when he arrives on his father’s private Greek island to meet his stepmother-to-be – only to find that they already know each other, in the most intimate way…

Theo wants Skye back in his bed…as his wife!

Voted Best M&B Modern Romance of 2005 by CataRomance.

And today's question - seeing as so much is going on today - is - parties - do you love them or hate them? Do you have a family party or a work 'do' or would you prefer to stay at home and - read? We used to have a big party every Christmas with lots of friends - including the Offspring's friends - but now he has a home of his own we've had rather quieter Christmases and this year has been so hectic I'll be glad to curl up in a chair with a book and a kitten. Though we are meeting up with friends on Christmas Day itself - snow permitting!

But what about you?

And don't forget - over on eHarlequin it's Open House all day with lots of authors and readers waiting to chat and maybe some prizes too - and soon I'll be posting a blog over on Kate's Corner. Just need to think of a topic!

New beginnings

In the darkness of the night - well, the very early morning - something woke me. I've no idea what it was but what I did, as I usually do when I need to get back to sleep, was switch on the 'snooze' button on my bedside radio to have something to listen to as I tried to drift off again.

And I caught exactly the moment that in the American elections everyone first realised that Barack Obama had won enough votes to become the next President of the United States.

Coming like that, just as the very first faint hints of dawn were starting to appear, it felt rather like an omen of a new beginning. I certainly hope so.

In book news- yesterday I received a copy of the Czech and the Polish translation of The Antonakos Marriage. The Czech translations amuse me as my name becomes 'Kate Walkerova' on the cover. Not quite as funny as the name my friend Elizabeth Rolls ends up with, but it always makes me smile. The Polish editions are the ones that some branches of WH Smith now stock in the UK so I might be able to see that actually on sale.

I was also asked to write a post for the I (heart) Presents blog to mark the publication the month of Bedded By The Greek Billionaire. I'm told that will go up on Friday so if you're interested in reading posts by other Presents authors then don't forget to check out the blog and see who else is posting there.

Just a reminder to Karen and Robynl to send me your postal addresses so I can send you your prizes from the contest.

Christmas Stocking Contest

I managed to get in touch with two of my lovely writer friends - so I can now confirm that thanks to their generosity there will be two more very special titles going into the Christmas Stocking Stuffed with books, along with all the other titles, to make up a truly special prize.

The first of these is from Michelle Styles.

Michelle, as regular readers of this blog know, writes original and exciting historical novels, often picking unusual time periods in whihc to set her books. She has recently set books in Ancient Rome and coming up soon she has a set of books about Vikings. But the book she is donating to the Christmas Stocking is set in more recent Victorian times. In this case, in Newcastle Upon Tyne in 1846.

Michelle has offered two signed copies of A Christmas Wedding Wager - the USA edition of this special Christmas story. In the UK this book is published as part of a special duo titled Christmas By Candlelight together with Wicked Pleasures by Helen Dickson, but it is the separate edition of just A Christmas Wedding Wager that is going into the Christmas Stocking this time. So it's that cover that I'm posting here today.

I was lucky enough to be given my own copy of this book by Michelle, so here's the blurb from the back:

Lovely Miss Emma Harrison has turned her back on the frivolities of the Marriage Mart and dedicated herself to helping her father. But this Christmas everything changes – ruthless and unforgettable Jack Stanton is back! As the Yuletide festivities throw Emma into his company, she can’t help but wonder if she made the wrong choice seven years ago...

The web site Dear Author recommends A Christmas Wedding Wager as one of its December reads like this:

Styles showcases the Victorian period and the emerging freedom it brought to young women. Emma, the heroine, escapes her stifling Victorian well-to-do lifestyle to become a civil engineer and while she enjoys her position, it is not without a price. Jack Stanton was rejected by Emma years ago and must suppress his hurt pride and resentment in order to work with Emma on a bridge project. Set against the backdrop of northern England Christmas revelries, this is the perfect book to get a romance reader in the holiday mood.

If you love Michelle Styles's stories then there's plenty to look forward to because coming next year are these great titles:

Taken by the Viking -- US May 08 (this was an October UK release and still available on Amazon.co.uk)
Viking Warrior, Unwilling Wife UK June 08 (linked to Taken)
An Impulsive Debutante UK Sept 08 (linked to ACWW)

The other special Christmas title donated yesterday is from lovely Margaret McDonagh who is making a name and a career for herself in the Medical Romance line. The book Margaret has donated is a Christmas trilogy with the title Christmas Weddings. This contains stories by Carole Mortimer and Shirley Jump as well as Margaret's own heartwarming story Their Christmas Vows

Here's the blurb (the book actually has the hero's surname wrong on the back so Margaret has kindly corrected it for me - and added an extra couple of lines to the rather brief summary!)

Frazer McInnes is strong, caring, and loyal to his friends. He also has a reputation as a fun-loving Romeo. But he's serious about his beautiful colleague, Callie Grogan. Serious enough to vow to love her forever, if only she'll be his Christmas bride.
Callie has a difficult journey to make because the impact of her past experiences make it hard for her to trust. In Frazer, has she found a man she can believe in? Can she trust him – and herself – and step towards a happy and loving future?

Coming up in 2008, Margaret McDonagh has these new titles to look forward to:

An Italian Affair - (a Medical in the Mills & Boon Presents anthology with Annie West [Modern] and Annie Burrows [Historical]) - April 2008
Virgin Midwife, Playboy Doctor - book 8 in the Brides of Penhally Bay series - July 2008

Dr Devereux's Proposal - book 12 in the Brides of Penhally Bay series - November 2008

So look out for those great Medical stories.

And tomorrow I'll be back with more details of the other books I have stuffed into those stockings just waiting to give someone an orgy of reading pleasure over Christmas!

Oh - and as a PS to Margaret McDonagh's donation - I had to smile when I saw the cover of the Christmas Weddings trilogy.

Take away the Christmas Tree and the decorated mantlepiece - and it's the UK cover of my December 2005 book - The Antonakos Marriage!

A Kate Bit - more on covers

Interesting post this morning - parcels from HMB Richmond and from Harlequin New York - neither of which were expected.

The NY package contained translations - one of my books obviously, but one I couldn't recognise because it was translated into a language that I couldn't recognise either. This was the cover ->

Err . . . ??

I tried to think of a book in which the hero and the heroine exchanged white doves - or where the heroine had incredible gold painted fingernails for that matter but I couldn't come up with one - so I took a look inside. It turns out that it's The Antonakos Marriage in Lithuanian. Which just goes to show that you can never guess what cover image a new country is going to come up with. The original Antonakos Marriage (Presents) as you'll remember cover was like this

<-

And this definitely is a new country for me - I've never had a book in Lithuanian before! But I think I may have had some visitors on this blog from Lithuania - my Neo counter shows 10 visits. So welcome to anyone from Lithuania!

The other parcel had large print copies of The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge (and that cover looks really good on the bigger book!) and another, unexpected, 3 in 1 By Request Bestseller collection called Mistress Material, which is coming out in October.

This anthology has a reprint of The Married Mistress in it which is something that I'm pretty happy about. If you remember the other By Request volume I'm in - Bound By A Baby - that's out in the shops now - that has Their Secret Baby reprinted in it. And as The Married Mistress and Their Secret Baby are slightly linked by the characters who appear in them (Rhys, the hero of TSB is the boss of Sara who is the heroine of TMM and he appears at the end of that book) then this means that anyone who didn't get to read both books the first time around now has a chance to read them both together this time.

A Kate Bit Cats and Covers

Sid is busy working on the choice of winner for Lee's question about your favourite covers . We had a minor crisis when I realised that we had run out of cat crunchies!A quick dash to the supermarket has remedied that and so Sid can now get to work.

In the meantime, I've been looking at the covers listed as your favourites and many of them are my favourites too.

Lots of you chose the cover of the courrent 50th title - The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge - which doesn't surprise me at all. I've loved that cover from the start and it represents the book really well.

Those Sicilians are obviously very popular as several 'Sicilian' covers were chosen. One was specifically mention in the M&B Modern Romance version and that was A Sicilian Husband.

Another favourite of mine that several of you chose is Constantine's Revenge. I loved this one so much that it's the cover that is reproduced on my business cards - and used to be on my bookmarks - Sicilian's Red Hot Revenge is on them now.

As I expected, the wonderfuly rich and exotic cover of At the Sheikh's Command was very popular - both on the Presents and the M&B Modern version. I've posted the UK edition here as it shows more of the artwork on the cover. the artwork

Another cover where the UK version was chosen is Hers For A Night - where the comment was that it was - and still is - fairly rare just to have the hero alone on the front of the book.

The USA cover of The Antonkaos Marriage was another one that was popular and another cover that I totally agree with one of the comments about was the recent #1 bestseller

The Italian's Forced Bride.

Nature Nut Nancy loved the heart shaped surround given to the picture for the special February and Valentine's Day publication. But for me the way this cover is described by Olivia is exactly what I feel when I see this cover and why I personally like it so much:

Without a doubt, my favorite cover is The Italian's Forced Bride. There is no picturesque landscape as background. There are no fabulous diamonds adorning the heroine and nor is she in a flamboyant gown. But what strikes me is the intensity of the emotions of the characters as can be deduced from their body language . The hero pulling the heroine closer to him with subtle pressure. The heroine resting her hand on the hero's lower back. And the utterly sublime and anticipative expressions on them both. This cover always draws me back to re-read this story.

This is just a selection of the covers chosen - others were the Spaniard's Inconvenient Bride, Bound by Blackmail and The Groom's Revenge. If you'd like to see those covers - and more - they are all listed on the Backlist pages of my web site. You'll find a link to that here.

And I'll leave you with another preview of my brand new next cover

- this is the book that's out in November -

so here is the USA Presents cover of The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife

Competition reminder

You have just five more days to enter my current contest to celebrate the publication of Sicilian Husband, Blackmailed Bride.

Entries are accepted until April 15th and the prizes (2 of them) are:

An autographed book from Kate's backlist

A Kate Walker book bag
and

A beautifully crafted Shamrock bookmark as pictured here.



This book is the first part of the Sicilian Brothers duo and it tells Guido’s story (you can find details of this book here). The second part of this duo is coming up soon. So the question for this contest is:

Question: What is Guido's brother's name and when will his story be published in North America?


Details and the trivia question you need to answer can also be found on the Contest page of my web site of over on My Tote Bag where lovely Lee Hyat is helping me with my contest entries.

Sicilian Husband, Blackmailed Bride is still available in the UK from Amazon and the Mills & Boon website

And it's on sale in America in the Harlequin Presents edition and in Australia in the M&B Sexy edition

Oh and don't forget that Michelle Styles' contest to win a copy of her novel Sold and Seduced and my The Antonakos Marriage is still open until the 14th.

Busy busy - and a different contest.

I'm busy Spaniard wrestling - sorting out my latest book and hopefully rushing to the end in order to get it in by the skin of the dreadline. My editor is cracking her whip so if I don't post much in the next couple of days - that's why. Normal service will be resumed as soon as Raul and Alannah have reached their happy ending.

In the meantime here's an interesting contest for you -HMB Historical author Michelle Styles - who has been short listed for the RNA Romance prize this year - has a brand new book out this month called Sold and Seduced and to mark the publication, she's running a contest over on her web site and blog.

Sold and Seduced is a book that I have a special connection with because Michelle tells me that it was while I was talking to her about the plot of my own book The Antonakos Marriage that she got the idea for this story. It's an interesting example of how one idea will go one way for an author and can start off a totally different train of thought for another writer. So Michelle is giving away signed copies of her book - and mine - as the prizes in her contest. So the winner can compare and contrast.

Here's what Michelle says about her contest:

As promised, I have a contest to win signed paperback copies of Sold and Seduced as well as The Antonakos Marriage by Kate Walker. I got one of my seeds of inspiration from Kate's book.

To enter, you simply need to answer the question -- Which song is playing on my Michelle Styles myspace page?

Please email me with the answer to the following question:

Please put SEED CONTEST in the title of your email. I have three sets to giveaway.

The winners will be drawn on 14 April.

If you'd like to learn more about the way that The Antonakos Marriage 'seeded' Sold and Seduced in Michelle's mind then you can find posts about it on her blog now and in the December 2006 section

Good luck with the new book and in the Romance Prize Michelle!