Afternoon post

This just arrived at the door.

It's an excitement that never gets old.  I still haven't see the UK edition of Destined for the Desert King  but I do have my hands on the Harlequin Presents  edition.




Also - discovered this  Harlequin Manga  comic - in English - version of The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife is coming out next week.


 And then there was the Australian collection - the Notorious Alcolars   also out this month. It's a great  book day!

Good news stuff

I hope that everyone in the UK enjoyed the Bank Holiday weekend in spite of the traditional Bank Holiday weather - rain  rain and more rain. It's still raining this morning  but I'm not going to let  that get me down.  I have reasons to be cheerful -

I have a book on my editor's desk so this is the honeymoon period  between sending it in and waiting for the news of the revisions she wants.

I logged on the the Mills & Boon  web site and discovered  that my new novel A Question of  Honour is sitting at #1 in their bestseller chart.   And there's another great 5 star review posted there as well:


A ten out of ten for Kate Walker because she has blended the ingredients of love, attraction and sensitivity in a curious mix which makes it different from other Modern genre romances. Karim and Clementina exert so much control over their passion that this tension between them makes the story line so riveting. Well done to the author. Their coming together at the end is well deserved and it is worth a read or two!

My thanks to reviewer Arpita

And the other news is that thanks to the lovely Leena Hyat who helped me set it up - I now have an official Author page over on Facebook - so if you want to find  me and read all the most up to date news and information over there you need to go to the Kate Walker Author page

Oh yes - and I got a new foreign edition in the mail - A  Czech translation of The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife - it always makes me smile to  see my name given as Kate Walkerova!

Advent Calendar Day 7 - Good News Day

I have a hectic couple of days coming up - visiting family, appointments, etc  - and that's before I plan on writing the cards and getting the tree out of storage - so I won't be able to post again until Monday - but that's fine  because it gives you all time to leave comments ready for the next  Advent Calendar giveaway.

To catch up with the winners so far -
Sicilian Husband, Blackmailed Bride was won by Shropshire Lass 
The Good Greek Wife  was won by Kerstin
The Duke's Secret Wife  goes to Samantha Hodges and Laney


Yesterday I posted on the Pink Heart Society about sharing  - and giving a book in your name to people you felt deserved one.    I have  five winners from there

 Jo's Daughter, 
 Charlotte, 
Kaelee,
 bn and 
Mary  Preston

And then there were two people who nominated special people in their lives after Charlie had picked the winners -
I'd love to give a book to all of your nominees.  But I'm sure you'll appreciate that my prize stock is limited  - and the postage all over the world can be expensive! (Can be? It is!)

So what I'm going to do is to include this busy weekend in the prize sharing giveaway - which means that  Maria  Perry Mohan and Eli Yanti's friends get a book as well - and then we'll return to the main giveaway on Monday with a single book to win.

So can the givers listed above  - and Eli and Maria  please email me kate AT kate-walker .com and remind me of the book you have chosen. Give me your friend's address - or yours if you want to be the one to give the prize to her - and let me know your nominees names so I can sign it to her if you want.

Maria, and Eli please let me know the name of the book  from the list on the PHS that you would like to give to your friend.

The nominees stories and some of the other messages I've received have made it clear that a  lot of people have had a difficult year in 2013  so I'd like to make t he question  for the giveaway on Monday to hopefully change the tone a little - so here goes-


Can you share some GOOD news with  me? Let me know the nice, the kind, the lovely, joyful things that have happened to you this year. I'd love to hear.   Please post them between now and Monday  - and the winner will receive a copy of the 3 in 1  collection  Mediterranean Tycoons.

He thought she was his mistress . . .
Recuperating on his private Greek island after a car crash, Andreas Petrakos had no memory of the previous year. The last thing he remembered was his passionate affair with beautiful Rebecca Ainsworth.
. . . when actually she was his wife!
Becca returned to the island because Andreas had asked for her. But she had to hide the truth from him. So what would happen when he recalled throwing Becca out - on their wedding day - for a reason only he knew?

 This collection contains  my 2007 novel The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife  as well as stories by Michelle Reid and Sarah Morgan.  So it'll be good news for whoever wins it!

So - share your good news stories.  Here's one to start you off -
Remember  this post     on  the So You Think You Can Write contest?

Well, I'm delighted to say that Tanya  won the first prize in the contest with her manuscript If Only.  Huge congratulations to Tanya and I'll be looking for her  book when it's published as a result of this contest. That's definitely good news for her!
ember

So - let's have some more good news over the weekend.  You have lots of time to post between now and Monday (probably late when  I get a chance to catch up)

And all the winners, please contact me  - use the link at the bottom of the page or the one above, omitting the spaces  etc.

Advent Calendar Day 22

It's raining - again!

I just opened the door to let in the cats after their early morning dash outside and they were SO happy to be let back in. They are soaked to the skin and Charlie is leaving wet footprints wherever he goes.  He was also so hungry, so he's happy  and more than ready to pick a winner for the latest giveaway.

So he has picked a name - and the name he has picked is Chey.

Chey wins a copy of  The Good Greek Wife.

Chey please send me your postal address and I'll get your prize in the mail to you.

Today's  giveaway is to win a copy of The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife. This book came out in 2007

He thought she was his mistress . . .
Recuperating on his private Greek island after a car crash, Andreas Petrakos had no memory of the previous year. The last thing he remembered was his passionate affair with beautiful Rebecca Ainsworth.
. . . when actually she was his wife!

Becca returned to the island because Andreas had asked for her. But she had to hide the truth from him. So what would happen when he recalled throwing Becca out - on their wedding day - for a reason only he knew?

And today's question is - well, I think it's time we looked at  some special treats coming up seeing as Christmas is nearly here. So  I'd like you to tell me about what you're lookiung forward to eating and drinking over the holidays.

Yes, I know there's the traditional Christmas dinner -  but what else do you have as as real treat while you're relaxing and enjoying yourselves  over Christmas?

Do you love mince pies - and  do you have them cold or warm? With cream ?  Ice cream?
Egg nog or perhaps some mulled wine?
Are you like my  DH who loves nuts  and actually enjoys cracking them and picking them out of the shells himself?  (I love nuts  - but I prefer it when someone else  has done the work!)
Do you buy in lots of chocolates and sweet things - or do you prefer the savouries like crisps,  cheeses,  spicy things?

I have to admit that I don't enjoy the dried fruit mixtures that are so much a tradion  at this time of year - so I don't have a single mince pie, Christmas cake - or even a Christmas pudding  - in the house.  But I do have homemade shaortbread and oaty cookies  made with golden syrup.   There will be cheesy biscuits too - and lots of different cheeses  with chutney and pickles. Those are always part of  our  meal on Christmas Eve - lots of variety and taste, but little cooking!

Oh and of c ourse there ios a bag of special treats for the cats - tasty dinners and some bags  of catnip to drive them crazy with delight in front of the fire!

So tell me the special treats in food or drink that you enjoy and your name will go into the prize draw for the giveaway book.

And now I must go and get dressed - and DH and I will be heading out for our traditional Saturday morning  - it might be nearly Christmas but  we still have a large coffee and the cryptic crossword puzzle  waiting for us.  WE've completed it every week  for 5 months now - we can't let it beat us before Christmas!

Advent Calendar Day 1



It's December 1st and that means that all over the world, wherever Christmas is celebrated, young  children - and not so young - are pinning up their Advent Calendars and opening the first door to see what picture  - or chocolate - lies behind.

 

In past Decembers I've shared this tradition with you - offering a small surprise/giveaway for each day leading up to Christmas . It's been a way of sharing the time of celebration, of  thanking my readers for  sharing the past year with me - and specially for sharing and enjoying my books.  It;s also been a way of getting to know you all better because the way we share is that I ask you a question about yourselves, your lives, your families, the way you celebrate Christmas - or whatever you're celebrating right now if Christmas isn't a special festtival for you.

What you do is you leave me an answer in the comments section - here, or wherever I'm blogging on each day - and I pick a winner of a particular book to give away, Well -  no, I don't pick the winner. In the past that was always Sid the Cat's job. I gave him the names on pieces of paper and with a cat treat on the top of each one. And the first treat that Sid ate, the name of the winner was on that piece of paper.  Sadly dear Sid is no longer with us but he did train up his apprentice in Charlie The Maine Coon (and ccasionally Flora The Floozie). Charlie is well ready to perform this important task - and as you can see from the photo, he's already been practising on his own  Advent Calendar which was given to Sid by his dear Lady Across The Pond Anne McAllister  and has now been passed down to Flora and Charlie in their turn.

So today is December 1st -  the start of the countdown to Christmas and time for the first question .

 

Today's book is  a bumper givewaway - Mediterranean Tycoons is a 3 in 1 volume with books by two other great authors as well as mine:

The De Santis Marriage is by Michelle Reid

and

The Sicilian's Virgin Bride is by Sarah Morgan

 

My book in this collection is  The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife.  This was originally published in  2007

 

 

He thought she was his mistress . . .
Recuperating on his private Greek island after a car crash, Andreas Petrakos had no memory of the previous year. The last thing he remembered was his passionate affair with beautiful Rebecca Ainsworth.
. . . when actually she was his wife!
Becca returned to the island because Andreas had asked for her. But she had to hide the truth from him. So what would happen when he recalled throwing Becca out - on their wedding day - for a reason only he knew?


So would you like a chance to win a copy of this great collection?
All you have to do is to leave an answer in the comments section -
Today's question - well, I've been talking about Advent Calendars.  What about you?
Do you have an Advent Calendar in your house? For you or just for the children?
What picture/theme/design is it this year?  (The lovely Anne McAllister specialises in great Advent Calendars - she always sends me a Jacquie Lawson Advent Calendar to have on my computer. I love it!)
So what does yours look like?  Do you have pictures or chocolates behing the 'doors'
Or perhaps you light an Advent candle or make a Blue Peter Candle Wreath   . . . or do something else entirely?

If you don't have advent, a calendar or anything like that - how do you mark the days leading up to a special celebration?  I'd love to know.

And yes- before anyone asks  -  I will send the prizes anywhere in the world. So back. Leave your answer  - I love getting to know more about my readers. So come and join in. The more the merrier.

Countdown to Christmas Days 9 & 10

I blinked and I missed yesterday!  Too much to do, too much going on -  but I promised 12 Days of Christmas so today will have  2 giveaways to catch up!

First things first - the winner of  Day 8's give away is Princess Fiona ( I love the honesty of admitting that you are the most difficult person to buy for!)  - Fiona  you win a copy of  At  The Sheikh's Command so please send me your postal address and I will get the book on its way to you - when there is a post!

Today's giveaway is a double  chance to win - the book I'm giving this time is another 3 in 1 called Mediterranean Tycoons.  This has a reprint of a book of mine from  2007  -

 The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife

He thought she was his mistress . . .
Recuperating on his private Greek island after a car crash, Andreas Petrakos had no memory of the previous year. The last thing he remembered was his passionate affair with beautiful Rebecca Ainsworth.
. . . when actually she was his wife!

Becca returned to the island because Andreas had asked for her. But she had to hide the truth from him. So what would happen when he recalled throwing Becca out - on their wedding day - for a reason only he knew?

And your question today is -

I don't often write Chritmas based stories -  there's The Christmas Baby's Gift   and  Fiancée By Mistake  - and the truth is that usually by this time of year I'm too busy to sit down with any holiday based books, and I'm not desperately keen on reading them at any other time of the year.

What about you? 

Do you love Christmas stories - or prefer not to have such specific references in them? Are there any Christmas books you've really enjoyed - or are looking forward to reading this holiday?

You know what to do - post in the comments and I'll get Charlie to pick 2 winners before he's too stuffed with cat treats and his own Christmas dinner to be interested!

Blogging around

Today is the first Sunday in February so as usual, I'm blogging over  on  Tote Bags 'N' Blogs.

Today I'm talking about  books that  keep coming back as reprints again and again  - and  as I'm celebrating the release of   the February collection  -  Mediterranean Tycoons - there's a chance to win a copy.  This  3 in 1 volume has a reprint of the  2007 title The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife.

Mediterranean Tycoons is a great collection - there are books in there by Michelle  Reid and Sarah Morgan too  - fabulous company to be in.

Coming up

 I've been getting  enquiries about new books coming up - and the titles of the novels that are being reprinted in the collections  that are published in the first half of this year.  Up until now I wasn't quite sure  of the exact detaiols, but after a  bit of a research and a confirmation email from my editor, it now seems that the line-up  goes like this:

New title: -

The Proud Wife - modern Romance  March  4th 2011 - and Presents Extra  in April

Reprints:

Meditrranean Tycoons  - includes  The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife

After losing his memory, all Andreas remembers is his passionate affair with Rebecca. But what will happen when Andreas recalls throwing Rebecca out of his house a year ago for reasons only he knows?

Also has novels by Michelle Reid and Sarah Morgan

Published 4th Feb

One Night in Madrid  - includes Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife

Raul wanted Alannah the first moment he saw her. Her unique combination of purity and passion intrigued and intoxicated the proud Spanish aristocrat. And Raul Esteban was a man used to getting everything he wanted.

Also has novels by Jennie Lucas and Chantelle Shaw

and finally - my editor has just confirmed the title and ther schedule date of my latest novel -
The Return of the Stranger - September 2011
This book will be part of the special mini-series The Powerful and The Pure  - I'll tell you a little more about that  very soon - hopefully tis week.

And that, I think, is it until after September.   Meanwhile I'm getting on with the next one . . .

Oops - forgot one!
If you are using ebooks to catch up on any backlist titles you've missed then His Miracle Baby  (2001)  is being re-issued in ebook  format this month.

Advent Calendar Giveaway Day 22

I'm getting later and later posting - but that's only to be expected - I have a kitten climbing up the christmas tree, frozen pipes, more snow coming down - and still got parcels to wrap!

But Sid has come back from wherever he went wandering and the winners he's chosen for the prizes are:

Julie M wins a copy of Cordero's Forced Bride

and

Caroline wins a copy of The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife

Please send me your postal addresses ladies!

Today's book is a recent title - it came out in 2009 and it's - Kept For Her Baby.

Wanted: wife and Mother...
Staring at the granite-handsome features of Italian billionaire Ricardo Emiliani, Lucy knows she's made a mistake coming back to their palatial Lake Garda home. But she'll do anything for her baby son—even return to the husband who never loved her...
Ricardo branded his wife a gold-digger, however, tiny Marco needs his mother so he will keep Lucy captive on his private island until she proves herself a worthy wife—in every sense...

Kept For Her Baby is in the Dark Nights with A Billionaire collection for Presents Extra.

And today's question is . . . what do you do on Christmas Eve?

Anything? Nothing? Do you put out a mince pie for Father Christmas or a carrot for Rudolph?
The last thing I do is to put up the Christmas crib that has been in my family since I was a baby - so it's just about an antique. We put up out all the figures except for the model of the baby Jesus - that goes in on Christmas Day.

Then when my son was little we'd leave out a plate with a mince pie and a carrot - perhaps a glass of wine for Santa and some water for the reindeer too! I used to have to leave just the carrot stub with teeth marks in it!!

Do you have any special Christmas Eve traditions? If you don't - well just come and chat anyway. Tell me something you have planned for this holiday and as long as you comment you'll be included in the draw!

PS - Please remember to check past posts in case you're a winner and have missed the message! Gaelikka - you for example!

Advent Calendar Book Giveaway Day 21

Time has got away from me - and I can't find Sid!

So here's the Advent Calendar book and question for today - and you can still answer yesterday's if you want until I can find The Cat and then I'll announce winners when I have them Today's book is The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife 2007

He thought she was his mistress . . .

Recuperating on his private Greek island after a car crash, Andreas Petrakos had no memory of the previous year. The last thing he remembered was his passionate affair with beautiful Rebecca Ainsworth.

. . . when actually she was his wife!

Becca returned to the island because Andreas had asked for her. But she had to hide the truth from him. So what would happen when he recalled throwing Becca out - on their wedding day - for a reason only he knew?

And the question?

Tell me about the best present you've ever been given - big or small.

It doesn't have to be expensive - but something - the best things often aren't costly! Something that meant a lot to you and that you treasure - perhaps because of who it came from.

Or perhaps, like Charlie and Flora - because they bring so much joy every day.

My First/Favourite Kate Walker Books - Readers' Stories

I'm still collecting lists of Top 5 Favourite Kate Walker reads - or the first Kate Walker I ever read and today here are some more of the stories/lists my readers have sent in:

Mary from Kentucky says:

I have enjoyed all of your books that I have read. I didn't start reading Harlequins until the early '70s, so I cannot say that I have read all your books. Here is my list of 5:

The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife
The Antonakis Marriage
The Italian's Forced Bride
Bedded by the Greek Billionaire
Kept for her Baby

The lovely Marilyn who lives in Seattle and wrote so many wonderful reviews of my books gives her list of the top five- and she was very very definite about which one was her favourite. I know she told me that when she read it, she 'cried and cried' - I'm mean you see, I love making my readers cry! (Sorry Marilyn!)

Here's her list:

The Italians Forced Bride (if you want to read Marilyn's review of her favourite book you'll find it here)
The Twelve-Month Mistress

The Spaniard's Inconvenient Wife

Bound By Blackmail
The Sicilian’s Wife

And here's a story that really made me smile. It's a perfect example of the way that romance reading (and writing) brings people together and, as Jean, the writer of this email says, creates 'friends across the age divide'.

Jean is from Colorado and she says that her first ever Kate Walker was:

The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife. The first book was given to me, a woman in my seventies by a young college girl and since then we have exchanged books, friends across the age divide.

Finally, Debra from Connecticut also chose The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife as her top favourite - that's 3 votes for that book today - here's what she says:

I am new to your books and started with The Alcolar Family Trilogy and the Cordero books. I have been hooked ever since.

Her 'Top Five' are:

The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife
Cordero's Forced Bride
The Alcolar Trilogy (That's The 12 Month Mistress, The Spaniard's Inconvenient Wife and Boumd By Blackmail.

Thank you all for your stories and your votes. I have contacted all the winners about thier prizes.

Here Come the Grooms - the result

I really should never go away. I enjoy the trip - I had a wonderful time in Dublin, and spending time with Abby Green is always fun - but by the time I get home and unpacked and the washing done and caught up with emails and phone calls, it seems as if I've been away for ages instead of just a few days.

Anyway, as I said, Dublin was fabulous. Freezing cold but sunny and we even managed a trip to the sea to walk along the shore at Bray. The Babe Magnet researched ghosts, we spotted copies of Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Dublin in the bookshops, and we relaxed over wonderful meals and bottles of wine and talked books and writing and life with Abby who is now in London helping to launch the new continuity that links romance and rugby.

The important thing I must do is announce the winners of the Here Come the Grooms Contest - I finally got Sid to stop sulking because I abandoned him and choose the winner for me.

So the result is:

Anne McAllister's winner (ie PJ's winner) is Karen from North Carolina

Liz Fielding's (Jago's) winner is Rachel from New Zealand

and my winner (Santos's winner) is Lynn from Florida

These three lucky readers each get a copy of the three books:

Antonides' Forbidden Wife by Anne McAllister

Wedded in a Whirlwind by Liz Fielding

and Cordero's Forced Bride by Kate Walker

I also ran a special Newsletter additional contest to mark the publication of Cordero's Forced Bride and the winners of that prize draw are:

Dina from Wisconsin

Ronda from Texas

Carol from New Jersey

Thank you to everyone who entered. I've been chatting with Anne and Liz and we are already planning the next Grooms' Contest - probably around this time next year. After all, you have to keep up a great tradition.

Oh - and many, many thanks to everyone who has already been out and bought a copy of the Presents edition of Cordero's Forced Bride. I've had an amazing week with it being on the eHarlequin Top Ten, the Top Ten ebooks and now on the Waldenbooks Top 10 too. Wonderful

Which reminds me - if you like to buy your Presents novels in ebook form, then Cordero's Forced Bride is still available at a special sale price of 25% off on eHarlequin now and Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife is offered with a 10% discount too in the Best of the Best ebook offer. And in the Winter Sale on the Mills & Boon Site, The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife is still on sale at just £0.99p. Don't miss out on these bargains while they are still available.

Busy, Blizzards, Birds and Books

The details of the Christmas Stocking Contest are just about sorted. And tomorrow I will have news about my other annual 12 Days of Christmas Contest. (Newsletter readers get the information first so if you want to be one of the favoured ones, you can sign up at Yahoo, using the link in the sidebar or on my web site)

It's a good day to be inside working, the wind is howling, the snow whirling and the temperature is icy. Princess Flora took one look at the outside world and said 'No way!' Or meows to that effect. So it's a day to be snug indoors. If you have to be out today then I hope the weather is rather less vile where you are and that you and your loved ones keep safe and sound whatever it's like.

The blizzard conditons means that I have been out organising food supplies for the various wildlife friends in the garden. There is left-over cat meat in the tunnel of Hedgehog Towers so that they don't have to venture into the snow to find anything to eat. I'm not totally sure that Mini Heck the littlest newborn came foraging often enough to stoke up enough to see him through the winter without a little help. The suet, seeds and insect treats are on the birdtable (carefully out of the predatory cats' way!) and the mealworms (soaked to make them more appealing) are on the ground feeder for the robins etc. And the baby squirrel was seen stealing peanuts last week so he/she should be OK.

I spent yesterday evening sorting through Christmas gifts and stocking fillers with an idea of getting organised. As many family and friends are abroad or will be abroad for Christmas, those parcels have already been packed up and gone. Many of them are rather book-shaped - OK - most of them are book shaped - whihc makes for easy wrapping and easy postage.

And talking of books and stocking fillers - the Mills & Boon site is having a Winter Sale right now and one of my older titles - The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife - has turned up there for the bargain price of just £0.99p. So if you missed out on that title when it was originally published in November last year, then now's your chance to grab a copy at a bargain price. I know a couple of people who have been looking for it so I'll be able to add that book to their stockings. Along with the copies of The Alcolar Family trilogy 3 in 1 which also makes a great stocking filler.

Which reminds me . . .I've just been looking at the books in this year's Christmas Stocking prize and there are at least three titles that are in my own TBR pile - together with one still on its way to me that I really want to read. (Hint - I love reading first books by new authors . . ) Now as always all I need is some time to read. But at least with Ricardo's story - aka Kept For Her Baby - accepted and bought, I have a little more time to relax with someone else's book.

What about you? Do you have books on your Christmas list? Or are you - like me - seeming to be giving away nothing but books this year?

PS I just checked this through before posting and found that I had given the title of my book in the Winter Sale as The Green Tycoon's Unwilling Wife. M&B meets the Incredible Hulk?

Another sold out and an upcoming event

I had a great thrill yesterday when a reader wrote to let me know that my November book The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife has a big Sold Out sticker across it over on eHarlequin.com. I went to check and it's true. It's an amazing feeling to know that a book had sold out. So with that and the first edition of the 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance being sold out too, I'm feeling pretty happy right now.


I understand that Amazon and Barnes and Noble on line still have some copies of TGTUW so if you missed out on a copy, you can still find it there.

This weekend is totally devoted to Santos and hopefully getting him to his happy ever after (you didn't think writing was an 'office hours' job did you?) but before I roll my sleeves up and get down to sorting him out, I thought I'd give those of you who are in the UK advance warning of a couple of events that are coming up if you live anywhere near Lincoln.


The Lincoln Book Festival is getting together with Mills & Boon to help them celebrate their 100th birthday and I've been helping them organise the two events for this that are part of the Festival which runs from May 9th - 18th this year.

Both of these events are on Saturday May 17th, one in the afternoon and one in the evening.

The first of these is a workshop that I'm giving to launch the second edition of the 12 Point Guide.
Start time: 2pm - 4pm
Location: Lincoln Drill Hall
Admission cost: £6/£4

The second is an evening event and for this I will be joined by several of my friends who also write romance for a Question and Answer, discussion and book signing. Here's what the official Book Festival programme says about this:



100 Years of Romancing Readers
Start time: 6pm - 7.30pm
Join in the festival's celebration of 100 years of Mills and Boon and meet romance authors Kate Walker, Trish Wylie, Natasha Oakley and Kate Hardy.

Location: Lincoln Drill Hall
Admission cost: £5/£3


Full details of both these events can be found here and if you want further details about the Lincoln Book Festival itself then al the details are here.

Maybe I'll see some of you there?

Films and international friends

I think that my current hero, Santos has been annoyed at having to share my attention with all the guys from the Here Come The Grooms contest - he's been making me fight him all the way. So I hope that things will go so much better after today when the Grooms contest ends. I'll be getting Sid to pick a winner tomorrow when March 1st dawns.

So as I have to concentrate on getting Santos to - hopefully - cooperate it's lucky that I'm blogging over on the Pink Heart Society today, talking about one of my favourite films. And it's one staring that man again - Hugh Jackman. Sadly, not in a towel, but Hugh in frock coat, breeches, white shirt, cravat and boots is well worth a look anyway.

I've noticed an increase in visitors from India on my country counter so I want to say a special hello to all the new visitors from there who have found the blog recently. My book The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife was one of the very first books distributed in India in November through the brand new branch of M&B India in Mumbai there. And my March release Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife, is going on sale there tomorrow. So welcome, readers in India and I hope you'll enjoy this new title of mine.

Talking of intenational visitors, I want to send a special Hello to one of the winners of my Valentine's Day contest - Doaa who lives in Kaluobia in Egypt and who tells me that she and her friends, Sara, Dina, Alia, and Mona "made this special girls-night-in-reading-Kate-novels". What a lovely idea and I'm thrilled that you all enjoy my books so much. Sending a special wave to you all, and Doaa I hope your prize reached you soon.

Finally, when I talked about the relaunch of the great site We Write Romance, I mentioned that Heather Reed would be putting up an interview with me very soon. Well, Heather sent me a message yesterday to say that the interview was ready to go up for March - so you can check it out here. Heather even went to the trouble of adding at the last mminute the news about the reprint of The Alcolar Family in August which I didn't know about when I did the interview, so that you really have all the up to date news in this one. Thanks Heather!

Thank you Fay Weldon and Kathy Boswell

I'll come back to look at more about writing for Presents later but I just wanted to mention a couple of interesting things I found as soon as I logged one.

Firstly, there was a balanced, and reasoned comment on the Mills and Boon Centenary by novelist, playwright and screenplay writer Fay Weldon that was in the Sunday Telegraph this weekend

You can read the whole article here - but I'll quote three particular paragraphs that I feel are worth reading:

I daresay it is true of Mills & Boon tales that they perpetuate female folly by suggesting that love and marriage is the answer to a woman's problems, and not the beginning of them, but I hardly think it is any worse than that. Are we not entitled to a little wishful thinking? Is it not better anyway to read, than to sit in front of TV watching East Enders shout, snarl and rape?

As Chesterton put it in 1901, writing about the rise and fall of the Penny Dreadful, "The simple need for some kind of ideal world in which fictitious persons play an unhampered part is infinitely deeper and older than the rules of good art, and much more important. Every one of us in childhood has constructed such invisible dramatis personae, but it never occurred to our nurses to correct the composition by careful comparison with Balzac." Nor should we literary folk try comparing Come Back to Me with Atonement.

Any novel takes a certain slice of life and deals with that. No novel can take on the whole pie chart of our existence and deal with all human experience. The more "literary" the novel, the wider the slice that is attempted, and the more likely it is to fail - and bore. The genre novel contents itself with dealing with a certain slice: the thriller deals with that part of our experience that involves danger; the detective story with our curiosity; sci-fi echoes out alienation in space and time - and so on. The genre novel "takes us out of ourselves" while the literary novel keeps us firmly and sometimes painfully in our own lives, informing us as to our own natures - which is why it is taken seriously and gets reviewed. The Mills & Boon novel takes a peculiarly narrow slice of female life, and so tends to get despised. But it sells

I could argue with a couple of points in this comment - one is that (yet again) the title of a M&B book quote - Come Back to Me - is one that dates from 1990 - and so is over 15 years old. The other is that M&B books suggest that "love and marriage is the answer to a womna's problems" - because the books don't actually do that. What we do is write about a very specific and very narrow stretch of time in which a set of particular problems are faced by our heroines - emotional and very personal problems for which, for that woman and at that time, finding out that she is loved by the man that she loves and that he wants to commit himself to her is the answer to the set of problems she has been contending with through the story of the small slice of her life we show. - Remember the marriage/happy ever after ending is what the readers want not the one that we 'suggest' to them as the ideal. And that the 'happy ever after' is basically meant to be as happy as you can be through the years with a loving man by your side to share with whatever life throws at you.

We don't idealise marriage - I have never thought that any of my heroes and heroines are setting out on a road through life where there will never be a cross word or a problem they have to face. But they will face it together - as a partnership of equals. I hope I set my characters up for a good marriage - with all the ups and downs that that entails. But I suspect that those feelings about marriage as an institution come under the heading of the things that we bring to our reading of a book from our own life experiences and so some will see marriage as the beginning of a womna's problems rather than the start of a new pilot with a co-pilot alongside. (And as the brilliantly managed emergency landing at Heathrow last week showed a brave and competent co-pilot can be a wonderful partner in a time of crisis)

And Kathy Boswell?
Well, Kathy is a reviewer over on The Best Reviews and this morning I received a review from her for The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife.

Yes, I know it's a bit late - the book came out in November - but it's still around and when I read the review it brightened my day - in spite of the rain bucketing down outside again. The bit that made me smile was this:

I have never read a book by Kate Walker before but if this is an indication of her superb writing, I will have to find more of her books to read. I truly love reading about strong heroes and the women they decide to get involved with. I also enjoy books about other cultures and nationalities. I highly recommend this one.

You can find this review at The Best Reviews

It is such a great feeling to read that someone who has never opened one of my books before, read this one and says that she will have to find morew of them to read. Checking The Best Reviews site, it is obvious that Kathy reads so many books - not just series romance - and to know that The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife grabbed her like this and gave her such enjoyment is the reason I write at all - and it's far far better than and 'literary review'.

It also armours me againsy the critics and those snipers who demand to know why I, a woman with an MA, am not writing 'a proper book'.

I am - I'm writing books that readers enjoy - that make readers say 'I will have to find more of her books' - that's what I always hoped for. And it's wonderful to know that I've done it

So thank you to Fay Weldon and to Kathy Boswell for brightening a dark and gloomy January day and for getting my working week off to a great start.

Busy day

I'm dashing in quickly because I'm supposed to be talking contracts with my editor this morning (the tweaks on the Greek Black Angel book were fine and that has now been accepted) and then we're supposed to go and - hopefully - complete the Christmas shopping.



Yes, maybe I am early with this but with friends and family in Australia and America, their gifts need to go in the mail, and the BM starts his new job on Monday which will mean there'll be very little to no time free to browse the shops. Tomorrow is the delightful combination of hairdresser and dentist (not both at the same time and the latter, thankfully, just for a check-up) and on Friday I'm meeting a friend for lunch. Saturday the BM and the Offspring are going to a football match together so if we want to choose any gifts together then it has to be today.

So if I don't get back in here today, then here's something for you to read while I'm gone -



The lovely Julie Bonello did and interview with me for CataRomance and she emailed me this morning to let me know that the result is posted on the site now.



I'm talking about my writing, The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife and my plans and publishing schedule for next year. So if you're interested, you can read the interview here.

Still celebrating

Remember this?

Just when you thought all the celebrations for the 50th title had died away, there's one last party to visit.

When I actually celebrated the publication of The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge in July and ran the Great Big Blog Party here in the summer, things were so hectic and life was so busy that I didn;t manage to celebrate with a special site and a bunch of people who have been so much a part of my life - writing and personal - for over seven years.

I'm talking about the eHarlequin site and specially the Community and the message boards there where I have 'met' so many of the writers I now call my friends, many of the wonderful readers who have helped my career by buying and reading my books and discussing them there - and I must specially mention the hosties(some of whom you met here in the summer) Dee, Rae, Danica and of course Boss Lady Jayne who runs the show.

As I said, I didn't get time to celebrate with my friends on eHarlequin before, so when Jayne discovered that I have the newest title -The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife - out now, she suggested that we celebrate both that and the 50th in a special party thread on the Simply Series section of the message boards.

So today - and the rest of this week - that's where you'll find me - I'm hosting a special celebration party thread and I hope you'll drop by. If you havr any questions about writing for Presents or just about my books, then ask away - I'll have a few random 'door prizes' to give away too so if you post a message you'll be in with a chance to win too.

Hope to see you there.

Writing and a contest

It's been a while since I blogged on anything about the craft of writing. Most of the time I'm too busy with my own books - or teaching as I was doing last weekend.

But I spent yesterday reading and assessing some entries for a contest for a chapter of the Romance Writers of America for which I'm a judge, and there was one thing about them that struck me pretty forcefully right from the start.

The hero or heroine - often both - just didn't exist.

Oh, each book had a hero and a heroine, most of them (one of them at least) appearing right there on the first page, but they were just a name, and usually a job - I couldn't actually 'see' them in my mind as I read the openings that were what I have to judge. six opening chapters, an average of fifteen or more pages each, and so little description of the central characters in all of them that I have to struggle to remember any.

OK, one heroine fastened back her waist-length hair, a hero wore mirrored sunglasses . .. There was one rare entry where the hero observed the woman who was obviously going to be the heroine from a distance and it was such a relief to have a description - a sense of physical reality for someone in the story that I immediately gave the author an extra mark in her score.

When I read a book I want to know something about the characters whose story I'm going to follow throught a few hundred pages, days, weeks, years of their lives, several hours of mine. I don't want just names, or occasionally occupations, I want some idea of their ages, their height and build, their colouring. I want to be able to visualise them in my mind as I read their story, picture them on a beach, in an airport, even, if the story is Science Fiction and they are aliens living below the surface of a burning planet, with their silvery eyes and lizard like skin and six webbed feet.

I want to know who I'm reading about. I want to sympathise with them - or hate them - I want to have my life - my mental life at least - peopled by them for as long as I read the book.

And so when I'm writing I try to describe my characters as soon as I can, to 'bring them on stage' as forcefully, as visibly as I can so that my readers can identify with them right from the start. There are books where this doesn't happen and I've still enjoyed the, Day Leclaire has a great one - and darn it I can't remember the title right now - where the hero and heroine are in a lift, neither has seen each other because he was behind his newspaper or some such as she got in and the lift breaks down, the lights fail . . . It takes a rare sort of writer to pull off an instant attraction without the usual clues of colouring, size, facial features, but Day manages it.

But such books are rare. And of course once the lift is repaired and the lights go on then the conventional descriptive words appear at last.

But they were not in these contest entries. Every single one of those characters - apart from the heroine described at a distance - were invisible, not at all real in my mind - and so they were just words on a page, part of a book, not coming alive or mattering to me at all. I'll be honest and say that it shocked me that all of them missed out on this vital (to me) part of creating a character, making them real, making the reader care about them.

To me it's so important that when I was compiling a Character Questionnaire for my 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance, the description of a person is one of the first things I ask for:

What is this person's name?
Why was s/he named that?
What does s/he call herself?
Is there a nickname or a variation on the name that’s/he uses for some people and not others?
(As an example - Think about the different variations of Elizabeth that are possible – Liz, Lizzy, Bet, Liza, Beth . . . Would these make you think of different characters?)
Age? Birthday?
What does s/he look like?
Height
Build
Colouring– eyes – hair (what length? Curly or straight)

A book is something very different from a film or a TV drama or a stage play - then you can see what a person looks like as soon as they appear and you relate to them as a character from then on - that is what Peter or Mary or Aristotle or Frederica looks like and you recognise them and relate to them every time. But in a book, the character is just words on a page unless the writer makes them come alive and for me that physical description is a vital part of it.

So I'm afraid that all but one of those contest entries disappointed me - which was a pity because some of them had good dialogue, intriguing openings, the synopsis promised an interesting plot - but I'm a character driven author, for me the characters are what make a book and I'll be honest and say that the lack of character identification in these scripts meant that I really wasn't hooked enough to want to read on.

CONTEST

So - the contest. I've mentioned the 12 Point Guide To Writing Romance and as I haven't run any contests for writers in a while, I thought I'd offer a signed copy of this book as a prize today. (It'll let me see if anyone's awake and reading this!). I've also heard from the publisher that this book is now almost totally sold out - the last I heard there were less than 10 copies left - so if you want a chance to win a copy here's what you do:

Answer this question -

Apart from the 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance, I've written 2 other books on creative writing (one with my husband)

What are the titles of the other two books?

Send your answers to me by email with BLOG CONTEST in the title line of the message and next weekend ( November 25th) I'll get Sid on the job of picking a winner and a signed copy of the 12 Point Guide will be on its way to the winner. If you're lucky, I'll stick in a copy of The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife as well.

And talking of contests - I'm planning and organising the special Christmas contests I have coming up - so watch out for those. By popular demand the Christmas Stocking Stuffed with books will be back.

Watch this space.