12 Point Guide Course

Do you want to learn to write?
Do you wish you could join me and other  would-be writers on one of my courses?  (You should -

they're fun   - we laugh a lot - and learn a lot!)

But perhaps you can't find the time to share a weekend with other writers - or you're not in the UK so the travel is impossible for you,

Well, I have perhaps the next best thing for you.  To mark the publication of the revised and updated  new version of the 12 Point Guide To Writing Romance,  the lovely  editors of the Pink Heart Society have invited me along to their Aspiring  Authors Forum  where I'll be running a special 12 Points Course  with new information, advice and questions and answers every   day.

I'm sure you've seen the Pink Heart Society  but if you haven't you really should take a look and discover what  they have to offer - every month there are new  and

fascinating articles on   Romance and Romance Writing -  advice for writers and readers - and  a special giveaway section with free books to win as  prizes!

And if you join the forum  the Aspiring Authors  section will offer workshops, advice, discussions . . .

So that's where you'll find me tomorrow - with the first of the 12 Points for this workshop.

See you there? Hope so

Book challenge and a change in the weather

So here's a bit of a change. Charlie the Maine Coon, after weeks and weeks of wanting to be in the garden and staying out for hours came rushing in this morning to complain that there's something

wet pouring from the sky and it has soaked through his fur, making him look like a drowned rat.

Would we please make it stop!

Day 4 of 7: I've accepted a challenge from Ali Williams who is obviously as nosey as I am about the books that people love! Each day for seven days, I will post the cover of a book I love with no explanation (well, maybe a little comment if I feel like saying something!)and no reviews. Each day I'm supposed to invite a friend to join the challenge. I'll pass on the 'tagging' bit of this because I know how sometimes it can be a bit too much to take on something else - but if any friend cares to join in (yes - I really am nosey, just dodging the issue!) the please tag me to let me know so that I can visit your Facebook page and satisfy my curiosity - and maybe collect a few new titles for my mountainous TBR pile - like that is something I really need!

I suppose these are two separate books, but really I can't separate them. The first one (Josephine Tey) led to a lifetime's obsession - which the second one (Sharon Penman) fed as a result.

As a small aside, Sharon Penman also has to get the award of the most courageous and hardworking author who, after the manuscript of this book was stolen from her car, she set to and rewrote the lot of it - all 1248 pages!!😯 It was so worth it.

Book Challenge 3

Day 3 of 7: I've accepted a challenge from  who is obviously as nosey as I am about the books that people love! Each day for seven days, I will post the cover of a book I love with no explanation (well, maybe a little comment if I feel like saying something!)and no reviews. Each day I'm supposed to invite a friend to join the challenge. I'll pass on the 'tagging' bit of this because I know how sometimes it can be a bit too much to take on something else - but if any friend cares to join in (yes - I really am nosey, just dodging the issue!) the please tag me to let me know so that I can visit your Facebook page and satisfy my curiosity - and maybe collect a few new titles for my mountainous TBR pile - like that is something I really need!
Today's book is a bit of a cheat - it's what I'd call my Desert Island book if I was ever put on Desert Island Discs and had to choose one book to take with me.

One book?! 😯

I would have to ask for the whole series to be in one collected volume so I could

take all six with me! I could quite happily read all 6 books through and then go back and start at the beginning. A complex historical novel with a complex and ambiguous hero - spying, intrigue, betrayal - kings, queens, Knights Templar, battles . . . . And at the centre of it all an amazing, heart twisting love story.

Remember those photos with friends and fellow authors posing as the heroine for my book A Proposal To Secure His Vengeance? Well now the editors are getting in on the act - Raoul Cardini had better watch out because Flo Nicoll is Senior Editor for Presents and she won't take any nonsense from any hero - alpha or not!

I thinks she works very well as  my heroine Imogen O'Sullivan because she's much as I have described  Imogen.

Book Challenge 2

From my Facebook page

Day 2 of 7: I've accepted a challenge from Ali Williams who is obviously as nosey as I am about the books that people love! Each day for seven days, I will post the cover of a book I love with no explanation (well, maybe a little comment if I feel like saying something!)and no reviews.

 Each day I'm supposed to invite a friend to join the challenge. I'll pass on the 'tagging' bit of this because I know how sometimes it can be a bit too much to take on something else - but if any friend cares to join in (yes - I really am nosey, just dodging the issue!) the please tag me to let me know so that I can visit your Facebook page and satisfy my curiosity - and maybe collect a few new titles for my mountainous TBR pile - like that is something I really need! 

The only comment I have (need to make) on this book is that it was old when I first read it - honest! Another decidedly ambiguous hero!!

Book Challenge

On my Facebook page -

Day 1 of 7: I've accepted a challenge from Ali Williams  who is obviously as nosey as I am about the books that people love! Each day for seven days, I will post the cover of a book I love with no explanation (well, maybe a little comment if I feel like saying something!)and no reviews.

 Each day I'm supposed to invite a friend to join the challenge. I'll pass on the 'tagging' bit of this because I know how sometimes it can be a bit too much to take on something else - but if  but any friend cares to join in (yes - I really am nosey, just dodging the issue!) the please let me know so that I can visit your Facebook page and satisfy my curiosity - and maybe collect a few new titles for my mountainous TBR pile - like that is something I really need!

The only explanation for today's cover is that it's one to make Ali jealous - she knows why!  (She's as big a Mary Stewart fan as I am.)

PS To the last post

Wow! I was just checking the Amazon.com page for a link to the 12 Point Guide and I find this - already! A lovely little orange sticker as a bestseller!

 I should point out though - that the Amazon page says the book is 180 pages - er - no - I have a copy right here and it's a nice, substantial book of 274 pages- much better value for money.

 Thank you to everyone who has already stirred up interest in this new edition.

(Re)publishing news

I love the RNA Conference but so many late nights, so much talking, leaves me needing to catch up. 

Add into that mixture the fact that the BM and I had a wedding anniversary to celebrate, then meeting with friends in Harrogate and I just about think I've completed the washing/packing/unpacking/washing/packing/unpacking/washing cycle. At least I have had no trouble getting the clothes dry in this heat!

So now it's a new week and I have some exciting news - as people realised from the bookstall at RNA - and thanks to the interest of a new publisher Straightforward Publishing/Emerald Guides I can now announce the publication of a new edition of the 12 Point Guide To Writing Romance.

 I've taken the opportunity to revise and update this and distribution should be more efficient too.  It's now available on Amazon.co.uk
and   
Amazon.com  

Also  The Book  Depository  


Looking at the Amazon pages for this, it seems the news has already leaked out - but I plan some extra publicity events, and perhaps some giveaways - an internet workshop too - so watch this space. I'm just glad to enjoy the special moment of a the parcel delivery and have the new edition in my hands.

Missing all the excitement at Romance Writers of America  Conference in  in Denver - specially missing meeting up with so many of my dear friends who are there.

But it seems that one of my books was well represented there - as Abby Green shared with me:

(though as you can see, there was something missing from the image!)

I thanked Abby for sharing, but pointed out that as my  heroine in A Proposal to Secure His Vengeance was Irish, the photo would be perfect with her face there - as my Irish heroine Imogen! 

She obliged and had her photo taken - with this result.  Thanks Abby!


 Also,  lovely Danica Favorite shared this pic with me so that I can see her smiling face and my great book cover at the event even if I can't be there. Thank you Dream - miss you!

It was obviously a popular photo opportunity this year - as then there was this . . .er  -  . . . starring  librarian   David Faulkener.

I wish I could have been there to join in all the fun - and see the cover photo opportunity for myself.

 Packing and planning ready to head for the RNA Conference tomorrow - via an overdue visit to a dear friend - and then to the Leeds Library for the Brontes and Romance panel tomorrow night - and then a fantastic weekend 'conferring' with so many friends from the RNA. I may have to drink a little wine

to stop my throat from getting too dry

My reading for the weekend - On Thursday evening I'm part of a panel at Leeds Library - discussing Romance and The Brontes. I'll be there with Janet Gover and Alison May

Date/Time: 12th July 2018, 7.30pm-9.30pm
Venue: The Leeds Library, Commercial Street, Leeds
To celebrate the 250th anniversary of The Leeds Library and 200 years of the Brontës, there will be a panel of RNA members discussing modernising Brontë classics and the enduring appeal of the themes. The panel will include ‘Juliet Bell’, the collaborative pen 

name of Janet Gover and Alison May, whose latest release is The Heights and Kate Walker, who wrote her MA on the Brontë sisters and their childhood writings. Kate is the author of a ‘Modern Romance’ reworking of Wuthering Heights entitled The Return Of The Stranger; part of a mini-series called The Powerful and The Pure, written for Harlequin Mills & Boon.

The event is free. Places are limited and can be reserved in advance Date/Time: 12th July 2018, 7.30pm-9.30pm
Venue: The Leeds Library, Commercial Street, Leeds

Return of the Stranger USA
To celebrate the 250th anniversary of The Leeds Library and 200 years of the Brontës, there will be a panel of RNA members discussing modernising Brontë classics and the enduring appeal of the themes. The panel will include ‘Juliet Bell’, the collaborative pen name of Janet Gover and Alison May, whose latest release is The Heights and Kate Walker, who wrote her MA on the Brontë sisters and their childhood writings. Kate is the author of a ‘Modern Romance’ reworking of Wuthering Heights entitled The Return Of The Stranger; part of a mini-series called The Powerful and The Pure, written for Harlequin Mills & Boon.  

The event is free. Places are limited and can be reserved in advance:http://www.theleedslibrary.org.uk/events/?eventPage=1

My reading? The Modern Romance Return of The Stranger that was inspired by Wuthering Heights. The interview I did for Laura Vivanco discussing that book - and my own - long ago MA thesis on the Bronte sisters and their childhood writings. (I thought I'd better remind myself of what I thought back then!) And then of course, there's the book itself - not sure how many times I've read Wuthering Heights, but I find I view it differently each time I do

.

Thank you

Thank you so much to everyone who expressed your sympathies and sent hugs on the difficult week.

 The memories were so poignant and I truly appreciated the caring support. But I do believe that the sorrow at loss is a real indicator of how much the people who had gone meant to us.

 Each time, it's a few days of remembering - and determining to tell the people we love how we feel while there are still with us. With my dear sister-in-law, we never got that chance and that's why it so important to do it now, while we can.

And a special thank you to all the friends who cared - believe me, you are so valued too!

If I needed any reminder, which I don't - this is why I write about love and how valuable it is.

Memories and Thoughts

Feeling melancholy today  - it's a sad memories week. 

 Monday marked the birthday of one of my dearest friends for over 35 years. She wanted to achieve that birthday so much - and she did. Just. She lost her fight with breast cancer just 5 days later. 

Today would be the birthday of my beautiful and beloved sister in law - who was only in her thirties when she died in a car crash. The rose we planted in her memory is blooming as always, in 

spite of the real lack of rain for so long.

People we love are not always with us. Luckily they both knew how much I cared for them. Hug the people you love - tell them you care while you still have them. Regrets are so hard to live with.

Manga Comic in English

New covers are always great - and it's fascinating to see how the particular art departments in different countries have interpreted the way my hero and heroine look.

 Amongst those, the Manga editions are extra special - totally unique. I recently received two of the Japanese into Manga into English Manga comic editions and the way the hero's hair is shown is often unexpected. 



 After the purple hair for the Twelve Month Mistress, my Sicilian hero  in The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge  does not have a straggly pony tail - and my Greek shipping tycoon newly 'back from the dead' in The Good Greek Wife doesn't sport a bouffant grey/white/black streaked hair do! But they're interesting. 






And it's great to see old books like No Holding Back coming out, revived and revamped in these new formats

Reading Ahead Presentation

Life seems to have run away from me just recently - been busy with library events and working on a project that I'm just about ready to tell people about. 

 On Friday I attended one of my favourite library events at North Lincolnshire Libraries - handing out the certificates for the successful students on the Reading Agency Read Ahead scheme. Slow readers/new readers/ beginner readers all had to read six books in the year to win a certificate and I was able to hand out those certificates to everyone who had succeeded. 

 I did this last year too, And it was great to see someone who hadn't quite succeeded last year get her certificate this time. I think sometimes those of us who have been reading for years take reading for granted. This lady was struggling with dyslexia - but she got there this time. I love a success story.

It was a fabulous afternoon.

Catching up again

Was it really a week ago that I was in Cirencester with the Relax and Write Focus on Writing Romance writing retreat? Where has the week gone? Catching up on office work, revisions, sorting things out - cats to the vet (just booster injections after they had to be delayed when Charlie had another fight, another bite in his neck. That's all cleared up now!)

Thank you to everyone who came on the retreat - I hope you had as much fun and inspiration from the weekend as I did. It was a wonderful surprise to have an unexpected addition to the group on Saturday - great to see you Sallyann! And special thanks to Lois Maddox  for organising everything in spite of difficult times at home.

I can't believe it - but I have already been asked about any more courses coming up this year. There will be a Relax and Write weekend (Write that Romantic Novel) in November
16-18 November at Lilleshall Shropshire

‘Getting Away with Murder’ with Stephen Wade

‘Writing Creative Non-Fiction’ with Simon Whaley

‘Write from the Top : The Cream of Poetry’ with Alison Chisholm

'Write That Romantic Novel ' with Kate Walker

Yes - it's a quite a long time away, but it gives you the chance to plan - and to save for the cost if you need to. Anything else that comes along, I'll post it here and on my Facebook page.

Author Easter Treats

Some reader friends know how to give an author Easter Treats that don't contain chocolate and so are totally calorie free! Thank you Amanda
https://amandashivrattan481.wordpress.com/…/a-proposal-to-…/

And Arpita -

http://www.mills-and-boon-reviews.com/a-proposal-to-secure…/

Enthralling, exciting, dramatic pleasurable read at one go! 5 A* indeed!

There is sheer brilliance in this story and the last pages clinch the story to a happy- ever –after fairy tale. Unmissable must buy Romance to possess in any format!

you made my weekend!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend.  And  if you like chocolate I hope you had plenty to enjoy!

A Proposal to Secure His Vengeance by Kate Walker

His preferred method? Ruthless, irresistible seduction! Imogen O’Sullivan is horrified when charismatic tycoon Raoul breaks up her engagement and makes her his own convenient bride! She once …

amandashivrattan481.wordpress.com

Being busy

This week will be an interesting mixture - hair cut - cats 'booster' injections. So that'll be a small fortune spent in half an hour!

 Then today I put on the PA hat again when the other writer in the house becomes a TV personality - he's doing a TV interview for a programme on Inside Wormwood Scrubs. 

I think my job will mainly consist of making sure that the cats don't interfere in the interview! Ruby is always very keen to get involved with anything new and interesting.

Right now I'm tidying and dusting so that the house looks respectable (sort of) for SP Wade's TV interview. Just wish I knew which room they would prefer to use! Oh well, at least it means things look rather better than usual! From 3pm I will be trying to keep the cats quiet - and not daring to move much myself!

Next Writing Course/Retreat Planned

I've been asked about any other courses that are coming up this year. Some details are still under discussion but there is a Relax and Write weekend in Cirencester coming up soon with Lois Maddox. Bookings are already in but there are still some available spaces on the courses if you're interested.

It's a sort of a Crime and Passion weekend - I will be running a Focus on Writing Romantic Fiction Retreat - this is a weekend where you can get a critique of your work and advice on how to progress - also the time and relaxation to get on with your writing without interruptions or demands of home.This retreat is designed for people who have already started work on a novel and who want time to focus on that - and not have to worry about anything else. It’s an ideal course to get your writing moving ahead. There are a limited number of places on this Retreat, so it is essential you book early, in order to send your work in advance for comment and arrange a one-to-one.

And the Crime bit? Well that's the other half of the writing partnership with Stephen Wade Getting Away With Murder -
Write That Crime Story

Crime writer Stephen Wade introduces the skills involved in writing crime, covering both factual and fictional genres. The course will include advice on planning, developing ideas, knowing the market, research, and characterisation. There will also be short workshop exercises.

The next 'Relax & Write' Weekend Courses are at
The Royal Agricultural University
Cirencester
6-8 April 2018
Contact Malaga Workshops

Blink and you'll miss it

Well, don't say I didn't warn you! I put this up on my blog:

Re the Advanced Romance Writing Course weekend - that's back again in February 2019 with Writers Holiday I saw lots of my students booking ahead to ensure a place on this popular course next year - so if you're interested, register that fact now! I'm told there are 'a few' places left but as I've talked with two people who wanted to book a place in 2019 - those don't look like they're going to hang around!

So true! I heard from Gerald P Hobbs today that in fact 12 of this year's students have already booked their places on next year's (2019) Advanced Romance Writing Course. 12. There was a time when the numbers of this course were officially limited to 12 - then another person asked if they could please have a place - and another . . Seeing as I had 15 in the class this year and didn't die (just) perhaps I'll go with a limit of 15 places again in 2019.

The trouble is that this course really has to have some prior learning on a basic romance writing course - like the one I used to run in the summer at Writers Holiday but now, sadly, that event no longer runs. Hmm . . .

I can't really take students with no foundation knowledge of genre fiction writing . . . I think I'll need to have a chat with Lois Maddox about turning the autumn course with Relax and Write into a preparatory weekend to cover the foundation work for the Fishguard Weekend. That could work!

Leave it with me - and Lois.

Mother's Day twice over

Facebook threw a  memory up at me as I logged on today. It didn't surprise me - how could I forget that today is my mother's birthday? But it's an interesting coincidence that this post appears just after I get back from teaching the Advanced Romance Writing Course at Fishguard, when one of the topics that I mentioned was the fact that for some reason the explanation of why a hero behaves as he does, the mistakes he makes, his cynicism about the heroine - and women in general - is so often laid at the door of his mother - who was unfaithful to his father - or some such. I find that a little bit (OK a lot) irritating. Is one woman's behaviour when he was a child enough to turn a grown man - and we do hope that our heroes are 'grown ups' - into cynics about women in general?

 I do hope that mature adults (male or female) would see that one person's behaviour doesn't mean that *every* other woman is like that. And yet I do find that mothers do get a bad press these days in romances these days - sort of like the wicked stepmother without the 'step' bit. So it was interesting to find this post I wrote on the subject back in 2015.

https://kate-walker.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/pink-heart-society-day.html?spref=fb

Anyway - I could never forget my mother. We only get one mother and I'd give the world to be able to celebrate her birthday with her - and I think she'd have loved to know about that Romance Writing Course in Fishguard. This makes it a poignant week, with Mather's Day coming up next weekend. I hope you who are mothers and those whose mother is still alive manage to share some special time together for Mothering Sunday. It might not always be possible

There and back again

Finally catching up with things after a long and lovely weekend in  Fishguard,  teaching the Advance Romance  Writing Course,  getting to see and talk with fellow  tutors and students  - established and new ones. 

This year everyone seems to have been even more enthusiastic and involved  than  usual - and there had been really enthusiastic groups  in the past.   We didn't want to leave, we were enjoying ourselves so much,  but  the weekend seemed to pass in  a flash and  before we knew it we were packing the car ready to travel home.  And that was when life got interesting . . .

This country has a strange climate. Spent a wonderful wonderful weekend in Fishguard in bright sunshine then set off home in sunshine and blue skies. Halfway home we got stuck in a raging blizzard which was not fun but eventually we made it home safely . . . to find none of the threatened snow here at all!

Overnight this changed and we are now snow-bound in deep deep snow and whirling winds! Oh well,I have cases to unpack, books to sort out, course teaching papers  to file away . . . and the presents . . . .

Every year I try to point out to my students that I have as much fun teaching them as I hope they have in doing the course with me - add in a stay at the Fishguard Bay Hotel - and the fabulous company of the Fishguard 'Family' -   Gerry  and Anne Hobbs, Alison  Chisholm,  Simon Whaley.  Della  Galton  and Susan Alison . . . and everyone else. So there is no need to do anything else. But every year they ignore me and I came home with this lovely bundle of 'excess baggage'! Thank you all for your kindness and warmth - and specially for your company over a great weekend.

  And it's  a lovely reminder of  a fabulous weekend in Wales while  I  try to catch up with everything, write revisions, send out critiques and letters.   And it's  so sad that it will be  next Febraury (2019) before we're back in Fishguard again.

Oh well,  it's warmer and safer inside right now, when my garden looks like  this  with the birds queing at the door for extra mealworms and  seedcake to get them through the freeze.

Keep warm and safe everyone!

PS Re the Advanced Romance Writing Course weekend - that's back again in February  2019 with Writers Holiday   I saw  lots of my students   booking ahead to ensure a place on  this popular course next year  - so if you're interested, register that fact now!   I'm  told there are 'a few' places left but as I've talked with two people who wanted to book  a place in 2019  -  those don't look like  they're going to hang around!