Blogging elsewhere

I'm locked in the writer's cave with Ricardo and Lucy so I'm concentrating on that.

But if you are a would-be writer, don't forget that the 12th of every month is when I write my 12 Points on the 12th as an extra spin off from the second edition of Kate Walker's 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance.

So I'm over on Tote Bags and Blogs and today I'm talking about that question that I've been asked so many, many times :

Where do you get your ideas? Hope to see you there

Tote Bags 'n' Blogs

Just a reminder to those of you who are interested in writing romance that I have a new post up on Tote Bags 'n' Blogs in the 12 Points on the 12th series I've been running over there.

Today I'm talking about Cutting for Pace.

Maybe I'll see you over there.

All over the place again . . .

I meant to post this earlier but then I was distracted by an interview with the Manchester Evening News about the 12 Point Guide and an event I'm doing in Manchester in July - so the time just sl-ip-pe-d away from me.

So I just wanted to let you know that I'm blogging in a couple of other places today. First, I'm over on lovely Liz Fielding's blog, helping to celebrate her fabulous 50th title. That's The Bride's Baby - the book I blogged about here when I read it back in February. I loved it - but then I love Liz's books. Although this one came out in April, it's still around on Amazon and other places, so if you haven't read it you can still grab yourself a copy.

The other place I'm blogging - when I get myself organised - is over on Tote Bags 'N' Blogs when I'm doing my monthly 12 Points on the 12th blog. Or I will be when I've written the darn thing - I'm all behind with things!

Writers' Q&A 2

Today's post for writers isn't here - because today is May 12th, so that means I'm over on Tote Bags and Blogs where my 12 Points on the 12th for this month is about ways of getting deeper inside your characters by looking at some things about them that you may not have considered.

So maybe I'll see you over there. And if you join in, post a comment you'll be in with a chance to win a signed copy of my latest novel, Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife.

Meanwhile, I'll be thinking about the next question on the list for the Writers' Q&A which will also be about character but in a rather different way.

12 Points

Today I'm blogging over at Tote Bags 'N' Blogs - for the 12 Points on the 12th and today I'm talking about Prologue and Epilogues.


I've also announced some news. And so I'll share that with you here too.


I spent this weekend working with the publisher of the 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance. Ever since we had the fantastic news that the first edition of this book had sold out, we've been planning a second edition and that will be coming very soon. And in order to launch it I will be running a special week long (or perhaps a bit longer if there's enough interest) Writers' Q&A here on my blog.


This will be coming up in April but obviously I have to have some questions to answer if I'm going to run it.


So if you have any writing questions you'd like me to answer then email them to me. Please put Writing Q&A in the subject line. And then I'll answer them on my blog - or maybe on Tote Bags n Blogs in one of the 12 Points.




And don't forget - the contest to win one of the remaining of the 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance is still open over on My Tote Bag. Lee has two copies to give away together with a Kate Walker tote bag and some other goodies. Entries need to be in by March 15th, so get your entries in today.

Holed up

So today's the day.

I'm sitting here in the one room in the house that has any curtains up - my office. The plan is that this room will be the last one to have the windows done, hopefully when I have to be out anyway.

Everywhere else, the curtains are down, the furniture moved and covered and I am holed up in the office with Sid and Flora (Dylan is out patrolling the grounds) waiting for the window men to arrive.

I'm just thankful that the weather has calmed down since yesterday, the wind and lashing rain seem to have eased for now and the sky is bright clear blue. Hopefully this will allow for good and fast progress with the window replacements. Perhaps I should have said that I'm here with Sid, Flora and the awkward so and so Santos who I am hope is going to be a little more cooperative so as to distract me from the thumps and bangs and crashes in the rest of the house.

Other news is that I had my first review for Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife yesterday. This came from lovely Julie Bonello who reviews for Cata Romance and she gave this book a fabulous write-up:

If you want to read the very best in category romantic fiction, then pick up Kate Walker’s latest Modern Romance, Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife.

Alannah Redfern wasn’t looking for love when she fell for Spanish aristocrat Raul Marcin, but pretty soon the virginal English girl found herself enraptured by the gorgeous Marquez’s charm and sophistication. However, as an ordinary girl, Alannah knew that she was no match for a titled billionaire, so reluctantly she left Raul and Spain and returned to England to nurse her broken heart and to try and move on with her life. But fate had other plans for Alannah and Raul because two years later, they meet once again…

Raul is shocked when he claps eyes on Alannah again. Two years may have passed, but his attraction towards her hasn’t waned. However, Raul cannot trust Alannah again – not after she dumped him without a backward glance. Still, that doesn’t prevent him from seducing her all over again…

Alannah knows that she should reject his advances, but she has never been attracted to someone in the same way that she was attracted to Raul. Sexy, charismatic, rich and absolutely gorgeous, Raul is like no man she has ever known before, and the only thing that she wants to do, is to lose herself in his embrace and let him make love to her all night long.

But has too much water gone under the bridge for the two of them to pick up from where they left off? Is theirs destined to be merely a convenient sexual arrangement? Or will this reunion bring them closer together in and out of the bedroom?

Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife is Kate Walker at her mesmerizing and absolute best!

Gripping, dramatic and written straight from the heart, Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife is an emotional rollercoaster ride written by a novelist who is at the very height of her powers.
Compelling, absorbing and enthralling, Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife is a stirring contemporary romantic novel by a novelist readers all over the world just cannot get enough of!

4.5 stars Jullie BonelloCataromance.com

Thank you so much Julie! Your review had me smiling all day long yesterday

One other bit of news - I was working hard on a different project at the weekend, one that will be interesting for all would-be authors reading this. I'll be posting over at Tote Bags 'n' Blogs tomorrow when, ion my regular 12 Points on the 12th, I shall have more news on this . And this ----->

If you're interested in writing romance you'll want to check this out as I have news of a week long Writers' Special coming up soon to mark a special celebration.

Guest Blogging and a photo PS

Today being the 12th February, it's the day I'm over on Lee Hyat's Tote Bags 'N' Blogs for my 12 Points on the 12th blog about writing. Today I'm talking about adding layers to conflicts - so if you're still waiting to send in your entry to the Presents Instant Seduction contest, you still have time - just - to go along and learn more about writing Conflict.

I'm also announcing the big news - well, big news for me - about my book - The 12 Point Guide To Writing Romance. (well - it's great news for me! If you've been looking for a copy, it might not be quite so great for you.)

I heard from my publisher last week and this book is now officially SOLD OUT. He shipped the very last copies from the wharehouse and there are none left. There might be some around on Amazon.com or B&N .com - but not many!

But if you want a chance to win a copy of this book, Lee actually has not one but two copies of it to offer as a prize in a contest and she'll be setting that up on My Tote Bag very soon - so look out for that or for the details here on my blog too.


And that photo PS - when I posted the pictures of the Mills & Boon Centenary Party, as I was using the photos from my camera, I didn't have one with me on it. But just the afternoon the lovely Susan Stephens has sent me a photo that was taken with her camera on that special night and she's kindly sent it on to me. So thank you so much for that Susan!


If I remember rightly, the photo was taken by Donna Hayes, CEO of Harlequin - thank you too, Donna.

So - Left to Right - Michelle Styles, Liz Fielding (without a handsome butler for once!), the glamorous Susan Stephens herself and me.

Coming soon . . .

When it comes to new years, I always think that I actually do better with the Chinese one.

The Western New Year comes too close to Christmas, too close to my son's birthday. It's over-hyped, over-emphasised and the whole things just seems altogether too much.

But the Chinese New Year comes a little later on; when you've had time to take a breather after Christmas. Time to clear up the chaos that December 25th leaves behind - take down and store the decorations, recycle the Christmas cards - er - pay the other sort of Christmas Cards - ie the bills that mount up on the credit cards.

This year the Chinese New Year starts on February 7th and apparently it's the Year of the Rat and the Year of the Rat is said to be " a time of hard work, activity, and renewal. This is a good year to begin a new job, get married, launch a product or make a fresh start. Ventures begun now may not yield fast returns, but opportunities will come for people who are well prepared and resourceful. The best way for you to succeed is to be patient, let things develop slowly, and make the most of every opening you can find. "

All of which fits more with my mood right now than it did on December 31st.

So, as I'm planning and looking at upcoming projects, I thought I'd just give you some advance notice of things that are coming up .

So - for February we have:

The return of the now annual and so 'traditional' joint contest the Anne McAllister, Liz Fielding and I run together. That means that you'll get to see this logo again as it's Here Come The Grooms again - or Here Come the Grooms the reprise. The contest is to celebrate Valentine's Day, and the publication of 3 more of our books - Anne's great One Night Love-Child which I wrote about yesterday, Liz's The Bride's Baby - which is a very important book for Liz (more on that later) and my own Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife.

This also means that those darn grooms will probably be back, taking over blogs when they can and generally causing bother. And as the groom in my book is Raul - remember Raul? - this means that you'll get to see a bit more of this guy who helped me with my research - that was a tough job, I remember how hard that research was.

And talking of Valentine's Day reminds me that I'll be helping Aussie author Nicola Marsh celebrate Feb 14th with her special Be My Valentine 14 day promotion - you'll have a chance to meet 14 great romance writers, win daily prizes - and there's a grand prize on 14 books to be won on th 14th itself.

More numbers - of course on the 12th of February I have my 12 Points on the 12th over on the Tote Bags 'n' Blogs site. And this month I have some exciting news about my 12 Point Guide because you see . . . No - I'll just keep that to myself for a little bit longer.

I have a Pink Heart Society post to write - and I get to do that on a really special date. Because 2008 is of course a Leap Year and my next PHS post is scheduled for Leap Year's Day itself - Feb 29th. No one else will be able to write on that date for the next four years.

And next week I'm heading for London for a big event to mark the official start of the celebrations for this very special year for my publisher. Because on February 7th there is a party to mark the start of this wonderful centenary year for Mills & Boon. 100 years of publishing, 100 years of success and 100 years of being a household name - can't be bad. I'll be meeting up with lots of friends, fellow authors and editors for this and I'll bring you a report - and hopefully pics - just as soon as I get back. We'll be celebrating on the actual day of the Chinese New year too which, considering how I started this post, seems appropriate.

Is that it? Oh no - I forgot - I also have a deadline to get my next book in - as well as all this, that new story is supposed to be on my editor's desk by the end of the month . . . no pressure there then!

But at least with this being a leap year, I have one extra day on the 29th to complete it!

Seven Things - for Teagan

Teagan Oliver tagged me to write seven things about myself . And as she was also kind enough to say that she is a great fan of mine, I am feeling so kindly disposed towards her that I can;t not oblige.

I'm assuming that these have to be

a. Things I haven't written much about on this blog before

and

b. Different from the 'Six wierd things' I wrote about here way back in 2006 when tagged by Kate Hardy.
(Seeing as Teagan has said that she'd like to find out more about me - and for anyone else who's interested - you might like to check out that previous blog entry as the 6 things listed there still apply)

Hmm - so 7 things - wierd or not

1. My very first ever kitten of my own (as opposed to the innumerable family cats we collected over the years) was a dark grey female with white chest and paws. She came from the local convent - the nuns who taught me at school and I called her Misty. As girls growing up, my sisters and I 'married' her to our other cat Bumble - and big black and white tom who had decided to adopt us.

2. Growing up in Yorkshire I lived in a house that was built in 1870 - it was half the house that had been built for the local millowner's son (carpet mills) and the half we had was big enough - the whole house would have been huge. It was also reputed to be haunted by a little boy and occasionally, coming up the stairs, I would be convinced that I had seen someone disappearing up the next flight of steps.

3. Abby Green insists that I am more Irish than her. Technically as both my parents were Irish, my father born in Dublin and my mother in Clones, I am by blood Irish - but as I was born in Newark, Nottinghamshire, I am officially English.

4. I've probably mentioned this before now - but Teagan won't know it - I am the middle child in a family of 5 daughters. I was supposed to have been a boy which is why my family nickname is Carly - a version of Charlie which I would have been if I'd been male.

5. I have to sleep on the side of the bed nearest the window and away from the door. Which is a little illogical as I feel the need to sleep facing the light (window) but that means turning my back on the door. Oh well, there's the BM (Babe Magnet, in case you didn't know, Teagan) between me and the door so I'm OK

6. Another illogicality - I like my coffee strong and my tea weak - with the tea bag just waved over the cup as Anne McAllister would say. But neither of them must have any milk or suger in them.

7. I love beautiful notebooks - and would buy a new one every day if I could - but then I freeze at the thought of writing anything in them! My handwriting is so appalling that I don't want to sully the pristine pages with it - and I'm always convinced that I should wait until I have some really great thoughts, carefully planned out, and neatly arranged to write in the lovely notebooks I have. So I end up scribbling in a tatty ring file notepad. Pens, though, that's a diffferent matter - I love using new pens, even on the tatty notepad.

And here's a fact that Teagan doesn't know - Teagan, Sid picked your name out of the people who commented on my Tote Bags and Blogs blog for 12 Points on The 12th last week and so you've won a copy of the 12 Point Guide and The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife - or another of my back list books if you've read that one.

So please email me to give me your snail mail address so I can send you your prize?

12 Points on the 12th

My first 12 Points on the 12th went up today over on Tote Bags 'N' Blogs

Maybe I'll see you there?

Just to say . . .

. . . that the lovely Heather from We Write Romance has updated my web site so that not only are the contest details up, there's also the covers of the newest book - Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Bride - and the By Request Trilogy that has the reprint of my His Miracle Baby in - coming in January.

And I may have forgotten to say this before - but if you want a second chance to win a signed copy of the 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance - then hurry over to Tote Bags 'n' Blogs where I was blogging this week and you can be in with a change to win a copy just by answering the question in the comments there.

And you'll be able to read about a new project that Leena and I have planned for the New Year - we've called it 12 Points on the 12th and hopefully it will interest all you would-be romance writers out there. That will be starting in January 2008.