Favourite Covers 2 - my choices

So  now it's my turn. Andrea asked me to share my choice of favourite covers  and as she promised to make that lovely donation to the Tickled Pink collection for research into help for breast cancer, I want to thank her by doing just that.

There's a slight complication in that she had the UK covers to choose from - while I have the same books as her but often the UK and USA covers are rather different -  but I'll post  images of the covers anyway so you can see them - whichever version I use.

I mentioned in yesterday's post that like Andrea, I liked the cover for Man of Shadows (see above).  This was very like the image I had in my mind of my hero and heroine and although it's a long-ago title, I still like it.


One of my favourite covers - and a favourite book with literally thousands
of readers judging by sales  - is     Constantine's Revenge.  I have a thing about strong male arms  - and  hands - and this get the intensity of the story too.

There's a book called The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge  where, like  Constantine's Revenge, the cover is the same on both the USA and UK editions.   This cover is affectionately known as 'The Back' among fans - I 'm sure you can see why!   There is also, as one reader said - 'all that sexy non-touching' .
  Often when there is a sheikh in the title, and when it works for the art department , then it seems works I get  great cover art -  like  At The Sheikh's Command

In fact a 'Sheikh' title often works really well - like Destined for The Desert King where I  was delighted to see that my 'desert king' had the beard that is so much a part of his  appearance  at first.  There's a reason why he has that beard!

One of the few times when I've liked the UK cover better than the USA one has been  A Question of Honour - it's rare that I like a photo image better than a painted  cover.

But this one works for me:


These are some of my favourite covers, where the artwork comes close to the mood of the story and the hero and heroine I had in my imagination while writing the book.

It doesn't always work out that way though - sometimes I find I'm left wondering 'why?'  when I see a cover.

As an example - how about the one known in my family as 'The Headless Manicure'!

Hmmm!

Destined for the Desert King

I'm so glad that everyone seems to like the new UK cover of my December book as much as I do. But I've had some messages asking me to give a little spoiler or two about the story .

So here you are:

A queen of convenience?
There’s no doubt that their marriage is one of convenience and political manoeuvring. But shy beauty Aziza El Afarim secretly hopes that her husband – the boy she once idolised – remembers something of the closeness they shared as children.

Except Sheikh Nabil bin Rashid Al Sharifa is far from the boy he used to be. The weight of loss and power has changed him beyond recognition. Where once there was warmth and generosity, now only a ruthless passion burns. He’ll give Aziza everything…except his love.

But as pressure to produce an heir mounts, can there be more than duty in the marriage bed?
Rhastaan Royals Book 2.



And for those who recognise Nabil's name - Yes he is the  man (youth)  who was supposed to have been Clementina's husband in A Question of Honour. (Rhastaan Royals Book 1)  But this is ten years later - and, believe me - he's changed.

Books on Offer - Translations

Some weeks can go by with no parcels of books arriving at the door. Then other weeks there are so many deliveries I can't keep up with them..  The last few weeks have been like this-  books in all sorts of languages arriving , boxes of them, and I'm not sure what to do with them.

Some will go to the libraries but first I thought I'd see if anyone  out there would like a translation into their own language while I have them to give away. I did this before and it was great to send them out to the countries they belonged in.
So - tomorrow I'm heading for the Isle of Man  to accompany the Babe Magnet of his  publicity 'tour' there - Douglas Library (Thursday evening) .  Port Erin Arts (Saturday morning)  Radio  interviews . .  if anyone's on the island and would like to meet up with 'Uncle Albert' .

And while I'm away I'm offering  copies of these translations to anyone who's interested in one.
This will be strictly on a first come first served basis - one book per person.  Please let me know which book you'd like in which language and give me your postal address so that I can get it in the mail to you.
email me kate  at kate-walker.com

Back on Sunday afternoon - after which the offer is closed and the books will go to the library

I have:

Italian editions of: 

His Miracle Baby

A Question of Honor

Dutch editions of:

A Question of Honor

The Proud Wife

Saturday’s Bride  (with books by Catherine George and Anne Mather)

A  Throne for the Taking  (with a book by Trish Morey)

Danish edition of

A Throne for the Taking

Her Secret Bridegroom

Russian edition of

A Question of Honor

Norwegian/Swedish/Finland editions of:

A Throne For the Taking (together with Michelle Condor Duty at What Cost)

German editions of:

Throne For The Taking

The Duke’s  Secret Wife

I've also had Japanese editions of  A Question of Honour and a  Manga edition of His Miracle Baby - together with the fabulous Manga comic in English of    Bedded By The Greek Billionaire  but I'm afraid I don't have spare copies of these.

Good news

So the good news I want to share with you is that I just heard from my editor and she loved the revisions I sent her and so Nabil and Aziza's story will now be published in December 2015 - with the fabulous title of Destined for The Desert King  (I love that title!)

I thought this was my 63rd title, but, after checking my web site  and counting up it turns out that it's my 64th! - How did I lose count of everything?   Which means that I'm now about to launch into my 65th book!   Hard to believe, but that's what's coming up.

In case you hadn't realised,  Destined for The Desert King will follow on from  A Question of Honour. Nabil is the man (little more than a boy really) that Clementina was supposed to have married but he  rejected her for someone else.   He's grown up a lot  since then, this books takes place 10 years later  and a lot has happened to him in that time!

My editor really wanted this one - she's been pestering for Nabil's story so I had to write if for her. So I'm really pleased that she loved it so much.  I hope you all do too when it appears in December.

And no, in case you were wondering, the joy of getting an acceptance email never gets any less - I've been smiling ever since I read the news.

Now all I have to do is do it again . . . .

It's good news week really - I've just spotted so many lovely reviews of   Olivero's Outrageous Proposal over on Amazon.com - more smiles as a result!  Thank you to everyone who wrote such generous  and welcome reviews.

And the sun's coming out after  the torrential downpours of the weekend.  Lovely!

Tote Bags 'n' Blogs Day

Today is the 12th of October so it's my regular day for posting over on the Tote Bags 'N' Blogs  site.

So that's where you'll find my post about writing about connected characters  - meeting up with characters from past books and seeing what's happened to them in the time since I last 'met' them.

Do you like stories where a character from a previous book reappears and gets their owns story?  Are you interested in seeing how other people from past stories have been living and getting on since the end of their own story?

That's what I'm looking at today and I'm thinking about one of the minor characters from A Question of Honor.

The Story Behind the Story

Part of the dedication to A Question of Honour   reads like this:

To my who knows how many 'greats' back ancestor Chevalier Charles Wogan whose real-life story was the inspiration behind my fictional version.

Several  people have asked what this dedication means - and who exactly is the 'Chevalier Charles Wogan' I'm talking about.

I've mentioned the story in a couple of places  on my blog tour, but if you want the full story so that you know exactly who he was and what happened, then  a couple of posts around now will  give you the story.

If you look over over on I Heart Presents  today, you'll find the true story of Charles Wogan and the Polish princess  Clementina.

And on the Tote Bags 'n' Blogs  post  from yesterday there is a bit ore about other books that have been

written about this  hero inspiration, together with a couple of portraits of Wogan himself - and his Clementina.  Though I have to admit that neither of them look very much like Karim and Clemmie  on the cover of the Harlequin version out this month.

So if you've ever wondered about the answer to that question I'm always being asked - 'where do you get your ideas  from'  then here's one example of where mine come from.

There's a chance of winning a giveaway copy of A Question of Honor too if you comment  over at I heart Presents. 

I Heart Presents

Well, I was going to let you know that I have a post over on I Heart Presents on Friday (Friday 13th . . .hmmm .  .was that a good idea?)

Anyway,  that was the plan - along with a reminder that I have my regular blog on Tote Bags 'N' Blog on the 12th (tomorrow)

But then when I went over to check on the link to I Heart Presents, it seems that there is already an advance post for  A Question of Honor up there now - that was a surprise.

So - there is a long extract from A Question of Honor posted on I Heart Presents right now, my personal blog - about the story behind this book  ( from my own family history) will be there on  Friday.

And tomorrow I'll have a blog up on Tote Bags 'n' Blogs when I'll be talking about - something  . .  don't quite know what yet! Any ideas/suggestions anyone?

Spotlight on A Question of Honor

I've had problems getting my time zones sorted out for this extra  blog - dealing with days away from my desk, plus thunderstorms, plus visitors - but I'm here now to let you know about the special Spotlight on A Question of Honor over on  Romance Book Paradise.

With special thanks to Nas Dean for organising this as part of the mini book tour to celebrate the publication of my latest book.

Mini Book Tour

I'm a bit late mentioning this - but the post is still up  - so
As part of my mini blog tour to mark the publication of A Question of Honor, I have a blog today over on
Romance Reader.

I'm talking about that important word honor - or honour!

Note to all the winners from my recent giveaway   - and the generous people who  placed the winning bids on my Brenda Novak auction lots - all the necessary packages have gone in the mail so I hope they'll reach you safely and soon.

Huge congratulations to everyone involved with      Brenda Novak's Auction for Diabetes Research  - which raised $406,000   this year. That's a huge achievement!  

Pink Hearts Day

Today is the day for my regular Date With Kate  post over on the Pink Heart Society blog.

Today I'm talking about heroes - and specially  the hero in my latest release - A Question of Honor

What makes a hero for you?  Come along and let me know what you think.

More on the blog tour

I'm still trying to catch up on things  - this always happens when  a book goes off to my ed. Because I've concentrated totally on the book, focusing all my attention on that, and  ignoring a lot of things for 'when the Book is done'  (affectionately  know in this house as WTBBID!) then I have  so much to do when I have a moment to breathe.

And this time of course, when I wasn't focusing on the book then I was dealing with admin for the course for Relax and Write at Weetwood Hall!  So  my house/office/life is in a bit of chaos  right now.

Anyway - talking of courses  and teaching and such. Today's post on the mini blog tour to celebrate the publication of A Question of Honor is a craft post written specially for this blog tour.  It's also to mark the republication of the revised ebook of the 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance which is selling wonderfully - my thanks to everyone who has bought a copy !

 You can find it over on Revising  and Editing and  in  this post  I'm talking about How To Handle Transitions between Scenes  - or Chapters. 

If you're trying to get published and are interested in learning more about the craft, I hope you'll find it useful.

Feature on A Question of Honor

The official publication date for A Question of Honour  in the UK is June 1st  - though that ~1 place on the M&B site bestseller list means it's already selling well there - but in America it is now already out on the bookshop shelves.

So the lovely and helpful Nas Dean has organised a mini book tour for me to celebrate - Thanks Nas!
As a result I will have some posts about the book -- and me - and some craft posts  on several different blogs coming up  in the next few days.

The first of these is a feature on  me and A Question of Honor  ( these 2 different spellings are getting  confusing! I just keep alternating them - so one will be right for someone!)  and that's over on
 Romance Book Haven today - here's where you can find it.

Thanks Nas!

I see we have more rain today . . .  obviously the warm weekend I spent at Weetwood Hall was summer!  And then I was teaching . . .!

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!

Catching up again

It's hard to believe that this time last week I was starting the first workshop of my Writing Romantic Fiction course at Weetwood Hall in Leeds. . . .and it was a day of  wonderful warm sunshine.

Now I'm back home, catching up with everything  (or trying to), all on my own in my office  - well apart from a very sleepy ginger Maine Coon cat - and it's raining  - and raining - and raining . .

Oh well, I have great memories of the Relax and Write course  at Weetwood. What a great group of writers joined me in the very comfortable hotel  to learn about writing romantic fiction.  It was great to see how well everyone got on from the start. It always helps a  course go really well if everyone jells  from the start  - and this time people did just that.  So my thanks to Helen, Kim, Penny, Andrea, Luzanne,  Marie, Vasiliki, Ingrid and April for  a great weekend. And thanks  too to Lois Maddox of Relax and Write who organised everything. The food was great too!  I didn't get much sleep - but that didn't matter.

Back home, I had a box of international  editions of various books - and on Kindle there is a cool  English Manga version of The Return of The Stranger.  I've had Japanese Mangas before now but this one  I could actually read and enjoy  - it was fascinating seeing the  illustrations created from my characters, though the hero, Heath, is nothing like the guy on the cover of the UK edition!

 I focused on getting my book  to my editor   so that kept me occupied  - and now it's on the ed's desk  aA Question of Honor  which is out - officially 1st June but in USA  is available from this weekend.  So I need to write some blogs for that!
nd I can .  . . relax - no, not  if the number of things on my to do list is anything to go by!  I have a mini blog tour (thank you Nas Dean!) to mark the publication of the new book -

And thanks to Romance Book Haven  - and Desere , Nas and Janie for the great reviews of A Questiuon of Honor on your Contemporary Romance pages:


The heroine in this book was remarkable, one of those woman you know is strong and no matter what comes her way she will face it, because let's be honest no woman really wants to marry some man she has been "engaged" to since the age of 13. We all deserve to meet and fall in love with someone we chose and not whom our parents think we do, but unfortunately this practice does happen in some countries and I have always felt so sad for these woman that is breaks my heart, but thankfully the author took it to the next level and let's fate intervene, giving us a heroine that stands up for what her heart believes in.

The hero in this book was superb! I loved him from start to finish, his upholding honor personality was terrific especially because he has been through so much and here comes the woman of his dreams and tempts him into very sexy thoughts and he has to sit there and force himself to remember she belongs to another, that shows some serious levels of willpower.

Through both characters the author showed that there is a will and a way to find what you seek,

but you have to be willing to go with the flow so to speak, because fate can always have a different plan lurking in the background ready to unfold when you least expect it. Don't give up hope, keep believing that it will all work out and never ever keep your feelings in your heart, stand up and shout it out to the world you never know by making your feelings known you might just save yourself from heartache.

I recommend this read for all Kate Walker fans, the author has taken a unique 'give us a story with a bang combined with emotional and heartwarming passion' trait and created a stunning romance of love finally found when no one was looking. 

Desere

A Question of Honor by Kate Walker 4 out of 5 stars. This is a quick and easy read if you're looking for something to take with you on Summer vacation. 

Clemmentine was promised into marriage by her father. She knows that she must do her duty for the family honor but runs away to have one last chance for freedom and to spend time with someone who is very close to her heart. She knows that once she is bound by her marriage that she may never see this person again. Karim has promised to bring Clemmentine "Clemmie" to her fiance. It is a sense of honor to his family that he is doing this for her betrothed Nabil. She would be Queen but she doesn't want the title. 

A freak storm strands them together overnight before they are able to make their way to her new home. The sexual tension between Clemmie and Karim becomes apparent to them both. Bound by honor Karim doesn't allow himself but a brief moment and vows to take her safely to Nabil. When Nabil finds out that she spent time alone with Karim he doesn't believe that nothing happened between them and he sends her away.

Karim follows her back home and knows that he can now, and with a clear conscience pursue her. Does their story have a happy ending? You'll need to find out for yourself. You'll also find out why she ran away in the first place and just who this person is that is close to her heart.


Janie

A QUESTION OF HONOR is a spellbinding romance. It is a story that will stay with a reader long time after she closes the book. It has that momentous impact by all the emotion depicted in this romance. Another shimmering and mesmerizing romance full of breathtaking sensuality from author Kate Walker.

Highly recommended for all readers of romance.

Nas Dean


Thank you all, ladies!

New Books

Still waiting for the final details of the exciting news  hopefully I'll be able to tell you all very soon. But in the meantime today's good news was coming home to find a large parcel waiting for me. Brand new copies of the Presents edition of A Question of Honour.  (Ooops - no - sorry, seeing as this is the USA edition -

it's A Question of Honor!

This is one of my favourite moments of being a writer - the arrival of  the first editions of my book.

Another  bit of happy news was discovering that two much older books  - like  - books that were published in 2003 originally - are in the daily  Mills & Boon bestseller list on Amazon.co.uk  

It's great to see  The Married Mistress   and Wife for A Day selling so well in ebook ten years after they first came out in paperback in the UK.

And personally I'm getting a lot of satisfaction from seeing  Wife for A Day  there - with its  British hero!

Do you still love the Mediterranean hero - of do you miss the British guy  with his stiff upper lip?

I do wonder if it's time to admit that a British hero can be every bit as sexy and romantic as a Greek Billionaire or a Sheikh.

What do you think?

Cover reveal

I've been waiting for ages to see what the cover of my  June book A Question of Honour  would be like. Over the years I've had some  great covers - and some not so great!   I was sent the cover of the USA Presents cover a month or so again    and I liked that  - it  has the atmosphere of the story - and the characters  (Karim and Clementina)  have the right colouring (not always the case!)

But I was waiting to see what the UK/M&B Modern cover was like. I found it last night on Amazon - and I have to say that I'm thrilled - I love it.  Again  Karim and Clementina look just right - but  this one has  more impact I think. More of the  right atmosphere - more  emotion.

It would make me want to pick this book off the shelves  anyway. I think it's a winner.

What do you think?  So- do you prefer  A Question of Honor (USA)? Or A Question of Honour (UK) ?

My lovely web designer Heather has been busy updating my web site  - so you can find more details about A Question of Honour/Honor - and read an excerpt on its  special page here 

Oh , and while I'm talking about covers, I also just got the cover for the 3 in 1 collection  Eligible Greeks: Sizzling Affairs  - which contains  a reprint of my  2010 book The Good Greek Wife. 

This one is out  on May 1st 2014.