Special treat for my Australian readers (another one!)

It's December - so as I turned over the page in my calendar and opened the first door on my lovely Advent Calendar (Thanks to Anne Mcallister) I was reminded that my lovely Australian readers have

a special extra book treat coming out this month - and so I thought I'd share the cover with you. I love it.

Surrender to the Sheikh is another 3 in 1 collection - this one has At The Sheikh's Command, Desert Affair and Destined For The Desert King in one volume - so if it wasn't hot enough for you already down under, this could warm things up quite a bit!!

A special Australian By Request Collection - your chance to get your hands on some older Kate Walker titles!

So - a few days ago, I promised my lovely Australian readers that there was some special news about my books coming up - well, here it is!

This month, as well as the Sexy edition of Indebted to Moreno, there is a special 'By Request - Popular Bestsellers ' 3 in 1 collection of 3 of my past titles on sale as well. This collection is called Resisting All Temptation - and the books in this collection are: A Question of Honour, The Konstantos Marriage Demand and Saturday's Bride.


Obviously, these are all reprints - A Question of Honour (which originally had the same cover as this collection) came out in 2014, The Konstantos Marriage Demand won the Romantic Times Best  Presents Extra in 2010 and Saturday's Bride goes right back to 1999!

So it's great to see these older titles get a new edition. If there are books you missed the first time around - or if you had a copy but lost it, then now's your chance to grab a copy in this special new Australian edition! If you want any more details on these titles  here they are:

A Question Of Honour

A runaway princess...
It should have been easy. Karim al Khalifa, crown prince of Mazarkhad, had one task—retrieve rebellious princess Clementina Saveneski from her hideout in England and return her home to be wed...to another man.
His to find, or his to keep?
It is not for Karim to notice her alluring scent, those seductive curves, the enticing glances she sends his way. No, his family's honor, and his own, require Clementina to be delivered—pure and untouched—to her unwanted bridegroom. And he must resist all temptation to keep her for himself!



The Konstantos Marriage Demand


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

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

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



Saturday's Bride

A most determined seduction . . .
Connor Harding was outraged to come back home and discover that Jenna Kenyon was getting married - to the wrong man! But he knew that Jenna was determined to prove him wrong, despite the passion still smouldering between them.
Connor decided that all was fair in love and war. Only five days remained before Jenna became Saturday's bride, but that was more than long enough for him to persuade her to change her mind. . .




Oh - and these are not the only reprints! Look out for the Surrender to The Sheikh collection coming in December - with At The Sheikh's Command, Desert Affair and Destined for the Desert King (which of course is the second part of the Rhastaan Royals duo - the first being A Question of Honour.)

   I don't have a cover for this collection yet but I'll share as soon as I do. This a real collection for everyone who loves a sheikh story

Cats and Courses and Kindles

It's been  a busy week.  (When is it anything else?)

There was Ruby's trip to the vet - for the routine  spaying operation.  Not before time! She was already

yelling 'I want a man!'  and importuning poor Charlie who  kept looking at me with an expression of  ' Mum, what does she want?  I don;'t understand ' on  his face!   He's so relieved she's settled down again.  And so are we. The thought that something  so small,  not yet out of kitten-hood herself could end up pregnant  and adding to the number of strays wandering about, just as she was  is just  horrible.

 She certainly hasn't had any problems with the op. She's still bounding round the house at a fast rate, eating anything put in front of her and pouncing on my toes whenever she can - her claws  and teeth are like needles.

Meanwhile, I've been preparing for  the  Advanced Writing Romance  course I'm running at Fishguard  at the end of the month. I can't wait. It's been so long since I saw the sea. And I know I'm going to to enjoy working with the   great group I have in the class. It's always so much fun. It's great  to talk about writing  with people who understand  this need to create, and it's fantastic to see how some of the students are growing and developing as writers as a result.

And, of course, we will have past student,  Rachael Thomas's success to toast this time as she's just had her very first Modern Romance/Harlequin Presents accepted.  There might be a bit of champagne involved.

And talking of courses - in an update to my website (Special thanks to my wonderful web designer Heather)  I've added all the courses coking up this year (so far) on the Events page.  There are now some basic Writing Romance courses as well as the annual Advanced Writing Romance course at Fishguard.  So if you're interested in joining us - why not take a look?

The first of these courses - at Weetwood Hall in Leeds is already selling out.  It's just about full but we might manage to squeeze another  couple of people in.  So  if you want to grab a place, do make inquiries sooner rather than later.  And if you've been on  a basic course and want to take things further -   it's not too early now to make an inquiry about Fishguard  2015!  These places always book fast  - so get your  name in now.
up

And talking about 2015, I'm discussing  the courses that might be on offer next year  now - look out for the details of those coming soon.  Details will be on my events page as soon as I know them - and at Writers' Holiday's web site or the one for Relax and Write Writing Weekends.   The links to these are also on my

Links page.

Talking of teaching writing - I have some big news coming up about the 12 Point Guide To Writing Romance. Not  quite ready to talk about it yet - but hopefully all will be revealed in March. So watch this space.

And talking about re-issues of older books -  at the end of last month, M&B  reissued ebook versions of some of my older titles -
Wife For A Day
The Married Mistress
Desert Affair
and Constantine's Revenge

So if  you missed these the first time round, or  you're looking for missing  books to add to your collection - check out the Mills & Boon site or Amazon for these 'Vintage ' titles.

Advent Calendar Giveaway Day 2

The winner of yesterday's copy of Bound By Blackmail is

Rachael

Rachael, I have your address anyway, so I'll get your book in the post just as soon as I can manage to find a sledge and a team of huskies to take me to the Post Office! It may be a couple of days.

Book news

I just learned that in the new batch of ebooks that Harlequin are reissuing from authors' backlists, my 2003 title Desert Affair has been reissued as an ebook . Details can be found here

This book is surprisingly apposite at the moment as it starts with my hero and heroine meeting at an airport and then being un able to fly because of a major snowstormso ending up stranded in London for 3 days. (So why is it called Desert Affair? Don't ask!) I loved writing this story and creating the 20 'sensual stages of a super-sexy affair' to base the three days around.

Romantic Times called it 'and one of the most romantic and sensual premises around.'

Three days and nights in the arms of a sheikh!

Stranded with a devastatingly handsome stranger, Lydia Ashton decides to throw caution to the wind and spend a luxurious and passionate three days and nights in his arms. Soon she discovers that her charming stranger is the proud son of a sheikh, heir to the throne of Kuimar, and used to getting exactly what he wants. And he wants Lydia. Amir fulfills her every desire, and their passion seems to know no bounds. Lydia knows she has broken the rules by falling in love. Too late, she discovers why....

Desert Affair is also the book that had my worst ever UK cover - affectionately known as The Blob

So to celebrate the reissue of this, my first ever sheikh story, today's Advent Calendar giveaway is my 2006 title At The Sheikh's Command

Bought...
Abbie Cavanaugh's young brother is in jail. Abbie can obtain his freedom - but only if she marries the Sheikh of Barakhara.
And bedded...
The explosive passion between Prince Malik and Abbie could turn a marriage of convenience into one of Eastern promise.
By The Sheikh!
But neither Abbie nor Malik knows the other's real identity. Can their relationship survive once the truth is revealed?

And today's question - answers in the comments to be in with a chance of winning - well, there's two - answer whichever takes your interest - or both!

Do you enjoy stories with Sheikhs as heroes - or would you rather give them a miss?

Have you been snowed in - or are you snowed in right now? How did you/are you coping?

Sid will pick the winner tomorrow . He says he's going nowhere in this white stuff.

My First Kate Walker - Kate Hardy

Today's fellow author who is talking about the first time she read one of my books is the prolific and award winning Kate Hardy

Sorry - no - amend that - she's actually talking about the first time she met Kate Walker! And her favourite five books.

Actually, Kate wrote this before Christmas as you can see but as life has been pretty hectic I've only just got round to posting it.

Kate's latest title in Harlequin Presents is her Modern Heat title Temporary Boss, Permanent Mistress which has a setting that is so appropriate to the UK's current freezing and snowy weather.

Here's what Kate has to say:

Being a Bear of Very Little Brain at the moment (Christmas + snow + children home for two weeks + deadline = distracted author), I can’t honestly remember my first Kate Walker book because I’ve read her books for so very many years… but I *do* remember the first time I met Kate herself. So I’m going to cheat and tell that story instead (if Kate doesn’t mind!).

It was at a Mills & Boon authors’ lunch, a couple of months before my very first M&B was published, back in September 2002. I was already a bit starstruck when I saw the table plan and realised that the people sitting near me were people whose books I’d known and loved. When it came to dessert and everyone moved round, I think I might’ve had that ‘wet-behind-the-ears author, in rabbit-in-headlights mode’ look about me. But then this really nice woman came to sit next to me, chatted to me and put me completely at my ease… and then, after pudding and just before I took a sip of coffee, she said, ‘I forgot to introduce myself. I’m also Kate, by the way – Kate Walker.’

O. M. G.

Someone whose books I’d read for years. A Big Name Author. And she made time to talk to a complete and utter nobody at her first authors’ lunch.

Just over seven years later, I still remember that kindness. And over those seven years I’ve celebrated her 50th book with her, and I’m so pleased now to celebrate her 25th year in a glittering career. Congratulations, Kate.

My top five Kate Walker books:

The Spaniard’s Inconvenient Wife (that wedding dress…)
Desert Affair (the dining table *almost* made this #1, but the wedding dress did it for me)

The Twelve-Month Mistress

The Hostage Bride

The Sicilian’s Red-Hot Revenge

If you want to know what Kate's talking about when she mentions the weddingg dress for The Spaniard's Inconvenient Wife (the cover does give a clue) and the dining table in Desert Affair, you'll have to read the books! The Spaniard's Inconvenient Wife is a 2005 book (but it's also available in the Alcolar Family Collection ebook bundle) and Desert Affair was published in 2003.

You can find out more about Kate H and her books - both Modern Heat and Medical - on her web site or read her blog