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.)

12 Days of Christmas . . . .well, it was meant to be!!

I'm running late for  Christmas - a nasty fall and a badly sprained back has seen to that and meant that everything is  running behind right now.  Er . . .no, not really - I really mean that everything is crawling behind  s-l-o-w-ly and I'm buried under lists of Things To Do, parcels to wrap, presents to post . . .

Normally I run a sort of Advent Calendar countdown on my blog but that's not going to be possible this year  - so I'm doing a sort of   condensed 12 Days of Christmas version - crammed into  6 days! With 2 gifts each day.

And as today is the 12 th December,  you'll know that the 12th is the day I post my regular blog over on Tote Bags N Blogs -  so that's where I'm posting the news about the start of this  (mini!) celebration.

So why don't you join me over on Tote Bags N Blogs today  - and then from tomorrow on this blog here  or on my Facebook author page   and you might be able to win yourself an extra little Christmas gift - or maybe one for a friend or family member who could do with  something to brighten their day  at the moment . (I love sending giveaway books that are a surprise and come with love and thoughts

 from one of my readers.)

Charlie the Maine Coon is busy investigating  his own purrsonal Advent Calendar so that he can join in this mini-celebration and help me give away some Christmas cheer to readers.

So why not join in and give him something to do??

Catching Up

I made  a mistake this week - I decided to tidy up and sort out my office . . . . That will leave me ready to focus totally on the book I'm writing - once I've organised my teaching notes (and  prepared the hand-outs for the Relax and Write course on  Before You Submit Your Novel - The Practicalities  at Weetwood Hall next weekend. )  But organising my teaching notes led to organising every  last file of hand-outs, course notes, writing exercises . . .

OK, it was a great excuse to buy some new stationary and lovely coloured files   . . . but it still took up too much time and - well, do you know that time when things get worse before they get better? That's the way things look this morning! The Babe Magnet is also preparing for a course on Writing  About Your Life - so he has hand-outs to organise as well.

But there's one thing about being busy in a practical sense - it leaves my mind free to think and plan the new story (working title currently  The Wrong Bride ) so I'm also scribbling down notes and making plans as I put papers in  files and plan work on synopsis, first chapters, opening lines  . .etc for the 24th- 26th.  And the story is growing as a result.

Other book news -  I was looking on Amazon  last week and discovered this cover. It's for a 3 in 1 By Request collection of past titles reprinted in one volume. This one - Secret Love-Child  - is coming out at the end of October. The title of mine that's in it is Kept For Her Baby.  Not exactly a 'secret love-child' story.  But definitely a novel in which the love of a baby is very important!
The other two novels in this volume are by Catherine Spencer and Tina Duncan

I also spotted another 3 in 1 volume coming out in January: His Revenge Seduction -   this time my novel The Konstantos Marriage Demand (the book that was awarded Best Presents Extra by Romantic Times in 2010) is I  the collection with books by Melanie Milburne  and Elizabeth Power.  I don't have a cover to share with you yet  -0 but I'll post it when I see it.

If you haven't already noticed, there is now a brand new Facebook page for all the Harlequin  Presents Authors. Lots of news,messages, and interest for anyone who loves reading Harlequin  Presents (Mills and  Boon Modern)

. Why not come along and 'like'  it - and join in all the fun.

Publication day

It's publication day for A Question of Honour - or  A Question of Honor depending on where you live - you take your pick!

Well, it's the official publication date - but I'm not really sure whether anyone sticks to the official date any more!  For a start  this book has been on sale on the Mills & Boon  website for the past month - and it's been at #1 on the bestseller list there for over a week.  But them M&B have the books out a month early anyway.

Amazon etc deliver the book from the 20th May (USA ) of 1st June (UK)  but I've seen physical copies of the book  one sale in UK shops for almost a week now - including special 2 in 1 editions in Tesco/Asda  where A Question of Honour is sold together with   Kim Lawrence's The Heartbreaker Prince.   Unfortunately this means it doesn't have the grea

t cover that's on the UK edition -  I really like this one.

There are some great reviews coming out for  A Question of Honour -  you can see some of them on the Mills & Boon site - and there are another selection  here - at Romance Book Haven's Reviews section

But on checking out Amazon to find out  A Question of Honour, I also found some good news of another publication date -  an edition I didn't know anything about. So I'm celeb rating that too. Remember the English Manga edition of The Return of The Stranger  - the 'Harlequin Comics version?  Well there's now another of my books brought out in this unique format.

This is the English manga version of The Hostage Bride.  I mentioned this some time back  when I talked about the Japanese version - now there's this really great version in English as well.

So there's a lot to celebrate - Oh and I should have said that I now  have a brand new Author Page over on Facebook - so if you're on Facebook, please come along and join me there - maybe 'like' the page. That's where I'll be posting the news and  daily events if I don;t get time to blog about everything.

You can find my Facebook page here. 

And  talking of up to date news -  when I opened this page, I talk about celebrating with a book giveaway so  I'm going to do just that - and seeing as I have  a lot to celebrate, let's make it a great giveaway.

So - I have 10  signed books to give away

4 copies of A Question of Honour to mark its publication day - and  6 books from my backlist.
To be in with a chance to win, all you have to do is to send me an email with A Question of Honour/Facebook in the subject line, and I'll get Charlie on to the task of picking 10 winners.

(For email see the link below - or Kate (AT) kate-walker (DOT) com)

 If you already have A Question of Honour do let me know and I'll put you in the draw for the backlist books.

This giveaway is only for today to mark the publication of A Question of Honour  - but I'll keep the entries open for 24 hours (from now - 10 am UK time - to 10 am UK time tomorrow) so that everyone has a chance to read this and find out how to enter.

But you only have 24 hours
So - ready  - steady - Go!

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!