Are you a Kate Walker collector? I know some of you are trying to collect up all my titles written over the years - so how are you doing?

How many books do you have in your Kate Walker collections right now? What books are you missing - which ones are you hunting for?

Do you have special titles that you just  can't  find - or a book that you read years ago and would love to know  which one it was - and maybe have a chance to find  it again?

For the penultimate Advent calendar give away I've hunted out some of the older titles in my book  boxes.

 A couple of days ago, I  gave away an elderly copy of  Game of Hazard   to one collector  but I know there are a few more of you out there  - so  if you let me know what special title you are hunting for, I might just have it.

I know I have  some from very early on in my publishing career -  1986 - 1991  - 1994  (one was never published in America!)

And some more recent but not easy to find . . .  a couple of titles from 2006  and there might be more, I need to check through the boxes!

Anyway  - there are some of these golden oldies to give away - if you're looking for them.

So you know what to do - post a message in the comments, telling me what books you're hunting for and  why - or the past books you'd most love to read  - and I'll see what I can do.

If you want some inspiration - or a reminder of what titles are in my past! - check out my Backlist Titles page here and you'll see everything listed.

Let me know what is the oldest Kate Walker title you already own

And let me know Vintage Kate Walker's you'd most like to find.

Advent Calendar Day 13

First of all - when I announced some winners, I think I forgot  one - the winner of  The Devil and Miss  Jones was Julie M  so I need your postal address Julie.

Today's prize - and today's question  then -  today's prize is one of those golden oldies - one for the collectors  out there!

I actually have a copy of only my second book published - and this one dates right back from  1986! It's practically antique.

Game of Hazard was only my second novel  - and it was the first to go into paperback. The first to go to America. The sharp-eyed amongst you will  note that  it is also published as a Harlequin Romance!  So this is a real historical document and if you are trying to collect up all my titles - as I know some of you are - this is a great chance to win one.

You can't trust me," Nick said softly.
The words rang in Erin's head. Why was she acting like a ministering angel to this man who had broken into her home, slept in her bed - all without any explanation?
Until the storm that kept them isolated and snowbound ceased, there was nothing she could do about the intimacy of their situation.

It was dangerous. She should be afraid. Yet Nick had become so much a part of her life that she couldn't imagine how it had felt not to know him . . .

Obvioously because this is an old book that I've found, it's not in immaculate condition - but it is in very good condition.

And the question ?  Hmmm - well as I'm thinking about older things - what is the oldest Christmas Decoration you have?
Is it for the tree? 
Or a table centrepiece?
Or something you put on your mantlepiece?

I have a little felt Angel  and a Father Christmas that I made myself years ago, when my son was only 3  - so these are ones that we have always had on the tree since then. I also made them together with my Mother in law, who sadly is no longer with us. This will be only our second Christmas without her, so putting these little figures on the tree will be a chance to remember her.

Do you have a special decoration that reminds you of someone in your life?

You might have noticed that today we have  a different picker of the winner - and that is Flora. She is the older of our two cats, so she is appropriate for this prize!  (and she's sitting in front of the screen right now, pointing out that it shgouldn't just be Charlie who gets all the treats and chances to pick!)

Tote Bags and Blogs

Today is the first Sunday of February and that means that it's the day for my regular blogging spot over on Tote Bags 'N' Blogs   so that's where you'll find me today.

Here in the UK it's freezing cold and there's deep snowfall outside, forcing  me to keep indoors.  Which is really very appropriate weather to mark the special anniversary of an important book in my career - Game of Hazard.

Want to know more? Well that's what I'm blogging about. 

See you there!

Let me tell you a story

Tomorrow is a big day for aspiring romance writers. It's the day when the next stage of the New Voices contest is announced. When the ten writers whose work was selected to go into the second stage and write another chapter of their story learn which four of them will now be asked for the final entry - to write the pivotal moment between their characters.

Four entries out of 825 - it's a very small proportion of the oringinal entries who will now be seens as winners of this stage. But does that make the other 821 entrants 'losers' - not in my book. 825 people put their words and their dreams on- line and on the line. And while they all did it with varying degrees of success in editorial assessment terms - they also all succeeded in doing what writers do - they wrote.

There has been a variety of responses to the announcement of the results - but one that has saddened me by prevailing is the wash of disapointment - natural disapointment - that has tended in some cases to slide over the line into negativity. If this chapter didn't succeed as it is, then it's no good. And if it's no good then I'm no good as a writer seems to be the assumption. Or - I can't see what was wrong with my chapter - everyone on the web site loved it - they must be 'moving the goalposts' or 'changing the rules'. Neither of which is true. But it can feel that way. I know - I've been there.

As you know I'm celebrating 25 years of being published. The Chalk Line was published in December 1984 . . . but my next book wasn't out until 1986. The reason for the gap? You can call it second book blues, but the truth is that I didn't get another book right until then. I can excuse myself by saying that my mother was dying or that I was ill myself but the fact remains that the two books I wrote after The Chalk Line just did not work. Particularly not the one between The Chalk Line and Game of Hazard, which was the book I managed to revise to publication standard.

The one in the middle was called Chase The Dawn. And as I write this I have in front of me the revsion letters that my then editor sent me about this book - five different letters ! After each one I tried top do the revisions - and just couldn't get them right. The letters are also spread over four years because I ended up doing the sensible thing - and looking back - the best thing - and put the book away for about 18 months so that then I could look at it much ore clearly when I brought it out.

What was so wrong with the book? With the benefit of hindsight, I can now honestly say not that much. Or rather, not that many things but the fact that I hadn't done one basic thing that I now hear myself advising would-be authors to do all the time.

Keep it simple. Dig deep.

Or to quote one of the revision letters - probably the first - I didn't 'delve deeply enough into your central characters' motives and personalities to integrate their actions into the devlopment of the relationship.' But honestly, remembering back, I really thought I had done that. I remember staring at the revisions letters wondering just what it all meant. How could they say this? I was a failure - a one book wonder who would never be published again.

Today, looking at those letters, I see where so much of my teaching and commenting, the sort of things I put in the 12 Point Guide come from. And the important thing is that although those letters were written back in the 1980, by an editor who hasn't worked for M&B for - what - 20 years? - they show that the things editors have been looking for have always been the same.

Delve deeply into your characters' motives and personalities

Go all out for emotional identification with your heroine. If you live inside her head then your reader will too. (These days it would be identification with both hero and heroine - there wasn't scope for dual point of view then)

Make the reader understand that what she(they) thought and did were her (their) only possible reactions at the time

Get inside your characters' skin so that the developing relationship is no longer swamped by the convolutions of the plot.

It all seems so obvious to me now - but then I was too close to my book to see what they meant.

And the end of this story?

If you look on my backlist page, you'll see it there -

Chase the Dawn 1988

It took me four years but I got there.

And what has always intrigued me is that while I ended up feeling quite sick at the sight of that manuscript, and eventually that book, Chase the Dawn is one of the books I have written that I have had most personal mail about, that so many people have said is one of their favourites. Readers say 'Chase the Dawn - oh, I loved that book.' It might be 20 years old but people remember it.

And no one has ever said anything about being able to see all the blood sweat and tears (lots of them!) that went into that book.

So what am I saying? I'm saying that I and every author I know has been through the rejection of 'this doesn't work'. I know how it feels to think I'll never be a writer - I just can't get this. And I know how it feels to have your precious work sent back to you and to feel you have to start all over again.

I used to have a routine when I got rejections/rewrites/revisions. I used to go into the garage and scream, stamp my feet - and fling the rejected manuscript at the wall. Then when I'd calmed down, I'd pick it all up, put it back in order - and I'd reread the rejection letter to see what I could do about it. It was that 'what can I do about it' that got me into being a writer.

I learned so much from those rejections. And from reading and studying the books that did make it. There weren't contests then but I wish there had been - not from the winning point of view but from the value of the lessons in writing romance that the chosen chapters and the editors' comments on them can reveal if you just take note.

What is it they say - that success is picking yourself up one more time than you are knocked down. If you think you're a 'loser' then you will probably stay down - but if you look at what you can learn from all this and work with it, I'll be willing to bet that there will be way more than the ten winners on one list - or the 45 on the 'see again' list.

But the only person who can make that happen is you.

Foreign Editions

I had a bundle of foreign editions today. It's always an interesting discovery to find out just which book has been translated into which language recently. This delivery had a real surprise in it.

There was a There was an Italian translation of NoBack. couple of German translations - A Sicilian Husband and Kept For Her Baby. There was an Italian translation of No Holding Back, but the most intriguing - and the oldest book to be reprinted was the Korean edition of Game of Hazard.

Game of Hazard is a book I'm really fond of. It was the first ever of my books to go into paperback and the first ever to go to America. So it's rather special to me. I also remember the then Editorial Director of Mills & Boon the late Jacqui Bianchi - who was also an author in her own right under the name of Teresa Denys - told me that when she read it she felt that I had really discovered my real author's voice.

But the first edition of this book - in the UK - was published way back in 1986! So it was amazing to see it coming back in a new edition 24 years later.

The other interesting thing about this was the cover. Above is the original M&B cover of Game of Hazard. And here is the Korean edition. Unusual isn't it? I'm not at all sure what all that bits and peices of clocks or watches have to do with what is actually an amnesia story - but it's still great to see one of my oldest titles being revived in this way.

Incidentally, for some reason I was sent 6 extra copies of No Holding Back - Irresistible Attrazione - so I have these going spare. So if anyone reading this is in Italy and would like a copy - the original translation only came out in a multi pack - just email me your address (see the link at the bottom of this page ) and you can have a copy as a gift.

Celebrating 25 years with Anne McAllister Part 2

As you know from my last post, Anne McAllister and I are both celebrating the 25th anniversary of our first publication, me with The Chalk Line in December 1984 and Anne with Starstruck in February 1985.

Today Anne has written a special post talking about her favourite Kate Walker books - so over to Anne:

My first Kate Walker was Kate's first Kate Walker. She was published around the same time I was in UK and in, as I recall, exactly the same month my first book came out, too, in the US. So I was there "in the beginning" as it were.

I loved Kate's intensity right from the start. That hasn't changed over the past 25 years. Every time I pick up a Kate Walker book, I know I'm in for an intense experience. She catches her characters at the height of their emotions -- and often at the depths of their despair. She has an unerring instinct at finding that emotional pulse and makes us believe we are right there, witnessing her characters' highs and lows as they grapple with emotions that, very often, they are having a very hard time coming to terms with.

Do they want love? Don't they? What if their heart is at odds with their mind? What if their gut tells them one thing and their intellect says something else? What if their experience in the past leads them down one path and at the same time they can't stop believing?

Every Kate Walker is an emotional roller coaster. Every Kate Walker is exhausting and exhilarating and always always always worth the trip.

Which Kate Walker books are my favorites? Er, well, how do I choose? And because I'm so bad with titles, how can I possibly remember their names? I remember the heroes.

There's "the English guy" -- I liked him a lot. And "the Welsh guy" -- I think he was Rhys. Yeah, definitely a good one. There was Constantine -- was he the tennis pro? If so, I loved him. No, I guess he wasn't. Quick check with book shelf. Tennis pro was Connor. Yep, loved him too. And the guy who found uses for the dining room table that had nothing to do with meals. And most recently, Nikos. Nikos is a quintessential Kate Walker hero -- a man of deep pain, great emotion, grand passion and, always, a man of honor, sometimes even in spite of what he tells himself he wants.

Kate Walker brings a powerful voice and deep honest emotion to every book she writes. The past 25 years have only made her better. I'm looking forward to the next 25. Congratulations, Kate, on your 25th, on all your wonderful books. Thank you for them, and even more for the friendship that you have brought into my life.

note from Kate -

Rhys was in Their Secret Baby (2004)
Constantine was in Constantine's Revenge (2000)

Connor the tennis pro was in Saturday's Bride(1999)
The guy who used the dining table for things that had nothing to do with meals was Amir in Desert Affair (2002/3)

And of course Nikos is Nikos Konstantos in The Konstantos Marriage Demand which is out right now.

And the English guy?? Well, there were several of them and Anne has always had a fondness for my English heroes - but thinking about the first book of mine she was likely to have read then this was quite possibly Nick Hazard from Game of Hazard who was the 'English guy' who first appeared in America - in 1986 - The Chalk Line didn't make it over there for another 6 years!

Anne McAllister's The Virgin's Proposition will be published in Mills & Boon Modern on May 21st 2010. The USA publication date of this book is yet to be confirmed. No cover is yet available for this title, but there is also the We Write Romance selection of Presents titles in which both Anne and I appear - me with The Twelve Month Mistress and Anne with Lessons from A Latin Lover.

Don't forget that Anne is giving away a book a day to celebrate her 25th - and you can catch up with all the details of that and what else is happening on her web site or her blog