40 for 40 - Lesley Horton

Now today's guest is a very special one - and that's because she's sharing  her (and her husband's ) truly special day with me - and with you.

I'm celebrating my Ruby Wedding but Lesley and Brian are a truly golden couple as they celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. I'm cheering and celebrating as I say this  - I'm so happy for such a lovely couple.

I just spent a wonderful week with Lesley at Caerleon Writers' Holiday where she was teaching the Novel Writing course. We had a lot of fun together, talking about writing, about life - and highlighter pens (wonderful for editing your manuscript!).

From Lesley to Kate

You can imagine how grateful I am to Kate for giving me this particular slot because by chance today is my Golden Wedding anniversary. Brian and I were married on this very date in 1963.  In fact it turned out to be quite an auspicious one since it was the day of what is now known as The Great Train Robbery. Without going into detail, the men stopped the Royal Mail train on its way to London and stole £2.1 million. It was, and still is, considered one of the most infamous robberies of all time and no doubt this year we will have to share our fiftieth anniversary with that of the fifteen who carried out the raid. Is it any wonder I write crime novels?

My husband, Brian, and I met on holiday – at least he was on holiday and I was a student teacher spending my vacation working as one of the sports hostesses at the holiday camp in north Wales. The first night he asked me to dance and when the week was over, we kept in touch. He is originally from the Midlands and I was at college in Bristol and we were able to see each other most weekends. Of course everyone said it wouldn’t last – holiday romances never do – but we became engaged in 1960

and were married in a village chapel about a hundred yards from where I lived. I could have walked to my wedding, but I was determined to arrive by car, so I asked the driver to take the scenic route – past the chapel, up the hill, turn at the top and back down.  It was fun as to see the faces of the bridesmaids waiting outside the gates when we didn’t stop and the relief when we reappeared. They must have thought I was leaving my fiancé standing at the altar. Yet here we are fifty years, three children, six grandchildren, one great grandchild and three cats later celebrating our golden wedding.

We have more in common with Kate and Steve than an anniversary and our love of writing.  They met at the University of Aberystwyth; my daughter was a student there for several years while we spent much of our time hunting for rogue change behind the cushions of the settee while she gained her first degree, her Master’s and her Ph.D.  Of course we also share our love of cats. Where would be without our cats, Kate and Steve? They keep us sane – or do they?  I sometimes wonder. They know the house is theirs, that we are there only to serve them and without a doubt they keep us poo

r when they visit the vets. But we wouldn’t be without them would we?  

What more can I say Kate and Steve, except that I am so pleased to be part of ruby wedding celebrations and that Brian and I are richer for having met you. We love you both.


Lesley's question - with her memories of her wedding day in mind  - is this -
Is there some special event - historical - dramatic - funny - that was in the news in the year you were married?  Share you memories with her.

Lesley will give away a copy of Twisted Tracks to one lucky commenter.
Once again Lesley - Many Congratulations on this very special day to you and Brian.

Life!

Hmmm - who was it - Kaelee's uncle who used to end his paragraphs in letters with Life!!
I think I'm going to have to adopt that habit.
LIFE!

I was away for a couple of days - it wasn't supposed to take so long and I'd hoped to be back and continuing witht the Advent Calendar before now  but - Life!

OK, life and freezing fog and a journey home that took much longer than we expected.  We had a great time though - a wonderful visit to the Airedale Writers' Circle and their Christmas Party  - thank you to everyone who made us so welcome . And specially to  our dear friend  and crime writer Lesley Horton  who with her husband gave us such lovely hospitality  - Oh, and the cats who welcomed us to and helped to make up for the fact that we didn't have Flora and Charlie to cuddle.

So - back to this calendar.
First of all  - I have to name the winners from the last giveaway - I has said 3 winners, but as I've missed a couple of days again and  as I love this chance to give something to two people - the winners of the books and those who  are the givers who get to see them smile - I'm going to send copiues to all the people who nominated their friends or family -
So -
Julie M
Joye
Manisha
Yadkny
Eli
Desere
SiNn

Please email me with an address to send the book too - also please tell me the name of the person I should sign it for. Some of you have named  your winner, but others have just said 'my mum' or 'my friend'. The point of this gift is that it is for  the other person and I want to sign it for them.

I only have 3 copies of the book I mentioned - One Night in Madrid - but I do have some other trilogies - Mistress Material where my book is The Married Mistress and Mistresses Shackled with Rubies where my title is Her Secret Bridegroom. So your chosen winner will received one of other of these.

Other winners from past posts  - the delay in getting hjome has meant a delay in getting prizes in the post but I will be doing that just as soon as  I can.

And I'll put up a new Advent Calendar post just as soon as I can.

Australian Romance Readers

It's been difficult to get to blogging this week - too much going on. Some of it was fun - we had a visit from the lovely Lesley Horton  who writes gritty crime novels and was running a special Saturday School workshop  for the writing course my husband teaches at Hull University. 

Other stuff has  not come under the heading 'fun' so I've been rather preoccupied.

But today I have a guestblog over at the Australian Romance Readers' Association blog - all  about guilty pleasures (though I'm actually not sure at all why anyone should feel guilty about enjoying something that doesn't harm anyone else.) Anyway, come and join us if you want.

There is a copy of The Devil and Miss Jones to giveaway - which might be the only way an Australian reader can get  the single copy as the book is released in the Mothers' Day Pack in Australia.

Kate's Corner Day

I had a wonderful time at the Airedale Writers' Circle .

If any of them have tracked me down here, after the talk on Tuesdday - I would just like to say thank you for the wonderful welcome and the great evening - lots of fun and interesting questions - I hope you enjoyed it too.

Special thanks too to crime writer lovely Lesley Horton for her warm hospitality to the Babe Magnet and myself when she put us up overnight. I'm looking forward to returning the favour when she comes to stay on Friday as she's teaching on the Magnet's Crime Writing Course at Hull university.

I love talking with writers - it's always so stimulating and inspiring.

And that's what I'm blogging about today - over at the Write Romance BlogWe where as it's the 15th of the month, it's my Kate's Corner day - and if you're interested in maybe getting a personal critique of a partial manuscript from me as a way to help charity, there's some news about that over there too.

See you there!

Caerleon 25

Everyone wants to know about how I spent last week in Caerleon.

What can I say except that it was was wonderful - and WET. Last Wednesday (how has it got to be a week since then??) was definitely time to start thinking about building an ark. The rain came down in torrents and even the college buildings were starting to flood! But the warmth of the atmosphere made up for everything as it always does.

Caerleon is always wonderful but this time it was extra special. Because this time lovely Anne and Gerry Hobbs, the fabulous couple who started Writers' Holiday and who run it with no extra funding, providing the warmest of welcome to everyone who joins them, were celebrating their 25th year of these holidays. So there was an extra special buzz about the event this year.

There was also a little extra work for me and my dear friend Kathy who I have known ever since we met at my very first ever Writers' Holiday years ago. (To be honest I've forgotten quite how many) We were organising a special presentation for Anne and Gerry to mark this special occasion - a memory book with messages and cards and photos from everyone at the event this year and from past speakers, attendees and other friends. This took some doing as I had to sneak into all the classes and announce what we were doing and then make sure the book was available for everyone who wanted to sign. Then Wednesday was spent sticking cards, photo9s and written messages in as well.

So it was probably just as well that it was raining then as we never saw very much of the day other than all the time spent on the book.

I loved meeting up with old friends and of course making new ones . Back this year to run courses were Marina Oliver, Jane Jackson and Lesley Horton and I had a great time catching up with them. As well as the fourteen courses running through the week there were some great Main Lectures from wonderful authors like Katie Fforde (current chair of the Romantic Novelists' Association) , Simon Whaley, Jane Wenham-Jones and Zoe Sharp, Lucy Mangan and agent Teresa Chris. Non-writing partners of attendees could also do a course on painting and drawing with Andrew Earney who you might remember is also at Fishguard.

Unfortunately my camera died on me while I was at Caerleon this year so I haven't been able to download any new photos so I'm having to post a couple from previous years including Zoe Sharp (above) , the bookroom at Caerleon with Jane W-J in the green dress. And of course the lovely Anne Hobbs who together with husband Gerry makes everything run smoothly and that everyone has the best time possible.

And now that the secret is out I can reveal that my next book - Kept For Her Baby - which will be in the shops in the first week of September has this special dedication:

For Anne and Gerry, to celebrate this very special Caerleon Writers' Holiday.

And now you all know why.

if you want to see the presentation of the special book and get a sense of the warm and friendly atmosphere of Caerleon, there is a short video on the Writers' Holiday website. (Special thanks to Simon Whaley who videoed it on his phone and to Anita Loughrey who put it up on the site.

While you're there why not take a look at the courses available for next year (25th July - 3oth 2010) - and yes, by popular demand, I'll be back teaching Writing Romantic Fiction. And the Babe Magnet will be running a course on Writing True Crime so once again you'll get two for the price of one - Crime and Passion at Caerleon.

I know it's a long time away, but lots of people were already booking for next year before they left this year and if that's not a recommendation I don't know what is. If you can't make Caerleon in the summer, then there's always the Fishguard Writing Weekend 19th - 21st February. Maybe I'll see you at one of them.

I'll end this post with a wave to anyone reading it who was at Caerleon this year - specially everyone who was on my course. You were a fantastic group and I had a lot of fun working with you. I hope you learned lots and if you get abny good news about your own writing please let me know.

And I'm already looking forward to next year!

Back . . .

I'm back . . . just!

The journey was pretty horrendous - crawling queues that meant we took hours longer to get home. But we're here now - and I need a stiff tea and a series of head butts and purrs from Sid before I feel human again.

I did have an internet connection at Fishguard - but no time to use it. I was too busy teaching or eating great food or having fun and talking, talking talking . . .

It was wonderful to see Writers' Holiday organisers lovely Anne And Gerry Hobbs again, to meet up with my great co-tutor Lesley Horton who was teaching the Crime Fiction course - and of course my students. A small but enthusiastic group who were so keen to learn and asked so many questions I could barely keep up with them. A group like that makes it fun as well as work - so, Rachael, Frances, Brenda, Kate and Nigel - thank you all for making it easy for me.

I'll be back to chat as soon as I can but if you head over to The Pink Heart Society blog today, you'll find that in my role as a Pink Heart Columnist I'm talking about one of my favourite sources of inspiration and the man behind a couple of my own personal favourite heroes in Male on Monday.