Margaret McDonagh

It was  truly saddened to learn  last week that Medical author Margaret McDonagh had passed away. She was only 51 which is far to young to die. And she was such a lovely, lively minded person, with a real talent for writing - and a special talent for friendship - so she will be greatly missed. I know I will miss her lively and interesting emails, her special cards,  and our shared interest in caring for animals .

I first got to know Mags  in 2006 when I was  running that years Christmas Stocking contest and she had just had her very first Medical - The Italian Doctor's Bride - published. I was delighted when she agreed to let me include 2 copies of this book in the two prize stockings and we kept in touch ever since.  She was kind enough to give my 12 Point Guide To Writing Romance credit for some of the  success she had when she tried writing for Mills & Boon again after giving up once.

She also took part in my Great Big Blog partty for the publication of my 50th book  in 2007 and her post then  is so very typical of Mags herself and her personality.  I remember how we shared  a special interest in sponsoring a guide dog for the blind - and laughed   when my sponsored puppy  failed his 'exams'  and her passed with flying colours.

Mags was working on her 19th Medical Romance when she died and sadly that book will now not be finished.   Her latest  - her 18th - Brought Together By Baby  - is on the shelves this  month, and it's so sad that this will be her last one ever.

Rest in peace  Mags - you'll be missed.

12 Point Guide launch party

Let's get this party started properly - life is still chaotic but I have found time to write a blog before I go under again.

And - memo to self - when you are looking for the questions for the Writer's Q&A, it does help to look in the nice little folder you've set up with 'Writers' Q&A' on it! I was too efficient, you see - I put all the questions in there and forgot I'd don it.

So - Lorraine, I haven't lost your question at all! And I will be answering it just as soon as I can. Hopefully today.

But first I promised a party so let's have some guests . . . I've uncorked the champagne, put out the plates of nibbles so I hope some friends will turn up.

Oh and one bit of good news that I can tell you - The second edition - 12PGTRW2 - is going to be officially launched with a special party at the London Book Fair. The London Book Fair is the global publishing community's leading spring forum for booksellers, publishers, librarians and book production services worldwide. It's a special 3 day event that's held at Earls Court London on 14-16th April. The launch party for 12PGTWR2 is on Tuesday so the Magnet and I are heading down there next week to join in all the fun.

From what I hear, London Book Fair is huge with hundreds and hundreds of publisher all under one roof - so I'll report back and hopefully have photos next week.

Ahh - I see some guest arriving. As I've mentioned, all of the guests who will be at this lanch party are wonderful friends of mine - all, successful, published authhors in a variety of different lines and I've invited them along as a small thank you for the fact that they contributed to the From The Writers' Desks section which is the main thing that makes the new edition different - and expanded - from the first. Some of them will be bringing gifts in the shape of prizes - so watch out for those and get your entries in!

And the first guest through the door is the lovely Liz Fielding who has managed to leave her own special celebrations for the 50th title to come and join the party

Liz says:

Many congratulations to Kate on the 2nd edition of the wonderful 12 Point Guide for Writing Romance. I get a lot of letters from new writers looking for help and I always, but always direct them to this fabulous book. Thank goodness it's back in print again!

Thank you Liz - and congratulations again on your 50th. Liz's 'golden' book is The Bride's Baby
which is out right now in both UK and USA - treat yourself to a copy. I loved it!.

Liz's Prize:
A signed copy of The Bride's Baby, one of my mini sewing kits and a book of Mills & Boon money off vouchers

Liz's question:
Which Liz Fielding title was shortlisted for the Romance Prize in 2008?
You'll find the answer here on Liz's web site

Email your answer to me please

Details of how to enter all contests at the bottom of the post

Another special guest is top Presents author Sandra Marton

Sandra's Message is:

To Kate, with love and all best wishes for the success of your revised 12 Point Guide. Anyone hoping to write and sell romance novels should surely own a copy! Sandra Marton

Thank you so much Sandra.

Sandra's next release, coming in July is the lead novella in a hot new collection from Harlequin fittingly titled: HOT CITY NIGHTS.

You can find more details of this on Sandra's web site - but here's a sneak preview of the cover.

My final guest today - well, at this point of today is up and coming Medical author Margaret McDonagh who has a wonderful compliment for 12PGTWR2

Margaret says:

Many congratulations on this exciting second edition of the 12-Point Guide. This book is an absolute must for every writer of romance and the first edtion was invaluable to me when I decided that I had to try again to write Medicals for Mills & Boon. It still sits on my desk as inspiration and for easy referral.

Margaret - you're making me smile and blush as I write this.

Margaret McDonagh's current book is called An Italian Affair, a Medical Romance in the Mills & Boon Presents anthology - out now! The anthology also contains titles by Annie West [Modern] and Annie Burrows [Historical]. (what a great selection of authors - and I love the cover of this one.

Margaret's web site can be found here

Margaret's prize: She's giving away a copy of the anthology, and says that if Sid would be kind enough to select a winner from amongst the posters, that would be great.

So - how to enter

1. If the guest has asked a question please send the answer to the email given - it will either be to me or direct to the author. Please put Launch Party Prize in the subject line and in the main email give your answer and the name of the author whose prize you're trying to win.

2. If the author is going to pick a winner (or get Sid to do it for her) from the comments - then just leave a comment and either that author The Cat himself will get on to it.

So basically today you have one question to answer - send answers to me

And one prize you can win simply by leaving a comment

Good luck!

And I'll hope to be back with a Q&A post just as soon as I can.

Christmas Stocking Contest

I managed to get in touch with two of my lovely writer friends - so I can now confirm that thanks to their generosity there will be two more very special titles going into the Christmas Stocking Stuffed with books, along with all the other titles, to make up a truly special prize.

The first of these is from Michelle Styles.

Michelle, as regular readers of this blog know, writes original and exciting historical novels, often picking unusual time periods in whihc to set her books. She has recently set books in Ancient Rome and coming up soon she has a set of books about Vikings. But the book she is donating to the Christmas Stocking is set in more recent Victorian times. In this case, in Newcastle Upon Tyne in 1846.

Michelle has offered two signed copies of A Christmas Wedding Wager - the USA edition of this special Christmas story. In the UK this book is published as part of a special duo titled Christmas By Candlelight together with Wicked Pleasures by Helen Dickson, but it is the separate edition of just A Christmas Wedding Wager that is going into the Christmas Stocking this time. So it's that cover that I'm posting here today.

I was lucky enough to be given my own copy of this book by Michelle, so here's the blurb from the back:

Lovely Miss Emma Harrison has turned her back on the frivolities of the Marriage Mart and dedicated herself to helping her father. But this Christmas everything changes – ruthless and unforgettable Jack Stanton is back! As the Yuletide festivities throw Emma into his company, she can’t help but wonder if she made the wrong choice seven years ago...

The web site Dear Author recommends A Christmas Wedding Wager as one of its December reads like this:

Styles showcases the Victorian period and the emerging freedom it brought to young women. Emma, the heroine, escapes her stifling Victorian well-to-do lifestyle to become a civil engineer and while she enjoys her position, it is not without a price. Jack Stanton was rejected by Emma years ago and must suppress his hurt pride and resentment in order to work with Emma on a bridge project. Set against the backdrop of northern England Christmas revelries, this is the perfect book to get a romance reader in the holiday mood.

If you love Michelle Styles's stories then there's plenty to look forward to because coming next year are these great titles:

Taken by the Viking -- US May 08 (this was an October UK release and still available on Amazon.co.uk)
Viking Warrior, Unwilling Wife UK June 08 (linked to Taken)
An Impulsive Debutante UK Sept 08 (linked to ACWW)

The other special Christmas title donated yesterday is from lovely Margaret McDonagh who is making a name and a career for herself in the Medical Romance line. The book Margaret has donated is a Christmas trilogy with the title Christmas Weddings. This contains stories by Carole Mortimer and Shirley Jump as well as Margaret's own heartwarming story Their Christmas Vows

Here's the blurb (the book actually has the hero's surname wrong on the back so Margaret has kindly corrected it for me - and added an extra couple of lines to the rather brief summary!)

Frazer McInnes is strong, caring, and loyal to his friends. He also has a reputation as a fun-loving Romeo. But he's serious about his beautiful colleague, Callie Grogan. Serious enough to vow to love her forever, if only she'll be his Christmas bride.
Callie has a difficult journey to make because the impact of her past experiences make it hard for her to trust. In Frazer, has she found a man she can believe in? Can she trust him – and herself – and step towards a happy and loving future?

Coming up in 2008, Margaret McDonagh has these new titles to look forward to:

An Italian Affair - (a Medical in the Mills & Boon Presents anthology with Annie West [Modern] and Annie Burrows [Historical]) - April 2008
Virgin Midwife, Playboy Doctor - book 8 in the Brides of Penhally Bay series - July 2008

Dr Devereux's Proposal - book 12 in the Brides of Penhally Bay series - November 2008

So look out for those great Medical stories.

And tomorrow I'll be back with more details of the other books I have stuffed into those stockings just waiting to give someone an orgy of reading pleasure over Christmas!

Oh - and as a PS to Margaret McDonagh's donation - I had to smile when I saw the cover of the Christmas Weddings trilogy.

Take away the Christmas Tree and the decorated mantlepiece - and it's the UK cover of my December 2005 book - The Antonakos Marriage!

Great Big Blog Party 6 - WINNER

I'm finally catchng up with things a bit after the wonderful weekend - and I have important announcements to make about some winners from post guest bloggers -

First up is the winner of Margaret McDonagh's prize - Margaret has been generous enough to offer a main prize and 2 runners up so the winners are:

Winner of two signed books of her choice:- ilona
Two runners up of one signed book of their choice:- robynl and jennybrat

CONGRATULATIONS !

Please send your email addresses and postal addresses to me and Margaret will contact you to ask which books you would like.

Great Big Blog Party 6 - Margaret McDonagh

So we've been all around the world but now we're coming back to the UK - but not England, this time my guest blogger lives in Scotland.

Regular blog readers will remember that I included one of Margaret McDonagh's books in my Christmas Stocking full of books contest. That was her very first book and now she's becoming one of the established and successful authors in the M&B Medical line. Margaret and I share so many interests and concerns and plenty of hero inspiration models too.

So here's the lovely Margaret McDonagh

Hello! My name is Margaret McDonagh and I write Medical Romances for Harlequin Mills & Boon. After years struggling to be a writer, doing magazine short stories, serials and novellas, I finally achieved my goal ... publication by Mills & Boon. And the lady whose achievements we are currently celebrating played a role in my stubbornness not to give up!

Golden anniversaries are always very special. They speak of longevity, of dedication, of compromise and sheer hard work. My own parents made it to their golden wedding anniversary after battling through a world war and many ups and downs raising a family and holding things together in an ever-changing world. Throughout everything there was always love, always humour ... and always books.

It is a huge honour to be asked to join the blog party and contribute a post in celebration of another golden celebration, the publication of Kate Walker's 50th book! I cannot think of anyone who deserves more approbation than the wonderful Kate Walker, someone who not only writes marvellous books loved by readers around the world, but who never stints in her encouragement to fellow writers. Her 12 Point Guide To Writing Romance, (soon to be published in its second edition), should be every romance writer's bible. It was a major help to me when I decided to have another push at writing for Mills & Boon, and helped me to focus and work all the harder to get my story and my characters right. Kate's words of wisdom and support have been sought and appreciated by many, myself included, and are always kindly and generously given. No doubt about it, Kate Walker is a star!

By the end of 2007, my fifth Medical story will have been published for Mills & Boon – (Their Christmas Vows in the Christmas Weddings anthology). I am in awe and admiration of anyone who has written FIFTY! And kept up the standard, growing and working, never taking their writing for granted, never cheating the readers. We may have different tastes and views on alpha heroes, (and no, Kate, I am NOT going to say another word on that subject!!!!), but I admire Kate immensely for her dedication, her talent and for never losing her down-to-earth goodness.

We share a love of animals. While Kate has her big cat adoptees, I have my orphan babies ... an elephant, Lualeni, and an orangutan, Grendon! But we share as joint foster mothers the delightful and very handsome Uffa, currently training to be a Guide Dog for the Blind. We also both share our lives with assorted cats – Kate's are indoor dwellers led, he would say, by Sid, a cat of Superior Breeding. Mine are outdoor cats, ferals who have made their home here and know they are on to a good thing because they eat me out of house and home!

Fifty books may seem beyond my reach, but my third linked Medical, His Very Special Nurse, is out in the UK in June. I love creating interlinked communities and characters we meet again in future connecting stories. My fictional world of Strathlochan and the surrounding villages is continuing to grow, and I am very much enjoying bringing more and more characters to life as they work and socialise together, bringing community health care to rural Scotland. I very much hope you will enjoy meeting some of them. Do stop by my website and have a look around!

I have books to give away! You can take your pick. If you have been kind enough to read the first books in the loosely-linked series, I will be happy to send you the next two, His Very Special Nurse, out now, and an advance copy of One Special Night, out in August. If you have yet to sample my Scottish Medicals, then I will be pleased to send you copies of the first two books, The Italian Doctor's Bride and A Doctor Worth Waiting For. The choice is yours! Everyone who leaves a comment to this post over the next 24 hours until Kate's next contributor takes over will go into a draw. I will ask the famous and experienced Sid if he will be kind enough to pick the winner in exchange for a cat crunchie or two! Is that all right with you, Sid?

Next year sees another major anniversary for us all to celebrate – 100 years of Mills & Boon. Keep your eyes open throughout 2008 for all manner of exciting projects and books to mark the centenary. Kate Walker has played a huge part in the development of the books over the last 23 of those 100 years. Here's to Kate on her 50th book anniversary ... and to all the other Mills & Boon writers, past and present, who make Mills & Boon books loved around the world.

I can never imagine attaining anything like the heights that Kate has reached throughout her wonderful career as one of our very best writers of romance, but she is an inspiration to us all and long may she continue. Congratulations, Kate. You are a wonderful writer and, most importantly, a lovely person. You deserve all the plaudits coming your way. I am sure I speak for many when I thank you for your kindness, support and friendship. Good luck with the next fifty books!

Happy reading,
Love,
Margaret
http://www.margaretmcdonagh.com/