Advent Calendar - catch up. Day something . . . .

OK, so I know I have missed some days on the calendar but really that just couldn't be helped.   Hope things will ease up now

But in any case - I'll use this post as a sort of catch up- and put in some extra books.   I ran a giveaway like this last year and it went really well  so I'm trying again.  This is hopefully a giveaway in the true spirit of Christmas - and I hope there's plenty of that around right now.

So I have three copies of the three  in one collection One Night in Madrid to give away. This collection has  my book  Spanish Billionaire,  Innocent Wife  in it.

Two years ago, Alannah left Raul without one word of regret. Now chance has thrown them together once more, and the proud Spanish aristocrat will see that Alannah pays for her mistake.
He had wanted Alannah Redfern the first moment he saw her. Her unique combination of purity and passion intrigued, then intoxicated him. And Raul Marcín was a man used to getting everything he wanted.
Now, Raul knows that Alannah is no longer a naive girl. Until their one night of passion proves that she is still an innocent. Raul will do whatever it takes to keep her at his mercy.


It also has
The Spaniard's Defiant Virgin by Jennie Lucas
and
The Spanish Duke's Virgin Bride by Chantelle Shaw.

And the question? Well this is where the Christmas spirit comes in. Today is not to win a book for yourself but to nominate someone  who you think needs a specail Christmas present this year.
Someone who has had a tough year
Someone who you want to say thank you toi
Someone who might not have so many gifts this time
Someone you want to see smile . . .

In the comments section please nominate the person to whom yo'd like to give this extra present and I'll send a copy of this book to the three winners Charlie picks when I get back to my desk.

Please  play fair on this - choose someone you want to give the book to. And please if you nominated and won last year don't ask for the same person over again.

What I'm hoping for is to make 3 lucky people smile - both because they have won a book - and because they have a generous friend/family member who nominated them for the prize.  This worked so well last year - I hope it works again!

Countdown to Christmas 2

Last year when I had more time and more concentration, I organised a special Advent Calendar for all my readers - every day there was a book 'behind the door'  on the calendar and everyone who came to chat was entered into the prize draw for that day - and all the other days through December. This year I don't have so much time. I've also just done the Great Big Blog Tour which meant that I gave away lots of books already.

But - hey - it's Christmas - and last year I had so much fun with this because I got to ask questions and  to find out more about all my readers.  And I loved that.  So this year I'm running a smaller shorter Countdown to Christmas - with questions and  prizes and - I hope  - lots of chat for the 12 days leading up to the big day.

So here's how it works - I've been cleaning out my book stock cupboard and I've found 12 different prizes to give away. Some are older some brand new, some are collections, some single novels - it all depends on what my hand falls on for the day.  Every day I'll ask a  question - I know there are lots of lovely readers out there and I want to know more about you . You just come and chat with me in the commenst section and at the end of the day I'll get Charlie the Maine Coon busy on picking a winner . . .

One a day for the next 12 days.  Well,  11 days actually because as I explained yesterday over on Romance book Paradise Nas Dean has already started this off with the great  giveaway of a signed copy of the 12 Point Guide - there still a chance to win there if you want to check it out.

And today? Well today's prize is a copy of the 3 in 1 volume One Night in Madrid - this has novels by Jennie Lucas, Chantelle Shaw and me.  And the book of mine that is in this collection is
Spanish Billlionaire Innocent Wife -

Two years ago, Alannah left Raul without one word of regret. Now chance has thrown them together once more, and the proud Spanish aristocrat will see that Alannah pays for her mistake.
He had wanted Alannah Redfern the first moment he saw her. Her unique combination of purity and passion intrigued, then intoxicated him. And Raul Marcín was a man used to getting everything he wanted.

Now, Raul knows that Alannah is no longer a naive girl. Until their one night of passion proves that she is still an innocent. Raul will do whatever it takes to keep her at his mercy.

And for the question?

Well, let's start with something simple  -  I see the counters on my blog mounting up - I have had visitors from 167 different countries - 167!!

But what about you? Where are you from?  What country? What city/town?  What's it like where you live?

I'd love to know

And when Charlie comes down from climbing the Christmas tree, I'll get him to pick a winner for today - then you can come back tomorrow and see what book is on offer then.

The countdown to Christmas has started . . . .

Catch up

Well, that was a busy week - I was racing to finish my latest book by the end of the month so that's why I've been MIA - I finally pressed 'send' to have it winging its way to my editor and I hope she likes Martha and Carlos  Diablo's story.  My working title for this has been  first The Ortega Inheritance  - and then  another title was The Devil and Miss Jones.  I don't suppose that the last one will be used but you never know.

I was thrilled that my lots in the Brenda Novak Auction had such a great response - the critique of a partial went for $325,  the Reader's and Writer's for $62 - so that's a great contribution to a fantastic cause - and the whole auction raised $300,500 ! That's brilliant.

And I'm just waiting to hear how much the Make For Macmillan book auction made - that's closed now.

Oh yes- and as it's the first Sunday of the month, today I'm blogging over at  Tote Bags'n' Blogs  where you have a chance to win a copy of One Night In Madrid .

And there's a new contest running on the Tote Bag Contest page where you can win 2 more of my backlist books.

Winners -and more chances to win

 The winners of the One Night in Madrid giveaway are Summer and Caroline  so please send me your postal addresses and I'll get your copies of the book in the mail to you.

  And just to remind you that there are more chances to win over on My Tote Bag   where Lee Hyat is giving away copies of books from my backlist - this month the books on offer areThe Good Greek Wife? and The Antonakos Marriage!
This contest is of course to celebrate the publication of The Proud Wife which is out in Presents Extra right now - if you can find a copy, because people are telling me it's selling so well they're having to hunt to find a copy.

Kate's Corner

It's May 15th so that means that it's my day to guest blog in Kate's Corner  over at We Write Romance. So that's where you'll find me today.

I've been thinking about the way that my birthday last week made me feel - and that made me thankful for all my wonderful friends and readers  who share my life through my books. 

I've said it over there but I'm going to say it here as well - Thank you to everyone who buys and reads my books so that I can keep writing and hopefully keep sharing with you all!

And I hope you'll keep posting some thoughts of what you enjoy in my blog or what you'd like to read about in my blog so that I can put more names into the draw to win a copy of One Night in Madrid.

Thank you!

Missed me?

Where  have I been?  Well, I'm not really sure -  I've been busy working for a start.  At last I've been able to really concentrate on the book and  (my editor will be so pleased about this)  and my recalcitrant hero  Carlos  who  was living up to his nickname of El Diablo - the devil - finally agreed to cooperate a bit more.   So he took  a lot of my attention
Then there was the birthday weekend - was it really a week ago! I had a lovely time with family and friends, visiting York, wandering in the sunshine, treating myself to a couple of dresses. The great thing about having a birthday on a Staurday is that you can make a weekend of it - so I did.  Thak you again to everyone who posted birthday messages on Facebook.


So now I'm back - I hope!   And I have good news.

I was sent a really great review for The Proud Wife yesterday - this is from a site that I didn't know about until now - The  Long and the  Short  Of It reviews.   As  I'd never had a review from this site before, I think it's always really valuable to see a review from a new reader.  It's great to see what they think about a book. And I was thrilled to find that this new reviewer really loved The Proud Wife. She also made some really astute comments on the book.  

She also rated it 4.5 books out of a possible 5.

Hare's part of the review:


Ms. Walker creates two attractive characters with strong personalities and strong wills and then pits them against each other. Marina is English, Pietro is Sicilian. They married shortly after they met when she found herself pregnant and that’s just the beginning of their troubles.

As anyone in a relationship knows, misunderstandings can easily arise. It’s not just what is said but what isn’t said that can cause problems. This author uses this situation to set up the stress and tension between the two. Marina walked out on Pietro and he’s too proud to go after her. They both feel shut out and unloved.

The interplay between during the divorce discussion is amusing and volatile. While these two characters think there is no love left between them, you know there wouldn’t be as much passion and anger between the two if they didn’t care. The author uses the sexual attraction between as a point of contention: Perhaps it was lust rather than love?

I enjoyed watching them trying to work past their problems without actually explaining anything to each other. You know, the old, “If you loved me, you should understand.” It takes communication to develop understanding and this author knows this well, making this an interesting read.
Many thanks to Aloe for this great write-up - and you can see the full review here on The Long and The Short of It

But there is even better news because I woke up this morning to find a message for LASR in my inbox:

We offer a weekend poll at The Long and the Short of It romance reviews—we want to know which book or story sounds like the best read based on our reviews.

The winning author gets a nifty button and the privilege of having their book or story featured at the top of that page the entire next week, as well as getting a custom made video from Goddess Fish Promotions to publicize their review and the win!

Your story "­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­The Proud Wife" was reviewed by us this week and is up for Book of the Week honor this weekend (voting runs from Saturday, May 14th through Sunday May 15th). We thought you might like to know. You can find the information here onSaturday:  http://www.longandshortreviews.com/LASR/index.htm

Thanks and good luck.

Thank YOU LASR!  I'm thrilled just to be nominated for the possible Book Of The Week.   When I checked this morning voting wasn't yet open  - those time zones again! - but I expect it will be possible to vote later. So if  you enjoyed The Proud Wife   it would be wonderful if you did go and vote - and you could explore this great site at the same time.

And now for some good news for you, my lovely blog readers - as you can see I have things to celebrate and when I celebrate I like to share with my readers. Well,l the other good news this week was that I received a delivery of the author copies of the new three in one collection that's published this month - One Night in Madrid.

This great collection has a reprint of my  2008 novel Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife in it together with stories by  Jennie Lucas and Chantelle Shaw.  And I have some copies to give away!
So if you want to share in my (belated) birthday celebrations , please just leave a post in the comments section over the weekend! I'd love to know what you enjoy about visiting my blog (apart from the fact that I sometimes give away books!)  What do you like to read about on an author's blog - what sort of things would you like me to blog about in the future?  I haven't done any writing/craft related posts in a while  - so maybe WTBBIF  - When the B. . . . . Book Is Finished . . . .

Let me know - I'd love to hear from you (and if you tell me you voted for The Proud Wife as Book of The Week so much the better!) - and I will give away  copies of One Night in Madrid to the posters Sid chooses on Monday.

PS The voting for Book of the Week is now open here

Coming up

 I've been getting  enquiries about new books coming up - and the titles of the novels that are being reprinted in the collections  that are published in the first half of this year.  Up until now I wasn't quite sure  of the exact detaiols, but after a  bit of a research and a confirmation email from my editor, it now seems that the line-up  goes like this:

New title: -

The Proud Wife - modern Romance  March  4th 2011 - and Presents Extra  in April

Reprints:

Meditrranean Tycoons  - includes  The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife

After losing his memory, all Andreas remembers is his passionate affair with Rebecca. But what will happen when Andreas recalls throwing Rebecca out of his house a year ago for reasons only he knows?

Also has novels by Michelle Reid and Sarah Morgan

Published 4th Feb

One Night in Madrid  - includes Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife

Raul wanted Alannah the first moment he saw her. Her unique combination of purity and passion intrigued and intoxicated the proud Spanish aristocrat. And Raul Esteban was a man used to getting everything he wanted.

Also has novels by Jennie Lucas and Chantelle Shaw

and finally - my editor has just confirmed the title and ther schedule date of my latest novel -
The Return of the Stranger - September 2011
This book will be part of the special mini-series The Powerful and The Pure  - I'll tell you a little more about that  very soon - hopefully tis week.

And that, I think, is it until after September.   Meanwhile I'm getting on with the next one . . .

Oops - forgot one!
If you are using ebooks to catch up on any backlist titles you've missed then His Miracle Baby  (2001)  is being re-issued in ebook  format this month.