Favourite Kate Walker - Lynne Raye Harris

As I promised, today is a post in that irregular series - My Favourite Kate Walker. I have rather neglected this as a result of pressure of work/life/everything else but I'm still keeping an eye on it for the celebration of 25 years since my first book ever was published. If you have an absolute favourite of my books, feel free to let me know about it and you might see your post on this blog.

Today's author is someone else who has had a difficult week with a husband in hospital and then back home - so I'm sending her a hug and a smile (and a gentler one for her husband!) So let me introduce you to Lynn Raye Harris.

Many of you will recall that Lynn won the very first Presents Instant Seduction contest back in 2008 and when I first met her at the RWA conference in San Francisco she was halfway towards being convinced that her book just wasn't going to make it as she dealt with the revisions asked of her.

She says I gave her the advice she needed- well, that was simply that revisions are a fact of life for all authors from first book to 100th and beyond. I'm surprised that she gave any credit to what I said as I believe I was dressed in my pajamas at the time - this was at the eHarlequin PJ party after all. I liked Lynn from the start and we bonded even more the following year when we shared a wonderful dish of fries and garlic sauce in a Washington restaurant. I'm only sorry that I won't make it to RWA this year so we can meet up again .

Here's Lynn:

As a new author for Harlequin Presents/Mills & Boon Modern, I have to tell you all that I was a bit apprehensive about joining this illustrious family of writers. What would they think of me? Could I possibly talk to any of them without descending into fangirl stuttering? Would my stories live up to the promise of the line?

Kate Walker was the second Presents/Modern author I met in person, and the first I talked to when I was on the verge of selling. I will never forget her kindness or her bubbly personality. She treated me like I was already a member of the fold. And she gave me exactly the right advice at exactly the right moment. I went home and got to work – and then sold my first book shortly thereafter.

So when Kate asked if I could talk about my favorite Kate Walker book for her 25th anniversary, I said yes! Except that I can’t talk about my favorite Kate Walker book because I enjoy them all so much that I can’t pick a favorite. I really can’t! Whether Kate is writing sheikhs or Greeks or Sicilians or (pick your favorite hero), I love them all.

(In fact, I’m currently rereading AT THE SHEIKH’S COMMAND – oh yum!)

But I can talk about one of Kate’s stories that gave me an aha moment as a writer: SPANISH BILLIONAIRE, INNOCENT WIFE. Alannah and Raul’s story is so intense that you just can’t stop turning the pages. What did I learn from this book? I learned how finely one can spin out the emotions of a character, how intense the suspense can be when one character needs to tell the other a dark secret and doesn’t want to do so. I learned about the deep ache of thwarted love, and how two people can want each other so much and still not think it will ever work out.

That book was intense, y’all! Steamy and dark and so emotional that I was biting my lip as I kept turning those pages. But you know how it turns out, even if you haven’t yet read it. Alannah and Raul get their happy ever after, though it’s an emotional trip to the end. It was the kind of book where you close it and can’t immediately begin another because you need to think for a while.

I hope I put half that emotion into my books! And if I do, I surely learned how by studying Kate’s work. Many congratulations, Kate, on twenty-five years of excellent storytelling. I hope you keep telling stories for another twenty-five years!

Thank you Lynn! I 'd love to think I have another 25 years' writing ahead of me!

Lynn has a couple of books out this month - so look out for them. The Prince's Royal Concubine - which uses one of my favourite themes in a romance, the way that the weather (in this case a huge storm) traps the hero and heroine together so that they are forced to face up to their conflict because there is literally nowhere to go. It makes for an intense and claustrophobic atmosphere - is out in Presents in America and The Devil's Heart is on the shelves now in the UK. I know it is because I bought my own copy yesterday. Just need a little time to read it.

You can find out more about Lynn and her books here

CHRISTMAS STOCKING WINNERS

So Sid has done his job and there are two lucky prizewinners who have won a Stocking Stuffed with books

The winners are:

Julie M from Perth in Scotland

and

Dawn M from Oklahoma

(Obviously Sid had the letter M on the brain today)

Congratulations to Julie and Dawn - and to everyone who didn't win, there will be other contests coming up soon. The first of which will be the now traditional Valentine's Contest run by myself, Anne McAllister and Liz Fielding. I don;t know if the grooms will take over the blogs again - or what will happen - but I know there will be three great books involved in that one.

And one of them will be Liz's very special 50th title for M&B. Right now she's celebrating her 50th book (there were some with another publisher) so The Sheikh's Unsuitable Bride is this landmark book and that's out in January. Dawn and Julie will get their prize copies soon.

And in February Anne, Liz and I will be celebrating the upcoming publication of:

The Bride's Baby - Liz Fielding

One-Night Love Child - Anne McAllister (if you want to see the great cover for this book check out Anne's blog here)

and my own

Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife

Now if only I'd had a baby in my book we could had planned a Here Come The Babies Contest - but don't worry, we'll think of something.

Look out for that in February.

You saw them here first . . .

So now that the new book is contracted I can let you all know that Angelos, the Black Angel, will be published as Bedded By The Greek Billionaire in September 2008 in M&B Modern Romance. As soon as I have any news of a USA release date, then I'll let you know.

Yesterday's shopping expedition proved very successful - so I now have just one Christmas present to buy which is unexpectedly efficient for me.

And when I got home I found a parcel of books waiting for me with the first hardback editions of the next book coming out. That's Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife and it's due out in March 2008.

You can get a first look at the cover of this book here. I like it a lot. What do you think?

Also in the package of books were the advance copies of the 3 in 1 By request collection that's coming out in January wher I have one of my earlier titles reprinted. This collection is called Just the Three of Us and the title of mine that's included in it is His Miracle Baby which was first

published in 2001.

And of course these books are being published in 2008 which is the centenary year for Mills & Boon. I'm thrilled to have my books published in this important year, and to have the first one published right at the start of this special time. There will be lots of other events and publishing plans to mark 2008 and as soon as I can I'll bring you news of those. I've already been asked to be involved in an event coming up.

Finally today is Thanksgiving for those who celebrate it - so HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all my friends who are celebrating with their families today. I hope you have a wonderful time.

And even if you're not actually celebrating today, why not take time to think of everything you should be thankful for - I know I have lots of wonderful things in my life that I should just take a moment to consider and acknowledge. We don't do that often enough - so today, why not write your own list of things to be thankful for - I'll bet you'll find more than you ever thought you would.

PS I just heard that Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife will be published in Presents in June 2008

Kate Bit - Celebrations, Charts and Covers

The Great Big Blog party is still going on - I'll be posting another Guest Blog in a moment. And it looks like we'll be partying right to the end of this month as well! Which means that the celebration for the publication of The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge will be going on right through the two months it's been out in UK, USA and Australia. So that's fantastic.

And something else that's still going on is the poll for your Top Five favourite Kate Walker titles. Voting on this poll has slowed down a bit so can I just remind you that if you haven't voted please send in your vote! You're in with a chance to win a signed book if you do. Email me with your Top Five titles in order of preference and if Sid picks your name then you'll win.

At the moment the result for the Top Ten looks like this:

1. The Italian's Forced Bride
2. A Sicilian Husband
3. The Antonakos Marriage
4. Desert Affair
5. The Spaniard's Inconvenient Wife
6. The Sicilian's Wife
7. 12 Month Mistress
8. Sicilian Husband, Blackmailed Bride
9 Wife For A Day
10. Bound By Blackmail

Is your favourite there? If not, why not send me a vote for it and maybe you'llsee it in the next chart I publish.

Interesting to see that although it's only been out a couple of months, the other Sicilian Brothers book - Guido's story (Sicilian, Husband, Blackmailed Bride) - is already in the Top Ten at #8. It makes me wonder what might happen when you've all read Vito's story this month - would that jump right in there too?

And finally, the current book(s) are still on sale, but publishing being the way it is, I'm already looking forward to the next couple of titles. I have just dealt with proofs for the March 2008 book (Spanish Billionaire; Innocent Wife) and the hardback library editions of November's The Greek Millionaire's Unwilling Wife arrived in the post the other day. I realised that I've put the cover up in the slide show in the sidebar, but not actually shown it to you all here - so here it is:

Knowing the scene that my editor had asked for I had hoped that it would be a good cover and it is. I'm really happy with it.

What do you think?

London report

A lot of people seem to think that being an author is a glamorous life. Hmm . . . Seeing me today back at my desk, tee shirt and tracky pants, no makeup, list of jobs as long as my arm to complete - you’d doubt that. But some days make it feel very different.

And sitting in the sunshine in the courtyard of a lovely restaurant, eating great food (red pepper salad, skate with tomato and cucumber and – mmm – honey ice cream if you want to know – and I suspect that you do) talking to the lovely editor who had her whip hidden in her handbag and didn’t bring it out to crack over me in public – has to be one of those days. Specially when you get nice news.

Nice news 1 – remember this guy ? Well Raul is now officially the hero of my newest book – title Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife which will be out in March 2008 – my first title in the important centenary year for Mills & Boon. I also had some other good news about certain Italian and another Spanish hero but I’m waiting for the official say-so before I’ll let you in on those.

And at least that day I was sensible and wore shoes that were comfortable instead of going with vanity and choosing brand new, not yet ‘broken in’ shoes which looked elegant but were not the most comfortable footwear. Which is the mistake I made on Saturday when I headed for Borders in Charing Cross Road and the launch of Wannabe a Writer. My lovely Spanish leather embroidered shoes looked wonderful and felt fine to start with but by the end of and hour and a half wandering along Oxford Street and then another 3 hours standing talking to everyone at the book launch were creating agony with every step.

Jane Wenham-Jones & Me

But in spite of this I enjoyed the afternoon tremendously. As always, when Jane is involved in anything, the whole event went with a swing – the publishers (Accent Press) provided refreshment – wine, water, orange juice, nibbles – there were large numbers of books on display – written by the authors who had contributed to Wannabe A Writer by answering Jane’s questions and now had their comments in the book and their names in the index.

I was delighted to find that I had no less than 7 listings and it was interesting to read what I’d actually said – most of which I’d forgotten, I’ll admit. Katie Fforde and Helen Lederer

Then there were the people – lots of friends to catch up with – Hi Biddy, Liz, Victoria . . .writer friends and acquaintances – Jane W-J herself of course, Katie Fforde, Lesley Cookman, Sue Moorcroft, Bernardine Kennedy, Lynne Barrett-Lee. And lots of other writers to make into new friends – Judy Astley, Adele Parks, Karen Howeld, Sophie King, Alice Jolly, actress and comedian Helen Lederer (who bought a copy of Sicilian Husband, Blackmailed Bride – thank you Helen) , Tamara McKinley, Emily Dubberley, Daniel Blythe, , Margaret Kaine, Martin Davies, Kate Harrison, Ray Allen, Victoria Connelly, Erica James & Maria McCarthy . . .

Lynne Barrett-Lee, Sue Moorcroft and Martin Davies

I talked myself hoarse, laughed a lot and managed to forget about my feet until it was time to walk – ahem – hobble – back to the hotel. It was an afternoon I wouldn’t have wanted to miss and well worth enduring a blister or two was a result of my shoe vanity.

I’m including some of my own photos of the day and you can see more of them here on the Wannabe a Writer website itself. You can also read more about the book and its many contributors here as well. Erica James and Kate Harrison

Oh and as I mentioned that our hotel was right next to the Palladium – I should have said that each evening we were treated to rousing choruses of Climb Every Mountain or How do You Solve a Problem like Maria from the cast of The Sound of Music which is on stage there – and was an unexpected bonus to our stay.

So now it’s back to reality with the ‘To Do’ list, and a bed to prepare for the visitor tonight from the