Christmas time

I'm not quite sure how it got to  9th December already -  that means it's only a couple of weeks to the big day!  I'm not at all   ready and  I still have so much to do that I'm running around like crazy and trying to wrap  and post parcels, write cards, send them in the mail.

Tomorrow my dear brother in law is coming to stay for a couple of days so we are having a

n early 'mini Christmas ' to celebrate with him.

While we're doing that, I'll be posting up a little Christmas readers' giveaway  for the 12 days of Christmas - more details of that to come asap (hopefully tomorrow  before the visitor  arrives!)

So while I was planning and trying to get organised with that, I also checked out Amazon  and was delighted to find that they're running a small sale on some of my books  in the last minute Christmas deals. Not sure how long for, but if you're quick and want to grab a kindle edition of these titles, you can get one  for £0.99

 Titles available are:
Kept For Her Baby
The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge
Bedded by the Greek Billionaire
Constantine's Revenge
Wife for a Day
No Holding Back
Flirting with Danger

Oh, and the complete Alcolar Family trilogy (3  books in one)  is available for £1.99

Finally - if you are interested in learning about writing romance, then   Kate Walker's 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance is on sale  with 11% off the paperback   bringing the price down from  £11.99  to £10.62 - maybe you know someone who'd like to find a copy n their Christmas stocking or under the tree?

For my Australian Readers - part 2!

You might remember that back on   - in this post -  I told you how some  of my books would

a. be republished

and

b. would be published at a  different time to the dates on which they were published in the UK and USA

I thought I had the most up to date information then - but it seems not . . .  The publication dates have changed again - at least for the two newest novels of mine to be published . So let me bring you  up to date.

I originally  said that following this lovely review on the Australian Romance Readers Association site – and the fact that they posted it as a Featured book on their Facebook Convention page, I’ve had people asking me when Olivero’s Outrageous Proposal will appear on the bookshop shelves in Australia. Usually the Australian publication is pretty much simultaneous with the UK and  USA editions, but this time  the books have been changed around rather – so the news is that Olivero’s Outrageous Proposal will not be out in Australia until December.

Now I have to amend that to - Olivero's Outrageous Proposal will not be published in Australia until January.

So  I’m sorry to everyone who is waiting to read it. It is coming – promise!  - but there will be a little wait before it does.

That's the bad news - but the good news is that the latest novel - Destined for the Desert King -

will be published simultaneously  with the UK and USA publication dates. So that is the book that will be out in Australia in December - and the  better news is that that book published in December will be followed  by the January publication of Olivero's Outrageous Proposal.   So instead of having to wait another few months for the next Kate Walker title, you'll be able to read both of these books one after the other - in December and then January.

I hope this makes up for the wait.

But if it helps  you get through the weeks before that release date – I do have news of two other  releases in Australia coming up in the next few months.

Firstly there will be a reprint of a 2001 book  - Her Secret Bridegroom.  This will be in a special  Latin Lovers collection together with books by Miranda Lee and Lynne Graham.   I'm calling  cover of this book ‘the Chest’ – I’m sure you can see why.

Secondly, there will be a reprint collection of

the three linked Alcolar Family stories –

The Twelve Month Mistress

The Spaniard’s Inconvenient Bride

Bound By Blackmail

Which tell the stories of Joaquin, Ramon and Mercedes Alcolar – Proud modern day Spanish aristocrats – passion is their birthright!

The trilogy will be released under the title The Notorious Alcolars, and this should be out in 

September.  I now have a copy of the cover to show you  - and I'm really pleased that they've decided to use my favourite cover from the 3 books in the series. You can see it at the top of this post  - this was the cover of The Spaniard's Inconvenient Bride.

And just in case you wanted to  remind yourself of the story that started this all off – before you read/reread the trilogy  then don’t forget that the story of Alex Alcolar – Wife For Real – is available on the eHarlequin web site  here.


PS  - a reminder for anyone who has bought The Alcolar Family bundle from the Harlequin web site - this originally had the wrong story included  in it. Where it should have  been my story Wife For Real  telling the story of Alex Alcolar, there was a book by Jennifer Taylor with the same name. Since then I've been working with editorial and  everything has been sorted out - with the correct version of Wife For Real included in this collection. So if you still have that story and you'd like the one I wrote - you can update your ebook by logging into the place you bought it.  (I understand that the problems have mainly been with Barnes & Noble)

Phew!I hope that brings everything up to date!  At least you know that the two books are coming - soon!  I'll remind you all about that when I'm celebrating the publication of Destined for the Desert King in December!

39189

Specially for Australian readers

Following this lovely review on the Australian Romance Readers Association site – and the fact that they posted it as a Featured book on their Facebook Convention page, I’ve had people asking me when Olivero’s Outrageous Proposal will appear on the bookshop shelves in Australia. Usually the Australian publication is pretty much simultaneous with the UK and  USA editions, but this time  the books have been changed around rather – so the news is that Olivero’s Outrageous Proposal will not be out in Australia until December.

So  I’m sorry to everyone who is waiting to read it. It is coming – promise!  - but there will be a little wait before it does.

But if it helps  you get through the weeks before that release date – I do have news of two other  releases in Australia coming up in the next few months.

Firstly there will be a reprint of a 2001 book  - Her Secret Bridegroom.  This will be in a special  Latin Lovers collection together with books by Miranda Lee and Lynne Graham.   I'm calling  cover of this book ‘the Chest’ – I’m sure you can see why.

Secondly, there will be a reprint collection of

the three linked Alcolar Family stories –

The Twelve Month Mistress

The Spaniard’s Inconvenient Bride

Bound By Blackmail

Which tell the stories of Joaquin, Ramon and Mercedes Alcolar – Proud modern day Spanish aristocrats – passion is their birthright!

I don’t have a copy of the cover to show you yet but the trilogy will be released under the title The Notorious Alcolars, and this should be out in September.

And just in case you wanted to  remind yourself of the story that started this all off – before you read/reread the trilogy  then don’t forget that the story of Alex Alcolar – Wife For Real – is available on the eHarlequin web site  here.

Authors for Nepal

Just  23 hours left to place a bid on the Authors for Nepal auction - with so many wonderful lots of signed books, critiques etc available.

My lot of  signed copies of
The Alcolar Family  3 in 1 collection
A Question of Honour
Olivero's Outrageous Proposal

and
12  Point Guide to Writing Romance

is to be found here

Finding books - part two - The Alcolar Family

Back in   . . . err ,  when was it?  2004 -   I was asked to write a short story to be serialised on eHarlequin.  That story was called Wife For Real and it was about  Alex Alcolar  and his heroine Louise.   It was good fun - and an interesting writing exercise  - putting everything into such a very few words (10,000) and splitting it into  eight chapters  each one ending on a cliff hanger to keep readers  coming back for more.

When the story was posted on  the eHarlequin site, readers enjoyed it and  when  they got to the end - and discovered that Alex had a family - two brothers and a sister -  they wanted  to know more about them. As a result, by popular request,  I wrote  3 full length novels
The Twelve Month Mistress  - which was Joaquin's story
The Spaniard's Inconvenient Wife  which was
Ramon's story
and  Bound By Blackmail which was the story of the one Alcolar Daughter - Mercedes

Later these  3 stories were all republished in a 3 in 1 By Request   The Alcolar Family (in the UK)   and Kate Walker's Alcolar Family Bundle  in Presents.  The Alcolar Family (UK)  didn't have a copy of Wife For Real in it - but  Kate Walker's Alcolar Family Bundle did .  Or it should have done - it was meant to do  -  but initially there was a problem. The edition of Wife For Real include
d in this bundle was  not my short story but a novel by Jennifer Taylor  - a Harlequin Romance.    So people who wanted Alex's story were disappointed.

I talked to editorial back then and had thought that the situation  was sorted out  - but it seems some of the  mixed up ebook editions have stuck around. I've had some emails from readers who were looking for the  bundle with the Kate Walker story Wife For Real in them.  When they bought the  books and found there was Jennifer's story it was not the one they were looking for.

I've also had emails from people who have bought the UK  Alcolar Family  3 in 1  -   or bought each of the original Alcolar Family titles as separate books or ebooks - they'v e not been able to get their hands on a copy of  Wife For Real either.

I took this up with my editor, and with the people who organise Harlequin ebooks. They checked on the details of this for me,  and we want to apologise to anyone who ended up with the wrong version of Wife For Real  even after all a this time.

But for everyone who's been affected by this situation -  at last I have some news for you.

 I’m really happy to say that  the production team has been working on this problem and they have  revised the content of this book bundle  so that it now contains the right version of Wife For Real. As  I understand it, if you have already bought one version you should be able to log in to the site  where you bought it and download the revised version so that you have  all of The Alcolar Family on your reader.   I hope this works for you.

Otherwise, they have also put the novella up on eHarlequin again as an on-line read so that people

can get to see it there  and find out about Alex Alcolar and his story.

You should find it here.

This on line read could end up being even more important,  because I understand that in the autumn - about September of so  - the Alcolar Family trilogy will be republished in Australia under the title The Notorious Alcolars.   I haven't yet been able to find out if Wife For Real is included in this collection - but if it's not there, I shall now be able to let readers  know about the on-line read version of this novella.

So  if you've been looking for a copy of Alex Alcolar's story Wife For Real   you should now be able to find it. Either update your Alcolar Family Bundle - or go to the   eHarlequin site  and read the story there.

And if you haven't read any of the Alcolar family books, then maybe, as happened  ten + years ago, reading about Alex and Louise will whet your appetite to find out more about  the rest of his family.

Sold out!

Congratulations to the 3 finalists in the So You think You Can Write contest.  If you haven’t read their entries – check them out on the SYTYCW page.    And look out for more news on other entries that have attracted attention and who may well be contacted by  the editors very soon.

Good luck to everyone  involved – and keep writing! Even if you’re not in this  list – or the longer list of finalists, the only way to reach your dream of being published is to keep writing, keep learning,  keep trying.

Oh – and talking of learning. I have just organised some updates on my web site, one of which was to put the updated details of  my Advanced Contemporary Romance WritingCourse in Fishguard on the Events page but   last night I heard that the final place on in February 2013 has been booked – so this course is now officially sold out.  Sorry to anyone who had hoped to get a place for 2013. But don’t forget – you can still send an email to show your interest and Gerry Hobbs will put your name on the waiting list in case anyone who has booked  drops out between now and February – this will be on a first come, first served basis so get you name in now if you  want to secure any place that comes free.

Finally, if you've missed it until now  -  my free online read, Wife For Real is running on the Mills & Boon web site. This is the story of Alexander Alcolar – the first of the Alcolar Family whose story appeared in the  called surprisingly enough – The Alcolar Family (and yes- Fiona  - they were originally 3 separate titles).   Wife For Real is now at Chapter 6 where the story is about to come to its emotional climax.  

I’ve been reading through this again for the first time in ages and I remember how much I had to pare it down to fit it into the short, serial format of the on-line reads. There was no room for extras, much description or anything but the immediate story. It was a fascinating exercise – getting the emotional impact of the story into just 10,000 words.  Reading it, I’ve been thinking how it could also be used  as a long, detailed plan of a novel, sketching out the emotional journey of the hero and heroine and  then it would be possible to go back and shade in all the details later.

I’m not very much of a planner,  but that way might work for some who need more structure. (Hmm – note to self – look at this from the point of view of  teaching on that Contemporary Romance Writing course. . . .

Good news for Australian readers

One of the books I get enquiries about so often from my Australian readers is A Sicilian Husband.  This is because this novel is part of a duo – the first title being The Sicilian’s Wife.

The first book tells the story of Cesare Santorino and his heroine Megan, and in that story readers met Cesare’s half-brother Gio Cardelli. Gio had adored his wife and had been heart-broken when  she had died tragically and far too young.

So many readers wanted to read Gio’s story – it was published in 2003 here in the UK, 2004 in America. But in Australia, it wasn’t  easy to find as it was published in a multipack of ‘Winter Warmers’ rather than as a separate title.

So if you missed it then, I have good news for you – and it’s great news for me too. Mills & Boon Australia is publishing a special reprint of both  these titles in a double volume  in their Bestsellers Collection which is out this month.

I’m so thrilled  about this for a couple of reasons – on is that A Sicilian Husband is one of my own personal favourites amongst my books. I always loved Gio from the moment I introduced him in Maegan and Cesare’s story. And secondly because it’s a real honour to have  two of my stories  reprinted in the special Bestseller series. It’s something I’ve dreamed of for a long time – and I’m really happy that the books selected are these two titles.

So I hope that if you’re one of my wonderful Australian readers who missed Gio’s story (or perhaps Cesare’s)  the first time around, or perhaps you just want to replace an old/missing edition of these stories you’ll be as glad as I am to see them back again. Or it they’re totally new to you – really hope you enjoy them this time around.

Oh - and I've  just discovered that over on the Mills & Boon website,  my novella Wife For Real is being republished  in their On Line Reads. This is the very first  story in  the series The Alcolar Family.  It isn't  available  in the reprint of the 3 in 1 Collection  - so if you wanted to know how that series began  - and to learn about Alex Alcolar  now's your chance to catch up.

(Wife For Real is included in the ebook collection of The Alcolar Family on Harlequin web site too)

Tomorrow in the first Friday in November which means that I will be blogging over on the Pink Hearts Society  site. I’m posting a second set of thoughts following on  from the So You Think You Can Write Contest  - hope to see you there!

Countdown to Christmas 4

Today's  prize giveaway is another 3 in 1 book collection - but this one has three books that are all written by me.

The prize today is the complete Alcolar Family Collection.

The Alcolar Family is the story of  a family of proud Spanish aristocrats - Passion is their birthright!

The three titles are:

The Twelve-Month Mistress

JOAQUIN'S STORY
Made to be his mistress...

Joaquin Alcolar has a rule—never to keep a mistress for more than twelve months. Cassie knows that her time is nearly up, and to save her pride—and her heart—she decides to jump before she’s pushed.
However, when an accident leaves Joaquin with amnesia, he cannot recall Cassie ending their relationship. And, on doctor’s orders, Cassie can’t tell him the truth.

So is she back where she started—in Joaquin’s bed—until her recovers his memory . . . and the clock starts ticking once more . . ?

The Spaniard's Inconvenient Wife

RAMON'S STORY
The convenient solution is to marry her!
Ramon Dario desperately wants the Medrano company. But the deal has a shocking condition - marriage to the notorious Estrella Medrano. Ramon won't be forced into anything, least of all into wedding a scarlet woman!

But Estrella is not what he imagined. Ramon can't get her gorgeous body out of his mind. He even starts to believe she may not deserve her reputation.
A marriage of convenience - and desire - might be a good deal after all...

Bound By Blackmail

MERCEDES'S STORY
He'll make her his mistress for revenge...

Jake Taverner has never wanted a woman as much as he wants Mercedes Alcolar. So when she rejects him in the most painful way, Jake's hurt pride demands the most pleasurable revenge...
...his mistress for a month!
Jake traps Mercedes into a fake engagement as he embarks on his skillful seduction. She'll share his bed for one passionate month. But though he can bind her by blackmail...can he keep her?

And today's question . . . well, you'll have top follow me over to my guestblog post over on We Write Romance where I'll be talking about  my personal Countdown To Christmas  - and asking the question for you to answer over there!

Last Chance to Bid

Brenda Novak's Auction to benefit Diabetes Research comes to and end on May 31st. So you have just one more day  to get in your bids on any of the lots you want to win.
A final  reminder of the lots that I have on offer -


Critique of a partial and synopsis

Critique of a partial (first 3 chapters and a synopsis) of a manuscript aimed at Harlequin Mills & Boon Modern Romance/Harlequin Presents


A Reader and Writers' Basket containing:

12 POINT GUIDE TO WRITING ROMANCE (the 3rd edition)
THE STRAIGHTFORWARD GUIDE TO WRITING ROMANTIC FICTION (the 3rd edition)
A great selection of Kate Walker's novels:
THE PROUD WIFE (Presents Extra October 2010)
THE GOOD GREEK WIFE? (Presents Extra April 2011)

THE KONSTANTOS MARRIAGE DEMAND (winner of Best Harlequin Presents Extra 2010)
THE ALCOLAR FAMILY TRILOGY (not available in the U.S.), which includes:
The Twelve Month Mistress
The Spaniard’s Inconvenient Wife
Bound by Blackmail
The trilogy CLAIMED BY THE SICILIAN (not available in the U.S.), which includes:
The Sicilian’s Wife
Sicilian Husband, Blackmailed Bride
The Sicilian’s Red-Hot Revenge
BEDDED BY THE GREEK BILLIONAIRE (Harlequin Presents November 2008)
All books are packed into one of her fabulous Kate Walker Tote Bags.

And two separate lots of single, autographed books -

The Alcolar Family Trilogy 3 in 1 Collection

and

Claimed by The Sicilian 3 in 1 collection

All these lots are still open and you can bid until  June 1st - it's for such a great cause so why not take a look at just what's on offer and see if you'd like to make a bid.

Brenda Novak's Auction

I am mildly stunned and really rather honoured to discover that someone has bid $325 for my offer of  critique of a partial aimed at Harlequin Presents/M&B Modern  in  Brenda Novak's on-line auction  in aid of research into diabetes.  Thank you to the bidder for your generous contribution to this great cause - I shall  hope that my critique will be worth it.
The auction has just under a week to go - it ends on May 31st   so you still have time to bid on  my lots - or any of the other great lots on offer.

Just to remind you that as well as the critique of a partial (3 chapters and a synopsis) I have also offered -

A Reader and Writers' Basket  containing:

12 POINT GUIDE TO WRITING ROMANCE (the 3rd edition)
THE STRAIGHTFORWARD GUIDE TO WRITING ROMANTIC FICTION (the 3rd edition)
A great selection of Kate Walker's novels:
THE PROUD WIFE (Presents Extra October 2010)
THE GOOD GREEK WIFE? (Presents Extra April 2011)

THE KONSTANTOS MARRIAGE DEMAND (winner of Best Harlequin Presents Extra 2010)
THE ALCOLAR FAMILY TRILOGY (not available in the U.S.), which includes:
The Twelve Month Mistress
The Spaniard’s Inconvenient Wife
Bound by Blackmail
The trilogy CLAIMED BY THE SICILIAN (not available in the U.S.), which includes:
The Sicilian’s Wife
Sicilian Husband, Blackmailed Bride
The Sicilian’s Red-Hot Revenge
BEDDED BY THE GREEK BILLIONAIRE (Harlequin Presents November 2008)
All books are packed into one of her fabulous Kate Walker Tote Bags.

And two separate lots of single, authographed books -

The Alcolar Family Trilogy 3 in 1 Collection

and

Claimed by The Sicilian  3 in 1 collection

All these lots are still open and you can bid until May 1st  - it's for such a great cause so why not take a look at just what's on offer and see if you'd like to make a bid.

What day is it?

OK so it's not the 27th - but what's a day between friends?

I promised the last two prizes on the Advent Calendar and - well, you wouldn't believe how stuffed Sid has been and he said that the thought of picking winners was actually a struggle!

Add into that a Babe Magnet with the manflu, visitiors and visiting . . . And the truth is that I was much more tired that I imagined. This past year has been a bit wearing and the run up to Christmas included an intensive session making sure that the latest book made the right deadline for scheduling.

So I'm going to be taking a few more days just to enjoy being between dreadlines, having family and friends to stay - and to tackle the huge TBR pile - that's got even bigger as a result of the number of book gifts that arived for Christmas. Remember the list of 'books I want for Christmas'? I got every single book oin that list! So I have a lot of reading to catch up on. (Having said that I have a blog tomorrow on the PHS !)
Anyway - just to round off the Advent Calendar winners - the final two are

Erin wins a copy of The Alcolar Family

and Denise wins a copy of Claimed by the Sicilian

Erin and Denise please email me your postal addresses

I've enjoyed running the Advent Calendar Contest - thank you so much to everyone who joined in. I've loved all the comments and learning more about all of you and the way you celebrate Christmas - and the books you enjoy. If you have won a prize - and claimed it! - if you haven't received it already, like Valerie, it will be on its way to you and should reach you very soon.

When I've drawn breath an caught up with things I'll be back and then I can tell you about the new and exciting things - books, blogs - anything - that are coming up in the New Year.

Advent Calendar Day 24 - and 25

I can't believe it's the next to last day of the Advent Calendar already - what? Yes I know most Advent Calendars are only 24 days - but I have 25 years to being published to celebrate .

So there are 25 giveaways - but I'm posting the last two today and I'll be getting Sid on the job of picking winners on the 27th - he'll be too full of chicken and gravy and salmon cat dinners to want to eat anything else before then.

Yesterday's winner is Eva please email me your postal address Eva

Oh and today I had my best Christmas present from my editor - the book I wrote and submitted and was tweaking - remember that one? The tweaks came in back about Day 14 on the Advent Calendar - well, they actually came in earlier than that but they disappeared into the ether. Anyway, tweaks went in - and accodring to my editor they are 'spot on' and the book is'fabulous'! It's accepted and scheduled - but not titled yet - so I'll tel you all about that when I get achance to breathe after the big day. But I'm really thrilled that this one is accepted - it's a bit special to me.

So to share the celebrations I have two great last giveaways on the Advent Calendar - they are both 3 in 1 collections - Today's book is . . .

The Alcolar Family trilogy (at least I hope it is - I have yet to find a spare copy but if I don't find that, I'll put in another 3 in 1

This book contains The Twelve Month Mistress, The Spaniard's Inconvenient Wife and Bound By Blackmail.

And the prize for Christmas Day itself is - Claimed by The Sicilian

This collection has in it The Sicilian's Wife, Sicilian Husband, Blackmailed Bride and The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge

So the final question(s) are - and please answer both to be included in both draws -

1. For today - have you hung up any mistletoe and who would you most like to kiss underneath it?

2. For Christmas Day - when you'vve opened your presents - then what do you do? Go for a walk? Watch TV? Fall asleep. I think I'm going to be doing all three

Or you can just post a Cjristmas Greeting to all the other readers who come and visit. There might be only some of you who are posting but I had over 400 visitors yesterday - if you were one of them and didn't join in the Advent Calendar - please leave a message this time. You never know - you might win!

I'll be back after Boxing Day and announce the final winners then

So I just need to say HAPPY CHRISTMAS to all of you. I hope you have a wonderful happy, peaceful and fun time - whatever you're celebrating.

Advent Calendar Giveaway Day 13

So we're over halfway with the Advent Calendar giveaway. It's been fun checking through my book stock and finding different titles to use as prizes. So far I haven't repeated any books, but I'm not sure how long I can continue with that. We'll see - but there will be giveaway books right up until Christmas Day.

The winner for yesterday's copy of The Good Greek Wife is - well, the winners are because once again Sid snaffled two treats in one mouthful - so the winners are

Aine and

Desere

And I need to remind winners that you need to email me with your postal address or I can't get the prize to you. I'm still waiting to hear from
Dena

Alicia

Ros
I can't send books out when I don't know where they're going!

Today's giveaway book is The Spaniard's Inconvenient Wife and this is another book (the second) in The Alcolar Family trilogy. (Unfortunately I don't have any copies of the first title in this mini-series The Twelve Month Mistress in stock - they all went out as prizes etc long ago. It was a very popular title. But it is still available in ebook form as are all the other titles, or the full trilogy as a 'bundle'.)

Anyway - The Spaniard's Inconvenient Wife - Ramon's story.

The convenient solution is to marry her!

Ramon Dario desperately wants the Medrano company. But the deal has a shocking condition - marriage to the notorious Estrella Medrano. Ramon won't be forced into anything, least of all into wedding a scarlet woman!

But Estrella is not what he imagined. Ramon can't get her gorgeous body out of his mind. He even starts to believe she may not deserve her reputation.

A marriage of convenience - and desire - might be a good deal after all...

The Spaniard's Inconvenient Wife has a great cover. The red dress is actually very important in the story - though it doesn't really look like the one in the picture. Why? Well, you'll have to read the book to find out. I remember that the inspiration for the scene in which the heroine is wearing this dress came to me one day when I was at lunch with my editor and she told me about a wedding she'd just attended . . . I can still remember going home on the train and pulling out my notebook and scribbling frantically, determined not to let the idea vanish.

If you haven't read the book, you'll have to try to win it to find out why!

And to do that you'll need to answer today's question which is all about clothes -

What will you be wearing on Christmas Day? Do you plan to dress up, really go for glamour, or do you prefer to keep things casual? Do you wear the same thing all day or change for dinner - or a get-together in the evening?: Tell me about your planned outfit - or the one for the best party you're going to. Or the cosy sweater and jeans you plan to curl up and read in!

Answers in the comments as usual please.

Oh - and with reference to The Alcolar Family Trilogy, I've just had a couple of enquiries about the on-line short story that started off this mini series when it was published on eHarlequin. This story was called Wife For Real.

So there are three ways you can find this -

One is to go to the Mills and Boon site and find the link in the sidebar that says Free Onl Line Reads - it's just below the new M&B symbol - & - and above the list of all the series on sale and there's a row of books to indicate this, currently topped with snow! Click on the link which will take you to the Online Read page with the current onl ine read posted there

You'll see a pink heading to the Online Read Library where it says read past serials in our library

Click on this link and scroll down - serials are in alphabetical order of title so Wife For Real is close to the bottom of this page

The other way is to buy an ebook version - to download to your reader or even your computer - this is only $0.89 on eHarlequin - you go to the eHarlequin site or follow one of the links to ebooks on my web site and put Wife For Real in the search box there. Or you can go direct here

so you can get a copy of the story.

Finally, if you buy the ebook bundle of The Alcolar Family from eHarlequin then this bundle contains all three novels and the online short story in one pack.

Advent Calendar Giveaway

Let it snow . . .Well, I can't really do much else, but let it snow - the damn stuff is piling up around me. And has been for days.

It started with an inch or two. And since then there has been more added to that inch, day by day. I've tried to get out at least once a day just to get into the air and see daylight. But this morning I have drifts piled up against my door so that it's almost impossible to open it. Ihad to try though - Flora needed to go out.

She went into the garden and just about disappeared into the snow. It's higher than her legs. We had to go and fetch her because she couldn't get back! If Charlie went out into it, he'd be buried completely. I measured the snow by the door - over 14 inches of the stuff.

I think we need something to brighten the day

So it's December 1st. Today the countdown to Christmas begins. On December 1st, children open one door a day on their Advent Calendars to mark the days between now and December 25th.

And as I've been celebrating 25 years, I think 25 days of Christmas is a great way to round off the year.

So, every day between now and Christmas Eve, I'm giving away a book on this blog. Some old, some new(er). Some single titles, some 'By Request' or Collections. And all you have to do is to come and visit, and say hello in the comments, answering my question.

And every day I'll pick a winner - and then I'll send the book to you (when I can get out to the Post Office that is!)

So - today let's start with a golden oldie. Today's giveaway book is Bound By Blackmail (2005)

Bound by Blackmail is the final part of The Alcolar Family trilogy and it's the story of Mercedes, the only Alcolar daughter.

He'll make her his mistress for revenge...

Jake Taverner has never wanted a woman as much as he wants Mercedes Alcolar. So when she rejects him in the most painful way, Jake's hurt pride demands the most pleasurable revenge...
...his mistress for a month!

Jake traps Mercedes into a fake engagement as he embarks on his skillful seduction. She'll share his bed for one passionate month. But though he can bind her by blackmail...can he keep her?

So to be in with a chance of winning this book, all you need to do is to post in the comments - tell me, do you have an advent calendar in your house? For yourself, or the kids - or, like some crazy people - for the cats! (Can't find the photo right now - but I will!)