Books on Offer - Translations

Some weeks can go by with no parcels of books arriving at the door. Then other weeks there are so many deliveries I can't keep up with them..  The last few weeks have been like this-  books in all sorts of languages arriving , boxes of them, and I'm not sure what to do with them.

Some will go to the libraries but first I thought I'd see if anyone  out there would like a translation into their own language while I have them to give away. I did this before and it was great to send them out to the countries they belonged in.
So - tomorrow I'm heading for the Isle of Man  to accompany the Babe Magnet of his  publicity 'tour' there - Douglas Library (Thursday evening) .  Port Erin Arts (Saturday morning)  Radio  interviews . .  if anyone's on the island and would like to meet up with 'Uncle Albert' .

And while I'm away I'm offering  copies of these translations to anyone who's interested in one.
This will be strictly on a first come first served basis - one book per person.  Please let me know which book you'd like in which language and give me your postal address so that I can get it in the mail to you.
email me kate  at kate-walker.com

Back on Sunday afternoon - after which the offer is closed and the books will go to the library

I have:

Italian editions of: 

His Miracle Baby

A Question of Honor

Dutch editions of:

A Question of Honor

The Proud Wife

Saturday’s Bride  (with books by Catherine George and Anne Mather)

A  Throne for the Taking  (with a book by Trish Morey)

Danish edition of

A Throne for the Taking

Her Secret Bridegroom

Russian edition of

A Question of Honor

Norwegian/Swedish/Finland editions of:

A Throne For the Taking (together with Michelle Condor Duty at What Cost)

German editions of:

Throne For The Taking

The Duke’s  Secret Wife

I've also had Japanese editions of  A Question of Honour and a  Manga edition of His Miracle Baby - together with the fabulous Manga comic in English of    Bedded By The Greek Billionaire  but I'm afraid I don't have spare copies of these.

Advent Calendar Day 4

It's been a wild  day today.  I know there have been much wilder, fiercer storms all over the world this year - but today's howling wind and flying tree branches, were more than enough for me. I can't say I enjoyed the feeling of having the car been blown towards the centre of the road -  or having flying branches hit the windscreen. It made me think of everyone who has been hit by the ferocious force of nature this year   - and hope there are beginning to pick themselves and their lives back up  a bit now.,

It also worried me for the people in my area - along the Lincolnshire /East Anglia  coastline where they are being hit by a ferocious storm surge, threatened with floods and desalination as the high water time approaches. I hope every manages to stay safe  - and I'd  hope, dry and warm.  Keep inside - and look after yourselves, wherever you are.

That's partly why I;'m a bit late posting this blog today - the other is the reason why I went out and about - I was looking for stocking fillers.  For me, stockings are one of the very best bits of Christmas traditions. I love collecting up small gifts, ones that I know will make my loved ones smile - or, preferably , laugh - and there's little I like more than Christmas morning with everyone curled up on the bed (Charlie the cat included) with mugs of tea (OK - that's not for Charlie!), everyone delving into their stocking and pulling out a small, funny, pretty, interesting gift.  I know my son is grown up and he and his lovely partner have a home of their own now  but - well, no one's  too old to have a Christmas Stocking are they?

So that's today's question - do you still have Christmas stockings - or give them to the 'kids' on Christmas morning?

What sort of things do you put in them?   I know my parents always put an annual in with ours - and the plan was that we were to sit and read the book so as not to wake mother and father too early - it worked sometimes!

As stocking fillers are small, lovely little packages, I have a couple of copies of the novella - The Duke's  Secret Wife to give away to someone who comments this time.  The Duke's Secret Wife came out originally in   Society  Weddings (with Sharon Kendrick) in  2002 and then was republished in the Centenary celebrations in 2008.

Isabelle's secret marriage to Don Luis de Silva seems to be over. But the heir to the dukedom of Madriagalo demands that she return to Spain with him and pretend to be his fiancée - and then his wife! What does Luis have to gain from this reunion - except Isabelle?

I don't have a photo of Charlie with his Christmas Stocking - but  I know he won't mind if I share this lovely one of the late, great Dylan (just for you Biddy!)  who obviously knew that Santa Could be expected to come down the chimney!

Keep safe everyone out in the wild winds.

Old books . . . New editions

One of the best things about writing for Harlequin Mills & Boon is the way that the books are published in so many different formats and countries all  over the world.  Every now and then a bundle of new foreign editions appears in the post and I have fun finding out which books they are and where they've been reprinted this time.

I've  had a flurry of these books lately and it's been interesting to see which 'old favourites' have turned up this time.

One is a reprint of a reprint  now appearing as a 'Select'  title in Japan. The Twelve Month Mistress always had one of my favourite covers and now I think it looks really powerful and  atmospheric in this new edition.

Another reprint of an older book appears in a French edition where I'm thrilled to be published together with my lovely friend Trish Morey - who just received her silver pin for her 25th title  -   In this edition  Trish's Secrets of Castillo Del Arco  has my  The Married Mistress included as a free promotional title - a great bargain. And Congratulations Trish on that 'silver' book!


In parcels of books arriving last week, I also  had an Italian edition of The Antonakos Marriage,   The Return of The Stranger in Greek, Spanish, Portugese, and  Hebrew. And The Devil and Miss Jones is out in France this month too.

It's been intriguing to see these foreign language editions appearing on Kindle - and so showing up on my listing on Amazon, where I can now spot German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portugese editons alongside the UK ones.  When I think back to how when I was first published, the books tended to appear on a shelf in a UK bookshop for one month and that was the only time I ever saw them on sale, this is such a great thrill to see  all these editions appearing now.

And then there are the older books, now being reproduced in the Kindle format -  after browsing on Amazon, I discovered that The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge has been brought out in this format last month -  sadly, without the gorgeous sexy cover  of the original. 

And it's great to see that in the top 100  Mills & Boon titles on sale on Amazon today, there  are four 'elderly' Kate Walker titles  listed there - The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife (in Mediterranean  Tycoons)  Kept For Her Baby, The Duke's Secret Wife  and, of course The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge. It's great to see them all enjoyuing a new lease of life  as Kindle books.

And who knows what today's post might bring!

What oldies but goldies romance books would you love to see reappearing on Kindle?

Advent Calendar Giveaway Day 7

Four winners I promised you from yesterday's giveaway - so here are four names that Sid has picked out (and now you all know just why I use Sid to do the chosing!)

Judy T

Chrissy (and I hope you find the candy canes!)

Kirsten - I love the way you decorate your tree and the 'do you remember' game that goes with it

Kelly

Just to make one thing clear - I was asked if I posted prizes overseas . One of my earlier winners lives in Finland and was concerned that I might not be prepared to send her prize to her. She needn't have worried! - Yes I do send out prizes overseas - anywhere I have readers I will send a prize. So don't let the fact that you live thousands of miles away hold you back from entering - my readers are my friends and distance is no problem for friends.

I found out today that the USA cover of my next book - The Proud Wife - is already up on Amazon.com. The new-style UK one hasn't appeared but I'll post it when I find it. Anyway, the Presents Extra cover looks like this ------>

I like it a lot - though the clothing for my heroine in that particular scene isn't quite right. (You'll have to wait till March to see why) But the passion and the intensity is just perfect!

Anway, this cover reminded me of one of my personal favourite covers ever - the cover on The Italian's Forced Bride . In fact, with a change of hair colouring for the heroine and a slightlydifferent dress they could almost have been posed at the same time.

So that made me decide that today's Advent Calendar Giveaway title would be The Italian's Forced Bride. (2006/7)

"As long as I want you, you stay — and you only leave when I give you permission to go."

Alice Howard spent six passionate months as Domenico Parrisi's mistress. But she knew he would never love her back and would soon discard her — so she left him.

But now Domenico wants her back in his bed, and his terms of possession are the same as before—until he makes a discovery that changes everything: Alice is carrying his child.

This book won Best Mills & Boon Modern Romance in Cata Romance's Reviewers' Choice Awards and was a Waldenbooks #1 bestseller

Today's question is - What do you plan to eat for Christmas Day? Are you a traditionalist and just must have turkey and all the trimmings ? Or do you go for something different? What about thbose of you who don't live in the UK or America - Nas? Eva?

Here in this family we're veggie - except for my son's partner - so I make a special nut roast that tastes great. The only trouble is, you can't have it cold in sandwiches on Boxing Day!

You know the routine - answers in the comments please.
And yesterday's winners- Chrissy, Kelly, Judy and Kirsten please send me your postal addresses - email kate AT kate-walker.com

Advent Calendar Giveaway Day 6

The winner of the copy of Mistresses Shackled by Rubies was EV over at Tote Bags . So Ev Please email me with your postal address and I'll get your prize in the post to you.


Denise asked - I always meant to ask, why is it Sid who gets to pick winners, and not the other cats? Lucky Sid! =)




To be honest, Denise (and I can be honest because Sid is fast asleep in the other room!) - the answer is because Sid is greedy. He is guaranteed to be interested in the cat crunchies and when we let him go at all the names, has the enthusiasm to pick several winners without stopping! Which is useful when there is more than one winner.

And more than useful when there is a lot of winners - like the 25 winners of the Anniversary Contest I ran last month. (This means I'll have given away over 50 books in the last few weeks! It's a good thing I'm not celebrating 25 years of publication every year!)

Flora is usually difficult to find as she's out roaming in the garden, or woold be too miffed if we disturbed her sleep. And Dylan is getting so elderly that he sleeps most of the time and is never really that interested enough to bother!



So, Sid is more than happy to help - but we might start training up Charlie who is turning into a real trencherman and so I'm sure will be happy to become the prize pickers' assistant and learn how to follow in A Cat of Superior Breeding's pawprints. He's already trying to fill Sid's bed!




Today's book giveaway is slightly different - because there will be four giveaways! Two of these will be special prizes for my newsletter members.

And the book is the special M&B's 100th Birthday Collection novella - The Duke's Secret Wife.



Isabelle's secret marriage to Don Luis de Silva seems to be over. But the heir to the dukedom of Madriagalo demands that she return to Spain with him and pretend to be his fiancée - and then his wife!

What does Luis have to gain from this reunion - except Isabelle?



The Duke's Secret Wife was published in Society Weddings together with Promised to the Sheikh by Sharon Kendrick


And today's question is: Have you bought or put up your Christmas tree yet or do you prefer to wait until it gets closer to the actual day?

Now here's some news of another chance to win some of my books - there's a lot of giveaways around - it must be Christmas! Lovely Heather from We Write Romance is running a contest to give a chance to win one of five of my titles over on the We Write Romance web site blog.

Here's what Heather sent to me about this contest:We are running an end of year Kate Walker 25th Anniversary Celebration contest where we will be giving away 5 of your books! The contest started today through the 15th and is super simple to enter. The link is to the page is here So why not head over the We Write Romance and maybe you can win there too.

Over at Quiller's Place - Sally Quilford has started her special contest to win a copy of the 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance so if you'd like to win a copy of that, make sure you enter her contest this week.

And don't forget to keep coming back here every day between now and Christmas because every day there will be a different book on offer.

Finally . . .

I'm sorry about the delay - the demands on my time just don't get any less - but I finally - finally! - have a winner for the suggestion of a name for my monthly column next year. I know I posted the contest back on August 15th but I needed to chat with the editors of the site to see what they thought of a name for the column and they agreed with me so -

The winner is - Laney with A Date With Kate

Laney came up with so many suggestions that I'm going to file them away for future reference!

(At this stage, I can't guarantee that this is exactly what the column will be called but it's our favourite at the moment.)

So Laney wins a prize - but - as no one entered the other mini-contest where I asked which of my books opens in York with the heroine leading the Ghost Walk ( the answer was The Duke's Secret Wife) I have spare prizes to give away. So to thank everyone else who came up with a suggestion for the name of the column, I'm giving away a prize of a backlist book to all of them too.

So- Laney

runner10

Lara
Carol

Kelly
and

CCMacKenzie

Please all contact me (kate AT Kate-walker.com ) with your postal address and choice of books from this list:

At the Sheikh's Command

Bedded By The Greek Billionaire

Cordero's Forced Bride

The Konstantos Marriage Demand

Kept for Her Baby

Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife

The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife.

And I'll organise your prizes. It might be after I get back from the NAWG Festival of Writing but I'll get straight to it after that.

Oh yes - and because some of you have been asking - now that it's September, The Good Greek Wife? is available early on eHarlequin as a print book as well as an ebook - details are here

It's in the shops on October 12th

Christmas Stocking Stuffed with books - and finally . . .

So I've told you all about the books donated by friends and fellow authors to be part of the Christmas, but of course there is one final title in this special Christmas Collection and that's the one that I've put in this time.

With 2008 being the 100th birthday of Harlequin Mills & Boon, I thought that the most appropriate book I could donate this year is the special novella from the Centenary Collection - The Duke's Secret Wife.

Isabelle's secret marriage to Don Luis de Silva seems to be over. But the heir to the dukedom of Madriagalo demands that she return to Spain with him and pretend to be his fiancée - and then his wife! What does Luis have to gain from this reunion - except Isabelle?

This came out along with 23 other short stories in the special Centenary Collection. I'm not sure how long all the stories will be available but if you did want to make sure you have the whole collection, then you can take advantage of the speciall offer available on the Mills & Boon Website where you can buy all 24 titles for just £23. That's less than £1 a book.

And talking about sexy Spanish heroes, I just discovered the cover of the UK edition of my next book, coming in March 2009. It's now up on Amazon.co.uk for pre-order. My lucky American readers can get their hands on a copy before then because Cordero's Forced Bride is published in February 2009 in USA.

If you want to enter the Christmas Stocking Contest, then get your entries in soon. The closing date is 20th December. And then Sid will get to work, picking winners. (If you want to offer brides, he's very fond of tuna.)

The 12 Days of Christmas Contest will run for a few more days - right up until Christmas Eve.

Details of both my contests can be found on my Contests Page and over on Author Sound Relations for the 12 Days of Christmas Contest.

Good luck!

Reading - not!

I'm deep in revisions for my latest book. They're the sort of revisions where it seemed simple to combine my own vision of the story with the comments my editor made.

But then those revisions often mean that touch one scene and the knock on effect from that changes the next scene and the knock on effect from that . . .

So I'm busy - and concentrating . And when I'm concentrating like this, I don't read. It distracts my focus and the focus needs to be on the two characters I'm working with.

But while I'm focusing I'm also aware of the fact that this week my newest Presents title - Bedded By The Greek Billionaire is published. And I want to celebrate that. So, as I mentioned, I'm going to run a small celebratory contest to share the excitement of this new release with you. And of course, as I've said I'm also celebrating that this book in a November Romantic Times Top Pick!

As you know, I was in Guildford lately where everyone who was at the workshop was given a Mills & Boon goody bag, kindly donated by Harlequin Mills & Boon as part of their 100th birthday celebrations. I still have one or two of the goodies left over - so I'm making up two packages of special M&B gifts for each winner of this contest to celebrate my new book.

What do you have to do?

Well I may not be reading but that doesn't mean that you're not. And if you let me know what you're reading then I might want to add it to my own TBR for when I have this book tweaked and back on my editor's desk. So all you have to do to enter this contest is to post a comment telling me what you're reading right now and what you think of it. And in a couple of days time I'll get Sid to pick out the winners.

And I'll put a signed copy of my own Centenary Special novella The Duke's Secret Wife into the goody bag as well.

PS Just to remind you - you can enter my contests from anywhere in the world. I don't restrict entries ot the UK, or USA - if I can post a prize to you, you can enter!

So anyone from all of the 143 countries listed on my Neo Counter can have a go at winning.

Quick reminders

Locked in the writing cave (can you get locked in a cave?) with a brooding Italian - no you can't mention the dreadline!

But I just thought I'd better remind you that August ends this weekend ( and that's why you definitely can't mention this dreadline!) and so . . .

If you want to get your hands (or your email) on a free copy of Spanish Billionaire Innocent Wife delivered by email then tomorrow is the last day it will be on offer from DailyLit.com to download for free. When September dawns this offer closes - so if you want to take advantage of it, then grab it now.

Apparently, DailyLit is celebrating the delivery of its 250,000th read to one of their 125,855 dedicated readers. That's a lot of reading in this new way of getting books electronically.

And don't forget the Super September Contest that I'm running jointly with the fabulous Michelle Reid - details are on my contest page .

There are two great prizes of a signed copy of Bedded By The Greek Billionaire and The De Santis Marriage together with a copy of the By Request 3 in 1 volume Her Passionate Italian which contains my A Sicilian Husband and Michelle's The Passion Bargain.

You have until September 5th to enter this.

Finally, the change around from August to September means that the books I have on sale also change - so this weekend is probably your last chance to grab a copy of The Alcolar Family Trilogy in one volume (By Request) - though the trilogy will still be available in the ebook bundle form over on eHarlequin.com - or the special Centenary novella, The Duke's Secret Wife.

But as those are taken off the shelves, my new title will be added as it comes out next week - and that, of course, is Bedded By The Greek Billionaire.

So hopefully that wil be plenty to keep you happy reading while I go back into the cave with Ricardo and hope to get him to his personal happy ending before too long . . .

. . . .just don't mention the D word!

New books out this month

I have two new titles out this month - well, not 'new' as both are reprints - but they are both now on sale and can be bought on the Mills & Boon web site which is where I found these new widgets to try:

(Just hope this works)

This is for the By Request collection of The Alcolar Family in one volume:

Also out this month:

And my newest release, Bedded by the Greek Billionaire is also now on sale pre-publication. Check out the Mills and Boon web site for details.

The Alcolar Family

It's here! I finally got to see it - and to have a copy in my hand!

What am I talking about?

The Alcolar Family Trilogy, that's what!


My author copies arrived yesterday and I've been able to see it 'in the paper' for the first time.


And it's a wonderful feeling.

I always love the moment when the published editions of my books arrive. When I see the brand new covers, the actual pages with my words on them. And this time was really special. This is a substantial volume, 3 different stories, around 555 pages of text, and all of them mine! I've had 3 in 1 By Request volumes before now, but I've shared them with other writers - this one, with it's wonderful sunset on a beach cover is all mine! (OK - the cover's not entirely mine, but when I share it with a very special friend from 'downunder' on Trish Morey's great book A Virgin for the Taking, I'm not going to complain - and it is a great cover!)


I always loved the 'shout line' for this mini series -

Proud Spanish aristocrats . . . Passion is their birthright . . .

And there it is on the back of the collected volume, together with the names of all the three titles in the trilogy. The Twelve Month Mistress, The Spaniard's Inconvenient Wife and Bound by Blackmail. The only thing that would have made it even more perfect would have been if the on-line story that started this whole thing off had managed to be included in this volume.

But at least that is in the ebook 'bundle' that is currently riding high on the eHarlequin ebooks sales charts - it's been the best selling 'bundle' all month, right from the start.

This ebook bundle does include that story Wife For Real so that every single one of those Alcolar brothers (and sister) are collected together in one place.

To have this trilogy republished as a collection is such a special moment for me - and to have it appear now, in the middle of Mills & Boon's Centenary year, is an extra special thrill. In August I'll be running a special contest to celebrate - and that will be as well as my usual Tote Bag of Books Contest which I run every summer which is also coming up. (You didn't think I'd forgotten that did you? I've been busily collecting up books to go in this year's tote and I already have a wonderful selection).


But if you want to get your hands on the print copy of The Alcolar Family Trilogy it will be available on the Mills & Boon Website from the start of July.


And for international readers, the good news is that the trilogy will also be available on The Book Depository in August, as will The Duke's Secret Wife in the same month. Don't forget that The Book Depository offers free international delivery - that's worldwide - on all the books it stocks, so if you're itching to get your hands on any of the special Mills & boon Centenary publications and they're not available where you are, then The Book Depository is the place to look. (And no, I don't get commission from TBD but I do like to think that my readers all over the world can get their hands on the books they want as cheaply possible. And they do also stock the 2nd edition of the 12 Point Guide To Writing Romance which I know a lot of you have been looking for.)

Oh - and mention of The Duke's Secret Wife reminds me that I haven't announced the winners of the thank you prize for answering my questions about author's web sites and what you like or don't like about them. It's been a hectic week, but I finally managed to grab hold of Sid and put him to work. (work?) And the winners are:

Ellen and Dina

So Ellen and Dina will you please send me your mailing address and I'll get those copies of the book in the post to you. And to everyone else who answered both on my blog and in private - thank you so much - you've been a great help.

Conferences and Web Sites

I'm busy with one of my least favourite jobs, the annual accounts. They have to be done , I'm late already, so it's a matter of getting my head down and concentrating . I'm almost there and it's always a wonderful feeling when I'm finished so that's today's task. . .

But while I'm concentrating on that, perhaps you could help me by contributing to a discussion I'm having with various other authors, and will be talking about in public very soon.

It's coming up to the Conference Season. The Romantic Novelists' Association will gathering in Chichester for the weekend of July 4th-7th. I'll be there and if anyone reading this blog will be there too, please come up and say hello.

And then the Romance Writers' Of America will be holding their National Conference in San Francisco July 30th - August 2nd. I'll be there too - and if you'll be in SF either at the Conference or just attending the Literacy Signing on the Wednesday afternoon, please come and say Hi. I'd love to meet some of my 'blogfriends'.

I'm also giving a talk at the RNA Conference. And that's where you can help me. You see I've been bullied - ahem - persuaded - cajoled - into leading a discussion on why web sites are useful/important for authors. I've looked at this from the author's point of view, by running a survey and asking writer friends what their approach is, what they find works well, what they like and dislike . . .

But now I'd like to find out more from the readers' perspective. And this is where you can help me. I'd love to know what you like and dislike about authors' web sites.

What do you most want to see on an author's web site?

What are the most important /vital elements for you?

What do you rarely see that you think would be useful?

What information do you want to get from a web site?

Is a blog important?

Is it important to update a web site regularly? How often?

What brings you back to a site again and again?

Do promotions/contests matter?

Have you ever bought books directly from a web site - via Amazon/eHarlequin etc in a link?

How do you find authors' sites - what search engines/fiction/romancxe focused sites do you use?

Which authors’ sites do you visit/enjoy?

Which authors’ sites do you admire ?

Why?

Are there any web sites you dislike/find difficult to use/wouldn’t revisit?

What puts you off a web site?

Any help on this would be so useful and I'd really appreciate it. Feel free to answer as many or as few questions as you like - you can either post in the Comments section or email me privately (please put Web Site Survey) in the heading.

And as a thank you I'll put all the names in a hat - no - sorry - you know what I mean - I'll put them all on the floor with a crunchie cat treat on top and let Sid the Cat pick a couple of names from all of those who answer and the winners will get signed copies of my special Centenary Collection book - The Duke's Secret Wife.

Any non UK author friends reading this who haven't been asked to join in the survey - if you'd like to help with that too, you'd be only too welcome. Please email me for the survey questions.

Thank you!