Czeching in

Well I gave away all the foreign translations I had.  If you haven't received yours yet it's on its way. And Diana and Lois, I'm watching the postman waiting for those Spanish editions. You already have first claim on those . . .

Anyway, I'm emptied the 'foreign editions' box and as soon as I did, new translations started to appear!

Not that I mind because it means that my books are going out  to so many different countries where I hope readers will love them. This also means that older books come round again, years after they were first published.

This one is  The Married Mistress -  a book that was published  2003, then  2006. Great to see it back again - and I love the fact that in the Czech edition  my name becomes Kate Walkerova.  Not quite as good as historical novelist  Elizabeth Rollsova   but it always makes me smile.

Anyone want  a Czech translation?  I have a spare copy.

Have a great weekend - the sun is burning high in the sky here but we are promised severe storms later tonight - I do hope so.  I love a wild, fierce storm. The cats won't be happy so they will be under the bed!

New Books

Still waiting for the final details of the exciting news  hopefully I'll be able to tell you all very soon. But in the meantime today's good news was coming home to find a large parcel waiting for me. Brand new copies of the Presents edition of A Question of Honour.  (Ooops - no - sorry, seeing as this is the USA edition -

it's A Question of Honor!

This is one of my favourite moments of being a writer - the arrival of  the first editions of my book.

Another  bit of happy news was discovering that two much older books  - like  - books that were published in 2003 originally - are in the daily  Mills & Boon bestseller list on Amazon.co.uk  

It's great to see  The Married Mistress   and Wife for A Day selling so well in ebook ten years after they first came out in paperback in the UK.

And personally I'm getting a lot of satisfaction from seeing  Wife for A Day  there - with its  British hero!

Do you still love the Mediterranean hero - of do you miss the British guy  with his stiff upper lip?

I do wonder if it's time to admit that a British hero can be every bit as sexy and romantic as a Greek Billionaire or a Sheikh.

What do you think?

Cats and Courses and Kindles

It's been  a busy week.  (When is it anything else?)

There was Ruby's trip to the vet - for the routine  spaying operation.  Not before time! She was already

yelling 'I want a man!'  and importuning poor Charlie who  kept looking at me with an expression of  ' Mum, what does she want?  I don;'t understand ' on  his face!   He's so relieved she's settled down again.  And so are we. The thought that something  so small,  not yet out of kitten-hood herself could end up pregnant  and adding to the number of strays wandering about, just as she was  is just  horrible.

 She certainly hasn't had any problems with the op. She's still bounding round the house at a fast rate, eating anything put in front of her and pouncing on my toes whenever she can - her claws  and teeth are like needles.

Meanwhile, I've been preparing for  the  Advanced Writing Romance  course I'm running at Fishguard  at the end of the month. I can't wait. It's been so long since I saw the sea. And I know I'm going to to enjoy working with the   great group I have in the class. It's always so much fun. It's great  to talk about writing  with people who understand  this need to create, and it's fantastic to see how some of the students are growing and developing as writers as a result.

And, of course, we will have past student,  Rachael Thomas's success to toast this time as she's just had her very first Modern Romance/Harlequin Presents accepted.  There might be a bit of champagne involved.

And talking of courses - in an update to my website (Special thanks to my wonderful web designer Heather)  I've added all the courses coking up this year (so far) on the Events page.  There are now some basic Writing Romance courses as well as the annual Advanced Writing Romance course at Fishguard.  So if you're interested in joining us - why not take a look?

The first of these courses - at Weetwood Hall in Leeds is already selling out.  It's just about full but we might manage to squeeze another  couple of people in.  So  if you want to grab a place, do make inquiries sooner rather than later.  And if you've been on  a basic course and want to take things further -   it's not too early now to make an inquiry about Fishguard  2015!  These places always book fast  - so get your  name in now.
up

And talking about 2015, I'm discussing  the courses that might be on offer next year  now - look out for the details of those coming soon.  Details will be on my events page as soon as I know them - and at Writers' Holiday's web site or the one for Relax and Write Writing Weekends.   The links to these are also on my

Links page.

Talking of teaching writing - I have some big news coming up about the 12 Point Guide To Writing Romance. Not  quite ready to talk about it yet - but hopefully all will be revealed in March. So watch this space.

And talking about re-issues of older books -  at the end of last month, M&B  reissued ebook versions of some of my older titles -
Wife For A Day
The Married Mistress
Desert Affair
and Constantine's Revenge

So if  you missed these the first time round, or  you're looking for missing  books to add to your collection - check out the Mills & Boon site or Amazon for these 'Vintage ' titles.

Life!

Hmmm - who was it - Kaelee's uncle who used to end his paragraphs in letters with Life!!
I think I'm going to have to adopt that habit.
LIFE!

I was away for a couple of days - it wasn't supposed to take so long and I'd hoped to be back and continuing witht the Advent Calendar before now  but - Life!

OK, life and freezing fog and a journey home that took much longer than we expected.  We had a great time though - a wonderful visit to the Airedale Writers' Circle and their Christmas Party  - thank you to everyone who made us so welcome . And specially to  our dear friend  and crime writer Lesley Horton  who with her husband gave us such lovely hospitality  - Oh, and the cats who welcomed us to and helped to make up for the fact that we didn't have Flora and Charlie to cuddle.

So - back to this calendar.
First of all  - I have to name the winners from the last giveaway - I has said 3 winners, but as I've missed a couple of days again and  as I love this chance to give something to two people - the winners of the books and those who  are the givers who get to see them smile - I'm going to send copiues to all the people who nominated their friends or family -
So -
Julie M
Joye
Manisha
Yadkny
Eli
Desere
SiNn

Please email me with an address to send the book too - also please tell me the name of the person I should sign it for. Some of you have named  your winner, but others have just said 'my mum' or 'my friend'. The point of this gift is that it is for  the other person and I want to sign it for them.

I only have 3 copies of the book I mentioned - One Night in Madrid - but I do have some other trilogies - Mistress Material where my book is The Married Mistress and Mistresses Shackled with Rubies where my title is Her Secret Bridegroom. So your chosen winner will received one of other of these.

Other winners from past posts  - the delay in getting hjome has meant a delay in getting prizes in the post but I will be doing that just as soon as  I can.

And I'll put up a new Advent Calendar post just as soon as I can.

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 3

The winner of yesterday's giveaway is Nicolette

Nicolette please email me kate AT kate-walker.com with your postal address.

Thank you to everyone who posted an answer - I think Laney had it right about being snowed in is no real hardship when you have food, warmth - and a few books you want to read! I know this is perfect writing weather with so few distractions

Well, OK with a small ginger and white kitten distraction - and Charlie can be very distracting. He's thinking about writing the next instalment of his diary so watch out for that.

I've been getting some great covers lately. I'm still looking for my first new-style cover (for The Proud Wife out in March) but I've just discoivered this one for a 3-in-one collection coming in February - What do you think?

I haven't found out the title of my book in this collection but it's great to be in with a couple of my personal favourite authors so I'm looking foward to seeing this one and finding out just which novels are reprinted in it.

So today's giveaway is another 3 in 1 volume - this time it's Mistress Material where one of my books was included in a collection with titles by Lucy Monroe and Daphne Clair.

This edition is actually the Australian edition of this collection.

And the title of my book that's included in this volume is The Married Mistress which was originally published in 2003.

The Mistress’s secret...is hot news!
Gorgeous Greek tycoon Damon Nicolaides is always in the news...so when the paparazzi get a tip-off about his new mistress, they come banging on her door.
The truth is that Sarah and Damon were married a year ago but Sarah left him, believing their marriage was a lie. Now Damon’s back to claim his wife, but first he must protect her from the press by pretending that Sarah is merely his mistress...and to do that, he tells her, they’ll have to make their ‘affair’ real!

The Married Mistress is linked to Their Secret Baby which tells the story of Sarah's boss Rhys and his hunt for his baby daughter.

Oh- and this book has recently be rereleased in ebook format so if you like your books in ebook form you can find the details here.

So today's question is: If you were putting together a 3 in 1 volume of Mills&Boon Modern/Harlequin Presents stories - which three authors would you love to include?

Answers in the comments section please - and Sid will get on the job of picing winners on Saturday morning.

EBooks

I've just discovered that Harlequin are bringing out a couple of my backlist books as new ebook. Which is rather nice. And unexpected. I wouldn't have known anything about them if I hadn't needed to check something on Amazon.com and found the details there arranged by publication date.

The books in question are:

The Married Mistress (2006)

Gorgeous Greek tycoon Damon Nicolaides is always in the news...so when the paparazzi get a tip-off about his new mistress, they come banging on her door!
Actually, Sarah and Damon were married a year ago! Sarah left him, thinking their marriage was a lie. Now Damon's come back to claim the wife he truly loves. But first he must protect her from the press by pretending that Sarah is merely his mistress...and to do that, he tells her, they'll have to make their love affair real!

and Bound By Blackmail (2005)

Jake Taverner has never wanted a woman as he wants Mercedes Alcolar. So when she rejects him, Jake's hurt pride demands revenge!
Jake traps Mercedes into a fake engagement as he embarks on a skillful seduction. She'll share his bed for one passionate month, bound to him by blackmail....

Not quite sure why they've chosen these two to republish now. But it's good to see both of them back again - though if you have The Alcolar Family Trilogy bundle, then you'll already have Bound By Blackmail.

Hopefully this means that for those of you who buy your books now in ebook format, this will be a great way to collect backlist titles.

Postal deliveries

I have had a bumper postal delivery today, with lots of lovely surprises - and some expected things too.

So here are 5 Reasons to be happy that the postal strikes have stopped

1. I have an update on the preparations for the Fishguard Novel Writing Weekend. Another couple of weeks and I shall be heading for Wales and beautiful Fishguard Bay where I'll be teaching the Contemporary Romance course. I'll be able to meet up with my great fellow tutors Jane Jackson and Lesley Horton who are teaching the Historical and the Crime Novel courses.. We always have great fun as well as getting a lot out of the course. There are still places left so if you're interested, the details are on my Events page or the Writers' Holiday site here.

2. Someone must have realised that I'd actually made a small indent into my TBR mountain - because my lovely writer friends decided that I needed the pile topping up! And no sooner had I mentioned Donna Alward's Marriage at Circle M than - as lovely Donna herself let on yesterday - there it was in my post pile ready to - errr - ready to add to my slightly diminished and now getting bigger again TBR

3. My great friend from 'downunder' Trish Morey has sent me her next book too - we're 'shelf-mates' in November in the UK and USA with my Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife and Trish's The Boss's Christmas Baby.

Thank you both so much Donna and Trish - now all I need is a little more (a lot more) time to read. If only I didn't have to write . . . And I'm still waiting for Anne McAllister's The Boss's Wife For a Week (and stop telling me how much I;mn going to enjoy it! I know that - I just want to read it!)

(Oh and Donna - watch your own mail box! And no, I'm not going to explain!)

4. Author's copies of the joint book on writing that the BM and I have collaborated on that is out this month - Being a Professional Writer - it looks good!

5. Unexpected foreign editions - always a thrill. This time I have copies of the Polish edition of The Married Mistress where my book is in a duo with Sara Craven - and as readers of this blog will know, I'm a huge admirer of Sara's books, so I'm honoured to be linked with her.

And the Spanish edition of that 50th title - The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge under the fabulous title of Venganza Siciliana (Sicilian Vengeance). And that cover always looks great no matter what size it is or the colour it's set against.

And the BM got a couple advances for books he's delivered and a contract for a book on local ghosts . . .

So we were both more than happy that the postal deliveries are getting through properly. The postie wasn't too pleased at having to carry all those extra books though.

In other news, thanks to the fantastic Heather Reed who maintains my web site, I'm all up to date over there as well. So if you want to read all about The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife, see photos of the presentation of the lovely gold pin for my 50th title and all my other news then why not visit now? There will also be a new contest for the publication of The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife coming very soon over on My Tote Bag just as soon as Lee gets it up there - I'll let you know when it's ready.

A Kate Bit - more on covers

Interesting post this morning - parcels from HMB Richmond and from Harlequin New York - neither of which were expected.

The NY package contained translations - one of my books obviously, but one I couldn't recognise because it was translated into a language that I couldn't recognise either. This was the cover ->

Err . . . ??

I tried to think of a book in which the hero and the heroine exchanged white doves - or where the heroine had incredible gold painted fingernails for that matter but I couldn't come up with one - so I took a look inside. It turns out that it's The Antonakos Marriage in Lithuanian. Which just goes to show that you can never guess what cover image a new country is going to come up with. The original Antonakos Marriage (Presents) as you'll remember cover was like this

<-

And this definitely is a new country for me - I've never had a book in Lithuanian before! But I think I may have had some visitors on this blog from Lithuania - my Neo counter shows 10 visits. So welcome to anyone from Lithuania!

The other parcel had large print copies of The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge (and that cover looks really good on the bigger book!) and another, unexpected, 3 in 1 By Request Bestseller collection called Mistress Material, which is coming out in October.

This anthology has a reprint of The Married Mistress in it which is something that I'm pretty happy about. If you remember the other By Request volume I'm in - Bound By A Baby - that's out in the shops now - that has Their Secret Baby reprinted in it. And as The Married Mistress and Their Secret Baby are slightly linked by the characters who appear in them (Rhys, the hero of TSB is the boss of Sara who is the heroine of TMM and he appears at the end of that book) then this means that anyone who didn't get to read both books the first time around now has a chance to read them both together this time.