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. . . .

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!

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.

My First/Favourite Kate Walker book- A Reader's Story

Another reader's story about her favourite Kate Walker books.

A few weeks ago I told you about some of the writers I've worked with who had good responses from the Presents writing contest and today's reader is one of those.

Because of course the writers who succeed are usually voracious readers too.

I met Rachel at one of my Workshops - for the Guildford Festival - and I'm hoping to see her again when I run a Writing Romance weekend course in Southampton. (There are spaces left on this course - and all my courses so far if you want to book check out the Events page on my site.)

See you there Rachel!

Here's what Rachel has to say about discovering my books - and her Favourite Top 5

About six years ago a little miracle happened when the second grumpiest baby in the world actually fell asleep in his pram going round a charity shop (the first grumpiest had just started school). After years of sleep deprivation and the self neglect most new mums go through, I was beginning to feel desperate. Desperate for something different, desperate for something just for me, desperate for an escape from the hideous routine of it all and then I saw it. The little paperback wasn’t a Kate Walker but it had a photo of Santorini on it, the blurb promised romance, luxury and of course a gorgeous Greek—just about as far from reality as it was possible for me to get right then.

I’d never read a Mills and Boon before, I’d never read a romance per se (far too much of a literary snob!) but that day I sat down on a damp park bench and read something properly for what felt like the first time in five years. It was bliss. That little book fitted snugly into my handbag and the chapters were just short enough for me to treat myself whenever I could sneak the odd half an hour. Before I knew it, I was hooked and fed my new habit from charity shops over the next two years—I truly believe those books preserved my sanity!

Then we got our first computer. The first thing I did was book my grocery shopping on line, the second was to Google Natasha Oakley whose lovely book I was currently reading. My eyes were opened wide that day when I read her biography, writing her first book on the kitchen table with all those children around and highly recommending a certain person’s 12 point guide.

My youngest was just about to start preschool and I thought ‘well if she did it, I wonder if…?’ I used my newly acquired internet shopping skills to order Kate Walker’s amazing 12 Point Guide and promptly went out to see if I could find a book by this mysterious Kate Walker. Blow me if I couldn’t find a single book by her in any of the five charity shops in town. Now I know why: everybody keeps them! Fortunately W H Smiths saved the day and I greedily snatched up At The Sheikh’s Command…

The rest, as they say, is history and Kate Walker is now firmly on my ‘buy without hesitating’ list, but I think my most favourite so far is The Spaniard’s Inconvenient Wife. This is a truly memorable book for me in so many ways but I won’t spoil it for anyone who’s not read it by revealing the best bits!

If that’s my number one then the rest of my top five would be:

Rafael’s Love-child

The Italian’s Forced Bride

The Antonakas Marriage

A Sicilian Husband

And Kate Walker ‘does’ the BEST Italian men, believe me!

Thank you Rachel! And good luck with your own writing - I'd love to be able to announce your first book on here.

My First Kate Walker - Kate Hardy

Today's fellow author who is talking about the first time she read one of my books is the prolific and award winning Kate Hardy

Sorry - no - amend that - she's actually talking about the first time she met Kate Walker! And her favourite five books.

Actually, Kate wrote this before Christmas as you can see but as life has been pretty hectic I've only just got round to posting it.

Kate's latest title in Harlequin Presents is her Modern Heat title Temporary Boss, Permanent Mistress which has a setting that is so appropriate to the UK's current freezing and snowy weather.

Here's what Kate has to say:

Being a Bear of Very Little Brain at the moment (Christmas + snow + children home for two weeks + deadline = distracted author), I can’t honestly remember my first Kate Walker book because I’ve read her books for so very many years… but I *do* remember the first time I met Kate herself. So I’m going to cheat and tell that story instead (if Kate doesn’t mind!).

It was at a Mills & Boon authors’ lunch, a couple of months before my very first M&B was published, back in September 2002. I was already a bit starstruck when I saw the table plan and realised that the people sitting near me were people whose books I’d known and loved. When it came to dessert and everyone moved round, I think I might’ve had that ‘wet-behind-the-ears author, in rabbit-in-headlights mode’ look about me. But then this really nice woman came to sit next to me, chatted to me and put me completely at my ease… and then, after pudding and just before I took a sip of coffee, she said, ‘I forgot to introduce myself. I’m also Kate, by the way – Kate Walker.’

O. M. G.

Someone whose books I’d read for years. A Big Name Author. And she made time to talk to a complete and utter nobody at her first authors’ lunch.

Just over seven years later, I still remember that kindness. And over those seven years I’ve celebrated her 50th book with her, and I’m so pleased now to celebrate her 25th year in a glittering career. Congratulations, Kate.

My top five Kate Walker books:

The Spaniard’s Inconvenient Wife (that wedding dress…)
Desert Affair (the dining table *almost* made this #1, but the wedding dress did it for me)

The Twelve-Month Mistress

The Hostage Bride

The Sicilian’s Red-Hot Revenge

If you want to know what Kate's talking about when she mentions the weddingg dress for The Spaniard's Inconvenient Wife (the cover does give a clue) and the dining table in Desert Affair, you'll have to read the books! The Spaniard's Inconvenient Wife is a 2005 book (but it's also available in the Alcolar Family Collection ebook bundle) and Desert Affair was published in 2003.

You can find out more about Kate H and her books - both Modern Heat and Medical - on her web site or read her blog

Good News Part One

I wrote a lot of blogs this week - I have a new book out and I've been asked to help a special friend celebrate a special book (haven't written that one yet!) . I had my PHS Column to write and and I was asked to guest on a couple of blogs - I Heart Presents, and I'll be Blogging With Lucy Monroe just as soon as June dawns . . . and just about all of these seem to have something of a common theme - and that involved Spaniards.

For a start, the book I have out this month has a Spanish hero. With a title like Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife, that's sort of obvious. And I have good news to share on that book as and when . . Not being deliberately mean - the good news starts on June 1st and I'm waiting for the powers that be to announce if officially. But as I'm dropping hints over on I Heart Presents, I'll do the same here and mention the words Daily Lit .

Anyway, back to those Spaniards . . . there are lots of them around at the moment.

There's Raul in Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife. (And if you remember the answer from the Here Come the Grooms contest I ran with Anne McAllister and Liz Fielding, his real name is Don Raul Esteban Marquez Marcin - not Raul Esteban as the blurb on the back of the book has it.

And of course there's Santos - Santos Cordero in the book I've just finished. The one that's now titled Cordero's Forced Bride.

And then there's the Spaniard who appears in the Centenary Celebration Collection - in The Duke's Secret Wife. His name is Don Luis Alejandro de Silva

And then, if that wasn't enough - well . . remember this?

Back in February, I came home from the 100th Birthday party, really excited and happy because I'd learned that Mills & Boon were reprinting the three books in the Alcolar Family trilogy in one By Request volume in August. That was such a thrill.

But now I've had even more good news about the Alcolars - and that is that the whole trilogy - all four books of it - will be released as an ebook Bundle on June 1st.

Hey - hang on, I can hear you thinking. Four books? How can a trilogy have four books?

Well, yes - OK - four books is a quartet. But if you remember, the very first story about any of the Alcolars was Wife For Real. That was the one where Alex Alcolar appeared - and everyone discovered at the end of the story that Alex had two brothers and a sister. As a result, people wanted to know what happened to Joaquin, Ramon and Mercedes. And so, by popular demand, The Alcolar Family was written.

A lot or readers found it difficult to get hold of a copy of Wife For Real. The on-line read on eHarlequin was taken down and it was difficult to track it down. I think it may still be available in the On Line Read Library on the Mills & Boon Site - I'm telling you this because the By Request reprint of the trilogy doesn't have this title in it.

But the ebook Bundle does!

I'm so pleased about this because it means that for the first time all the Alcolar stories are together in one complete set. And that means that so many people who have written to me because they haven't been able to collect the set, or they've missed out on Alex's story, can now download the lot in one quick and easy bundle. And that 'bundle' is going to be part of my backlist over on eHarlequin so it will be available for a l-o-n-g time.

Here's what the ebook summary has to say about The Alcolar Trilogy Bundle

Four fiery Latin lovers, with money and sex appeal galore...four sexy, spirited women who want marriage, but on their own terms. Put them together and you have a recipe for stormy conflict, tempestuous misunderstandings...and searing desire. Top selling Harlequin Presents author Kate Walker’s Alcolar Family series will stir your emotions and stoke your imagination with its breathtaking passion and heartstopping romance. Bundle includes Twelve-Month Mistress, The Spaniard’s Inconvenient Wife and Bound by Blackmail. And as a very special free bonus, also included in this bundle is Wife for Real, the original online read that inspired Kate Walker to create the Alcolar family trilogy, available now for the first time ever.

You can find the Alcolar Family ebundle here on eHarlequin.

So that's part one - I'm hoping I can let you know part two . . .well, it starts of June 1st too so I should be able to tell you that

Good news

After my visit to London and the M&B Centenary party, I said that I'd had some good news but I wasn't yet able to announce if definitely.

Well, yesterday, I got the confirmation that it's going ahead so now I can tell you all about it - and I'm so thrilled about this!

The covers scattered about this post should give you the clues to what I'm talking about - and that is that all three books in The Alcolar Family trilogy are going to be reprinted as a collection in the By Request series. The collection will be in the shops in August this year.

For those of you who don't know about The Alcolar Family or missed it the first time around, the Alcolars are two brothers, (well - half brothers - they have the same father - Juan Alcolar - but different mothers) and a sister, from a complicated aristocratic Spanish family and each book tells the story of one of them and their personal journey to their happy ever after.

The Alcolar Family first started out as an internet short story called Wife For Real which was about yet another brother (I warned you that this family was complicated!) Alex, who was the illegitimate son of Juan Alcolar. At the end of that story I introduced the rest of Alex's family - his father and his two half-brothers, Joaquin and Ramon, and his half-sister Mercedes who, at that point had just walk on parts. But the story was very popular, and in the comments on eHarlequin lots of readers asked about the other members of the family. Was I going to write a story for Joaquin, Ramon and Mercedes, they wanted to know.


I already had ideas for the rest of the family. I knew about Juan's past history - of his four children, only two were by the same woman, his wife, the other two were the result of affairs - and so each of them was affected in their own way by the past and their own place in the family. I discussed the idea with my editor, she was as excited by it as I was - and so The Alcolar Family trilogy was born.

Joaquin is the eldest and only legitimate son and his story is told in The Twelve Month Mistress. Believing himself to be very much his father's son, he has stuck strictly to his 'no commitment' rule for years, but now he's met the woman he just can't walk away from.

Next, in The Spaniard's Inconvenient Wife, is Ramon, the son who grew up believing that another man was in fact his father. But now that he knows he's an Alcolar he's determined to establish his place in the family. As part of this plan, he determines on a carefully planned marriage of convenience - only to find that he's got more than he's bargained for in his choice of a wife.

And finally there's Mercedes, the only daughter. In Bound By Blackmail she is swept off her feet by sexy Jake Taverner, a man she meets on a trip to London. But Mercedes doesn't know that Jake is also a member of a family that has strong reasons to hate the Alcolars and all that they stand for. When he traps her into a fake engagment she has no idea if his skillful seduction is genunine or part of the long-standing feud between his family and hers.

The original books came out in 2004/2005 and they were a great success in both the UK and USA. The first two books -Joaquin's story, and Ramon's have both appeared in the list of Favourite Kate Walker titles when I ran the poll both in 2004 and last year - when Bound By Blackmail also appeared on it. There has also been a lot of rivalry between readers who claim Joaquin as their favourite Alcolar and those who say that Ramon is the one for them. And of course, because of a certain - er 'knicker scene' - India Grey will always claim that Bound By Blackmail contains her favourite Kate Walker 'golden moment' as she explained in her post in the Great Big Blog Party last year.

One of the reasons I'm so thrilled about this collection reprint is that I keep getting emails from readers who have read one or other of The Alcolar Family titles and are now looking for the rest of them and haven't been able find them. At least in August they will have a chance to get the complete trilogy all in one volume. The only disappointment is that the internet short story won;t be in it - but that is still available as an on-line read on the Mills and Boon site or as a Harlequin Mini ebook at eharlequin.com . It was also published in print form in the 2008 Mills and Boon Annual and there are still some copies of that available on Amazon.co.uk

August is also the month when my novella The Duke's Secret Wife (originally published in Society Weddings) is reprinted as part of the Mills & Boon 100th Birthday Collection. (you can buy the whole collection here if you can't wait to collect them through the year. This offer will save you over £12 on the complete set)

So August will be reprint month for me. I don't have the covers for The Alcolar Family or The Duke's Secret Wife to show you yet, but just as soon as I get them you know I'll share them with you.

Great Big Blog Party 18 - Julie Cohen

So here's another of my 'ex-virgins'. Julie Cohen is one of the original group of four who came to the Durham conference in 2002 (you'll meet another of this special group at the party soon). Once again Julie is someone I 'met' on the eharlequin message boards. We chatted, I learned she was an American married to a Brit, teaching English - when the RNA Conference came around and I knew she was going, I started a newsletter to put her and three others in contact. We met in person at Durham and she's been in my life ever since. And I couldn't be happier about that.

Julie was one of the very earliest published 'virgins'. She submitted to Harlequin's Temptation line when that still existed and so was one of the launch authors when Temptation became Modern Extra (Sexy Sensation in Australia). She has also published Spirit Willing, Flesh Weak in the Little Black Dress line for Headline.

Julie's post is, she says, short, but she hopes sweet. As she has a very young (and adorable) son, is currently back teaching, and is also writing, she's stretched pretty thin but wanted to join in the party. Her current book - All Work and No Play is currently on sale alongside The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge.

So here's Julie Cohen

I thought I would write a poem to celebrate Kate's heroes. But I sort of ran into difficulties. For one thing,I couldn't find anything to rhyme with "Hugh in a towel" except for "poo on a dowel", which doesn't really evoke the correct image.

Anyway, this is what I came up with:

A Short Poem To Celebrate Fifty Swoon-Worthy Heroes
by Julie Cohen, BA (hons), MPhil, KWHL (Kate Walker Hero Lover)

Spaniards, Italians, Sicilians,
Greeks, sheikhs, and tycoons worth billions:
The heroes Kate's written
Have all left me smitten;
Let's hope she'll keep writing gazillions!

Do you agree that Kate's heroes are worth writing poetry about? Post a couple of lines of poetry about your favourite Kate Walker hero--for example, here's mine about my all-time favourite, Ramon Dario, from The Spaniard's Inconvenient Wife:

If I got a hold of Ramon
He'd never spend a night alone.

The best entry will get a signed copy of my June Modern Extra release, All Work and No Play...

(Hey, with a title like that, I had to get you to do some work, didn't I?)

And here's a photo of Julie at the weekend in Lincoln - with a friend!