Here Come the Grooms - and Sadie Hawkins Day

It’s Leap Year, in case you hadn’t noticed.. 

And that  also means that Sadie Hawkins day is coming around again.

Sadie Hawkins Day? Are you familiar with it? Every self-respecting romance reader should be. Though I have to admit that I wasn't aware it had that name until Anne McAllister told me all about it - I just knew it as a Leap Year Day.  But  apparently . . .

Well,  I'll let Anne Explain it as she does it so much better than me:
"
 It’s the day that the women get to take things into their own hands and grab the man of their choice – if they can catch him.

It all began – well, it probably all began in the dark reaches of history – but for our intents and purposes, it began on November 15, 1937 when American cartoonist Al Capp began to write a story arc in his comic strip, Lil Abner, about Sadie Hawkins, the daughter of Hekzabiah Hawkins, Dogpatch resident.

Sadie, reputedly “the homeliest gal in all them hills,” was growing increasingly panicky about her chances of matrimony as the years went on. And finally, when Sadie reached 35 with nary a suitor in sight, her father (also frantic at the thought of being stuck with her for the rest of his – or her – days) took matters into his own hands.

He declared it Sadie Hawkins Day, and decreed that there would be a foot race: the holler’s bachelors would run and Sadie would take off after them. And whoever she caught would find himself at the altar with Sadie as his bride.

He took out his gun and said, “"When ah fires, all o' yo' kin start a-runnin! When ah fires agin—after givin' yo' a fair start—Sadie starts a runnin'. Th' one she ketches'll be her husband."

Well, it worked a treat.

And you’d better believe that all the other unattached women in the vicinity took note. They thought it was a fine idea and declared that there would be a “Sadie Hawkins Day” every year.

Because he got so much fan mail in favor of the idea, Capp did a variation on his Sadie Hawkins Day story every November for the next 40 or so years.

Sadie Hawkins Day got translated into once every four years when it became associated with old folk customs which claimed that on leap years women were allowed to take the initiative and propose. Combining the two seemed perfectly reasonable.

And celebrating it seems like something romance readers and writers ought to do."

In honor of Sadie – and to celebrate our 5th (I think it’s 5th! Has it really been five years?) annual Here Come The Grooms! Contest,  Anne McAllister, Liz Fielding and I -- and our respective heroes (who are currently on the run with some determined heroines after them) -- are opening this year’s contest on Valentine’s Day this year and ending it on February 29th – Sadie’s day.

So please drop by each of our websites during those two weeks and answer all three of our heroes’ questions, then send us those answers. You get three chances to win three  great books. 

It might not get you the man of your choice, but Sadie still thinks that’s a pretty good deal.

Kate's Corner

As I said, I'm blogging over at We Write Romance today - where my post for Kate's Corner is up now.

Because I write romantic ficiton, everyone always asks me about my Valentine's Day - so I've written about it - and the truth about the romance novelist's glamorous life!  

I'm giving away a Valentine's  prize too - a copy of  Mediterranean Tycoons - so come and tell me about your Valentine's Day.

Oh - and I  in that blog talked about a lovely little antique brooch that the Babe Magnet gave me for Valentine's Day. I can't find an image that's the same shape etc as the actual one  but here is the sort of  lucite brooch from the 1940s that it is - but minde is heart-shaped.  Isn't it lovely?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day to  you all!  Today is your last chance to enter the Here Come the Grooms Contest.

Anne McAllister, Liz Fielding  and I (s0rry - and Sid the cat ) will be drawing the names of the winners  at the end of today. So get your answers in  fast!

Don't forget too that today is Pink Monday over on the Mills and Boon web site  with lots of great deals - new ones each hour - to grab some real bargains and some great  books.    Meditteranean Tycoons has already been included in one great offer - ansd I see that there are some Modern Romance books coming up soon. So keep your eye on the site.

I'm buried in preparations for my weekend course in  Fishguard   but just to remind you that tomorrow is my day for blogging over at We Write Romance  - in Kate's Corner. And Friday sees my second Date With Kate post on the Pink Heart Society -  by which time I'm be settled  in Wales, looking out at the sea from the Fishguard Bay Hotel.

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope you are all having a lovely day, with or without romantic cards, red roses, or chocolate.

So how does a romance writer celebrate Valentine's Day - well, actually, with none of the above!

No - you don't need to be shocked because, as I've said - quite often I believe - I'm not a fan of the commercialised 'romance' that comes into the shops on Valentine's Day. I don't actually like red roses - much prefer the golden ones I had in my wedding bouquet. And, besides, we're heading for Wales next week so any expensive flowers would be wasted as I wouldn't be here to see them.I'm not a huge fan of chocolate either and as I struggle with my weight it's the last thing I need.

But I do have a beautiful pair of rose quartz heart-shaped earrings. And,as I said, when we head for Wales and the Fishguard Writing Weekend, the Babe Magnet will do all of the driving so that I can arrive there rested and ready to teach (and talk . . .and drink a little wine . . .Did I mention that we rarely sleep on these weekends?) And the one thing I do believe is that true romance means thinking about the person and finding what they would like. Not just handing over cash for some mass-produced gift like the ones I saw piled up in the shops yesterday.

Some news for Valentine's Day - I'm taking part in the special Romance Junkies' Valentine's Contest. This is a big contest that RJs run every year with lots of authors involved and lots of prizes to win. So why not take a look. You can find my contest in the main street (just run your cursor over the picture to find where to click). I'm giving away a copy of my March release The Konstantos Marriage Demand (Presents EXTRA)

Finally -about the 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance - I said a while back that while Amazon.com advertised this book at the import price when in fact there is a USA edtion available much cheaper, I wasn't going to tell anyone it could be bought on their site.

Well, I've now discovered that they are actually - at last - advertising it at the USA price- in fact less. It's on offer at $ 17.95 so I'm happy to let you know that the book is available on Amazon.com

Come back soon for news of the next contest I'm running. It's the now-traditional one that I share with my dear friends and fabulous writers Anne McAllister and Liz Fielding every February .

So you know the one . . . Here Come the Grooms!

Coming up - events

As a PS to the previous post - here are few more details of the events that are coming up in February

Sheffield Library:

Meet the Author:

Coming soon to Sheffield Central Library, a programme of author events running throughout 2010. The programme kicks off with Mills and Boon author Kate Walker.

February
Celebrate Valentine's Day with Kate Walker
Mills and Boon premier romantic novelist and author of "The 12 Point guide to Writing Romance" shares her experience and skills with you.

Monday 15th February, 6-7.30

Tickets £2 to include refreshments, available from :
Central Library
Surrey Street
SheffieldS1 1XZ

or Telephone 0114 273 4727
You can find details here or here

Happy Valentine's Day

So it's February 14th with all its attendant fuss about 'lurve' and red roses and chocolate . . .

The Magnet knows that I'm not keen on red roses (I prefer the golden ones I had in my wedding bouquet) and chocolate (I'd swap luxury chocs for a plate of chips/fries anyday!)but it's not those sort of things that count. Not really.

I was stunned this morning to learn that according to some report, the city of Hull is reputed to be the most romantic in the UK. Now Hull is just up the coast from where I live and it has never seemed a very romantic place to me. It seems that that assessment is based purely on sales of roses as Valentine's gifts. But it also seems that most of those bouquets are last-minute gifts - hmm - rushed, cliché gifts perhaps. Or am I being too cynical?

Anyway, whatever you're doing today I hope it's a lovely day for you and in celebration of the day, Harlequin have some gifts for its readers.

The first of these is a free special ebook at www.ebooks.eharlequin.com – A Valentine For Harlequin’s Anniversary. It contains a story “An Evening To Remember” by Catherine Mann, and 60 of the favourite posts by Harlequin authors and readers from the eHarlequin Community on topics like “Why I Write” and “Favourite Harlequin Moments”

Those favourite Harlequin Moments were written because - as I've already mentioned - Harlequin is 60 this year. And as part of those celebrations, and "to thank our many readers for taking us into their hearts and homes for 60 years and making us the world’s leading publisher of romantic fiction, Harlequin is giving every woman in America and Canada a free book. "

In fact, they’re giving away 16 free Books that readers can download.

The titles are available as a PDF and in all eBook formats. There is no drm (digital rights management)
The titles are also available as a Stanza App for the iPhone and iPod Touch
The titles can also be found at all the online retailers like Sony, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Fictionwise.com, eReader.com, etc.
The 16 free books (one for every series) will be available throughout 2009.

So why note head over to HarlequinCelebrates.com and take your pick from the slection of titles - from all the lines Harlequin publishes - to help you celebrate Valentine's Day too.

Finally - Valentine's Day is also the day that my friend Anne McAllister launches the new look on her web site. It has been freshly reworked and revamped by the brilliant Heather Reed from We Write Romance who also looks after my site. And it looks fabulous.

Anne is running a great contest to mark this relaunch so why not visit the site and see if you can win yourself a great prize.

And whatever you're doing - whether you're with someone or enjoying being free and single, I hope you have a lovely and loving day today.

PS To Valentine's winners

I've heard from Doaa and she lives in Egypt - so she will get the prize of the calendar and the signed book.

Which means that Sid had to make sure there was a second winner of the book of vouchers and the winner he has picked is

Rachael Thomas from Wales

So congratulations to Doaa and to Rachael and your prizes will be in the mail to you just as soon as I can arrange it.

Thank you to everyone who joined in this contest - the 12 Point Guide Contest on My Tote Bag and the Here Come The Grooms contest are of course still open. I've already mentioned how much I loved reading Anne McAllister's One-Night Love Child and this afternoon I made the mistake of opening Liz Fielding's book that's the other prize in this contest - The Bride's Baby. It's all Anne McAllister's fault, she gave it such a great write-up I couldn't wait to try it - and now I can't wait to get back to it - I'm so enjoying it!

Whoever wins this contest, they'll get some great reading as a prize.

Some winners, some news, and another contest

Sid the Car would like to send his thanks to you all for enteruing the Valentine's Day Contest. He found there were a satisfactory number of entries and he was happy with the task of choosing the winners. In the end there were some more answers from UK readers so he had plenty to choose from there too.

So to announce some winners - I have to wait for one last winner as you'll see in a moment.
So far the winners are:
Jacqueline Lewis from London who wins a book of vouchers - they're on their way to you Jacqueline

Jane Cheung from New York who wins a calendar, centenary bookmark and a copy of The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife which is in the mail today

Doaa Younis -

Now there's where I'm waiting to hear . I suspect that Doaa is not in the UK, but she might be so I have to wait until I hear from her and get her mailing adress to be sure. The I can get Sid back to work on picking the last winner when I know if he's picking from the UK entries or the international ones.

Then I can contact the final winner and announce it here.

The question for this contest was - which book has it's cover on the November page of the Centenary Calendar?

And the answer, as so many of you got right - is No Holding Back which was published in the UK in 1995 and in America in 1997

Now for the news - I have some great news about my book - The 12 Point Guide To Writing Romance. (well - it's great news for me! If you've been looking for a copy, it might not be quite so great for you.)
I heard from my publisher last week and this book is now officially SOLD OUT. He shipped the very last copies from the wharehouse and there are none left. There might be some around on Amazon.com or B&N .com - but not many! ( A quick check shows me that Amazon.com has some in stock - but I don't know how many. Amazon.co.uk is out of stock.

But if you want a chance to win a copy of this book, I gave Lee Hyat two copies of it to offer as a prize and she has just set up a contest over on My Tote Bag Contest Page

There's one simple question to answer and you could be in the running to win this award winning guide to writing romance.

NB Please send your entries to Lee (contests@authorsoundrelations.com) marking your entry Kate Walker Contest - not to me as I'm not handling this contest myself.

I am still accepting entries for the Here Come the Grooms Contest though, and that is still open until the end of the month - the winners will be selected on March 1st. Details can be found here

Finally, seeing as people are always talking about the Modern/Presents titles and often laugh at them, here's the 2008 shortlist for the Bookseller/Diagram Prize for the Oddest Title of the Year announced yesterday.
The titles are:

Are Women Human? And Other International Dialogues;
How to Write a How to Write Book;
Cheese Problems Solved;

If You Want Closure in Your Relationships, Start With Your Legs;

People Who Mattered in Southend and Beyond: From King Canute to Dr Feelgood

I Was Tortured by the Pygmy Love Queen.

Perhaps I should buy How To Write a How To Write Book now that I have to work on the 2nd edition of the 12 Point Guide! The comments on Amazon make it sound like a lot of fun.

Valentine's Day Contest - UK readers

A message from Sid the Cat - to all UK readers of this blog.

Dear UK Readers,

It has come to my notice that my Mum, Kate Walker, is running a contest again. This means that she will be calling on me to help her by picking the winners. That is fine by me as I enjoy the difficult and complicated process of choosing winners by selecting a crunchie and eating it so that Mum can find the name on the piece of paper beneath it. It's a hard job but some cat has to do it.

And I specially enjoy the process when I have to work really hard because there are a lot of crunchies on a lot of pieces of paper and so I have to be very particular in my selection of each crunchie and make sure that I have exactly the right one. And then I get to eat all the rest to check that I was in fact right in my first selection.

However, on this occasion, I am becoming concerned. As my Mum has already explained, one set of the prizes in this particular contest can only go to UK residents. This is because the prize in question is a book of vouchers, in UK pounds, money off the purchase of Mills & Boon books. Thevouchers are up to the value of over £20. The other prizes can go to the international readers.

Now, my problem is this - as of today there are only 2 UK entries. If this state of affairs persists, then I will not be needed to select the winners of this UK prize, they will, as it were, select themselves. And I will not be needed to eat any crunchies.

I am sure that you can see what a tragedy this would be.

The contest is still open until February 21st - please, dear UK readers, send in some entries so that I shall have to make a careful and intelligent selection of the prize winner on Friday morning.

To remind you- the details of this contest can be found here. But basically, all you have to do is to go to Mum's web site and find out which book has the cover from which this artwork was taken to appear on the Mills & Boon Centenary Calendar. It is quite an easy task. I think I could do it - if, of course there was a cat treat on each cover I had to choose from.

To all you wonderful international readers - you have been answering in droves. I will have a large number of entries to choose from for the international prize. For this I thank you.

Don't forget to enter the Here Come the Grooms contest as well - answer the three questions you will find on Mum's web site, the website of The Lady Across the Pond - Anne McAllister - and the site belonging to Liz Fielding on whose books I have often snoozed. You can find the details of this contest here.

I am pleased and relieved to report that there are plenty of entries for this contest so I shall have to do my usual detailed and difficult winner selection process - but there is always room for a few more entries - and a few more crunchies for me to chew.

Thank you

With purrs

Your Feline Friend Sir Sidney St John Willoughby Eamonn Portly-Lummox

Valentine's Day Contest

Remember those goodie bags?

The ones that the Babe Magnet and I brought home from the Centenary Party last Thursday.

Well, when we looked through them we found that we had duplicate gifts and one of them in particular was more than I could ever use - so I've decided to share my party gifts with my lovely readers. And with today being Valentine's Day and thoughts of love and romance are all around, I'm launching this quick contest today to celebrate.

This is my special Valentine to you all to thank you for being my readers and buying my books so that I can continue to write new ones - hopefully for you to enjoy. A big Valentine thank you to you all for that.

So what prizes do I have to offer?

The first and major prize can, I'm afraid, only be won by a UK reader - or, rather, two UK readers as I have 2 of these on offer. This is not my choice but is because this prize comes in the form of money-off vouchers and the only vouchers I have are in British £s, so I'm afraid they wouldn't be any use outside the UK.

But if you are a UK M&B reader, these little booklets are well worth having - they have lots of £1 of vouchers - over 20 of them! So if you use them all, then this prize will save you £20 on your romance book buying this year. And that's worth having!

But I know that I have so many readers out there who are not from the UK and I don't want you to miss out, so I've put together a little gift package for you too - and you can win this no matter where in the world you live. This prize has two of the special gifts from the party bag as well -

First is one of these specially designed golden centenary bookmarks, stamped with the centenary slogan - Mills & Boon 100 years of pure reading pleasure!

And together with this will be one of the special centenary calendars where every page is taken from a genuine Mills & Boon covers, old and new. It's a lot of fun seeing how the designs have changed.

And to add to these prizes, for my overseas winners, I'll include a signed book of your choice from the backlist titles I still have available.

So what do you have to do to have a chance of winning?

It's quite simple - all you need is a good eye for detail and a little time to suvey my backlist on my website.

Here's the question:

On the Mills & Boon Centenary calendar, November 2008 has the artwork from one of my own covers.

Take a look at this picture here and then go to my website to find out which book this cover is taken from.

Send your answer to me with the heading Valentine Contest in the subject line of your email.

Closing date will be a week from today - February 21st 2008.
That's when I'll get Mr Valentine himself - Sid the Cat - to choose two readers from the UK and two from overseas to win these special Mills & Boon Centenary prizes.

And because I've been getting enquiries as to how Sir Sidney and Mademoiselle Flora are getting on now, here is a special Valentine's Day portrait of the two of them - not quite curled up together yet, but getting closer all the time.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!