Christmas time

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

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

n early 'mini Christmas ' to celebrate with him.

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

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

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

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

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

Bargain Books

Have you any Kate Walker titles missing from your collection on Kindle? I've just discovered that some books of mine are ON  SALE  on Amazon.co.uk - all just 0.99p right now. 

 If you want to grab some backlist titles, now's your chance:

A Proposal to Secure his Vengeance

Bedded by  The  Greek Billionaire

Constantine's Revenge

Return of The Stranger
No Holding Back
Kept for Her Baby
The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge
Wife For a Day
Flirting with Danger
Rafael's Love-Child

It almost makes me wish I wanted to buy copies at a bargain price!

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.

My very first Greek hero

It seems amazing now,  but back in 1999 I had an editor who suggested the I might like to have a Mediterranean hero - for a change! Back then it didn't seem like every single hero you read in a Modern Romance/ Presents novel was  a sheikh, Italian, Spaniard, Greek . . .   My heroes had been Englishmen,  or Irish.  But the Mediterranean hero was really becoming popular and more and more of them were appearing in the novels.

Just after my editor made this suggestion I was in a small hotel in a West Yorkshire town. The Babe Magnet and I were having breakfast in a tiny dinind room - it was in the basement I remember!  Suddenly a couple of men appeared in the doorway, making me look up - as a writer, I'm always curious  - nosey!  These two guys were both  striking but the younger one was absolutely gorgeous.  I later found out that he was  Spanish and his name was Javier something.   My husband had to work that day and I was happily settled in a coffee shop with a notebook and pen - and inspiration for a whole new idea.

Along the way, Javier the Spaniard changed nationality and became Constantine the Greek - and so my very first ever Greek hero - or Mediterranean hero  - was born.  The book was Constantine's Revenge.

I've never know quite what it is abot Constantine but he seemed to grab the imagaination of my readers and never let go. I have had more letters, emails about this one hero than any other. The book has been frequently reprinted, some years ago when I ran a poll of my readers' top ten favourite Kate Walker novels, Constantine's Revenge topped the voting right from the start - and stayed there.

Perhaps it has something to do with the cover art - one of the best covers I've ever had. I loved it so much that I used the cover on my business cards for a time.   Whatever it is,  I'm always grateful for the fact that one unknown man walked into a room over twelve years ago!

And I was thrilled to discover this week that as part of their programme of reissuing my backlist in ebook form,  Harlequin have reissued Constantine's Revenge as a brand-new ebook out this month.

His plan was to make her his mistress...
When Constantine Kiriazis reappeared after two years, Grace thought he'd finally forgiven her for her lack of trust in him - and for canceling their wedding. Certainly Constantine's desire for her had not waned. But neither had his desire for revenge...
He fully intended to seduce Grace, but vowed she'd only be his mistress - never his wife. It was only when she melted in his arms that Constantine began to wonder who was exacting the revenge and who was paying the price!

Another backlist book is also coming out in ebook form in June  this one has an Irish hero - not that that gets mentioned much! Ronan Guerin appears in Wife For A Day - and this is a book that I always remember with a blend of horror and relief. I had such a struggle to get this one accepted! But since it came out I've had a lot or response from  readers and again it often appears in Top Ten Favourite Kate Walker booklists. So I'm glad to see that Wife For  Day  reissued as well.

What about you? Do you have a favourite of my books?  And in heroes - do you prefer the Mediterranean hero? Or would you like more  Englishmen, Irishmen . . ?