Thank you

First of all, a heartfelt thank you from me and the BM - and from Spiff, Dylan and Sid - thank you to everyone who posted a comment or sent me a private email yesterday. Every single one of them was appreciated and they all brought tears to m eyes - tears of gratitude for your thoughtfulness and kindness.

Thank you too to Anne McAllister and Anna Louise Lucia who remembered Bob with special posts on their blogs . He would have been fecking honoured.

There are those who would talk in terms of 'just a cat' - but a living creature who has shared you life for 18 years and has a distinct personality could never be 'just' anything - certainly not Mr R Redford. I was the one honoured to live with him and to have known him for so long.

So now I need to concentrate hard on a book that is rapidly becoming a rock around my neck - not because of the book itself but because of the complications of ordinary life around it. This seems like a good excuse to post a little extra inspiration to brighten the day and remind me of who I - and my heroine Jessica - are dealing with.

Yes, that helps.

And I should remind you that the Pink Heart Society first birthday celebrations are still going on - they're on all month. Right now the great Pink Heart Society Treasure Hunt is on - and the prize at the end of the month is a great big hamper full of books and other bits and pieces donated by the author members of the PHS. So if you haven't visited the PHS blog for a while, I suggest you get yourself over there and start tracking down the Treasure Hunt blogs and seeing what gifts are being given to the Litttle Pink Dancing Guy for his very first birthday so you can be in the running for this major prize.

Look out for the Treasure Hunt logo and you'll be taken to some great blogs - and have the chance to win!

Today's birthday present is over on the Iheart Presents blog - and really I had to avert Sid's eyes when I saw it. He has warned me that there will be no pink dye jobs where he is concerned. Want to know what I'm talking about? Check out the blog - but you might need sunglasses!

In my role as a PHS Columnist, I shall have another post up on the PHS blog next week - oh no - not next week - I just checked and it's this Friday 14th - eeek! Where is the time going?

More inspiration needed!

Right - Back to the word mines and if you see an editor with a big whip, I wasn't here - OK?

And thank you all again. What lovely friends and readers and reader-friends I have.

Bob

Dear Braveheart Bob didn't make it. Today we knew that he had had enough and that the only kind thing we could do for him was to let him go.

There was no decision to make - there was no quality of life to preserve.

Now Bob is at peace in the garden he loved. He needed to go and although I already miss him like hell I know we made the right choice
Thank you all for you thoughts and caring.

He was a very fine cat indeed.

Moving on . . . I hope

The astrologers tell us that "Venus ends its retrograde phase this week. It has, as you may recall, been moving apparently backwards since late July." Well, if that's the reason why things have been so sticky lately, I'm just glad it's coming to an end. Last week with migraines. stomach bugs, sick cats . . .was a a bit of a battering

With the invalid settled back home - very frail but hanging on - I'm trying to get a better grip the book I'm working on. I'm trying also to trust Michelle Styles when she tells me that the story will still be there in my subconscious and all I need is to get it out. At the moment, the excavations are slow but I'm keeping my nose to the grindstone (or should that be to the spade?) I decided I need to to do some visual research and find a photo that says Angelos to me so I can use it for inspiration. And this is what I found

Seems pretty inspiring to me.

And talking of new heroes (or maybe a heroine, I have no way of making sure!) we have a hedgehog population explosion. We had the two big hogs in the picture I posted earlier, then a middlesized loner, and last night a very very small hoglet made its first appearence to chomp and slurp at the discarded cat food on the lawn. I suspect that this is one that was born this year, possibly - hopefully - inside the nest in Hedgehog Towers.

So for the first time in public, here is Very Little Heck who is, I'm assuming this year's offspring of the Great Hecks. If they keep this up, maybe we'll get the hedgehogs off that endangered species list after all.

If you want to get a better idea of just how tiny Little Heck is then
check out the mature pair whose photos appear here.

Now back to that excavation - with Mr R Sewell for inspiration, hopefully things will move on better today

A Very Fine Cat - an Update

He's home !

He's wobbly, tatty (they had to shave the fur off his back to get rid of all the matts )- and strangely silent. He's also partially blind - but I think that was the case before the stroke.

He knows he's home - he's been in his bed - and has drunk plenty of water and some cat milk. As the vet said 'he's not perfect' but then he was old and tatty and grumpy before he went into hospital. But considering the cat I last saw he's got a lot more life in him. He looked dreadful at first but now he's feeling ok enough to complain that there is a damn pen around him and it should not be there! And now he's curled up asleep.


But he's asked me to send you a message

Mr Robert (Bob) Redford would like to thank everyone who has posted messages of concern and support. Bob's Mum has read them all to him and he is touched and honoured that so many of you took the time and trouble to write - he truly appreciates it. Now he knows why Sid has been going on about his fans all this time.

Bob would like to send special greetings to Moose who sounds like his sort of cat. (Kate: My sort of cat too. Maine Coons are such wonderful creatures) And he hopes that the little Siamese finds a home soon - either with her original owners or with Donna.

Bob is sincerely touched by the warmth and concern that greeted the news of his stay in hospital and he hopes soon to be back warming his mum's feet so that she can write more books - it's the ginger and white head on her toes that gives the inspiration, he knows.

And from me (Kate) thank you for all your posts too - they meant such a lot when I was worrying so hard.

PS from Bob - but you still can't get the fecking staff - who put this pen here!

A Very Fine Cat

Yesterday, I thought that this post would be too painful to write. Today, I’m not so sure. Things have changed and changed again - and will probably put me on the emotional rollercoaster several times more before we’re done.

But I’ve decided that while I can post this as a positive then I’m going to. Non cat people please indulge me, I’ll get back to books and such tomorrow. Cat people - animal people - will understand.

I have four cats – apart from the Media Superstar that is Sid, who does tend to monopolise the photo opportunities and the gossip columns, there are also Bob (Redford) Spiffy, and Dylan who are also a wonderful and beloved part of my life.

Today I want to celebrate the wonder that is Bob.

Official name Robert Redford –– the ginger and white Alpha Male. After all he’s been with me the longest of all of them. And on Tuesday I thought he wasn’t going to be a part of my life any more. On Tuesday I found him collapsed and distressed. His back legs had gone completely, he couldn’t stand, couldn’t even lie properly. I thought he was dying. He is 18 years old after all and I knew his days were getting to be numbered. We made the difficult trip to Bruce the vet. A wonderful vet who knows and loves cats – he has two of his own. He confirmed that Bob had had a major stroke – it didn’t look good, especially given his age. But one thing about Bob is that he has never ever conceded the fact that he’s 18 – and so over 90 in human years. He loves his food, loves to patrol his garden and is still the Alpha Cat – yes, even dominating the Force in Fur that is Sid so much so that Sir Sidney actually moves back from the food bowl if Bob is there.

When I first found Bob I thought he was already on his way over the rainbow bridge and the best thing I could do was to help him – and so, initially, did Bruce. But then some creatures can go through this and survive and come back to the point they were at before it happened. How was Bob before this, Bruce wanted to know – was his quality of life OK? The answer came from the old warrior himself. From lying limp and out of it, he suddenly regrouped. He realised I was there, stuck his head into my hand and started to purr. Loudly. Decision made.

Long story short – we decided it – and he – was well worth 48 hours care and observation in hospital. He wasn’t in pain, he could be given a chance to recover. I knew I had to be realistic about the odds but Bob was so worth the try. Yesterday those odds seemed too high. He wasn’t deteriorating, he was comfortable, but he wasn’t improving. He couldn’t stand, he wasn’t eating. We were working on resignation. Then, three hours after the most pessimistic report, Bruce rang. I nerved myself for the worst – but what’s that they say about cats and nine lives? They’d checked on Bob again and he was drinking on his own. He had even stood up and come to the front of the kennel when Bruce called to him. And he’d just licked a tiny bit of food. Bob the fighter, the scrapper with scarred ears and nose, the Alpha Cat was back

I don’t know the end to this story – he is very elderly. Later today I’ll ring Bruce and see what happened overnight. But I decided on this post to celebrate Bob while he’s still in my world, rather than as an obituary. He deserves that – he might not be the natural showman that Sir S is, or consider himself a Cat Of Superior Breeding but he is, as Samuel Johnson said about his cat Hodge, a Very Fine Cat Indeed.

He isn’t of superior breeding – we all know that. His mother was a farm cat, Scooby-Do by name who went to town and met a feral tom and when she was barely 9 months old became a single Mum to 5. We had just lost our beloved 17 year old ginger tom, our first ever cat, and life just wasn’t right without some red and white fur in the home. But ginger kittens/cats were hard to find until we checked with the kennels/cattery way out in one of the villages. And went to meet Bob who had been born in a stable there.

He was tiny. Barely 6 weeks old. Red-gold fur and big blue eyes. That’s why he got the name Robert Redford - Bob to his friends. He chose us. As soon as I bent down to the bundle of kittens this scrap of ginger and white launched itself at me and climbed up my arm to perch on my shoulder – and he’s never gone away since. He sat on a towel on my lap on the long way home, away from his mother and all those siblings for the first time- just big enough to be stroked by a finger or two – and he started to purr. Loudly.

And louder . . and louder.


When he came here he had to deal with two adult cats. But he took that in his stride. He pretended to be very, very fierce ->

and then he muscled in on the big guys. He found a cowboy hat that my son had brought back from Canada and took it over. It was his castle, his plaything, his bed. He slept in it until he became way too big to fit. That was October 1989 and he’s been a wonderful part of our lives ever since. As he grew up he moved in on the crown of Top Cat and took it over and he’s held it ever since. He’s been in fights with strays, with other critters fool enough to think they can come into his territory – there was even a bite on his head that the vet said was not cat or anything like – but maybe a ferret or some such. He nearly lost an eye and his face swelled up like a bllloon. He’s survived that and the poisoned foot, and the claw that grew up into his paw – and innumerable scrapes and battles along the way.

Most of the time he’s very dignified. He is Top Cat after all but he knows how to let his fur down. Especially at Christmas where he wears a glittery collar with panache – after all he knows that Christmas means treats. He loves to join in the opening of stockings where there is always something tasty for A Very Fine Cat and things like the squid that could be thrown at a wall and then ‘walked’ down it. He hunted that for hours. And he has a bad cat nip habit. The Christmas cat nip always had to be hidden high up, behind closed doors, practically in a locked safe
or Bob would find it – even in a plastic bag, inside a box, inside another plastic bag – and rip it open, spread it everywhere and get high as a kite, indulging in total mind-blown silliness without a care for that dignity.

Just lately he’s become very vocal. He’ll come in from the garden and start ‘talking’, his cracked, rusty ‘meerp’ coming at high volume again and again.
He’ll complain about the lack of service, the quality of food, the lack of crunchies, the fact that that Sid is in his bed. The Offspring always swore that like Father Jack in the Comedy series Father Ted, Bob was always telling you about some 'fecking ' thing or fecking other. Or sometimes he’ll just talk and talk and talk and if he falls quiet all you have to say is ‘Really Bob?’ and he’s off again. Until he decides he’s said enough and he comes to lie with his head on my bare feet under the desk as I work.

I miss him there today. And I don’t know what will happen later. But one thing I’m pretty sure of is that, whatever it is, Bob will have decided on it. He picked us that day in the stables, he came back home after a fraught week when he went missing and we thought we’d lost him for good (we later found he’d been locked in a neighbour’s garage), he's in charge. So he’ll decide what is going to happen now. If we’re lucky he’ll come back to patrol his estate or lie in the garden like a miniature lion, or hog the best spot before the fire when the nights get colder.

Whatever happens we’ve had 18 wonderful, very special years together. He’s organised and sorted his fellow felines, Poppy, Spiff, Dylan and Sid and ruled them with a firm paw. He’s watched the Offspring grow from a new boy at secondary school to a fine and popular teacher encouraging and helping the new boys and girls at his school this year. He’s seen the Babe Magnet move from Further Ed lecturer to University lecturer (very nearly taking Bob into the wilds of Yorkshire as a result) to Writer in Prison and writer on the grim and gruesome. And he's met many of the Babes who have been magnetised - and several world famous writers - Anne McAllister, Michelle Reid, Julie Cohen and Trish Wylie amongst them and brought them under his own furry spell. And he’s supervised me through the writing of 34 of the 52 titles I’ve published or have coming out soon. He’s been the perfect gentleman host to every visitor, coming to greet them personally on arrival and escorting them down the road when they leave. And he’s been a wonderful, loving companion, full of affection and character.

That’s Bob

The Alpha Male with the great big purr.

The cat that even the vets call Braveheart.

A Very Fine Cat Indeed.

One of those days X4

Yesterday was definitely one of those days.

You know the ones - the 'Just tell me why I bothered to get out of bed today, will you?' days. In fact life's been a little bit too much like that for a while. You see, Tuesday's 'one of those days' came at the end of the lost weekend (and the lost Monday). Not going into details until I know how things will work out but let's just say that a combination of a migraine/stomach upset and a very sick cat (Bob(Redford) not Sid) - not to mention a deadline (let's not mention the deadline) is a pretty lethal, mind blowing combination.

But I'm going to leave that and wait and see what happens. And like that song says the only thing to do is pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again. Which is what I plan to do.

So in the spirit of finding the glass half-full - or at least with something in it I am going to recollect that there were some good points along the way. Like the Hugh Jackman Tour - and that would brighten anyone's day. And the wonderful, supportive, strengthening phone calls with special friends - you know who you are - and the emails from others. You're all just the best.

And there was the amazing chance to grab - and get - the ultimate portrait of Mr and Mrs Heck of Hedgehog Towers dining a deux late in the evening. They are both so tame now - and so greedy for crunchies - that they don't react when the hedgehog paparazzi start snapping away.

So in evidence the picture on the left is the one I took when I first spotted them

<-

and this is how close they let me get. ->

I didn't tell them they were on the endangered species list . I don't think they'd have believed me. They are blissfully happy though because Danny, our cat sitter when we're away, arrived with a huge bag of fresh straw for their bedding from the pet shop where he works. We have spread it out around Hedgehog Towers so that they can gather it in themselves and make it into a cosy ball nest in which they can hibernate in warmth and safety, full of crunchies and cat meat - and maybe produce lots of little hoglets to help get their type off that endangered list.

So my 'Back to School' musings post might have gone right out of my mind - and I'm still struggling to catch up with things. But thanks to Heather at We Write Romance, I got my web site updated a bit. Not all of it yet, but then, as someone said, I don't suppose I'd know myself if I ever did get caught up. So if you want to read about the next book coming up in November (The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife) - or the Writing Weekend in Fishguard when I'm teaching Writing Romance - also in November - you'll find the details there.

And now I'm going to try to re-introduce myself to my current Greek Tycoon And see if he remembers me and wants to talk about his story. That went missing over the lost weekend too - but I'm determined to find it again.

The Hugh Jackman Tour 2007

I have two facts for you this morning -

1. Writing - as I'm sure you know - is hard work. And doing research for a book is really really hard work :O )

and

2. I love the Pink Heart Society Editors very much indeed - and I love the PHS and everything they've done with it. So when they ask me to join in with things, I'm so veryglad to do so . . .

But they are such hard taskmasters . . . (Taskmistresses?) They demand so much of me.

Take today for instance - they want me to share in the 2nd Annual Hugh Jackman Tour.

And in order to do so, this means that I have to do some pretty heavy duty research - I have to hunt the internet for photographs of Hugh Jackman.

Hugh was the PHS's very first Male on Monday and the event was so popular that contributions to the Hugh Gallery appeared all over the internet, on blogs and websites all over the world. So this year as part of their 1st Birthday Celebrations, the PHS Eds in their wisdom - and very wise ladies they all are! ; O) - have declared the Hugh Jackman Tour an annual event.

So I not only have to go looking for photos of Mr Jackman - I'm supposed to display my favourite.

Favourite?

Can the man take a bad photo? Is there a mood in which he looks better - best?

No - can't be done - and this is why the annual tour was inaugurated so that we can share the hard done research and the important inspiration that reults from it.

So here are my contributions for this year. If you want more, head for the PHS and check out the comments section in the Male On Monday post today and you will find the other blogs that you can visit on the HJ Tour

Enjoy!

But can I just remind you that, no matter what Anne McAllister, she of the wonderfully revamped website, may post on her blog today - Hugh in a Towel is mine -( with a little help from Julie Cohen who first drew my attention to him) Thank you Julie - I always knew you have wonderful taste.

And I posted Hugh in a towel yesterday so to include him in the tour, just scroll down to Sunday's post

Top Ten Books and Winners - and more

I have a lot of bits and pieces to post today so let's get started

Sid thanks everyone who sent him birthday wishes. He has celebrated his birthday by enjoying cat crunchies and picking winners:

So the very last, final prize for the Great Big Blog Party Caerleon Special goes to Kimberly L

Kimberly please send me your snail mail address and copy of Jane Wenham-Jones' Perfect Alibis will be on its way to you. More winners in a moment.

Next piece of important news - Anne McAllister has had a total revamp of her website and the wonderful new look is up now. The new look is to celebrate the publication of Anne's latest book The Boss's Wife for a Week which is out now in the UK and in October in Presents. I'm lucky enough to have my own copy already on my TBR mountain - all I need it a little extra time and no deadline to be able to read it. (Now where have I heard that before?)

Other important new - the Pink Heart Society birthday celebrations will be going on all month so keep an eye on their blog to find out what's going on. There's a whole lot of wonderful things lined up for your entertainment and delight and fabulous prizes to be won. Things start in fine form - in very, very, very fine form - with the annual (well it is now) Hugh Jackman Tour 2007 . You'll need to check out the PHS blog again for the details but just in case anyone else tries to jump the gun here then let me get in early and stake my claim.

No matter what others - who call themselves my friend - people with brand spanking new websites - may claim - Hugh in a towel is mine. I just let her borrow him every now and then.

Still on the topic of PHS, I have to apologise to Jenna who came over here hotfoot to see the famous pink shoes that I was wearing all day to celebrate the Birthday - and life had swamped me so I didn't get around to posting a pic of them. So - just for Jenna - here are the perfect pink shoes ---->

What next?

Oh yes - I have the final results of the

TOP TEN KATE WALKER NOVELS

as voted for by the readers. Actually, this is the Top Twenty.

Out of interest I've put the results from the last time I did this (2004) in brackets alongside so you can see that some books have held their places . Someof course weren't around then

A Sicilian Husband (The Twelve Month Mistress)
The Italian's Forced Bride (Spaniard's Inconvenient Wife)
The Sicilian's Wife (A Sicilian Husband)
Sicilian Husband, Blackmailed Bride (The Sicilian's Wife)
The Antonakos Marriage (Wife for a Day)
The Spaniard's Inconvenient Wife (Desert Affair)
Wife For A Day (Their Secret Baby)
Desert Affair (Bound by Blackmail)
12 Month Mistress (The Christmas Baby's Gift)
The Hostage Bride (The Groom's Revenge)
Bound By Blackmail (The Hired Husband)
At The Sheikh's Command (The Hostage Bride)
Fiancee By Mistake (Constantine's Revenge)
The Married Mistress (His Miracle Baby)
Leap in the Dark (The Married Mistress)
The Christmas Baby's Gift (Her Secret Bridegroom)
Their Secret Baby (Saturday's Bride)
Constantine's Revenge (The Unexpected Child)
Rafael's Love- Child (Game of Hazard)
The Hired Husband (Give and Take)

(Looking at this list, all I can say is there must be something about those Sicilians. Even though it's only just published, The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge came in a #21 this time, just missing this list by a vote.)

Dis also picked the final set of winners from the voters and the lucky winners are:

Jean M from Broomfield Colorado
Lily D from Canada
Donna Howard from Van Buren Arizona
Peggy Q
Gail H from Junction Kentucky

I'll be emailing the winners but if you spot your name here then please send me your postal address so I can organise your prize for you

Cat Calendar - September Birthdays

Today is a very important day for a VIP (Very Important Puss) and for some VIPs (Very Important Pinks ) SO:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SID!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE PINK HEART SOCIETY

Little Pink Dancing Guy is 1 today

Special Congratulations to Trish, Ally, Natasha, Nic and Jenna

On behalf of The Hecks

A headline from Tuesday's TIMES and TIMES ON LINE

Hedgehogs on endangered list as manicured gardens take their toll

Well, not in my garden - not if last night's snuffling and grunting and snorting - and chomping and slurping when The Hecks found the cat crunchies - is anything to go by.

What's worrying me is what the merry hedgehog enclave and breeding programme outside my bedroom window says about my gardening and maintenance skills - "manicured" it is not!

But - hey - now I have the perfect excuse - I keep it - er - slightly untidy - for the Hecks! They love it that way.

But seeing as these cute, prickly creatures are now officially on the endangered species list - can I just say that if you're in the UK and if, like me, you have a slightly 'unmanicured' garden - then right now is when hedgehogs need extra nourishment to build up fat reserves ready for hibernations - and so plenty of crunchies are an extra boost to all the slugs and snails they eat.

And once they've built up those reseves of fat then one of these ->
with some nice straw or leaves left lying around outside the tunnel will give them a warm, safe, snug place for them to sleep the winter away.

The Hecks will thank you for it - and it might even help hedgehogs to stop being endangered.

Further Heck Info can be found at The Hedgehog Preservation Society

Thursday Talk Time

OK so - first things first.

I forgot it was Thursday. That's what having a Bank Holiday at the beginning of the week does to you. You start everything a day late. From then on Tuesday is Monday, Wednesday Tuesday . . .and so on.


So I forgot it was Thursday. Until I went along to the Pink Heart Society Blog as part of my usual routine blog hop as I wake up in the mornings. And there I discovered that not only was it Thursday - but there was a Thursday Talk Time article up there and - er - I'd written it!


The ladies over on the PHS are so well organised that they get everyone - editors and columnists included - to set up and log their posts a month in advance. So I actually wrote this last month - and then forgot about it until today. But this is my very first post as an officially appointed PHS Columnist (along with Anne McAllister, Annie West, Fiona Harper and Samantha Hunter) so I was thrilled to write it - keen to get started. Until I saw the topic they wanted me to write on.



My Favourite Category Romance



And that's when my poor brain cell blew a fuse - because how could I choose? When there are so many wonderful books. Different books for different moods. Romance stories that tug at your heart and your emotions, and Modern/Presents ones that tie you in emotional and sensual knots and Historicals that take you away into another century - back into Roman times even - Medicals that have such poignancy and knowledge and fizzy, flirty Modern Extras . . . I read them all and have my favourites in all.


Isn't that what category romance is all about - A story for every mood, a book for every style of writer, a line for every type of reading?



So, no, I couldn't manage to pick just one book. I did manage - just - to narrow it down to just one author. An author I've been reading ever since I started reading M&B Romances - since before the lines were split in anyway - since before I was published. An author whose storytelling and emotion writing ability reached out and grabbed me and has never let go.

Who? Sara Craven - that's who.


Well if you want to find out more then you'll have to go and read the article. But I will say here that when I started out on the road to trying to be published, way back in 1981/2/3 someone had told me that one day I would not only meet Sara Craven but I would be able to call her a very dear friend, and she would actually say that she loved my books - then I would have known that they were lying and that this was all just a dream.




But here I am, all those years later - and all of those facts are true. Which shows me how far I've come and just why I never trample on other people's dreams - because the truth is that with luck, hard work and a following wind of talent, dreams do come true.

RNA Conference Workshop July 2007

Jenny Haddon standing Sara Craven seated

So Sara - thank you for everything - for the warmth of your friendship, the jokes that crack me up (the final night of the RNA Conference this year will live in my memory forever), for the amazing accolade of knowing that a M&B star like you enjoys my books - but most of all thank you for 32 years (yes 32!) of wonderful, brilliant, totally enjoyable books, You're one of the very best.

(And yes - I'll go and shoot that crow!)

Favourite Kate Walker Book - last chance to vote

The poll to vote for your favourite Kate Walker Top Five (or Top Ten if you want!) novels is still open until the end of the month . It closes when August 31st finishes everywhere in the world.So if you haven't voted yet, send your choices in, listed in your order of preference - top fave first - to me with FAVOURITE BOOK in the subject line and your name will go intothe draw to win.

Sid the Cat will be picking winners on Sunday Sept 1st - when he'll also be celebrating some very important birthdays -so if want to be in that draw, send your votes in now. You have to be in it to win it.

In case you're interested, here's the way that the voting is going so far. I just added in the new votes today to bring everything up todate.

Favourite Kate Walker Book (Top 20)

A Sicilian Husband

The Italian's Forced Bride

The Antonakos Marriage

The Sicilian's Wife

Desert Affair

The Spaniard's Inconvenient Wife

Sicilian Husband, Blackmailed Bride

Wife For A Day

12 Month Mistress

At The Sheikh's Command

The Married Mistress

Bound By Blackmail

The Hostage Bride

Fiancee By Mistake

Their Secret Baby

Leap in the Dark

The Christmas Baby's Gift

Constantine's Revenge

Rafael's Love- Child

The Hired Husband

So why not send your vote in now?

Questions, questions . . .

So in the last Great Big Blog Party Post, Anne Hobbs from Caerleon Writers' Holiday, asked as her giveaway question :

If you could ask any writer just one question - which writer would you choose and what would you ask them?

And several of the questions in response were aimed at me. SO I thought I'd answer some of these here rather than on the comments section. (I really have to get used to going in and answering Comments - after months of leaving it to my guest posters, I'm out of practise.)

So to start with, Dena asked -

Well I would like to know Kate who and how did your husband get his nickname? it's adorable. Actually my question Kate is if there was another genre that you would be interested in writing a book in?

Dena, to answer your question about the Babe Magnet, I have to go back to 2002 and the RNA's Conference at St Aidan's College Durham. I was giving a Workshop there and so was my husband in his capacity (then) as Dr Wade, lecturer in Creative Writing. (He still does that a bit but he also is Writer in Residence in a prison and writes his own books on the Grim and Gruesome that I've mentioned) He was giving a talk opn Teaching Creative Writing and Marina Oliver who was organising the conference along with Roger Sanderson asked me to introduce him.

As part of the introduction, I said that I had never realised that my husband was a Babe Magnet until I brought him to RNA Conferences and saw him chatting to the delegates who are mostly female authors. The nickname stuck for that Conference and then for the RNA as a whole and eventually, when I first started writing a blog over on eHarlequin.com, and referred to my husband as 'affectionately known as the Babe Magnet' the name stuck. And to see the resulting threats of handbags of dawn etc that appeared amongst the comments when he posted for my Great Big Blog Party, it seems he still has the magnetism for so many of those Babes out there! Though there are some who find the abbreviation of BM less delightful!

And to answer the second part of your question, I've always wanted to write ghost stories. Really good ghost stories. I once met Barbara Erskine at a Readers' Day we both attended and I loved talking to her. I also love her books - ghost stories and romance - that's a wonderful blend and I'd love to be able to write it myself.

But as I have a deadline way too close and a new book that's way too far from the ending, for now I'll just concentrate on romance.

More answers to questions tomorrow.

I'm busy but . . .

I'm busy with a Greek hero but I've been meaning to post about this in a while - someone sent me a reminder today and as I have friends with this disease and who've lost family to breast cancer, I thought I'd just post this little reminder of a way you can do some good with very little effort on your part - just click!

Please tell ten friends to tell ten today!

The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on "donating a mammogram" for free (pink window in the middle). This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising. Here's the web site! Pass it along to people you know

http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/

And while youy're there - click on the other sites - The Hunger Site - Child Health - the Literacy Site etc - support them all.

Thanks

Catching up - and the Blog Party one last time

Well, I suppose it was inevitable. You know how it is when you've had a wonderful party and you finally get all the tidying up done. The ballons have withered and the flowers faded, the food is all eaten and the wine has been drunk - and you've picked up all the wrapping paper and ribbons and the gift tags and tried to make sure you remember who gave what . . . and then under the table or behind the settee or in a box you thought was rubbish, you find on last little gift that you'd manage to miss all this time.

And that's what happened this week. As I sorted out things and organised the last distribution of prizes from the Great Big Blog Party, I realised that there was one final giveaway that had not been given away.

I know what happened. When I said that I would write some Writers' Holiday at Caerleon specials to round up the Blog Party, I originally had two books from writers and tutors at Caerleon to go with those posts. Books by Zoe Sharp (First Drop) and an extra novel by Jane Wenham-Jones (Perfect Alibis) . Then the lovely Jane Jackson said that she wanted to join in too and she wrote a blog post and gave away her book Dangerous Waters. And in the final Caerleon post I rounded off the Blog Party with copies of The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge and Sicilian Husband, Blackmailed Bride.

Spot the not- so -deliberate mistake? Jane W-H's book was never given away. And that's what I found this week, complete with the 'Greetings From Caerleon' message where she signed it for that Caerleon Special.

Well, this is a book that was meant to be given away - so, although the Blog Party is over, I need to organise a winner to receive this book. So I'm offering it as a final, very last Blog Party Prize - and all you have to do to be in the running for it is to leave me a message in the Comments section telling me what you liked best about the Great Big Blog Party - all 60 posts of it! Did you have a favourite visitor - a favourite post? What did you most enjoy about the party? If I have another one will you come again?

Leave a message and I'll get Sid to pick a winner in the usual fashion and you could end up with a copy of Perfect Alibis to go on your To Be Read Pile.

And talking of celebrations. Remember the real Writers' Weekend to celebrate the 50th title when my lovely, wonderful friends gave me flowers galore to celebrate - well, I just had to share this with you . .

Here (on the left of the picture) is a little patio rose bush that dear Jan Jones gave me back in June. I brought it home, found a larger pot to put it in and put it in my garden. This week I was checking on it after the rain and more rain and a little sun and more rain - and I found that it now looks like this -->

And guess how many flowers there are on this bush now - 50 - some in full bloom, some part open and some just buds - but there are 50 of them! That's really rather special.

So Thank you again Jan - your rose bush is looking wonderful.

And finally, for the fans of the Hecks, the hedgehog family. They are all doing well, in spite of the cold evenings and the rain. They were round visiting last night, looking for cat crunchies or cast-off cat meat. So I'll leave you with a picture of Middle Heck - who has grown over the summer in to Pretty Great Heck.