Ode To Autumn with Kate Walker

Oh – as soon as I write this title, I realised that because I’m writing this for the Tote Bags Blog, I should have written  Ode to Fall. . .!   

But perhaps not. After all Keats, who wrote the poem entitled it Ode To Autumn and  that’s the way it’s remembered.

Anyway, it’s a poem that starts like this:

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

I’ve always loved the beginning of the autumnal. The one where the country seems ripe and full of harvests , fruit, nuts etc. In my own garden there are apple trees filling up with fruit, pear trees that my husband planted a couple of years ago, starting to show  the growth of real pears -  unlike the small, tart little ‘fruits’ that were uneatable  in last year’s crop.  And we are lucky enough to have real bumble bees who have survived the  diseases that have attacked   these lovely insects recently and

are buzzing around collecting nectar and zooming in and out of the honeysuckle and the lavender plants. Ruby, my little black and white female cat has tried to catch some of them as they buzz by. Thankfully she’s never managed to trap one and run the risk of getting stung, but she performs wonderful dances on the lawn as she tries to leap to catch them in flight.

Ruby also loves the crab apple tree.  She likes to climb up it  as high as she can possibly go and then she sits right on the

top branch and watches the world go by underneath her. Sometimes Charlie goes up there too and as he’s much much bigger than Ruby   he usually sends the beautiful red crab apples flying so they come tumbling down on to the grass and we can rake them all into a brilliantly coloured bundle on one flower bed ready to be picked up and made into crab apple jelly . . .when I just finish this book!

That’s the other thing  about Autumn – it’s perfect story-telling time. Well, it seems that way to me.  On the TV networks the programmers bring out all the new  and fabulous dramas to entertain us as the evenings draw in and we settle down to watch – Poldark 2 or Victoria – or Cold Feet  (the return).  That’s here in the UK anyway. There are other new productions planned  and I’m looking forward to see them appear. In the meantime, there  lots of inspiration to be found in Aidan Turner as Poldark and Rufus Sewell as Lord Melbourne and Tom Hughes as Prince Albert in Victoria.  (A romance novelist always has to do her research! It’s a difficult job but I do work hard at it!)

So it seems that autumn is just the right season for me to have my latest novel published. Indebted to Moreno is out on September 20^th in Harlequin Presents and already I’m getting some lovely reviews for my dark, vengeful Spaniard and his convenient fiancée heroine Rose.

Here’s one from  Arpita on the Mills and Boon web site:

Kate Walker has used succinct repartee, wit , sparring dialogue, engrossing and engaging plot to

keep the readers guessing what will happen next? It is truly an exceptional, brilliant page turner for those who love fantasy world to the nth degree. Go for it! A must buy for all! Unmissable!

Thank you so much Arpita!

Another  autumnal delight is the fact that I’m just putting the ending on my latest story ready to send it to my editor before the end of this month. I can’t wait to see what she thinks of  the ‘Corsican Bandit’ Raoul  and his Irish heroine Imogen. I hope she loves them as much as I do.

And as soon as  the Corsican Bandit book has gone, I have a brand-new project to begin on. Because Imogen’s book is Part One of a duet of two linked books – next up is her sister Ciara’s story. I can’t wait to get down to serious work on that as I’ve got to know both her and her prospective hero Adnan as I’ve been writing Imogen’s story.

So, with the TV dramas to inspire me and the glorious autumn gathering in, I’m hoping for a really fruitful period of my own over the coming months.

As I said, Indebted to Moreno is out at the end of September (the 20th onwards). I can't decide which of the two covers I like best so I'm including them  both for you to choose. 

I recently updated my web site  so there are all the details of this new title  there   and the even more up to date news can be found on my blog.