Back to Normal . . .With Kate Walker

Last month I told you all about the chaos I was living in.  There was the work on the kitchen,  the wall knocked down, the new space crfeated, the new cupboards and fitments, the flooring ..  . It was all at perhaps the craziest stage this time last month and  the Babe Magnet and I were feeling very close to the end of our tether as we began to wonder whether it would ever be finished.

And that was before they started work on the bathroom.  . .No shower, no toilet upstairs, no water a lot of the time . .   and the noise, the dust, the mess. . . I was actually heard one morning saying was it too late to say that I'd changed my mind?

But today I sit here  - at last  - in peace and quiet. The kitchen is finished, the bathroom installed, the builders  have packed up therir tools and departed, the last skip of subbish has been taken away and we can pause, draw breath and look around us.  We've  actually been able to cook a meal again after weeks living on microwave food or salad. We've been enjoyin having showers and baths again  in the lovely new bathroom. The cats - Flora and Charlie - have decided that they're not leaving home after all. What started out looking like this  (left) now looks like this (right). (We were still in the middle of cleaning and sorting when I took that picture!)

Already the memories of the cold and dirt, the non stop noise are starting to fade, and all we can remember are some of the trickier bits -  as we sit back and enjoy the final result, the lovely new creation that is so much better than we ever anticipated. It's very much  - as someone once said - like giving birth when  you soon forget all the pain and struggle because the ened result is so worth it.

Or the way I feel when a new book is finally on the shelves in the bookshops, and no matter how much I had to struggle with it, no matter how many rewrites, revisions, tweaks there were to do, I always look at this brand new novel and think it's a lovely book - one of my favourites. No matter how much I may have cursed it, or muttered that it just wasn't working - that maybe I should scrap it -now I'm glad to see it  finally appear and I forget all about the  struggle to get it done.

So perhaps it's appropriate that just as I'm sitting back and enjoying the new kitchen, and the bathroom,  I'm also celebrating that other moment of feeling the achievement of having my latest brand new book out in Presents Extra this month.  The Devil and Miss Jones is published on April 4th - next week. And  that sort of feeling is happening with this one too.   I know I had  some revisions to do on this book. I know there were tweaks and tightenings and general reworking that my editor asked me to do - but as always I can't quite remember them.  The book is  complete,  it's out there ready for readers to try it.  My 'baby' is born and I just hope that everyone loves it as much as I do.

UK readers really seem to have enjoyed it - there are several 5 star reviews on the Mills & Boon web site   and one reader said :

This is a little gem - everything a Modern M&B should be which had me wanting to cheer at the end!
So I'm hoping that American readers will take my sexy Argentinian hero Diablo  and his Miss Jones to their hearts as much as the UK readers have.

And now that I have time to breathe  and to enjoy the publication date of this latest book, I'd like to celebrate with you - and I'm offering a signed copy of The Devil and Miss Jones as a giveway on this blog today.

Spring has sprung - at least it has here with the sun shining and Easter just around the corner so why don't you tell me what you're looking forward to for the holidays? Will you be having afamily get togther? Or eating far too many chocolate egss?  Putting bunches of daffodils all over the house? Or just curling up with a great book? (Which one is next on your TBR list?).

Let me know and I'll get Charlie the Maine Coon to pick a winner from everyone who comments.

Me? I'll be choosing colours and painting all the walls - and the ceilings - and the woodwork . . .


And Happy Easter to everyone when it comes - I hope you have a lovely time.

The Devil and Miss Jones is published in Presents Extra on April 4th . You can keep up with all my news  on my web site, and the latest  happenings are over on my personal blog.


So - Charlie has picked a winner and the name he chose is - Chrisbails! Christine please email me kate at kate-walker.com with your postal addrss and I'll organise your prize for you. Everyone else - have a  fabulous Easter holiday.