A New Beginning and A Special Anniversary

My family has an usual approach to their careers, the jobs they do in life.   I have four sisters and

not one of them is in the job they first started out in – five of us if you include me in that number, as you need to do.

The thing is, we all seem to get to a certain age -  around early thirties is the common number – and  then we launch into a new career and  it’s not the one we  originally planned.  My eld est sister trained as a radiographer.  That was the job she qualified in, the one that took her from the UK to work in Canada – where after some years she changed her career path completely.  She went to university, studied archaeology and anthropology and ended up teaching in the u8niversity where she had her degree. (She later changed again when she went to live in Australia – and went back to being a radiographer so came back to where she’d started).

The next sister never really settled to anything early on so she was a stay at home mother to her  two boys  - until they grew up more, and she got to that  just after thirty age  when she trained to be a librarian -  which was the job I’d had . . . but then I changed mine!

My younger sister (I’m right in the middle) was a medical secretary but she left that job (quite early for one of our family!) and joined the army in the army.  After she married she went back to being a secretary  - another one who went full circle.  And then the youngest of us  started out, like my eldest sister, as a radiographer.   Some years later she went to work in Africa on voluntary service  - and when she came back she completely changed her career and became a social worker.

And me? Well, you should be able to guess this one – you have a few clues!  As I said, I started out as a librarian. I went to university, got a ;librarianship qualification,  got a job as  the local Children’s Librarian – and I loved it -  but then when my son  was  born,  I decided to try for the dream job I had always wanted – that of being a writer.  I didn’t actually know what sort of books I wanted to write then, but when I picked up a romance after years of not reading them, I knew I’d come home. And you know the rest . . .

As I was writing this post, I began to wonder if perhaps it might not be better to plan this one for January – new  year, new beginnings and all that  - but then the thing that got me thinking about this special new beginning of mine is that fact that this month marks a special anniversary -   December 2014 marks a special anniversary for me. It’s 30 years since my very first book – The Chalk Line – was published   way back then.

And I’ve never looked back since. I found what I really most wanted to do  - and the  copies of my first book was my  best ever Christmas present back in 1984.    I’ve never wanted to go back to being a librarian and I’m so happy to look back and see the 62 books that have been published in those 30 years.

So to share the celebrations of my special anniversary of my brand new start I’m  wondering what you’ve always dreamed of doing -  perhaps there’s some dream that you might want to consider  starting afresh to try for as that stroke of midnight sounds out at the end of this month.  If you had a mid-life change, where would you head next?   Or perhaps  you’ve already got your best dream – I’d love to know that too.
Let me know in the comments and I’ll get my cats Charlie the Maine Coon and his apprentice Ruby the black and white rescue kitten to pick a winner each – and I’ll send each winner one of my backlist  titles so you can share in my special 30^th celebrations

So now, this week, I’m celebrating the 30^th anniversary of my very first published  book – and I’m looking forward to the publication of my  62^nd  (Olivero’s Outrageous Proposal) coming in April and working on the next one with a handsome sheikh hero who first appeared as a difficult 19 year old in A Question of Honor (or Honour if you're in the UK.)

I don't yet know what the UK cover of my next book will look like - but I can share the Harlequin Presents cover with you for the first time today. 

My latest releases are two reissues -  first there's Kept For Her Baby which is out in the 3 in 1 By Request  called Secret Love -Child.  

And coming up next, there's the reissue of The Konstantos Marriage Demand  again in a 3 in 1 collection - His Revenge Seduction.

And the 12 Point Guide To Writing Romance is now available on Kindle

You can catch up with all of Kate's news on her website  or on her blog.  You can also find her on her author page on Facebook.