A Surfeit of Delights - Kate Walker

I’ve just had a birthday – well, it was five days ago to be exact  but the time in between then and

now seems to have disappeared in a flash. We’ve had the decorators in, the  old wardrobes in the bedroom ripped out, new ones put in, and today the final stage was completed as the carpet was put down and the room is  complete at last. (OK  well it will be once we’ve hung the curtains again – but that’s a minor point after all the upheaval!)

  So I’m only just finding time to breathe and take stock again after the bustle and  fun of the last week.  And if I’m honest I’ve only just managed to take stock of the lovely  birthday gifts I received. My friends know me so well –  there are books – and more books – and stationery.  A belated package arrived  today with not one by two beautiful notebooks in it  - believe me, I’ll  won’t need to find myself a new notebook  for – oh, at least until next birthday that’s for sure!

And then there’s the ‘book’ that’s sort of a combination of  a note books and a book. Did you know that Mills and Boon have brought out a colouring book with pages of classic Mills & Boon covers  to 

colour in? And of course if you have a colouring book then you have to have lovely coloured pencils to fill the pages with.

I admit that I’m a stationery addict but now I’m looking at this wonderful pile of notebooks, pencils,  colouring pages . .  and wondering where I start to use them. Are you like me that you  have to have a particular notebook for a particular  use – the one in my handbag, or the one by my bed? The one that I use to plan out a story -  that one has to be a big, A4 pad so I can make lots of fast rough  notes-  and there has to be a selection of freshly sharpened soft HB pencils ready to scribble down ideas as they come.

Then there are the books that I want to read. I want to read ALL of them. Well, yes you see that’s where having lovely understanding and generous family and friends is both a blessing and a curse. Because  they listen when I tell them what books I’d love to read  - and then they buy them for my birthday. And so I have all the new novels I’ve wanted to put on my TBR pile, a couple of fascinating books on Irish History (I’m going back into my family’s past and investigating the time when my mother was growing up in Dublin).  And a couple of fascinating biographies that I’d been dying to read, but they were too expensive to buy for myself . . . but not too expensive for a lovely birthday gift!

With the upheaval of the bedroom decorations I haven’t had a moment to sit and read in peace and quiet, but now that that’s completed I might actually have some time to settle down to these.  So which one do I start on first ? This  novel -  or the biography? The history . . .or perhaps some colouring in??

HAWORTH VILLAGE

Oh, no I forgot. I can’t quite start yet. This weekend I’m meeting up with a friend of 40 years  (I know – it doesn’t seem possible!) and we’re celebrating my birthday with a trip to Haworth where the Bronte sisters lived and wrote. That’ll be such fun as  she has never visited the village before and I’ll be showing her round. The trouble is that there is a new collection of the childhood writing of Charlotte Emily and Anne that I’ve been just longing to get my hands on and of course it will be for sale in the Parsonage bookshop . . . One more for the TBR pile.

I’m not complaining! It’s a wonderful selection of delights I have waiting for me. I can’t wait to dive in – but I want to read them all at once!

And – oh dear -  when I get back from Haworth, then my priority will be to finish planning out and writing up my next novel for which the deadline is fast approaching. .  .

Oh well, that’s a use  for one of these  lovely new notebooks. 

But which one shall  I use  this time?

My most recent book is Destined For The Desert King  -It was out in Harlequin Presents in December. The next title will be Indebted to Moreno - where my brooding Spanish hero meets up again with Rose  the girl who knocked his life off balance ten years ago. And that's out in October

The next one I'll be working out in detail just as soon as I can decide which notebook to use  for the ideas and scenes planning.

And I'm thrilled to be able to say that my other 2015 title,  Olivero's Outrageous Proposal has been re released in the Mills &; Boon collection The Best of 2015.  

All my most recent news and book details can be found on my web site here or on my personal blog:  and my Facebook page