Birthdays and Celebrations by Kate Walker

It’s my birthday this week. On Friday to be precise. It’s quite a momentous birthday, really. One of those milestones that make you stop and think and wonder just how did I get here? It’s a strange feeling, because life just comes along day by day, and it’s only when you stop and look back that you realise there’s been a l-o-n-g journey from A to . . .well, I hope it’s not quite Z! More like M or perhaps Q?

Anyway, because I have a birthday coming up, people keep asking me what I’d like as a gift – and I’m not very good at answering that. I’m really lucky in that there isn’t really anything I want and there certainly isn’t very much that I need. There are always books I’d love to read of course – but I have a pile of those – and I always say I’d need a voucher for some time to read them in if I’m to make even a dent in my TBR mountain. I love jewellery – but how many pairs of earrings can one person wear at one time? It’s the same with perfume. One of the things about sitting at a desk in my home writing romances is that I don’t really wear much makeup, perfume or posh clothes to work these days. So there’s plenty still in my dressing table drawers. Most days I don’t even wear shoes so there’s something else that’s not on my gift list.

But of course I want to celebrate. I believe we should grab at the good things that life sends us and mark them and enjoy them while we have them. There’s too much darkness and pain and sorrow as it is - the papers are full of it. So we should mark the special days as they come along even if we don’t quite feel like it.

I’m actually much better at other people’s birthdays. I love planning for them, thinking about them, hunting down just the right gift – the perfect card. A very special friend of mine and a wonderful romance author, Michelle Reid, who also writes for Presents, has her birthday tomorrow (people think that we’re sisters, our birthdays are that close) and I’ve loved finding something I know she’ll enjoy, wrapping, it, writing the card, posting it. I suspect that this preference I have for other people’s celebrations has something to do with the reasons why I’m a writer. I love getting inside people’s heads and thinking what will be just right for them. What will make them specially happy. Some people complain that they find choosing gifts difficult – not me. Perhaps that’s why I create my own people and make up their stories – because then I can create the special gifts that mean so much between the two characters.

But gifts don’t have to be things. What I’m most looking forward to for this birthday is time. Time spent with friends – I’m having lunch with a long term friend on Thursday, then a family meal and get-together on Friday. Next week there’s a dinner with some writing friends and then I’m heading for Michelle Reid’s lovely cottage in the Lake District to share our birthday celebrations together. If along with that I can just have an acceptance for my latest book, and a lot of inspiration for the new one then I’ll be happy.

Actually, I have all the ideas I need for the next novel so that’s a bonus. It’s part of a special project that means I know exactly what I’m doing for this one – that’s a real birthday gift in itself. So, family time, friends, get-togethers, new projects to anticipate. . . . fingers crossed on that acceptance. If my editor could just let me know that the revisions on the last story worked, then it will make my week. Who needs gifts?But then again, a small parcel or two to open would be the icing on the cake . .

. . . Cake! I forgot about birthday cake!

Anyway, as people who know me know already, when I’m celebrating, I love to share so this week over on my blog I’ll be giving away some books to celebrate my birthday – starting right here and now. So why don’t you post a comment? Let me know how you’ll be celebrating your birthday this year – or is there a really special gift that you’d just love to receive? Come and tell me about it and I can’t promise I’ll be able to deliver on that – but I will give away a signed copy of one of my backlist books when I can get Sid the Cat to pick a winner from everyone who posts.



Kate’s latest USA title is The Konstantos Marriage Demand, still available in Presents Extra. In the UK, her By Request 3 in 1 volume Claimed by The Sicilian contains reprints of three of her best-selling titles – The Sicilian’s Wife, Sicilian Husband, Blackmailed Wife, and he Sicilian’s Red-Hot Revenge.

You can find all the details on Kate’s website and the most up to date stuff is on her blog.

And the winner(s) are (I knew I shouldn't let Sid choose when he's hungry!)LOIS and HOSTAnd there are two special extra prizes as birthday gifts for my fellow May birthday readers - RACHIE G and PATTI

Check out the Comments section to see how to claim your prize

Revisions, Reprints, Revivals and Renewals by Kate Wallker

For those of you who celebrate it, Happy Easter!

I always think that Easter is a lovely festival to celebrate as it comes with such promises of Spring and a whole new sense of revitalisation and renewal. Perhaps it’s because of the reason we originally celebrate Easter in the first place – with the story of the resurrection coming after Good Friday and Jesus’ death. Or perhaps it’s because this particular festival still manages to be that bit simpler and less commercialised than ‘big one’ of Christmas with its emphasis on gifts and food and spending. Or perhaps it’s the time of year, with Spring coming at last and the flowers beginning to appear, the trees breaking into fresh green leaves, lambs in the field etc that emphasises the revitalisation and new growth in everything.

This is one of my favourite times of the year. A time that says that, no matter how dull and dreary things have become, how dark and cold the times have been, we can hope to look forward to renewal and refreshment. So perhaps it’s a good time for me to pause and look backwards and then forwards with my books as at the moment I’m sort of ‘in between’ with past present and future all coming together at one time.

The present ( or should I say Presents?) is that my current book The Konstantos Marriage Demand is still on the bookshop shelves in its Presents EXTRA edition for the next week or so. The Presents EXTRA publication schedule means that even when the main run of the Presents titles change, the EXTRA books stay around until the middle of the month. But the way that publishing works means that when each now novel appears for my readers, the book is already ‘past’ for me as I will have written it up to 18 months ago.

The Konstantos Marriage Demand for example was bought by my editor in April last year., and I’ve already written another couple of books since then. One of which I’m revising now. That’s the current book for me – one that will be scheduled and published, probably early in 2011. This means that I always have something to look forward to – which is wonderful!

And the ‘past’ is there in the way that older books get reprinted and come back to have a second chance of publication when they are reprinted because they have been bestsellers in the past. I have one of those published in the UK this month (16th April) when a Mills & Boon By Request brings out 3 of my sexy Sicilian heroes in a reprint collection called Claimed by The Sicilian. Unusually, all 3 stories in this book are my novels, normally the By Request books have stories by 3 different authors so I’m really honoured that the titles here are all mine. (If you want to know which ones they are Sicilian Husband, Blackmailed Wife – The Sicilian’s Red-Hot Revenge – and The Sicilian’s Wife.)

This collection also has one of the new designs of covers that have been brought in for the Mills and Boon editions and I really love it. I’ll post a pic of it so you can see - I’d love to know what you think. New covers, new style titles are coming up and there are more changes planned for the Harlequin Mills & Boon novels in the future as the books get a whole new look – though the one thing that will remain the same is that there will be great stories to read every month.

So renewal and refreshment is in the atmosphere and it’s a great mood that combines with the arrival of Spring to lift the spirits and make me want to look to the future. And it seems to be happening all around – here in the UK, last night was the launch of the brand new season of Dr Who with a brand new Doctor and brand new scripts created by a new team of writers. I watched the first episode last night and was excited by this new ‘relaunch’ of an old favourite. I’ve loved the ‘old’ Doctor Whos (some more than others) but what I love most of all is the way that this long-established series keep reviving and revitalising itself, renewing the ‘mixture as before’ and taking the familiar elements, stirring them up, putting them into new patterns, new versions and so creating something fresh and exciting and entertaining.

It’s a bit like romance writing really – and that’s what I’ve been doing with my books over the past 25 years. My next book out The Good Greek Wife (there's one of those new-style titles ) is like that – and the next project I have on my writing list is going to be even more that way– but I can’t tell you about that just yet. I’ll be able to say more in another couple of months – looking to the future again! So it seems really appropriate that I can celebrate Easter and its sense of renewal with my revivals and revisions. Spring seems like a much better time to think of ‘New Year’ than in the dark, dreary dull days of January! I even had a brand-new publicity photo taken to mark the new season - hope you like it.

So to celebrate Easter and this sense of renewal, I have a giveaway copy of Claimed by The Sicilian which isn’t available out side the UK (though you can get it through the Book Depository with free international postage if you wants to). Just come and chat with me in the comments, tell me what’s new in your world – are you spring cleaning or redecorating? Have you changed your job or maybe even moved house? Or what about your reading lists? Have you discovered a brand-new (to you) author whose books you just love? Please share with me. (When I finish ‘tweaking’ this Sicilian I’m going to have a little more time to read, I hope!) Or let me know what you think about those new covers, new-style titles like the Good Greek Wife. Just come and chat and I’ll get Sid the Cat pick a winner of a copy of Claimed By The Sicilian. (of you can have a copy of The Konstantos Marriage Demand if you’d prefer.)

And I hope you have a wonderful Easter holiday weekend - with lots of chocolate!

You can find out ore about what's new and exciting in my books and my life over on my web site and the really up to date stuff is on my blog.

Sid has chosen a winner and the name he picked is DENISE - so Denise you win a copy of Claimed By The Sicilian. If you email me your postal address (to kate AT kate-walker.com ) I'll get your prize in the mail to you