Family Reunions with Kate Walker

I’ve just come back from a family reunion that was a very special event.  I come from a family of five sisters.   (I come right in the middle of them if you’re wondering.)  My eldest sister is living in Australia  so she’s sadly thousands of miles away, but the next eldest sister – the one between her and me – is having a big birthday this year.   And she invited all the rest of us -  and the next generation – and the one after that – to come together for a very special family  party and overnight stay.

W

e had a wonderful time. We all live in different parts of the country, have different lives, but it was as if time and distance hadn’t existed.  So there were my other sisters, two husbands, one sister’s daughter, and the birthday girl’s son, his wife and two daughters. So that’s  three generations. And to add to the celebrations, there were two more about-to-be members of the family as my niece and my nephews wife were both expecting babies due to arrive in September.

Since I came home and I looked at all the photographs – specially one that had all of us, each generation, arranged on a flight of steps, it made me think about families both in reality and in books.  And it got me wondering about the families in some of my books.

I’ve now been published for over thirty years, so some of the babies  conceived by or born to past heroes and heroines will be about the age to become heroes and heroines themselves.   The b

aby that pushes Pierce and Natalie into marriage in  The Unexpected Child would be twenty years old now – just old enough to have her own story. And so will the little girl   Rosie who appeared in His Miracle Baby.

Sometimes I create characters who are connected by family or place and  then if I revisit that place, that family,  there is a chance to catch up with the story of the original couple and see how their life has progressed. I did this with  A Question of Honour where the hero and heroine  - Karim and Clemmie  later appeared – with their children -  in Destined For The Desert King .   And  Nabil, who was to have been Clemmie’s original bridegroom in that story, is the hero of this second book, with his new bride Aziza.  I remembered these books particularly as the story I’m working on will  take my new hero and heroine from their homes in Ireland to the kingdom of Rhastaan  where they may well meet up with Karim and Clemmie, Nabil and Aziza . . .and who knows how many children now?

So that made me wonder.  Do you like books were past characters appear, and you learn about their lives later on? Do you enjoy finding out about what has happened to them since their ‘happy ever after’ ending? Are they in fact ‘happy ever after’?  (I should hope so as I try to write characters who are just made for each other.)

Thinking about these earlier books has made me wonder whether it might be interesting to revisit

What do you think?  Do you like to read books like this? Are there any books - mine  or any other  author’s  where you’d like to know what happened to a younger character – or just another person – in the future?

families and give them their own family reunion  and a story for the next generation.

I  know I’m looking forward to revisiting old friends in Rhastaan as I take Adnan and Ciara out to that country on their rather unusual honeymoon.

I don't have a new book out until January next year but you can  keep up to date with all my news on my web site blog page  or my Facebook page   where you can find out when I have new books appearing in the shops.

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

Spring Organising . . . with Kate Walker

It’s Spring – at last.

Well,  that’s how it feels. It’s been so cold and wet and miserable recently , with Easter vanishing

in a downpour all through the holiday weekend. But now, at last it really seems as if the season is changing and Spring is actually starting to appear.

So that’s been changing the way I’ve been feeling. I’ve been doing crazy things like Spring Cleaning. That’s crazy because  we’ve  created so much upheaval that  at the moment it’s got worse before it will get better.  We had the hall, stair and landing decorated, and then our bedroom. Fine – it looks lovely  - but the bedroom. . .  Well it’s going to look lovely. The wallpaper is beautiful , just as I hoped it would be, but there’s just the wallpaper – and a bed in the room!  No furniture – we’re waiting for the new wardrobes to be built in – and no carpet – we’re waiting for the wardrobes to be built in before we can get the carpet land. And  no curtains – we’re waiting for them too!!

Oh well, I’m really looking forward to seeing it all finished and organised. And then I can  sort out all the clothes  and things that have been stored in the other rooms, causing absolute chaos while  we wait. It’s will look  wonderful . . . eventually.

It’s sort of a bit like the way I’m feeling with my writing  right now as well.  With the last book  done, accepted and scheduled – it will be my 65^th title, out in October with the title of Indebted to Moreno – I now have to plan a new book and get that written before the deadline in the summer. But this book needs to be a bit different. It’s the first part of a linked duet, two books that are connected in some way so that they come out as a mini series all their own. So I need  not one but two stories  - and right now that’s what’s making me feel like the stories are like the bedroom -  everything has been changed around, planned  and – hopefully – made wonderful and attractive – but nothing is yet in it’s proper place and really looking good. I have 2 heroines  -  half sisters (that’s one of the links)- two heroes – one for each heroine, obviously.  I have a complicated family situation – and a very important scene where the two sisters end up in a very tricky situation . . .   And then I have another

couple of very important scenes – one for each sister – where things are going to change yet again.

In the end, I hope it will all work out. And that it will all come together and make a great story -  two great stories.  But right now it feels like the  situation with the bedroom – lots of planning and reaming but nothing concrete really making things work out. I can’t wait to sit down and really write out these two stories – but I haven’t quite got everything in place just yet.

So perhaps it’s really lucky that this coming week is going to be really busy. I have a long drive to Winchester where I’m giving a talk on writing romance in the University there,. Then I’m heading for Oxford to meet up with a  lovely writer friend  - and  from there I’m heading to Cirencester and the Royal Agricultural University where I’m teaching a course for the weekend.  The good thing is that this course has the title  - Beginning Middle and End ,planning your romance novel.   That seems just perfect.  While I’m talking to my student about how to plan your novel, hopefully I’ll get some time and ideas to plan for mine.

 I’ll be back home next week – when it will just about be time for the wardrobes to be built into the bedroom, and  so very soon everything in the house will be back in order, refreshed and renewed and ready for the real arrival of Spring. And hopefully the same will happen with my new book(s) . This time away, and with all the planning and organising I’m doing for my course, I should be ready to  write my two connected stories. . .I can’t wait.

But in the meantime I’m going to enjoy thinking as I travel about the country in – hopefully – some lovely early spring weather.

My most recent book is Destined For The Desert King  -It was out in Harlequin Presents in December.  As I said, 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

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

It's that day again - Kate Walker

Well, not quite, today’s the 12th so The Day  - you know the one I’m thinking of. The one where the commercial world  declares that  everyone should be more ‘romantic’  and the stores are full

of mass produced red roses, cards – some in good taste, some with no taste at all – teddy bears with big red hearts on their chests, boxes of chocolates. . .And it’s the time when, because I write romance, people start asking me  what does a romance writer give/get for that day.

For Valentine’s Day.

There, I’ve said it. In spite of a private vow to sort of   keep silent about it this year, I’ve finally buckled and mentioned the V word. But I’m going to  follow that up by  the statement that really and truly I don’t like, care about or usually even observe Valentine’s Day myself.

I suppose that’s something that might shock  some people. I can almost see the headlines ‘Romance Writer ignores the most romantic day of the year’ – but I have my answer ready . And that is that I simply don’t see Valentine’s Day as the most romantic  day of any year. A day when  a partner buys a bunch of red roses because it’s expected (and they saw them in the shop and thought . . Oops! . . . .) Or  when they give a box of chocolates  that their lover doesn’t want  because she’s fighting to lose weight.  And I really really  don’t want a huge teddy bear with a big red heart. No really I don’t!

This year in particular the emphasis on one day for making a fuss and  buying gifts  to ‘show your love’ seems slightly hollow to me.  I’ve never been a fan of mass marketing and as I think I’ve mentioned before, I don’t actually like red roses – golden ones are different, I had those in my wedding bouquet and my DH will sometimes surprise me with a bouquet of those ‘because I saw these and thought of you.’  Now that’s  much more  romantic.

So why this year does this make me feel even more strongly? Well,  I don’t know about you but it does seem that since 2016 dawned we’ve had a string of sad announcements of famous  people who have died unexpectedly and some too soon.  David Bowie, Alan Rickman,  and here in the UK the much loved broadcaster Terry Wogan. They’ve all sadly passed away and even more sadly, if inevitable, they’ve left behind  a grieving partner who had been with them for years and years.

One of the UK papers today had an article about the fact that ‘romance’ seems to be touted as only for the young,  To quote the article in the Daily Mail:   In the literature of love, anyone past the first flush of youth is doomed to mockery, humiliation and sharp regret. Deceived husbands, betrayed wives, deluded old fools led a merry dance by manipulative young minxes - from Chaucer and Shakespeare to Auden and Larkin, the message is clear: wooing is not for wrinklies.

This is in response to a new book of Poems by Christopher Matthew  titled A Bus Pass Named Desire.

I’ll have to be honest here and say, well, yes, the novels I wrote do tend to have younger heroes and heroines.  I haven’t written about older characters. But that’s not because I don’t believe in the idea – and the fact  - of ‘wrinkly romance’ (horrible term!) The truth is that I’m living  it myself. My husband and I celebrate our 43^rd wedding anniversary this year. And we’d been together for two years before that big day.

To me there is something hugely romantic  in the proper sense of the term – romantic and loving about  the relationship of two people who have been together through thick and thin for years and years.  They’ve loved each other as young ones. They’ve been through  the newly married stage, the new parents, the teenage angst (their children not the husband and wife!) the empty nest syndrome . . . And that’s why those  losses of well known characters has been particularly poignant this year.
David Bowie  had been with Iman for 25+ years.      Alan Rickman met his partner – later wife  - Rima when he was 19 and she just 18. They were still together at his death at 69 .  Terry Wogan  married his wife Helen – the ‘only woman he ever loved’ in 1965.

That’s romance. That’s the lifetime of love and togetherness and Happy Ever After I wish for my heroes and heroines – and my friends and family.   It’s the sort of loving that, sadly, inevitably leads to a loss that nothing else can fill. But it’s truly special and those every day 24/7, 52 weeks a year moments of love are more romantic than an impulse buy of red roses.

I’m not a total ‘Valentine’s Scrooge’ thought. I hope everyone has a lovely day on the 14^th. I hope that you and your partner share some truly lovely and loving moments on that day – and all the days around it and following it.   I hope you have  some  days that are truly romantic for you and not just what mass marketing says ‘romance’ is on a particular date this year.

Because the truth is that as David Bowie’s wife Iman posted on Twitter just before we learned of her husband’s death  on January 10th

Sometimes you will never know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory.

I wish you the happiest of memories of this Valentine’s Day however you celebrate it. 

My most recent book is Destined For The Desert King  - out in Harlequin Presents in December.  I've just sent in the revisions on my latest book

where my brooding Spanish hero meets up again with Rose  the girl who knocked his life off balance ten years ago and I'm waiting to hear what my editor thinks of it. 

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.  

My 10 'determinations' for the year

Happy New Year  - rather belatedly.

 But then everything has been rather belated recently. What with Christmas and New Year  - which were preceded by an unexpected and unwanted stay in hospital  - convalescence  that took longer than I expected – then a family birthday – and revisions on the latest book . . .  everything has  become chaotic and  disorganised  as a result.  I’ve only just managed to catch up on anything (not quite everything yet!)

Anyone who’s read my posts at this time of year regularly knows I’m not a fan of New Year ‘resolutions’. I don’t like the thought that we’re telling ourselves that what we are is not good enough. That  we need a whole ‘new me’  and to reject the person whose got us this far in life. So my DH and I had one resolve – no resolutions.  

But we did have a talk about the way we’d like the year to go  and  the things we’d like to include in our 2016 as it unfolds. I found that I was on the same lines of thinking as another writer when I read in the Sunday papers of her determination to have  small positive  steps of happiness. I can go along with that.

So here are my happiness steps for 2016

1.     1,  Spending more time with family and friends. The loss of one very dear friend two years ago taught me that we need to hold on to the people we value in our lives – they’re not always here for ever.

2.   2    Work will never love you back – see #1 to reinforce this. Another book – or two – is an achievement I’d like to enjoy  but not at the expense of people I love.

3.  3.     Getting out and about  into nature if possible helps boost my mood – and goes some way towards dealing with the curse of writers’ bottom. (I went someway towards dealing with these 3 points at the weekend when the Babe Magnet and I spent the weekend with our son and his fiancée and the new member of the family – the ‘grand-dog’  Lola a 17 week old golden retriever. Taking her out for a l

Lola on the beach

ong walk on a blustery, rainy beach ticked off all those 3 points in one!)

4.   4    Writing etc keeps my mind open and busy – but I love to challenge it in  other ways. So the Babe Magnet and I want to keep up our Saturday morning coffee shop and cryptic crossword dates! We have a record to keep up – with almost 3  years undefeated  completing it now.

5.   5    Reading – I’ve not read as much or as widely as I would like for a time. Writing tends to get in the way of reading. And I want to read different things. The unexpected time in hospital might have been unwanted but it made sure I had time to focus just on the book I was reading and nothing else. So I realised how much more reading I got through if I found the time.

6.  6     I’m going to put this in as a separate point though really it’s part of #5 Reading again – but I want to find new authors I can try and  maybe fall in love with. This will also mean that I can hope to reduce my TBR piles  ( the one by my bed and in my office ) – and my TBR library (the one on my Kindle.)  So far this year  I’ve read  the new to me Kate Mosse The Taxidermist’s Daughter  and the psychological thriller Only We Know by Karen  Perry whose The Boy That Never Was, was one of my favourite reads of 2015.

7.  7     Teaching – courses and workshops.  I love meeting new writers  - and past students who have become real friends  after coming on one of my courses so I want to keep teaching as much as I can. But I need to keep a balance so that  teaching doesn’t take over from my writing. But the courses I run for Writers’ Holiday and Relax and Write boost my ideas and the discussions and retreats revive

my interest in writing too. My 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance is still helping would-be writers and they keep sending messages to let me know how much they've learned from it. That makes me happy when I can reach the writers who can't get to my classes.

8.       8.Theatre – 3 years ago my DH and I resolved  to see as much live theatre as  we could fit in and we’ve kept to that.  The last trip was to Nottingham to see a production of Mack and Mabel and we’ve mixed classic plays with musicals, London productions with local theatre and provincial tours. Now I have the fun of studying the new theatre programmes for 2016 and planning where we’re going

9.     9.Food – no I’m not talking about diets or restrictions or clean eating or  paleo or whatever is the latest  wonder plan. Just to keep on enjoying what I eat  - but making sure it’s ‘real food’. Luckily I don’t suffer with a sweet tooth and I’m really happy with lots of veggies – so this will be no hardship.

110.   Looking after me. This includes several of the points above – food, exercise (I can’t wait to walk Lola again) but also those little pampering treats that we can often forget. I was shocked to realise that some on the perfume I was given last year was still unopened, the same with a lovely body lotion that was a birthday gift.  My husband’s grandmother once had a chest of drawers filled with things that she ‘kept for best’.  I’m not going to head that way.  So – the best time to use these treats is now.  Because as that saying goes :

Yesterday's the past, tomorrow's the future, but today is a gift. That's why it's called the present

And -  I know I said my 10 points but here’s the last and perhaps most important one – to value the present and everything it brings. I’m still not making resolutions to make myself ‘better’ some time in the future.

What are your plans and hopes and reams for this coming year?  I don't think you need to list losing ten pounds or running every day - I think you're fine as you are!

My most recent book is Destined For The Desert King  - out in Harlequin Presents in December.  I'm busy finishing the revisions on the latest novel

where my brooding Spanish hero meets up again with Rose  the girl who knocked his life off balance ten years ago,

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.  That's a way to start my new year off just right!

If you want to read all my latest news then visit my web site here   and there's my blog too (when I get caught up and organised!) That's here 

The delight of giving unexpectedly - With Kate Walker

Happy December!

 It is for me now.  But there was a point when it didn’t look as if it was going to be. Two weeks ago, at almost exactly this time, I was suddenly and ridiculously dramatically taken ill.  I started to day fine – started to feel a bit ‘off’, the found I was shivering and shaking and  feeling dreadful. Long story short - it turns out I had septicaemia with a very high temperature from some nasty infection and I was taken into hospital in a rush and given IV antibiotics for days until the blighter gave in and left - hopefully for ever,

I was lucky enough to have  little bit of brain still working before I left the house so I managed to grab the absolute essentials  - clean pyjamas – and my Kindle.  So at least I had something to wear and something (OK – a lot)  to read.  Both proved very useful  as I was attached to a drip and had to stay put for far too long.

But I was the lucky one. In the ward, as I started to feel a lot better, there were other women all brought into the hospital in something of a rush and most of them had just the barest essentials  - some not even that.   More than one of my fellow patients were feeling totally bored and upset with nothing to distract therm.

This was one of the occasions when I really felt there’s an extra-special  little bonus that comes from being a writer. When my husband came to visit on the first day I asked him to bring me a bundle of my backlist books  - and titles – any dates – and leave them with me, For the rest of the week+ I was in the hospital, I had these books available for anyone who wanted therm.  If someone was bored – would she like something to read?  If someone was feeling really low – perhaps a romance might distract her?  In the end even the nurses and one of the female doctors spotted the pile of books on my table  and  asked about them – then took away one of them for their day off or  to relax when they got home.

I really felt like Santa as I watched  people open their books and settle down to relax with them. At one point I was sitting in the middle of the ward with my kindle while everyone else in my bay (7 other women) with their nose buried in a copy of one of my books. I’ve never actually sat and watched so many  people read my stories   all at one time. It was so great to see their enjoyment.

This really brought home to me something about giving at Christmas. I have gifts for my family and friends – well, just two more names on the list and I’m done – but there was something very special about being able to give to someone who wasn’t expecting it and who I wouldn’t have known about if we hadn’t ended up together so unexpectedly.   So that’s when I decided that today I was going to  do a small giveaway – with a difference. 

This is really a continuation of the post I wrote on  November 12^th – the one I never got round to answering  after I wrote it last year.  Then I offered a copy of my book as a stocking stuffer – and  life dumped on me so hard that I never got back to declare the winner of that.

So  Barbara T  - can you contact me  through my web site – kate at kate-walker.com and I’ll send you a copy of one of my backlist books for your cousin

And for today’s giveaway – is there someone you feel needs a little boost, like those ladies in the hospital? Someone who perhaps needs their day brightening a little – or some chance to sit back and relax for a while? Tell me who you’d like to make a gift to and why and I’ll put your name in the draw and you might win a copy of A Question of Honour for her.  A Question of Honour is the first part of the Rhastaan Royals  duo.  My current book , Destined for The Desert King  out now, is Part Two of that set.

And this time I’ll try not to disappear into hospital before Charlie the Maine  Coon has picked the name of the winner!

Out Now:  Destined for The Desert King

A queen of convenience? 

There's no doubt that their marriage is one of convenience and political maneuvering. But shy beauty Az

iza El Afarim secretly hopes that her husband—the boy she once idolized—remembers something of the closeness they shared as children.

Except Sheikh Nabil Al Sharifa is far from the boy he used to be. The weight of loss and power has changed him beyond recognition. Where once there was warmth and generosity, now only a ruthless passion burns. He'll give Aziza everything…except his love.

But as pressure to produce an heir mounts, could there be more than duty in the marriage bed?

Then there's the  12 Point Guide to Writing Romance, the newest edition of which is available on Kindle or a revised and updated paperback edition now available on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

Kate Walker's web site is here   and the up-to-date news can be found on her blog or her Facebook page.

That C Word (Christmas that is!) with Kate Walker

OK I'm going to admit to thinking about it already - Christmas that is!  Every year I watch to see

when the first Christmas products arrive in the stores. Or the decorations/tree goes up in the shops.  The Christmas adverts are always a tradition in the UK  with firms vying to be original/magical/sentimental  with this year's event. Some of them are  real stories in their own right -  the rabbit and his friend the bear  who hibernated through the winter and so missed Christmas. Or the little boy who wanted a friend for his toy penguin . . . this year we have a little girl who sends a  telescope to the lonely old Man in the Moon. 

It's all started happening  now, everywhere I go I see  red and green and gold displays (or silver and white ones)  and I'll admit I've started 'making a list and checking it twice'.  Next week my DH and I are going on a long weekend trip to York where hopefully the buying of gifts and little extras will be a pleasure rather than a chore when we  try to cross  presents  off our lists while shopping in this beautiful mediaeval city.

One of my favourite parts of this Christmas shopping is to plan  for  Christmas Stockings for my family.   Yes, my son is grown-up with a fiancée  and a home of his own, but be honest which of us is so grown up that they don't love the  thrill of a stocking stuffed with silly little treats and jokes gifts. Every year I know my grown up son will look at something I've bought and say 'Mother - how old am I?' but I also know he wouldn't want it any other way.  So I can buy  a whoopee cushion, or  a bubble shooting gun  or some  sill Star Wars socks and know that he'll love them. The cats will love chasing the bubbles too -  and they'll have a small stocking each with little extra treats   and some cat nip to drive them crazy.

One of my favourite stocking fillers is always a  much wanted, brand new paperback book - in the old days  this book was a yearly annual - Dr Who or something similar and the idea was that the Offspring could stay in bed and read that and so save us from having to wake up ant 6am when he was bubbling with excitement on Christmas morning.

So this year it's an extra thrill that the books I can pop in the stocking  for my son's fiancée or for my sisters is one of my own  romance.  They're just the right size  to slip into the stockings we have (ones I made years ago when my son was small) and there's a special delight in sharing  this special gift with everyone.  So this year  copies of Destined For The Desert King will  be in several family stockings - and it has a really lovely  red and gold, Christmassy looking cover that fits right in.

What about you? Do you have someone special who you'd like to give  a stocking filler  of one of my backlist books to?    I can't give away Destined to The Desert King just yet as it's not actually published until the end of this month.  But if you tell me in the comments about someone you'd like to give a backlist title too then I'll get Charlie the Maine Coon  to pick a name and you can have a gift for a friend  - or a  sister - or your mother . . .  

Just let me know and I'll get Charlie to play Santa Paws

 . Coming on November 17th   Destined For The Desert King  

A queen of convenience? 

There's no doubt that their marriage is one of convenience and political maneuvering. But shy beauty Aziza El Afarim secretly hopes that her husband—the boy she once idolized—remembers something of the closeness they shared as children.

Except Sheikh Nabil Al Sharifa is far from the boy he used to be. The weight of loss and power has changed him beyond recognition. Where once there was warmth and generosity, now only a ruthless passion burns. He'll give Aziza everything…except his love.

But as pressure to produce an heir mounts, could there be more than duty in the marriage bed?

Then there's the  12 Point Guide to Writing Romance, the newest edition of which is available on Kindle or a revised and updated paperback edition now available on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

Kate Walker's web site is here   and the up-to-date news can be found on her blog or her Facebook page.

Song for two heroes - or heroines . . . Kate Walker

I’m  on a deadline right know. OK, to be honest, I’m rather over that deadline.  I have too little ti

me left and too much book  to write – so I’m fairly pressured for time. Add into that the fact that I’d forgotten to add in the time I needed to run a writing retreat in Swanwick, Derbyshrire  (that’s pronounced Swannick Darbyshire in Brit English of course, not the way it looks on the page!)

So I’m a bit late getting back  home, unpacked, sorted out, and at the keyboard  to write my blog.  And then of course I had to think of something to write.

Now there’s a problem – I’ve been writing blogs -  my own, Tote Bags, Pink Hearts . . . for so many years that sometimes it’s really hard to think what I should talk about. What would be interesting? What would be current? What would readers Actually want to read about?

It’s a bit like the eternal ‘where do you get your ideas from’ question that  writers are asked so often.  That’s the question I usually answer ‘from life’ when I’m asked it.  Well, it’s true -  life is the  one great source of inspiration that comes at us day in and day out, bringing new events, new people, new possibilities for stories, or blogs – sometimes.

I have an idea for my current story, obviously, which is a good thing  - because of that deadline, obviously, but I’m really a bit apprehensive  about getting to the end of this book , this deadline, and starting tom look around for another brand new  exciting and interesting  idea for next time. 

Because I don’t just have to find an idea for this book, but  this one and another one as well.  Because when I was in London last month   for the annual author party, I was talking to my editor about what

might be coming up and she said ‘I’d really like to see a duet.’  And before I knew what had happened I’d opened my mouth and said ‘Fine. I can do that.’

Fine? What’s fine about it? A duet is two books. Two linked books.   I have to think of not one story that excites me and makes me want to write it. One idea  ‘with legs’ that  will have enough interest and depth to develop into  a full length book – but two s

uch stories – and they have to be linked in some way so that they create a ‘duet’.  Eeek!

I have written duets – and a trilogy before.  So I know it can be done. 

There was The Alcolar Family (just republished as   The Notorious Alcolars in Australia). That came about by accident. I was asked to write a free on-line story for the Harlequin web site  so I created Alex Alcolar  and at the end of his story his two half-brothers  Joaquin and Ramon and his half-sister Mercedes appeared and everyone wanted to  know their stories it seemed. So I set to and The 12 Month Mistress   (Joaquin’s story) , The Spaniard’s Inconvenient Wife (Ramon)  and Bound by Blackmail  (Mercedes).  The link between them was  easy – they were all from the same family.

wrote

Other connected books – duets have happened  almost by accident.

I wrote The Sicilian’s Wife in 2002 as a standalone story. But in the closing chapters of that story, the hero’s  half brother Gio appeared  and soon he was demanding his own story. I wrote it –(he didn’t give me much option – he wouldn’t go away until I did!) And so A Sicilian Husband appeared a year later.

Then there was  the Sicilian Brothers duet  which was actually planned as two linked books. Guido and  Vito Corsentino were inspired by a some emails from an American fan who told me about her brothers  with those names and the names were so great – such obvious ‘hero’ names that I had to write their stories. They appeared in Sicilian Husband, Blackmailed Bride and The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge in  2007.

So now I need some new ideas for a new duet. I’d better move away from any more Sicilians – they seem to have had their fair share of  linked stories for a while – do you think?  And Spaniards. The Alcolars have had four books after all.  

But how should I link them?  I’ve done several brothers or half-brothers stories.  There’s even a sister in there.  Family links obviously work well -  but should I write about heroes who are brothers or heroines who are sisters?  Then there’s the possibilities of heroines who work together  - or work for each other. Would that - er  work?  Or heroes who  are best friends – or twins – or . . .

My mind is almost spinning with possibilities but I’m having to shelve the real work on coming up with these new plots until I finish the current story and send it off to my  editor. Then I can start really planning and thinking and imagining.

What about you? Do you like linked stories that form a duet? Or do you prefer a standalone story?

And what sort of links do you like to see in a linked series of books? Family connections?   Brothers? Sisters?  Twins? Friends? Enemies?  Or is there something else entirely, something new that you’d just love to see in a pair of linked books?  Any clever ideas?

In the meantime I’ll  keep my nose to the grindstone and work on – and hopefully finish very soon – this new story. And then I’m going to be brainstorming ideas and plans to see what to write next.  

I just hope I can come up with something soon!

(And if you have any ideas or questions that would create interesting and new blogs, that would be great too!) 

 . Coming next  Destined For The Desert King  which is published in December this year.
  

Then there's the  12 Point Guide to Writing Romance, the newest edition of which is available on Kindle or a revised and updated paperback edition now available on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

Kate Walker's web site is here   and the up-to-date news can be found on her blog or her Facebook page.

Looking forward to autumn with Kate Walker

Almost every morning before I get to my desk, I go for a walk in the local park. From there,  there’s a path that leads to the woods and I walk all round the woods as well. It’s a lovely way to start off my day. I have some peace and quiet to think. I get my exercise – essential seeing as the day job usually keeps me sitting most of the day – and I get to see the changing seasons up close.  The past few weeks have been lovely and mild so that I got to see the rabbits frolicking in the sunlight, or the squirrels running up the tree trunks.  Robins, magpies, crows, sparrows, all fly about the woods and I can hear the woodpecker hammering away at a tree trunk up above my head.

But this morning it was a very different sort of day.  There was a chill wind and a lot of rain. Suddenly it was so obvious that the season was changing. Summer is over and autumn is on its way in.  There was a sort of melancholy feel about it, but at the same time there was an excitement and anticipation of the new season that’s starting.  

I’ve often talked about how I love this time of year. New Term. Back To School. New (School) Year – all these things mean that there’s the anticipation of new beginnings and all the shops have  lots of lovely stationery and pens to mark ‘Back To School’ time. But there are other reasons why I love this time of year. Reasons I’m looking forward to Autumn -  So I thought I’d share some of them with you.

I’m not really very good with a lot of heat. Sunshine, yes, but hot days really exhaust me so I’m haf bach mihangel – Michael’s Little Summer – St. Michael’s Day being on 29 September) but it is rarely as hot as the height of summer. And I love that.

happy about the cooler days. We might still have an Indian Summer (or as we used to call it when DH and I were at university in Aberystwyth in Wales 

The changing colours. I love to see the way that the trees start to change colour – to turn from green to gold to brown.  I’ve always loved the ‘autumnal’ colours so I shall wear some of those too.

Shoes – and boots – I love boots -   high boots, ankle boots, black, burgundy . . .  I just bought myself a wonderful pair of flats in metallic leather – can’t wait to wear them with opaque black tights. My sandals don’t feel right any more and I can’t wait to get into boots!

TV  - I’m in the UK  so this will be slightly different here – but  the autumn schedules start – last weekend we had Lady Chatterley’s Lover ( Richard Madden, James Norton) coming up  are the new series -  Dr Who. Downton Abbey,  Sherlock,  Strictly Come Dancing, Jekyll and Hyde. (And meanwhile  Aidan Turner is filming the second series of Poldark and James Norton is working on  Grantchester 2) These are good ways to spend darker cooler evenings. And that’s before I consider films – the live broadcasts of Benedict Cumberbatch’s Hamlet – Tom Hiddleston as Hank  Williams.

Or theatre – so far I have tickets for The Importance of Being Earnest, Mack and Mabel,  Kiss me Kate . . . I  will be spending most of Autumn watching great acting!

Real fires. We’re lucky enough to have a real fire in our living room. It hasn’t been used for five months – I can’t wait to lay the wood, add the coal, strike a match . . . and the cats just love to curl up in front of it.

And if the fire’s lit and I’m not watching TV – there’s always the bundle of new books coming out.  The fire in the hearth, a cat on my lap – a good book . . .

Autumn is also a time when I go to London to meet all my friends and fellow authors  at the Association of Mills & Boon lunch. This time it’s extra exciting as  for the first time we’ll get to see the brand new M&B offices  in the News Building in Central London .  

October I’ll be running a guided retreat  Focus on Writing Romantic Fiction. This means I get to spend the weekend at The Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick Derbyshire – and I’ll

meet up with students, some of whom are already friends – and get to spend the weekend talking about writing – what’s not to like?

Oh, and I seem to have a lovely set of books  coming pout this autumn too. There’s the Australian collection of my 3 books about the Alcolar Family  called The Notorious Alcolars. A brand new  English Manga Comic edition of The Greek Tycoon’s Unwilling Wife.  And the one I’m most looking forward to of all – the publication of my newest title Destined for The Desert King.   (I just love the Presents cover for this one!) 

All I need to make my autumn complete will be to have written – and had accepted  - a new book ready for the new year. I’m working on that one. And that’s the other great thing about autumn. Because it’s not so warm and because of that ‘new term’ feeling, I always write so much better and more  concentrated in autumn. I’m hoping to get this new book  (Rose and Nairo’s story) to my editor very soon.

So that’s why, although I’m sad to see the summer fade, I’m also excited by the prospect of this new season and I’m, really looking forward to Autumn and all the promise  that it holds.

What about you?  Do you love autumn – fall -  whatever you call  it?   Or are you dreading the darker nights and the cooler days?  I’d love to know what you’re looking forward to.  But let’s agree not to talk about the C word - Christmas -  just yet!!

My  latest romance  is Olivero's Outrageous Proposal published in April in Harlequin Presents and Mills and Boon Modern Romance . Coming next  Destined For The Desert King  which is published in December this year.
is   

Then there's the  12 Point Guide to Writing Romance, the newest edition of which is available on Kindle or a revised and updated paperback edition now available on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

Kate Walker's web site is here   and the up-to-date news can be found on her blog or her Facebook page.