New Year New Look New Book with Kate Walker

I’m in  celebratory mood today. This is a post that I’ve been waiting so long to write – since  the end of 2016 in fact.   That was when my last  new title – Indebted to Moreno – had been out on the  shelves for October/November  - and I needed to make sure there was another new book to follow it.  It’s been a long wait.

So what happened?  Life.  I suppose you can sum it up in that one short word.  Just life. There were some health problems – mine and my husband’s – family problems. . . But there were also some good things – enjoyable ones.  My sister had a big birthday – one of those with a 0 at the end. So did a friend. So of course we had to celebrate just a  bit, didn’t we?  Then  two new members of the family arrived. Two little boys who were born within 6 months of each other.   They are both gorgeous and thriving -  thankfully. Considering that one of them, arrived  rather late and in a rush, on his parents’ bathroom floor instead of the water birth they were expecting!  Life has a habit of doing that, doesn’t it?  Changing the rules just when you were least expecting them.

It seemed a bit like that all last year. I know so many people who had a tough year, found that things didn’t go as they expected them.  Sometimes I find that I can turn my attention to writing, concentrating on the fictional world and disappearing into it so that I can forget about reality. But not 2017.     Still, I persevered – and  this month I get to celebrate the fact that at last I have a brand new novel out  this month.

I may have written 66  novels for Harlequin, but that feeling of having a brand new book on the shelves – holding it in my hands is a really special one and it always feels so wonderful. It’s a joy that never goes away.  And it  has an extra special feeling to it this time as my new book (I love saying that!) A Proposal To Secure His Vengeance is one of the first  books to be published with the new look, revamped covers  that are the result of the major makeover that Harlequin Mills and Boon  have  organised and that  starts to appear in shops from this date on.  The coves are very new, very different – but the great stories under the covers are just the same.

 

I’ve had some wonderful messages from kind readers, telling me how much they’ve been looking forward to having a new Kate Walker story to read. How  happy they are that it’s finally here. That means so much to me.  When I haven’t had a new novel available  for so long, I was a bit afraid that readers would forget me – that they’d look for other authors’ names instead.  So these fabulous messages have really made my day – I’d almost say they’ve made my year but perhaps it’s a bit early for that!

But it’s not too early to celebrate this special publication day  - and to share with you the covers – USA and UK – of this new book.    There’s the ‘blurb’ from the back of the book too – that re

ally made me smile as it so sums up the tone and mood of the story I’ve written. I hope you’ll enjoy it too  and I hope you’ll love my sparky, beautiful heroine Imogen and  the sexy, brooding hero Raoul Cardini  -   known by his nickname the Corsican Bandit! 

 

Meanwhile, I’m busy working on the revisions for the next book – this one doesn’t have a  title yet but it’s  a story that’s linked to Imogen’s story because the heroine is Imogen’s sister, Ciara.  I’ve called these two linked stories  by the working title  The Scandalous O’Sullivan Sisters.

And I really hope it won’t be quite so long  before I’m able to tell you that Ciara’s  story will be published too.

It’s a little late but I still want to wish all my lovely readers a very happy new year. I know that with the publication ofA ProposalTo Secure His Vengeance  it’s  definitely the  happy start to 2018 for me. Let’s hope it continues that way!

Raoul Cardini will have his revenge!
His preferred method? Ruthless, irresistible seduction!

Imogen O’Sullivan is horrified when charismatic tycoon Raoul breaks up her engagement and makes her his own convenient bride! She once surrendered everything to Raoul—body, heart and soul. But as he stalks back into her life it’s clear he has punishment in mind—not just passion! Can Imogen resist Raoul’s potent brand of delicious vengeance?

You can read more about me and my books on my web site and my blog -  and catch up with me too on my Facebook page

Twelve Days of Christmas - covers and giveaways

Last time I posted,I was talking about the arrival of the new copies of   my next book -
 A Proposal to Secure His Vengeance - which is out in January 2018.   January 16th to be precise.  It seems so close now, thankfully - especially when  it has been such a difficult year .  One in which I  had times of wondering if I'd  ever hold a  brand new book  that I'd written  in my hands  ever again.

So it's a delight to know that this new title will be coming out and will be  on the shelves in the new year.

It will be  an interesting time as well because, as many of you may already know, the UK  section of  Harlequin  - Harlequin Mills and Boon -  will be having a new makeover  and launching it in the new year.   The new look is very different - and will create a lot of interest in the  books, I'm sure.

Here's  the sign  that Mills and Boon are using  to mark the start of the makeover.    And here   is the new logo that  will be used from January onwards.

The changes are interesting - and I'll be talking  about them more on my own blog and my Facebook page as the details are released  - and my own  'new look' book appears   in more places.

Perhaps the first thing that people will notice - and the thing that so many  readers have already mentioned to me is that  in the new logo, that traditional symbol of  Romance - the rose of romance  - is now missing from the logo. Instead, the new look includes 'the heart of romance'.

Can you see it ?  Some people haven't been able to spot it - so take a look at that ampersand - &  - between the words Mills  & Boon.  It's not the traditional  & but it's a heart lying on its side with  a line (an arrow? ) through it.

So obviously  - with the new  look covers coming in, the new logo, the new colours - wait and see, there! -  I've been wondering about  the sort of cover design s that make readers want to grab a book  and take it home.

In America, the Harlequin Presents cover has been much the same, almost unchanged, for years and years, and when my  UK cover will be very different  ( think I'd better emphasise that  -very - different ) the one that my lovely American readers  will see will be much the same.  I showed it  last month  - and here I'll include it again.

So  - what about that question I asked you?  What sort of a cover makes you want to grab a book and take it home with you? Do you like that fact that the Presents cover has been around so much it's now described as 'iconic' - or would you like to see a new version?

Later in the month, over on my own blog I'll be looking at some of my older covers - the successful  ones and the - not so great ones!

And as I look at the different covers and other things about books, I'll be offering a book a day  as a giveaway in the lead up to Christmas.

So I'd love to see your comments - and to know what covers you like and the ones you don't. And Charlie the Maine  Coon  of his little sister Ruby will pick a winner from the comments - to win a signed copy of one of my backlist books  this month.

I hope everyone is  enjoying the lead up to Christmas  or whatever festival you're celebrating around this time. I hope the holidays are full of love and happiness and real joy for you all - and most of all, I wish for peace for everyone amongst families and countries so that we can all enjoy this special time.

Next year I'll be back to celebrate the publication of A Proposal To Secure His Vengeance.   But in the mean time I'll be running other 12 Days of Christmas giveaways  over on my personal blog  and on my Facebook page    so perhaps I'll see you there  - and maybe Ruby  or Charlie will pick your name as one of my  12 Days  winners.

Happy  Christmas - and Happy Holidays  to everyone. See you in 2018!

Ode To Autumn with Kate Walker

Oh – as soon as I write this title, I realised that because I’m writing this for the Tote Bags Blog, I should have written  Ode to Fall. . .!   

But perhaps not. After all Keats, who wrote the poem entitled it Ode To Autumn and  that’s the way it’s remembered.

Anyway, it’s a poem that starts like this:

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

I’ve always loved the beginning of the autumnal. The one where the country seems ripe and full of harvests , fruit, nuts etc. In my own garden there are apple trees filling up with fruit, pear trees that my husband planted a couple of years ago, starting to show  the growth of real pears -  unlike the small, tart little ‘fruits’ that were uneatable  in last year’s crop.  And we are lucky enough to have real bumble bees who have survived the  diseases that have attacked   these lovely insects recently and

are buzzing around collecting nectar and zooming in and out of the honeysuckle and the lavender plants. Ruby, my little black and white female cat has tried to catch some of them as they buzz by. Thankfully she’s never managed to trap one and run the risk of getting stung, but she performs wonderful dances on the lawn as she tries to leap to catch them in flight.

Ruby also loves the crab apple tree.  She likes to climb up it  as high as she can possibly go and then she sits right on the

top branch and watches the world go by underneath her. Sometimes Charlie goes up there too and as he’s much much bigger than Ruby   he usually sends the beautiful red crab apples flying so they come tumbling down on to the grass and we can rake them all into a brilliantly coloured bundle on one flower bed ready to be picked up and made into crab apple jelly . . .when I just finish this book!

That’s the other thing  about Autumn – it’s perfect story-telling time. Well, it seems that way to me.  On the TV networks the programmers bring out all the new  and fabulous dramas to entertain us as the evenings draw in and we settle down to watch – Poldark 2 or Victoria – or Cold Feet  (the return).  That’s here in the UK anyway. There are other new productions planned  and I’m looking forward to see them appear. In the meantime, there  lots of inspiration to be found in Aidan Turner as Poldark and Rufus Sewell as Lord Melbourne and Tom Hughes as Prince Albert in Victoria.  (A romance novelist always has to do her research! It’s a difficult job but I do work hard at it!)

So it seems that autumn is just the right season for me to have my latest novel published. Indebted to Moreno is out on September 20^th in Harlequin Presents and already I’m getting some lovely reviews for my dark, vengeful Spaniard and his convenient fiancée heroine Rose.

Here’s one from  Arpita on the Mills and Boon web site:

Kate Walker has used succinct repartee, wit , sparring dialogue, engrossing and engaging plot to

keep the readers guessing what will happen next? It is truly an exceptional, brilliant page turner for those who love fantasy world to the nth degree. Go for it! A must buy for all! Unmissable!

Thank you so much Arpita!

Another  autumnal delight is the fact that I’m just putting the ending on my latest story ready to send it to my editor before the end of this month. I can’t wait to see what she thinks of  the ‘Corsican Bandit’ Raoul  and his Irish heroine Imogen. I hope she loves them as much as I do.

And as soon as  the Corsican Bandit book has gone, I have a brand-new project to begin on. Because Imogen’s book is Part One of a duet of two linked books – next up is her sister Ciara’s story. I can’t wait to get down to serious work on that as I’ve got to know both her and her prospective hero Adnan as I’ve been writing Imogen’s story.

So, with the TV dramas to inspire me and the glorious autumn gathering in, I’m hoping for a really fruitful period of my own over the coming months.

As I said, Indebted to Moreno is out at the end of September (the 20th onwards). I can't decide which of the two covers I like best so I'm including them  both for you to choose. 

I recently updated my web site  so there are all the details of this new title  there   and the even more up to date news can be found on my blog. 

Auditioning Animals : : Anne McAllister

I’m a good way through writing a book at the moment.  I know where I’m going.  I know how to get there.  But I’ve just discovered that something is missing.

Or someone.

No, fortunately not the hero.  But I’ve discovered that the heroine needs a sidekick. Or two.  She lives alone – in the caretaker’s cottage of her mother’s house.  And when her mother and the younger family members are there, she has lots of people around to talk to.

Unfortunately – or perhaps fortunately for the hero – none of them are there at the moment. My heroine is alone. 

But in this book at least, it’s not good for the heroine to be alone. She needs to have a strong connection to someone -- besides the hero.  Not a girlfriend. Not a neighbor (there aren’t any).  Someone she can talk to. Someone she can care about. Someone she loves and shares things with.

She needs a four-footed family member.  So I’m auditioning – animals.

This is not a major role (Sid, are you listening? Kate Walker’s cat, who has had several supporting roles in my books, has recently been angling for a bigger part. I’m afraid, Sid, that this is not the book).  But it is a pivotal role. 

While my four-footed family member is important to the heroine, he – or she – is going to be even more important to the hero.  My hero is a loner.  He has no baggage at all.  Doesn’t want any. Doesn’t want any ties. 

Or so he thinks.  Of course the heroine will undermine that resolution. But the four-footed family member will have a part in that, too.

But who is this important character?  That’s where you come in.  I have borrowed and stolen almost all the animals I know – or have ever owned.  And I could, of course, do a variation on one or two of them. No doubt I will.

But I’m open to suggestion. In fact I’m begging for them.  Do you have a favorite pet you can share with me?  Antics?  Ideas?  Species?  Preferably not ones t hat my heroine will have to catch mice or crickets to feed.  I’m sort of squeamish that way and I’m afraid she will be, too.

Someone suggested a ginger-colored Maine Coon cat – in a very small role, a walk-on, in fact, so he doesn’t get too big a head. (Thank you, Sid. I’ll consider that).  And another particularly princessy sort of cat – a floozie of a feline, really, is lobbying as well (yes, Flora, I hear you).

But before I cave in to the importuning of Kate Walker cats (and cats-to-be), I’d appreciate some other ideas.

No, dear editor, I promise: no menageries. Been there, done that (see Savas’ Defiant Mistress).  But animals make people more human.  And they always bring out the best in a hero.

Got a favorite furry friend you’d like to suggest?  I’m looking to audtion!

In the meantime, for those of you who have time to read (not me, I’m under deadline), if you are in the mood for royalty, please check out my latest Presents The Virgin’s Proposition, which is out now in the States.

If you are in the UK, please watch for Hired By Her Husband, a Mills & Boon Modern, coming in October. No royalty at all in this one, but George Savas is a very sexy physicist and, literally, a wounded hero. Most importantfor his emotional well-being, he has a dog – my own dear Gunnar.

February - the month of love? by Kate Walker

When I was a child and still at school, I learned a rhyme that was about all the months. It began with the lines

January brings the snow,

Makes out feet and fingers glow.

Well, here in the UK we certainly had that one coming true - we had snow, snow and more snow. And I (and my cats) was more than happy to see it finally melt away. But as I write this there is yet more snow outside, and more promised if the forecasters have got it right. And even if that snow doesn't arrive, then - according to this rhyme - the next thig we can expect is that:

February brings the rain,
Thaws the frozen lake again.

Oh yes. February is a cold, wet month. It was always known as 'February fill-dyke' as the rain lashed down, filling the rivers and the dykes, and often causing floods.

So this had me wondering - why then would anyne choose Febraury 14th as the date to celebrate love, passion and all things romantic? A day in a cold, wet usually pretty miserable month where beauty is hard to find, the glow and excitement of Christmas and New Year is well behind us, red roses cost a fortune, and it takes an effort to even think of trying to be romantic.

Or perhaps that's the point? Perhaps it's the fact that because it's hard to make an effort that's what makes it more romantic. It's the effort, the trying, the doing something out of routine, something a little different and a bit special that makes Valentine's Day - or indeed any day - really romantic.

Because isn't that what romance is really all about? It certainly is in the books I write. People - people who don't know the truth - tend to think of romance novels as being about soft and pretty, chocolate box, kittens and flowers sort of love. Boy meets girl, girl falls in love with boy, boy falls in love with girl, they marry and live happily ever after. It's soppy, cheesy, a 'soft'.

Not the books I write. I write about people who have real problems in their relationship. People who have reason to dislike, even to hate each other. Reason to believe the worst of someone, even as they are acknowledging that this person is really affecting them like no other person ever has in all their life. People who have to fight - with their hero or heroine, with their mistaken beliefs, and, ultimately, with themselves to reach a real, honest, deep and long-lasting love. It's an adult affair, not boy meets girl, not hearts and flowers, not pretty pink cards easily picked up in the local supermarket.

After all, St Valentine himself didn't have things easy - St. Valentine was a Priest, martyred in 269 at Rome apparently beaten with clubs and then beheaded, and was buried on the Flaminian Way. He is the Patron Saint of affianced couples, bee keepers, engaged couples, epilepsy, fainting, greetings, happy marriages, love, lovers, plague, travellers, young people. He is represented in pictures with birds and roses. One legend says, while awaiting his execution, Valentinus restored the sight of his jailer's blind daughter. Another legend says, on the eve of his death, he penned a farewell note to the jailer's daughter, signing it, "From your Valentine."

So perhaps that's it. Perhaps it's because February is such a dark, gloomy, apparently unromantic month that we celebrate romantic love in the middle of it. And Valentine's Day is really like love and romance itself isn't it? Just when everything is dark and gloomy and bleak, we have a day that reminds us to make an effort for the person we love. To show them, tell them how we feel. It may be cold and wet but with the one you love you can curl up safe and sheltered and let love keep you warm

And in that case February is probably the perfect month.

(Of course this idea only works right on this side of the world - my Australian and New Zealand readers and all of you in the other hemisphere will have a warm February anyway!)

So will you be celebrating Valentine's Day or do you think it's just commercial rubbish? What's the most romantic thing someone has ever done for you? Leave you answers in the comments and as always I'll get Sid the Cat on the job of picking a winner who'll receieve a signed book from my backlist.

Kate Walker's latest Presents release is The Konstantos Marriage Demand which was published in Mills & Boon Modern on January 15th and is in Mills & Boon Sexy in Australia this month. It will be out in Presents EXTRA in March and is already available for pre-sale on eHarlequin.com.

Romantic Times called this a ‘ terrifically well-paced and fiery romance’ with a ‘very rewarding conclusion,’ and chose it as one of their series romance Top Picks for March.

One of Kate’s earlier books, The Twelve Month Mistress is also featured in a brand- new ebook 'Bundle' - one of the Blogger Bundles now available on eharlequin.com. This is a special selection of favourite Presents authors chosen by We Write Romance.You can find out more about Kate and her books by visiting her web site or get the really up to date news on her blog.