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 

An Alfred Hitchcock sort of life

Some time ago, a friend sent me a great quote about writing – fiction in general or drama in the form of a screenplay of a play script.  This quote was attributed to Alfred Hitchcock, but later I found that

Hitchcock was in fact quoting another screenwriter and director.

His name was François Roland Truffaut  and the quote was this:

“What is drama, after all, but life with the dull bits cut out…”

I always remember this when I’m writing. Particularly when I want to create a fast-paced, heightened scene, one in which the intensity sparks between my characters and things are really hotting up. It’s when I use what I call the ‘cup of coffee’ test.  Because, when  the conflict and the emotions in the story are really important, making my characters do something as ordinary and everyday as making a cup of coffee can slow the whole action down and   reduce the pace. (Unless of course the way they make that cup of coffee is full of drama with the mugs banged down on the table, the water spilled from the kettle etc.)

I often wonder if people think that the life of a writer is a drama like the ones we write about.  Writers only seem to get into the papers when the big /TV/magazines when the big things happen –  a major signing a huge advance, a public event for some literary prize, a personal drama or perhaps a huge price paid to turn a book into a film.  The rest of the time we are shut away in our workrooms, with just us, the computer keyboard – and our imaginations. 

The past few weeks though have been what I would term my life with the boring bits taken out.  Part of this was because of my writing – the other pat was because of my husband’s work. He writes too, though mostly fact – true crime and  local history. And just lately he’s had a book of short stories published with the title Uncle Albert, based on memories of growing up in a Yorkshire village and the characters there.

So our summer which is always pretty busy has been more full than usual. We had to travel to Haworth  (where the Bronte sisters lived) to launch the Uncle Albert book – then fly to the Isle of Man to launch the ‘one man show’ that went with the stories.  3 events, radio interviews, all were great publicity but we’re writers – and writers aren’t used to appearing at public events. We’d barely got back before our summer commitments started. I usually go to the Romantic Novelists’ Association conference (and sometimes the RWA one) but these had had to be left aside as there were other commitments

for those dates and times. There was a trip to Wales, where I was teaching at Fishguard Writers’ Holiday, and my DH was giving two talks during the week. We got back, unpacked, did the laundry, repacked – and set out again. This time it was for another event, at the Gilbert and Sullivan Festival where my husband was giving a talk on another of his books – A Victorian Somebody - a biography of George Grossmith who used to appear in the Gilbert and Sullivan productions in 1870s and 80s.   (He also wrote a famous comic book The Diary of a Nobody.)

All this was fun but time consuming. It certainly wasn't 'dull' - but there were times when I wished I could just draw breath and stay put for a while.   Now we’re back home and – thankfully – can breathe again for a little while. The travelling will start again in September when there will be a trip to London to meet with the Association of Mills & Boon Authors – and many of the Editors from HMB London (and Toronto)  I have another course to teach and so does my husband (actually two!)  – and he will be appearing at several book festivals to talk about Uncle Albert and his other books.  Phew!

And before I know where I am, my next book  - Destined For The Desert King - will be on the shelves and I'll need to do some publicity on that one!  

But in the meantime, I’m hoping for a decent patch of quiet time so I can sit at my desk, switch on the computer – and focus. I have a deadline and the next book isn’t going to write itself.  It’s funny that people think  a writers’ life is a hectic and public one. I know that the publicity and the teaching, enjoyable as they are, are the times that interrupt my writing. It’s when I’m sitting  - as the saying is- BICHOK – Bum in Chair, Hands on Keyboard  that I feel most like a writer. Just putting the words down, on paper or on a screen, is what the real writers’ life is like. Even more so, there’s the time that I spend thinking and wondering and planning – before I can even begin to tell the story of my hero and heroine’s journey to their happy ever after.

That’s when I’m working hardest as a writer!  So right now, I’m looking forward to some time where life is pretty dull and ordinary – that’s the way I can best get to know my characters and write their story.   And I can build their story into a drama – by leaving out as much of the dull bits as I can, and focusing on the dramatic bits.

I can’t show you the  image that the cover designers have come up with for the UK edition of  my December book – Destined for The Desert King – but  I can share the Harlequin Presents  cover I’ve only just seen for the first time. This is set on one of the balconies in the palace  in  Hazibah, even if you can't see very much of it.   I like this cover a lot - but it's a bit scary seeing the Christmas decorations on the red banner on the top of the cover  - it reminds me that, even if I get the peace and quiet I want, the time just slips away - and I'll have another deadline, for another book by then.

My  latest romance  is Olivero's Outrageous Proposal published in April in Harlequin Presents and Mills and Boon Modern Romance . Coming next is   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.

Refilling the Well - with Kate Walker

I’m  a bit late with my blog post for Tote Bags today – but I really believe that my excuse is that it’s for the best possible reason.  Honestly. I was so busy today – though I suspect that other people seeing me and  how I was spending the day  would have said that I was actually  just relaxing.

I  spent a large amount of my time curled up on a cushion in the sunshine with my nose in a book.

Yes – I  was reading. I was reading, deeply involved in and thoroughly enjoying a book that I just didn’t want to put down. I  was almost halfway through this story last night when I found that I really just couldn’t stay awake  and reluctantly put it down as my eyes were closing.  Then I couldn’t pick it up again this morning as I had to get the grocery shopping done, visit a friend, feed my son ‘s cats (he and his fiancée are away this weekend).  But as soon as I got a moment I grabbed the book again (well – I grabbed my kindle again) and lost myself in the world of the mystery and the emotions of the story I was being told.

It can be hard to lose myself like that. Writing fiction for a living makes you too critical of other people’s  novels. You can  begin to see where the story is going, start to question why the characters are behaving the way they are, find the pace begins to lag . . . So it’s wonderful when you feel the ‘can’t put it down’ experience that keeps you intent on the pages.  

It’s special in several ways. Because it relaxes and absorbs you. Because it reminds you of just what you’re aiming for when you’re writing yourself (something that needs bringing home to every author  because there’s always the temptation to write fast  and get the story out , not thinking about the way to keep your reader hooked)  And then there’s the need to ‘refill the well’ - to  feed your own imagination,  take you away from the worlds you build in your own books and into someone else’s stories  so that your imagination has a feast of new experiences and  from those experiences new ideas grow for my own books.

I  usually find that books that are very unlike my own novels are the best ones for feeding my imagination this way.  Contemporary romances or  even historical ones are often too like the books I write so that I end up thinking ‘I wouldn’t have written this that way’  or ‘I would have made  this character do this-  or that. . .’   So I’ve been lucky for the past few weeks. I’ve read some new  books, discovered  some new authors I’ve enjoyed – and who have written  several books that I now want to get hold of and see what the  rest of their output is like.

So there was In The Woods by Tana French  - a gripping murder mystery where the present day mystery  links the detective’s past experiences to add an extra dimension  to the story.

Then there was Amy Snow by  Tracy Rees. This was a historical novel with a  mystery and a 

‘treasure hunt’ at its heart.   Cryptic messages and a journey across  England  leading the heroine to . .  well,  that would be giving the story  away.

Letters to the Lost is by Iona Grey who I know as India Grey who used to write for  Harlequin. Her first single title is a lovely debut  - like the Tracy Rees book, who can resist a mystery that is slowly 

revealed by letters  - though this one links the present day with a   tragic love story from the past   set in 1943.

And today’s book  - my excuse for being late with this post – was A Single Breath by Lucy Clarke. OK, I admit I guessed what the twist at the end was going to be – but that was why I had to keep on reading. I wanted to know how the author would make it work and what would happen when . . . .  It didn't disappoint. 

I’ve had a great time with these  books – all of them  different, all of them absorbing.   They’ve relaxed and refreshed me, intrigued and taxed my imagination – and made me want to get down to my latest story and see just what is going to happen when  my hero and heroine meet up again after five years  apart and realise that they are very different people from the ones who originally met. . .

Have you read anything you’ve really enjoyed recently?  Any good recommendations to add to my TBR pile?  (Not that I need any suggestions – the pile/list of kindle titles is more than full – but a few more won’t hurt!)

My  latest romance  is Olivero's Outrageous Proposal published in April in Harlequin Presents and Mills and Boon Modern Romance. Coming next  is 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.

Magnificent Mangas with Kate Walker

 

Some weeks I get not deliveries of books at all. But then sometimes, I get a bumper delivery – books in boxes, padded envelopes.  Books translated into one different language, or several different editions all in different languages.

This week has been a bumper week – with two different Italian editions (of A Question Of Honor and a reprint of a second Italian translation  of  His Miracle Baby  first published in UK in 2001 and the Italian one in 2003).    Then there was the Russian  Question of Honor  and the Dutch one, Swedish and Norwegian editions of A Throne for the Taking.)   But my favourites are always the Japanese version – the usual  Japanese version  is always fun to see, but when the story is translated into the  stylised comic book  Manga version it’s not just an excitement but a work of art to see.

This week I received  both Japanese editions   - of different books.  There was the new Japanese translation  of  A Question of Honor  and along with it came a new Manga edition of that long ago published His Miracle Baby.    

These Manga editions are amazing – they  boil the story down  to the basic, central conflict and  tell the story in the briefest, but most dramatic way. The illustrations are amazing, with the heroines

looking so beautiful   with huge blue eyes and usually long golden hair. The heroes are pretty spectacular too – they have those stunning eyes and long, lean torsos that are not at all realistic- but they turn the story into a wonderful fairytale.

I’ve always loved the Manga editions even though I don’t  fully understand exactly what the translation is saying. (You don’t fully have to understand that because the drawings are so passionate and emotional it gets the message across to you.)  But now I have a new delight – the Harlequin Comics editions  of the Manga books. These  are now English translations of the Managa editions (are you keeping up with  this?) so that the wonderful Manag illustrations are still there  and the dialogue etc is all in English and I can read and understand them.  Mind you,  there isn’t a lot of ‘dialogue’   - more  single lines -  more like

  - ‘Alexa what’s going on here?’ ‘Cordero, what’s happening?’   ‘Natalie’s . . . .not coming.’   (Cordero’s Forced Bride)

Or

‘What should I call you?’  ‘Just Malik’ . . . This man is  . . .dangerous! (At The Sheikh’s  Command)

And hearts go ‘Ba thump!’ – and tears  just ’plip plop’ down the heroine’s face.   

As I said, it’s the emotions of the story distilled to its very concentrated basics!  And that’s why I love them. 

They have another, more useful  purpose though – when I’m teaching about writing and trying to show  students who want to write romance who the central emotional core of the book is what matters and how they need to focus on that to tell the important story of a romance – the rest is all extras,  shading out the colours and tones and can be taken away – as in a Manga  book – and the emotional journey of the hero and heroine  will still show through.  A Harlequin Comic book with this story told in English is just perfect to reveal this simply and easily.

So I was thrilled to discover this week that I have a new Harlequin Comic edition – of one of my books.

I already have The Hostage Bride, Cordero’s Forced Bride The Return of The Stranger, At The Sheikh’s Command, The Hired Husband, His Miracle Baby – and now there is Bedded By The Greek Billionaire coming out next week. You only have to look at the difference in the covers to see what an extra fantasy the Manga edition makes of my original story.  I can’t wait!  

My latest Harlequin Presents was Olivero's Outrageous Proposal  which was published in April.The next one coming up will be Destined For The Desert King which is coming in December this year. I can't wait to see the Managa/Harlequin Comic editions of these. 

You can find details of all my books on my web site  here     and there's all the most up to date news on my blog

You can also find me on Facebook

The Gift of Books by Kate Walker

I had a birthday last week. That’s why I’m a bit late writing this blog today – I lost track of time – partly because I was celebrating, there were visitors coming to the house – my DH and I went out f

or a couple of days – and then my son and his fiancée came and we all went out for a meal together. It was lovely. A real family time and just the way to celebrate a birthday.

I was going to say the perfect way  - but there was another bit that was needed to make the birthday week (it stretched into a week – aren’t I lucky?) . What made the difference? Books of course!  Lots of books – in different sizes, different types,  different reasons for them arriving. And one that was planned for the future that was one of the best of all.

I suppose it’s inevitable, that people give me birthday presents that are books. After all, I’m a writer, my husband’s a writer, my friends are writers – and we’re all readers.  We’re book addicts and proud of it as the badge that came on one parcel said.   My son knows just the sort of books to pick for me – he’s very good at selecting novels that I’ll enjoy and he doesn’t just choose the ones that he hopes I will pass on to him when I’ve finished them. His book reading habit is worse than my own.  But he chooses  great ‘women’s novels’  as well as the psychological  thrillers we both enjoy.  My husband  - obviously – loves books too but I think he also loves them because they’re easy to wrap, because wrapping is not his very best skill!

I don’t mind! I love to receive a gift that is so obviously a book – another one to add to the TBR  pile. (We won’t mention the TBR list on my kindle – it would be too embarrassing.)    I even got an adult colouring in book   as an ‘anti-stress aide!’  That a wonderful multi-coloured  pack of felt-tip pens and it’s like going  back to childhood.

So, as if I didn’t have enough  books  to read in the birthday celebrations – the next thing that arrived was  a series of packages of my books – books I’ve  written that have been translated into other languages. There was the Russian edition of A Question of Honor, the Dutch version of the same book, the Danish – Norwegian,  Swedish and Finn translations of A Throne For The Taking.  But perhaps the best ‘present’ that I had where my books were concerned was the acceptance of my newest and latest novel – the one I’d been working on the revisions for in the run up to my birthday.  So just before the ‘big day’ dawned I got the wonderful

 news that my editor  had loved the revisions – she loved the book  - and she was accepting it for publication. So my 64th title  Destined For The Desert King will be published in December.

And – do you know what made the whole set of books , books  and more books even more perfect ? That’s the fact that because  this book had been accepted – it meant  that I now have a bit of breathing time – a free space  to settle back and actually read to my heart’s content. Just for this week. I’m loving it! 

Now that’s a real gift to give a reader.   But I’m  a writer too – and  I’ve had the time to relax and read and  . . .guess what . .  there are a new hero and heroine who are  whispering in my thoughts and  demanding that I think about telling their story . . . So  that’s the end of my peace and quiet . But I suppose I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Books – I just love them, whichever way they come into my life and fill up my days!

The 63rd book of mine  Olivero's Outrageous Proposal was out in April.

And the 12 Point Guide To Writing Romance is now available on Kindle.  And I've recently revised and republished that in a brand new paperback edition that's cheaper than the original one.

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.

Book Overload - Kate Walker

One of the greatest delights  for a writer is the arrival of the publication dare of a brand new book. 

 Like Anne McAllister (waving hello to Anne and wishing her a happy anniversary) I may be celebrating 30 years of publication – and the friends I’ve met along the way. (If you missed that post it was last month’s blog!) but even after 30 years and  63 titles, it’s still exciting to see the newest title.

  The design of the cover, the images of the hero and heroine are so important. Sometimes they’re a disappointment. Sometimes (OK – occasionally ) the design team have got the characters just rights. But it’s always intriguing to see  what the book actually looks like.

And to hold it in your hand. To know it’s a real book – those words on a page on a computer screen or in a manuscript just don’t look the same as when they’re printed and bound into a proper book. Sometimes I’ve looked at a newly-published book  and not really recognised the words! I almost wonder who’s written them! Specially if it’s a book that I wrote some years ago, like the ones that get reprinted in the Mils & Boon 3 in 1 By Request collections.  That’s happened recently with two books – Kept for Her Baby and The Konstantos Marriage Demand which were both published in 2009, and have just been reprinted  in this format this year.  That’s like getting  new books all over again.

The only problem with the arrival of these books  is that boxes of books are heavy. So I have to feel sorry for the postman as he trudges up the path with yet another box of books. I’m thrilled to see them – he’s thrilled to get rid of them!

This last month has been even worse (if you’re the postie) or even better (for me) with even more book box deliveries  that are not just the copies of my novels.    I’ve just reworked and revised the 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance- with a brand new cover and a slightly lower price. The ebook came out on Kindle last year (with special thanks to Lee who helped me organise that), and this time I decided I should publish a new paperback edition for all those people who asked for a print copy so that they could highlight parts of it,  make notes on the pages, and flick through easily to find them. I completely understand that – books I’m studying have to actual pages for me to underline, highlight, scribble in the margins. So there’s a new edition of the 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance  – and  a box of that new edition arriving at the house  to burden down the postman yet again!

Finally, as some of you know, my DH is a writer too, and this month, by a lovely coincidence two of our books shared the same publication date.  There was my   Olivero’s Outrageous Proposal and his brand new book Uncle Albert – a collection of humorous short stories with ‘a Yorkshire voice’ (DH was born and grew up in  Leeds West Yorkshire)   Hello again, Mr Postman!

I think that the rush of new titles, new books has eased now. I’m sure the postman hopes so!  I don’t have the heart to tell him that the next thing that happens is that sets of foreign editions will start to arrive.    But at least he’ll have a chance to have a rest before that happens!

Meanwhile, I’ve been busy with the revisions for the latest novel,  which is planned for publication in December – just in time for those boxes of books to arrive along with all the Christmas parcels! Oh dear, perhaps I’d better warn the postman now!

  My latest title with Harlequin Presents  - Olivero's Outrageous Proposal is out now in the April releases.

The new paperback edition of the 12 Point Guide is   published this month too and should be around on
Amazon, Barnes and Noble  etc. Or you can order from the Book Depository where it's  at a discounted price with free delivery.    The Kindle edition is also available.

You can keep up with all my news over on my blog   or visit my web site   and my Facebook page

The Friends I’ve Met Along the Way - Kate Walker

As some of you may already know, this year I’m celebrating 30 years as a published author. It’s really a rather special occasion – and one I’m not quite sure how I got here! I was a child author,

of course!  Born with a pen in my hand and graduating to a keyboard before I could walk!    People often ask me how I managed to write so many books (63 and one on my editor’s desk  if you count the romance fictions stories--  another 2 if you take into account the  ‘How To’ books.)

The answers to that one’s easy (well – easier to answer than to managed) I wrote these books one word at a time – and that’s how I’ll continue to do so while I still want to write and people still want to buy my books.

So, last month, I received a box full of my newest book – Olivero’s  Outrageous Proposal – and if you’re one of the ones who gets hold of a copy early through the Book Club you’ll have seen that it has a very special dedication to a very special friend of mine.  My dear friend Pat who  had been a vital part of my life for 35 years lost her battle with cancer last year.  She left a huge gap – one that I will never truly fill.  Pat was one  of the very few people who knew that I was writing when I was just aiming for publication - so she and another long-term friend Noelle  have very special

places in my heart both as a writer and  a woman. But  this made me think about other friends being a writer -  friends who are an unexpected bonus  as a result of this writing life.

Because romance books are so well known all over the world,  one of the surprises that writing for Harlequin brought me was meeting up with people who read my books –and/or wrote their own – from  so many different countries.  For example - he reason I’m on this blog is because of one of those  readers. Lee Hyat came to visit my brand new web site and told me how much she enjoyed my books –  that’s always a great start!  I think she wrote first because of Constantine's Revenge  - We’ve been friends ever since.  And now here I am writing on Lee’s web site!

Regular readers of my blog will know that Michelle Reid and Anne McAllister are  writer friends pf mine – writers whose books I’ve enjoyed and then met the authors and enjoyed being with them too.   Well, actually the list of authors I now count as friends has grown too long for me to list  here – I’d only forget someone. But I do have to  mention my ‘twins’ – Holly Jacobs and Donna Alward.  We didn’t know we were twins until we met at a RWA conference. (What do you mean you can’t have 3 twins – we can!)

There’s a special place in my friends list for people who have come to my courses to learn about writing romance. Some of them  I’ve met on line – Julie Cohen, Anna Louise Lucia  and Abby Green  were all people I’d chatted with in forums or on line writers classes and  Abby came to my course at Writers’ Holiday. Now they’re all published authors with thriving writing careers behind them.

And that’s another reason why friends have been on my mind, Tomorrow   I’ll be heading to Weetwood Hall  in Leeds (UK)  to run another course – this year’s Writing Retreat.  I’ll meet up with a bunch of people who were originally students but now are affectionately known as my ‘Stalkers’!  I’ve had the great thrill and privilege  to see some of my students progress from studying writing to being successful at it – the latest student to be published had been Rachael Thomas, brand new Harlequin  Presents author. She is the 14^th of my students who has gone on to be a published writer. 

So now I’m hoping  to see another one – perhaps one of this group in Leeds – become the 15^th!  There are a couple of people I have hopes may well make it soon (fingers crossed) and that being so I’ll be delighted to in traduced them to you over on my blog.  But in the meantime I’m looking forward to spending this weekend with them – and  meeting up with some I know as friends

already and getting to know newer friends better as the weekend progresses.

Friends are important. I knew that with my dear Pat and I lost her way too soon. So I’m grateful for all the other friends – writers, readers, students . . .  I’ve made as  a result of  this writing game!  So that’s why Olivero’s Outrageous Proposal is dedicated to Pat. 

Thank you to all my friends – and to the readers out there  - too many to list – who write to me and tell me you enjoy my books.  You’re an important part of my life even if we’ve never met. And I’m so glad you’re there.

What about you? Do you have one special friend or a gang of friends?  Are your friends all close to you – or, like mine, spread out all over the country – the world. Tell me about a special friend and I’ll get my furry friend – Charlie the Maine Coon  - to pick out one comment so that you can give your friend a present of a  Kate Walker backlist book.

The 63rd book of mine  Olivero's Outrageous Proposal will be out at the end of March /early April.

And the 12 Point Guide To Writing Romance is now available on Kindle. (I hope to have some extra news about that 12 Point Guide - for people who prefer print books - very soon. Watch my blog for that.)

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.