A Special Post on A Special Anniversary - Kate Walker

I was going to call this post A Tale of Two romance covers, but I see that the lovely Kandy Shepherd got there before me!  Like me, Kandy has a new book coming out very soon in the New Year and she has shown you the way that  the UK Mills and Boon covers have been  revamped and  given a very different look.  My own new title will have one of these newly-designed covers  when it is released  at the beginning of February  but I haven’t yet received my author copies of the UK edition  so it’s not easy to show you the new design.

But yesterday there was a delivery to our house – one of those times that is  a real favourite for A Proposal To Secure his Vengeance  will, be available on January 16^th next year.  it’s always a thrill to see the new copies of a book, and to actually hold them in my hand.  But this particular time it was an even more special moment.

any author.   That was the arrival of the box of brand-new copies of the Harlequin Presents edition of the  upcoming book.  

Only this morning my husband turned to me and said ‘2017 has been quite a year, hasn’t it?’ It certainly has.    There have been some problems  - health problems, family problems.  There’s been some major events – two gorgeous new additions to the family – my nephew’s  newest baby and my niece’s first  child. Both lovely little boys.  One of my older sisters had a major birthday – and a major weekend celebration to go with it.  We’ve taught  so many courses, weekend ones, a week in the summer at Fishguard, writers’ retreats in cottage with fellow writers – I’ve just come back from the latest retreat that we all had in Wales. It was fabulous.   But all this travelling and teaching and being a ‘great aunt’ was pretty demanding on time. As a result  my writing has slowed down quite a bit. Add in a new change of editor and the need to adjust there again.  . .

Well, let’s just say that all the delays and the demands on the time meant that the writing of this  book – and the one that follows it which is till on my editor’s desk – was much slower than usual and I was more than relieved when it was accepted and scheduled.  Even more so because there had been such a gap between this book and the previous one (Indebted to Moreno )  which was out in October last year.

So it was an extra thrill to finally have author copies of the new title in my hand.  Particularly when I 

realised that  these books had arrived on a special anniversary.

33– yes that’s right – thirty three years ago a parcel arrived at another house – a much smaller package  I have to say -  and that parcel contained the very first ever published copies of my very first book  - The Chalk Line  -  for Harlequin  Mills and Boon.   I can still remember the excitement and the celebrating. And the joy of receiving new copies of new titles had never dimmed. It’s always a very special occasion.

I remember that that first book for we little while seemed for a while as if it might be the first and only book I’d ever written.  Back then, in 1984, life got in the way for some time, and my second  book didn’t appear until 1986.  So I was remembering that time too when I opened this box of the copies of A Proposal to Secure  His Vengeance.  Sometimes this writing business can be a bit up and down – sometimes the books arrive easily  and sometimes they are, as a friend once said –they can be like giving birth to a pineapple!  But I’m glad that I’m still here,  still writing, still publishing and that even if last year was a bit empty of new Kate Walker titles,  2018 will start with a  new tittle in the shops at last.

And maybe even – when I get the revisions done – with the possibility of another book, the second in this duet of connected stories -  later on in  2018 too.

So I’m sure you can imagine how delighted I am to  have these copies of the new title in my hands – and I’m happy to be able to share with you the USA cover at least - and the  blurb from the back cower – hopefully to whet your appetite:

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 my new book now that it's finally coming up on my web site blog page  or on my author Facebook page.

A New Beginning and A Special Anniversary

My family has an usual approach to their careers, the jobs they do in life.   I have four sisters and

not one of them is in the job they first started out in – five of us if you include me in that number, as you need to do.

The thing is, we all seem to get to a certain age -  around early thirties is the common number – and  then we launch into a new career and  it’s not the one we  originally planned.  My eld est sister trained as a radiographer.  That was the job she qualified in, the one that took her from the UK to work in Canada – where after some years she changed her career path completely.  She went to university, studied archaeology and anthropology and ended up teaching in the u8niversity where she had her degree. (She later changed again when she went to live in Australia – and went back to being a radiographer so came back to where she’d started).

The next sister never really settled to anything early on so she was a stay at home mother to her  two boys  - until they grew up more, and she got to that  just after thirty age  when she trained to be a librarian -  which was the job I’d had . . . but then I changed mine!

My younger sister (I’m right in the middle) was a medical secretary but she left that job (quite early for one of our family!) and joined the army in the army.  After she married she went back to being a secretary  - another one who went full circle.  And then the youngest of us  started out, like my eldest sister, as a radiographer.   Some years later she went to work in Africa on voluntary service  - and when she came back she completely changed her career and became a social worker.

And me? Well, you should be able to guess this one – you have a few clues!  As I said, I started out as a librarian. I went to university, got a ;librarianship qualification,  got a job as  the local Children’s Librarian – and I loved it -  but then when my son  was  born,  I decided to try for the dream job I had always wanted – that of being a writer.  I didn’t actually know what sort of books I wanted to write then, but when I picked up a romance after years of not reading them, I knew I’d come home. And you know the rest . . .

As I was writing this post, I began to wonder if perhaps it might not be better to plan this one for January – new  year, new beginnings and all that  - but then the thing that got me thinking about this special new beginning of mine is that fact that this month marks a special anniversary -   December 2014 marks a special anniversary for me. It’s 30 years since my very first book – The Chalk Line – was published   way back then.

And I’ve never looked back since. I found what I really most wanted to do  - and the  copies of my first book was my  best ever Christmas present back in 1984.    I’ve never wanted to go back to being a librarian and I’m so happy to look back and see the 62 books that have been published in those 30 years.

So to share the celebrations of my special anniversary of my brand new start I’m  wondering what you’ve always dreamed of doing -  perhaps there’s some dream that you might want to consider  starting afresh to try for as that stroke of midnight sounds out at the end of this month.  If you had a mid-life change, where would you head next?   Or perhaps  you’ve already got your best dream – I’d love to know that too.
Let me know in the comments and I’ll get my cats Charlie the Maine Coon and his apprentice Ruby the black and white rescue kitten to pick a winner each – and I’ll send each winner one of my backlist  titles so you can share in my special 30^th celebrations

So now, this week, I’m celebrating the 30^th anniversary of my very first published  book – and I’m looking forward to the publication of my  62^nd  (Olivero’s Outrageous Proposal) coming in April and working on the next one with a handsome sheikh hero who first appeared as a difficult 19 year old in A Question of Honor (or Honour if you're in the UK.)

I don't yet know what the UK cover of my next book will look like - but I can share the Harlequin Presents cover with you for the first time today. 

My latest releases are two reissues -  first there's Kept For Her Baby which is out in the 3 in 1 By Request  called Secret Love -Child.  

And coming up next, there's the reissue of The Konstantos Marriage Demand  again in a 3 in 1 collection - His Revenge Seduction.

And the 12 Point Guide To Writing Romance is now available on Kindle

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.

Old Favourites by Kate Walker

When I first started writing romance all that time ago – December 2014 marks 30 years since I was first published – the books were only available in  bookshops – no internet, no Amazon, definitely no  ebook readers.  They were also only available for that one month they were on sale – and no more.   And not even that if, as the very first book I ever wrote was only available in the hardback version that was known as a ‘library edition.’

So that first book,  The Chalk Line, appeared in my hands – arriving in a parcel  just before Christmas – but I couldn’t see it on the bookshop shelves. And as not every book ever went to America either, it didn’t have a paperback edition until some years later.  Seven years later to be precise, when it was decided to publish the paperback edition in 1991!

And of course on those days, once a book was published  and went on sale for a month, then that was it.  There was no way of getting hold of a copy later. And the only reprints were rare -  they were labelled ‘Bestsellers’  and possibly   reprinted a few years later – if the original book sold well enough to merit it. But when you were up against the greats like  Charlotte Lamb, Anne Mather, Penny Jordan,  you often didn’t get a chance at that.

I was thinking about this when  I realise that Harlequin have released a whole bundle of my earlier books in new ebook formats  since the start of this year.  It’s a thrill to see older books -  Wife For A Day (originally published 1998) or The Married Mistress (2003) coming ‘back to life’ so to speak in new Kindle editions so that new readers  - or readers who have been looking for these titles for some time – can now get copies of them at  the click of a mouse.  These books were only

in  Reader Service when they were first released so they were on general distribution for anyone to get hold of them

It’s been a thrill to see these ‘resurrected’ books selling too – I discovered The Married Mistress  in the top 20 bestsellers on Amazon – not bad for a book that is over 10 years old! But perhaps the best thing has been that  the covers are been renewed as well, where they were needed.   I always liked to cover of The Married Mistress  -  but the original artwork for Wife For A Day was -  well,  strange. . . I mean – look at the heroine’s hair. The new edition is much better, much more like the characters I had in mind.

It’s an amazing feeling, after 30 years writing and being published to find that my older  books are now getting this new lease of life – and coming back revitalised and revived.  It’s something I could never have imagined all those years ago when The Chalk Line first came out – just goes to show that nothing stands still – particularly not in publishing.  

What about you: Do you like the way the older books are being re-issued – are you glad to have a chance to grab at books you never read before – or revisit old

favourites? Are there any romances you’re particularly looking forward to seeing – or would like to see republished in this way?

Titles coming up  for me  are  the reprinting of  The Good Greek Wife in a 3 in 1 special collection titles Eligible Greeks: Sizzling Affairs.

My next full length novel will be  A Question of Honour (or Honor!) published in M&B Modern and Harlequin  Presents in  June.  The idea  for that came from my own family history - but I'll tell you more about that   nearer to publication time.

You can find out more about me and my books one my website  or on my blog where all the latest and most up to date news can be found.

Ring in the new? with Kate Walker

 

Happy new year!

Is it too late to wish you all that?  I don’t think so  - but then I’ve never been one  for celebrating the official

New Year very much.  After all, it’s really just a change of a set of  numbers – 2013 to 2014  -  and not really actually that, seeing as the dates of months and years are  ones that have been arbitrarily forced on to our lives in order to measure it. 

And I’ve never really thought that the middle of a cold, bleak winter(if you live on this side the world anyway)  is the time for resolutions and to decide to  change your life – to get  rid of the ‘old’  and  bring in the ‘new’.  Not totally sure that ‘new ‘ is always better, really. But the whole ‘New Year’ thing does make me rather restless and unsure, with all the celebrations, the fireworks, the resolutions. I feel I should make resolutions – but I don’t.  I quite like the prospect of having new calendars, of writing in the dates of birthdays, of things planned, into diaries  - but that’s because I love any excuse for new stationery! And I like to feel organised.

So when Lee suggested that I write my blog for the 12^th of every month this year, instead of the first Sunday of every month I was really rather happy about it. Especially for this month’s post. It meant I didn’t have to write a real ‘new year ‘ or a ‘resolution’ post. 2014 would be well settled in before I was here chatting with you.

But I do have one small ceremony that the Babe Magnet and I carry out as the ‘old’ year turns into the ‘new’. We each take 2 pieces of paper and write down  the things we disliked about the past year – the days we’d rather not  remember  - and on the other go the  days we’d never want to forget. Then we burn the ‘bad’ ones in a red candle and light a fresh candle for the year to begin – keeping tight hold of all the good memories.

That’s in my desk drawer as I write this blog. I thought  about sharing it with  you but then, thinking about this old and ‘new’ thing – I thought I’d rather share some things I’m looking forward to  - the good things coming up in 2014.  So here  - well, here is the ‘In with the New’ in my world:

1.     .   

I have a new kitten  - one of the bad things about 2013 was that we lost our beautiful Maine Coon female to cancer. I didn’t think I was ready for a new cat, but just before Christmas I was adopted by a little homeless black and white 8 week old kitten. People think we adopted her – but she knows different. Ruby – that’s here name – picked us. Very definitely. (If you want to read the story of how she came into our lives – it’s over on my personal blog  here.)

2        I have a new book coming out in June 2014 – that’s A Question of Honour with a very sexy sheikh hero - Karin Al Khalifa  - who is sent on an important mission that demands he lives by his code of honour, only to find that  meeting Clementina Saveneski   tests that honour to the utmost.

3.      This book has a rather more personal connection with my own family than most of the others. I’ll be explaining and talking about that in May.


4.       I’m busy with a new book that I’m really enjoying. After a difficult year for my writing  in 2013 (guess what else was burned up in that candle flame?) I’m back to enjoying so much more and I’m hoping to get this one scheduled just as soon as I can.  I also have planes for a book that will be closely connected to A Question of Honour.  Do you enjoy linked stories? I hope you do.


5.       Oh – and while we’re talking about books – if you missed the publication of  Good Greek Wife?  bac

k in  2010, this book is being reissued as the lead title in a 3 in 1 reprint   Eligible Greeks – Sizzling Affairs in April this year.


6.       At the moment, one of the things I’m most looking forward to is the Advanced Romance Writing course that I shall be running in Fishguard in Wales in February (always hoping that the violent storms, high winds and torrential rains don’t prevent us getting there!)  That one is already booked up but if I’m talking about ‘new’ things, then there are  two new courses I’ll be running  - Writing Romantic Fiction (May) and Before you submit your Novel - The Practicalities (October). Both of these courses will be organised by Malaga Writing Workshops  Relax and Write weekends.  at a 4 star venue, Weetwood Hall, in Leeds.  I always enjoy running courses and meeting other writers – so these will be great.  I'll be posting details about these on my web site Events page just as soon as I get organised.


7.       Oh yes – and thinking about teaching writing – this year marks a while new beginning for the 12 Point

Guide to Writing Romance. I’m going to be publishing this myself and making sure that it is more easily available in ebook formats in the future. I need to tweak a couple of sections to bring it right up to date – but the new edition will be ready just as soon as I can manage it.

Well – I think that’s enough ‘new’ to be going on with! Unless of course I mention the huge selection of new books I was given as Christmas presents. One of my gifts to myself is going to be time to spend curled up in an armchair, with one or other – or both  - of the cats on my lap as I read my way through the wonderful titles I have to look forward to.

So yes, I’m looking forward to the new things coming up.  But I’m also going to be holding on tight to some of the very precious ‘old’ things – there’s my DH for one thing, my son and his lovely fiancee – and we still have Charlie the Maine Coon. The Babe Magnet and I are still enjoying celebrating out Ruby wedding year (guess where Ruby’s name comes from!) .

Oh, and come December I will be celebrating the 30^th anniversary of my very first book The Chalk Line

 being published. I’m not sure if that’s an ‘old’ or a ‘new’ but look out for some special celebrations coming up.

Well, that’s my look ahead at 2014 – I hope you all have some lovely things to look forward to in this New Year.  

Do you have something new that you’re looking forward to? I’d love to know.

And once again – Happy 2014 to all of you. I hope it’s a wonderful time, filled with happiness and joys so that when you reach this time next year you have some wonderful memories to look back on.

An Important Anniversary - Kate Walker

I didn’t know whether to write this post this month – in February  -or a little later – in  April. I’ll explain why later. But last night as I slept it snowed, thickly and heavily, and this morning when I woke the white stuff lay all around, making it so difficult -  almost impossible at first – to get out of the house or travel anywhere.  And  that snow reminded me that this month is an important anniversary for me.

My very first ever book -  The Chalk Line – was published back in 1984 – 28 years ago!  But then there was a gap before I had any more novels accepted.  My mother was terminally ill, I was ill myself -  several family crises meant that I didn’t get much chance to write and I got the ‘second book blues’, finding it hard to follow up my first success.   I wrote one book that didn’t work – tried another. And then, just as I was wondering if I was a one book wonder, I wrote a new story and this one worked.

OK, I had revisions – I even had to cut a lot of words (15,000 to be exact!) Because it was far far too long. But I n the end it was accepted and  Game of Hazard became my second romance  to be published.  And it came out in February 1986.  So that’s why I’m looking back at it today.

It was  my second novel but it was also my first in a couple of other important ways. Back in 1986,   Mills & Boon published 16 Romances  in a month . They didn’t separate them into Modern and Cherish(Romance) then – just brought them all out as Romances with a couple of Historical titles and a two Doctor Nurse Romance. And not all of those Romances went into paperback.   This is why Game of Hazard was such an important novel for me – it was the first one that went into paperback. The Chalk Line had never done that – it wasn’t published in paperback until 1991.  And every book published in  the UK didn’t go to America -  Game of Hazard was my very first romance ever to have that happen. The start of a very important stage in my career.

It was also published in Harlequin Romance not Presents.  Back then, I didn’t know very much about the international market  - there wasn’t anything like so much  information about the  way the books were published, and of course there was no internet, so it wasn’t as easy to find out about things.  I was just thrilled that my book was going to be published In America and thrilled to have a USA edition in my hands later that year.

Why did the snow make me think of the publication of Game of Hazard? Because the book starts on a day of heavy snow, with the heroine arriving back at her isolated cottage on the Yorkshire moors, to find that her  ginger cat, who had been inside when she left home that morning, is now waiting for her outside on the doorstep of her cottage. And that means that while she was away someone had come to her house and let themselves into her home.  So who is he (of course he’s the hero, Nick)  and what is he doing there?   I remember I got the idea for the opening because I had taken my son to nursery school and when I came home, in a whirling snowstorm, our big ginger cat was sitting on the doorstep just like the one in the story.

Looking back at Game of Hazard it makes me realise how much my life and  writing romances has changed in the 26 years since that February.  The little boy I took to school that morning  is now fully grown up and set up in his own home. The ginger cat is sadly long since passed over the Rainbow Bridge but his name was Rumpuss and our current ginger cat Charlie has  the full name of Charlie Rumpuss in   his honour.  And I  now have well over 50 titles published  since then.

The book itself – well the hero was no billionaire, no sheikh, but a TV reporter, and international correspondent  who had been kidnapped  and held hostage before he had escaped.  But he had left behind someone important  and when he had an accident in his car on that snowy day he lost his memory,  wiping that important memory from  his mind. I remember too that he also smoked! Something I’d never want my hero to do these days – and  I doubt if I’d ever get away with it.

The list of other authors published that month when Game of Hazard came out, now reads like a roll call of some of the greats of romance writing – Robyn Donald, the Late great Penny Jordan, Betty Neels,  Margaret Pargeter,  Margaret Way, Lindsay Armstrong  . . .  There are also names that I remember from the distant past who are only vague memories -  Katrina Britt,  Maura McGiveny,  Wynne May, Annabel Murray, Sandra K Rhoades . . . . I was so honoured as a new beginner to be listed amongst all those famous names.

It was a long time ago – but it was the start of something wonderful and special  - the real start of my international publishing career.  I was so excited to have my first book coming out in America, so thrilled to have a copy with  the Harlequin  logo on it as well as one with the Mills & Boon rose.

I could have marked this anniversary today – because Game of Hazard came out  first  in  hardback In February. Or  April when it appeared as my very first paperback. Or indeed in August which is when it first came out in Harlequin Romance.  But when I woke up this morning and saw the snow thick on the ground it reminded me how  the idea for this book had  come to me in a whirling snowstorm, and  made me think that today was the day to mark its publication.

Besides, when  April comes around I’ll have a  brand new  title – The Devil and Miss Jones – to tell you all about and that book is a very special on for me too. But more of that  later.

Do you remember any of those past stars of romance writing. Penny Jordan of course we sadly lost only recently, and Robyn Donald is still writing. But did you read any of the others?  What books by them do you remember?

Kate Walker’s The Return of the Stranger is still available  in  Modern Romance or Presents Extra.  Her next title is The Devil and Miss Jones which is coming in Presents Extra in April 2012. You can find out more details over on Kate's Web site – with all the most up to date news on her blog

Do You Remember Your First by Kate Walker

Do you remember your first?

I’ve been thinking about some of my very favourite authors, and trying to remember how I first discovered them – and even, if I can, trying to recall the very first time I read one of their novels – the ones that got me hooked on reading everything they ever wrote.

Mary Stewart was one of the earliest ones. I remember I saw the (not very good) film version of her book The Moonspinners when I was in my teens. So when I spotted a book with the same title I just had to read it to find out if it was any better than that. It was - so so much better and I was hooked. I hunted down every Mary Stewart book I could find and devoured them all. I still love them.

I can’t recall the books that got me hooked on Georgette Heyer, but I know I found the second book in Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond series (Queen’s Play) in the library and , although I really enjoyed it, there were a lot of references I didn’t understand – that ws because I hadn’t read the first book, Game of Kings. So I hunted that down, and again I just had to read every word she had ever written. They are still on my favourite ever books list.



I found another favourite author because of my sister. I was staying with her in Tasmania and I had free range to raid her –extensive bookshelves. There was one author, Jodi Picoult, who I’d never heard of. My sister recommended her enthusiastically. ‘ Amazing – she writes like a dream,’ she said. ‘Try one.’ So I tried My Sister’s Keeper (well before the film came out) and I just couldn’t put ti down.



I’ve been thinking about this for a very special reason. December 2009 marks 25 years – 25! – since the very first time I ever saw one of my own books in print. December 1984 was the month that my first ever title, The Chalk Line was published by Mills & Boon in the UK. It didn’t come out in America until 1992 – my first USA title was Game of Hazard. But The Chalk Line was the book that started it all off – a career writing and publishing romance that has lasted 25 years!


So this month and throughout the coming year, I’m celebrating the fact that I’ve now reached my ‘silver’ anniversary – 25 years as a published author. And people who know me well know that when I’m celebrating I like other people – my readers – to join in too. And this time is no different. I’m running a special contest on my web site with 25 – that’s right, 25 prizes to give away. And those prizes go to readers who let me know their first – and/or their favourite ever – Kate Walker title.


Can you remember the first Kate Walker novel you ever read? Were you right there at the beginning with The Chalk Line? Or have you discovered my books much more recently?

Tell me about your first time – the first Kate Walker you read. What book was it and what was happening in your life when you found it? Did you pick it up in a shop, find it in the library – or perhaps a friend or member of your family suggested you try it?


Let me know about the first book you read and I will publish the most interesting ones on my blog. I will also give a prize to anyone whose story I publish. You can win a signed copy of one of the backlist books I have a available, together with another small gift to celebrate Christmas and this special anniversary.


Send your First Book stories to me – see the email below – with FIRST BOOK in the subject line. Closing date for all FIRST BOOK stories is December 31st 2009. But I’ll be posting some of the titles and stories before then.

Or maybe you’d like to vote for your favourites of my books – your Top % Kate Walker title? If so, check out my Contest Page for details how to do that.

And to get this celebration started, why not let me know your first ever Kate Walker right here? I have an extra prize of a signed copy of my latest book Kept For Her Baby (Harlequin Presents EXTRA) to give away to some one who posts that information in the comments section.


And I’m thrilled to be able to say that my writing career will be lasting even longer that 25 years as I already have two new title coming out in 2010 with The Konstantos Marriage Demand coming in Presents EXTRA in March and A Good Greek Wife? following that some time in the summer. (It’s out in the UK in July) So look out for those.

And I’d love to know which one was your ‘first’ – or your five favourites.

Sid took some finding to pick a winner this time - we've had visitors and he was hiding away from the active 3 years old! But I found him and the winner of a copy of Kept For Her Baby is Linda Henderson. Linda please email me kate AT kate-walker.com with your postal address and I'll send on your prize.

And everyone else - if you want a second chance at winning, don't forget to enter the contest and vote for your Top 5 - details on the Contest page on my web site