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

Old and New by Kate Walker

First things first - Happy New Year to all of you. I hope that 2011 brings you lots of love and joy and some wonderful moments that will leave you with some truly happy memories when January 2012 comes around.

New Year's Day always brings with it ideas of 'out with the old and in with the new' but I've always felt that was a bit too extreme - it seems to be saying that only the new (and young?) has good things going for it and the old can be discarded because it no longer matters.

I can't agree. I love old things - I have lots of things that have been handed down through my family and I collect antique embroideries, some of which are over 200 years old. I love keeping the old things close - and I love looking foward to the new things coming up.

This works particularly in publishing, when new books are planned well ahead of their publication date, but thankfully old books are still around and are being republished. So when it comes to the start of 2011, I've just discovered the new cover for my next book - The Proud Wife - which will be published in March 2011 (UK ) and in April in America. The covers for these two editions are very different, because in the UK the covers have recently been revamped while in America the Presents Extra covers stay with the same design. I wonder which of these you like best?

At the same time as I found this new cover, I have discovered that some of my older books are being brough out again in ebook editions so that they available easily once again. The Hired Husband and The Duke's Secret Wife are now available as ebooks from eHarlequin.com or on Kindle from Amazon.

Another reason why I was thinking about the old and the new was because of my very special Christmas gift. As those of you who read my personal blog regularly will know, I was given a gorgeous red and white Maine Coon kitten called Charlie who is now just 16 weeks old. He's purred his way into my hart and I love him dearly - but that doesn't mean that I love the older cats, Sid, Flora and the old gentleman, 17 year old Dylan any the less.

So as I go into the new year of 2011, I'm making plans of course for new things - new book to write (and read), new places to visit, new people to meet, new things to learn - but at the same time I'm taking with me lots of 'old' things - friends, family, cats! I think it'd the mixture of all these things that makes life so wonderful and brings so much joy.

What about you? What new things are you looking forward to? And what older things will you be happy to take with you?

Whatever they are - I hope you have a wonderful year in 2011!