And What Happened Next . .. By Kate Walker

Why do we read novels?  To relax?  To escape from the stresses and  troubles of the world? (I’ve been trying to do that with a lot of things this year!)  To learn new things?  To indulge in fantasy? 

All of those, I’m sure – but for me the most important part of reading fiction is  because my curiosity is  sparked, I get involved with the characters, I start out on a journey with them. I watch the hero and heroine of a story  meet, get to know each other – then something comes between them – a problem develops – they argue . . .and what happens next?   That’s what keeps me turning the pages. I want to know what happens next.

Of course, in  a romance novel, we already know how the story is going to end. That’s the promise that Harlequin, and the author, makes to the reader – that no matter what happens to the hero and heroine along the way, they will end up with a happy ever after ending. But we want to know  how they are going to get there – what happens next?

This is what got me fascinated by Wuthering Heights - When I was eleven, I was  at a very small junior school that was in an old building, where the wiring wasn't very reliable. The was in West Yorkshire where the weather was often wild, and storms could break over the hills with great drama and  force.  One day there was a huge thunderstorm, great flashes of lightning, and the lights in the whole building fused.  We were sitting in darkness, with  a lot of the girls getting scared and screaming when the thunder roared and the lightning flashed. (Not me - I have always loved storms and still do.)

To distract us from getting worried and while waiting for the electricity to be restored, the teacher - told us to sit quietly and he would tell us a story.  The story he told was about a man who returned home to his farm, high on the Yorkshire moors, bringing with him an orphan gipsy boy he has found in the streets of Liverpool . The farmer already had a son and daughter, Hindley and Catherine - and the gipsy boy's name was of course Heathcliff. This story was the beginning of the classic romantic novel  - Wuthering Heights.

I never got to hear the end of the story that day because the lights came back on before my teacher had got past the point where Heathcliff and Cathy fight, and Heathcliff runs away,  to go and make his fortune. I never learned what happened when he came back - because it was  obvious that he did come back - and I always wanted to know.  But of course most of the story of Heathcliff's revenge was probably not suitable for young children.

But the story stayed with me and I wanted to know so much about it.  I wanted to know what happened next.   It was some years later that I found a book on my mother's bookshelf and, opening it, saw the names I remembered so well. I started to read  - and didn't put it down until I had finished. It was an amazing story - but  it never had the happy ending that I had hoped for. 

So I was excited when editorial told me about the mini series The Powerful and the Pure  where authors were inspired by the classic stories of romantic fiction and using them as a  springboard created a whole new romance for the Presents line.  This time I could create my own ‘what happens next’ – the one that I’d been wanting to know about all that time when I was younger.

So I wrote The Return of the Stranger. It’s not Wuthering Heights – it’s a brand new story. You don’t need to know anything about the original to reader it. And, I hope enjoy it.  Lots of readers in the UK have already loved it - it was the #1 bestseller on  the Mills & Boon  website for the whole  month of August after its release here in the UK.  It also had a great five star review that said:

Mrs Walker triumphantly produces a powerful and intense novel which involves your emotions from start to finish. Heath is a super hero full of brooding passion and the delightful Katherine evokes your sympathy. Not to be missed - as they say they saved the best till last.

This blog is just one part of my great big blog tour (you can find the details here)  to celebrate the publication of The Return of the Stranger – so I hope you’ll join me as I  visit lots of different blogs all over the world.  There are  posts, writing advice – and lots of giveaways.  And talking of giveaways, I have a copy of my book Bedded By The Greek Billionaire  to give  away with this post – just tell me what is the latest  book  made you think ‘what happened next . . ‘  so that you couldn’t put it down but just had to keep turning the pages. And all the posters in the comments section will be put into a draw to win a copy of this book.

Kate Walker’s The Return of the Stranger is out now in the UK and published on October 4^th in Presents Extra in America or Sexy Romance in Australia. You can find out more details over on Kate's Web site – with all the most up to date news on her blog.

Boooks that have stayed with me all my life

In July, my husband and I travelled to Wales where every year we teach at the fabulous Writers’ Holiday  at Caerleon near Newport. And as we do every  year on the way there , we stopped overnight in a small Worcestershire town called  Great Malvern (I always think it’s funny that it’s called Great Malvern when it’s such a tiny place – but that’s England for you, in the same way  that  the name of the county in which this town lies is pronounced  Woostershire!).  Anyway, we  spent a pleasant day wandering  round the town, had tea in a lovely teashop,  my husband indulged his love of old second hand bookshops  - and then we had a leisurely dinner in the hotel.

The hotel’s lounge has a bookshelf full of books, some that have been there for ages and some that past guests have finished with and  left behind.  He picked up one that interested him and started to browse through it.  I  looked up and noticed the title and was immediately taken back to my  childhood and to a date when I had first read this book – it was originally published in 1962.

The book was  The Escape of the Princess by Jane Lane and it’s a historical novel written about the Princess Clementina Sobieski, the grand-daughter of  King John III of Poland who eventually married James Stewart the exiled son of James II of England and became the mother of the prince known as Bonnie Prince Charlie. But this is the story of her life before all that  when as Clementina travels from to meet her bridegroom, she is captured and imprisoned in Innsbruck as her cousin tried to prevent the marriage taking place.  Captain Charles Wogan, a young Irish supporter of James, was sent to try to rescue the princess and, aided by two Irish kinsmen, another Irish cavalry officer and his young French wife, together with her unpredictable maid,  bring her safely to her wedding.   This book had intrigued me when I was younger and I had read it avidly for a very special reason – that Charles Wogan was my great-great-great-great-great . . .  (I’m not quite sure just how many greats!) grandfather on my mother’s side of the family. In fact I have a very old silver spoon that has the initials CW  on it that  everyone believes may well have belong to Charles himself.

I read the copy of this story in the library all those years ago, returned the book,  and then  largely forgot about it . If I remembered it, it was only vaguely – and now here it was right in front of me bringing back all sorts of memories.   But this time there was something I could do about it – a quick search of the used book shops on the internet soon found me a copy of this novel for myself and by the time I got home it was waiting for me. I spent a very happy afternoon rereading it and reminding myself of the dramatic and romantic story of Clementina and Charles and their journey.

One of the very best things about having  the internet has been being able to do this – to find long ago treasures from my childhood , get hold of copies and reread them. I discovered a really old favourite  - Simona’s Jewel (this was old even when I first read it!) and another book by the same author Two of Red and Two of Blue. There were the Romney Marsh Stories of Monica Edwards, too – lots of books that I had once loved so much but hadn’t seen again in years.  Interestingly enough, they all had dark, ambiguous, strong heroes – even if those heroes were only 15 or so!

It’s easy to see where my personal alpha heroes in my modern day romance come from when you look back at these  childhood stories. And it’s particularly appropriate that I should be thinking about these older  books now when the newest book of mine  - then one that’s coming out very soon -  is inspired by one  of favourite ever books, one that swept me away when I first read it (about the same time as  The Escape of The Princess)  - and that’s Wuthering Heights.

The Return of the Stranger is coming  out in the UK just now and is being published in America and Australia in October 2011. (Some people have been worried that this is a copy – or steals from the original.  Instead it’s a book that takes Wuthering Heights as its launch point and inspiration. So much so that in fact the Bronte  Society at Haworth Parsonage itself has asked me to give a talk about writing this book and using that amazing novel as a starting point. But you don’t have to have read Wuthering Heights to understand it, The Return of The Stranger stands up as a romance all on its own.

I’ll tell you a bit more about The Return of The Stranger next time, when it’s so much closer to the publication date. To celebrate the publication  of this book, I’m going to be really busy with a hectic and full Blog Tour that launches on September 11^th when I’ll start it all off on my web site. After that,  you can follow  my tour all over the blogosphere – and maybe win yourself some great prizes of books that  you’ll want to remember just as I’ve always remembered these ones.  Check out my blog – and this great AuthorPage  so you can join in all the fun.

In the meantime, to start things off here – what favourite book from your childhood or youth would you love to find again? Have you tried to track one down? Or like me have you actually found a very special book? I have a book from my backlist for one lucky poster in the comments section.

Kate Walker’s The Return of the Stranger  is out now in the UK and published on October 4^th in Presents Extra  in  America or Sexy Romance in Australia.  You can find out more details over on  Kate's Web site  – with  all the most up to date news on her blog.