I always think of the  beginning of September as the ‘new year’ – well, the new academic year anyway. I suppose it’s because of all those years when school started back at this time, the the college year just a little bit later. Then years of being a mother with a school age son, married to a teacher  . . . all that added up to make me associate this time fo year with new beginnings and fresh starts, almost more than January 1st.

So it seems appropriate that  right now Harlequin Mills and Boon are announcing their brand-new look with fresh exciting cover designs, and giving readers a sneak peek at them over on their UK web site.  The new covers are being launched in September  and the whole range of  Mills and Boon romances are going to look very different.

What I  – and I think most authors – like about these new covers is the way that there is a new image a new individual look for each of the different lines. No longer is the Romance line  a pale pink version of the Modern covers and those Modern covers a blue version of the purple Historicals or the soft green Medicals.  Now each line has its own unique style, ranging from the dark blue of the Modern romances (still keeping that  traditional colour but in a new and sophisticated way) to the stark black and white  with just a flash of red on the Blaze covers.

The Historicals have a lush period look, with a  rich colour and the cover image in a half-circle and now the Medicals have a fresh red and white colouring to match the ‘red cross’ image of emergency services.

There are changes in emphasis too, with many of the line s – particularly the Modern Romances (the ones that will later be released as Presents)  displaying the author’s name with much more prominence. At last it is being acknowledged that, within the  range of Mills and Boon/Harlequin romances, while the readers come to the shelves because they know the quality of the books the publisher provides, it is the individual author’s work they choose to buy.

Perhaps one of the biggest changes will be the way that, starting now, and later  – at the end of this year – the Romance line will be changing and blending in with some of the books originally sold as Modern Heat. The traditional Romance type of stories are  now appearing in the re-named Cherish line (still with the traditional pale pick shading on the cover) . Then in the New Yera, some romance authors and some of the Modern Heat authors will be launched in a new renamed line – Riva.  The covers here will be very different too, and the editorial focus will be changing and developing slightly so watch out  for that.

Finally, much to the delight of the Modern/Presents authors particularly, the titles are going to be changing too. Gone are the over-used buzzwords that have become something of a joke as different combinations for Billionaire, Virgin, Mistress. Revenge etc are tried, ending up with a long string of titles that are almost indistinguishable from each other.  New style titles are slowly coming in and will be more common in the future – titles like my own The Good Greek Wife? which  has been released in the UK and will be out in Presents EXTRA soon. Other new-style titles coming up are: The Undoing of De Luca, The Bride Thief, The Man  Behind the Mask,  Giselle’s Choice, Reckless in Paradise.  I’m hoping that these new titles will be much more intriguing and will hint more at the stories – and the range of  contesnt – that is in the romance I love to write and you love to read.

So what do you think? I’m excited by this new phase   in the history of the company that has been publishing romances for over 100 years and reinventing itself every now and then to keep fresh, interesting and exciting. Do you like the new covers? The idea of the new titles?  I know I’m looking forward to seeing the first of my books with the new design cover and the new-style title. This will be in March 2011 when my book The Proud Wife comes out then.   At the moment it seems that the American  editions will still keep their tried and tested look, but  some of these changes may make their way over the ocean and into the bookshops in USA too.

I’d love to know what you think!

Meanwhile, my next book with a  traditionally styled Presents cover but with a slightly different style title – The Good Greek Wife? will be published in Presents EXTRA in  The Greek Tycoons mini-series in October.    You can find out all my latest news on my web site or my blog and that’s where you’ll get the first glimpse of  any new covers or titles I have coming up.

PS If you’re planning on entering the great new Mills & Boon New Voices contest and because of this  you’re looking for a copy of my 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance – and I know lots of you are as you’ve all be asking about it. This book is currently being reprinted but there are still a few  – jut a few copies left!  I checked with the publisher and there are just  20 copies in the UK and about 25 in America still available. So if you want to know more or find a link to where to buy, check out the Writers page on my web site for full details, specially for the USA edition.

And Good Luck to all who are entering.

The Conference season has started and at the end of this month, authors, editors and publishers will be heading for Orlando where the RWA will be holding their annual National Conference. But last weekend I spent five days in London, in Greenwich to be precise, at the UK’s Romantic Novelists’ Association’s Conference. The weather was hot

 - unexpectedly so for England, the setting in the architecturally beautiful Old Naval College on the edge of the River Thames was spectacular, and the whole event was extra special because it was to mark the RNA’s 5oth anniversary of their  founding in 1960.

There was a  fascinating array of courses and events on offer, with workshops on Conflict, Creating Characters, Managing  Your Writing Career, and Using Colour in  Your Writing. The list of delegates attending read like  a who’s who of English romantic novelists with Katie Fforde,  Kate Harrison, Julie Cohen,  Judy Astley, Susanna Kearsley and the keynote speaker Joanna Trollope. Category romance authors  who were there were  Nicola Cornick, Sarah Morgan, Abby Green, Kate Hardy,  Natalie River – and,of course, me!  Every talk or workshop was fully attended  – and everyone was deeply grateful for the efficient air conditioning that made the conference rooms so much more comfortable than the heat outside of the accommodation blocks.

The RNA’s 50^th birthday was marked at a celebration dinner at the old Trafalgar Tavern  where Charles Dickens once dined. On a hot summer night, the huge windows opening on to the balconies overlooking the river were hugely appreciated , and the sound of the water drifting past was a soft background to the  buzz of conversation.

Harlequin Mills & Boon were strongly represented  by many editors  including Executive Editor Tessa Shapcott and  many of the Richmond team. At their presentation on Saturday afternoon, the audience were given a sneak preview of the new covers that will be coming up for all the Mills & Boon lines  from the Autumn. They will also be reorganising the way that some of the lines are distributed with Modern Heat becoming the newly-title Riva, and some of the Romance line being included with that. The rest of the Romance line will be published under the new name of Cherish.

Along with the new covers there will be some brand new style titles, specially for the Modern/Presents line with the Billionaires and Mistresses and Virgins titles disappearing (thank goodness!) to be replaced by titles such as my own new book, The Good Greek Wife, or others such as The Bride Thief, Reckless in Paradise, The  Man Behind The Mask etc. You can see some of the new covers on Amazon.com and they will be appearing on the Mills & Boon web site very soon.

Another important announcement is the latest writing contest that Mills & Boon will be running. I will be able to give   you more details of this in my next Kate’s Corner blog when all the details have been finalised, but basically the new competition – New Voices – will be a sort of X Factor contest for writers. Entrants will upload a first chapter to the special contest web site (www.romanceisnotdead.com) and the public will be able to read them and comment on them. The editorial team will select a Top Ten who’ll be then asked to write a second chapter. Full details can be found on the Romance Is Not Dead web site  soon and the contest will open fully on September 6^th.  A I said, I’ll bring you all the latest  details on this in my next blog.

The RNA has started Conference Season off with a bang. Sadly, I won’t be able to attend RWA as I shall be teaching in Wales that week. But I shall be keeping in touch with what’s going on in Orlando, and I’ll definitely be glued to the internet when the RITA winners are announced to find out who’s won.  I hope that everyone who is going to any conference has a wonderful time, and comes home as I did, tired out (there wasn’t much sleeping going on) talked out, but fired up with enthusiasm for writing and reading the wonderful romantic fiction that is being published these days.

Kate’s latest Presents EXTRA The Konstantos Marriage Demand is still available  and in the UK  she has The Good Greek Wife coming soon. Look 0ut for this book in Presents EXTRA in October 2010.

 You can find out more details on her web site or on her blog

Oh help – I nearly missed the date!

I’ve been so very busy this past couple of weeks that I barely registered the fact that it’s June, let alone the way that two weeks – two weeks! – of the month have already gone by and here it is June 15^th  already. And that means it’s time for my Kate’s Corner blog  and – oh help again!  – I haven’t got a subject to chat about prepared.

Unless – well,  let me tell you why I’ve been so very busy – It’s the sort of thing that people don’t realise happens  when  I say that I’m a writer. Writers write, don’t they ? That’s it? That’s what people think is all there is to being a writer. You sit down at the desk and you write. You write until you finish the book – and then you send it in to your editor.  Most people realise that then there are revisions – and then the editor hopefully accepts it – and then you  wait till you get the book in your hands. And in the meantime you sit down and  write another book.
I wish!

Looking back at the past few weeks, it’s a bit of a haze – a haze of busyness.  Let me see, I have (with Heather’s help) updated my web site. There’s a new book coming out. The Good Greek Wife? is out in the UK on July 2^nd  so I have to plan for that and publicise it, let readers know it will soon be on the shelves. This book is a bit special – it’s a special commission that my editor gave me and it’s based on one of the Greek Myths so I had an article to write about that. You can see that on my web site if you want to read about it. Then there was a new contest to plan.

This time I have a special contest – well, it’s special to me. I’m running this one jointly with my special friend and wonderful writer Michelle Reid. We both have books out in the UK at the same time – Hers is Mia’s Scandal and mine is the one I’ve already mentioned The Good Greek Wife. This has happened before about this time of year so we’ve run a joint contest to celebrate – and this year we’re doing the same. You can find the details on my blog or my web site if you’d like to enter and have a chance of winning a signed copy of each of these two great books.
What else? Well, there were home and family things – visits from friends and from my MIL  – and, well you  know how these things happen. You have visitors coming and suddenly you look at the room they’re going to stay in and it looks a bit shabby – so we’ve been painting and redecorating – and adding new curtains and bed linen . . . The same with the dining room. These are the things I don’t get time to do when I’m writing.  I’ve also had a complete sort out of my office, moved everything round, cleaned, reorganised.

I’ve also had boring things like accounts to do, even more boring things like visits to the dentist, eye tests . .  The cats had to have their booster injections and the garden was getting terribly overgrown (that’s what happens when you concentrate on the passionate love life of a sexy Sicilian instead of what’s happening behind your own back door!) . And  next month is a really busy month (is there anything different?)  In July I’m teaching at the Romantic Novelists’ Association Conference   in Greenwich London – and then two weeks after that I’m teaching a course on Writing Romance at the wonderful Writers’ Holidays in Caerleon in Wales.

I have critiques to do  – for the RNA’s New Writers’ Scheme and one I promised for the Brenda Novak Auction . There are letters to write,  new bookmarks to plan  – and oh yes, posts to create for blogs! Like this one.  

And the truth is that I’ve been so very busy that I really hadn’t thought of a thing to write  until I sat down here and started to tell you what’s been happening.  But  at least I’ve created a blog out of that. And just listing everything that’s been going on (and believe me this is only part of it!)  has given me some sort  answer to that question – just where has the time gone?

So that’s what’s been happening to me this month – how about you? Has it been busy, or frantic – or quiet (if so I envy you!). Have you had time to relax or like me have you been chasing your tail? 

 The problem is  though – now all this is done and I finally feel like I’ve caught up just a little but, there’s a new book to write and another deadline way too close . . .and  I’m going to have tp sit down and writer. That means that everything else will get neglected and when I finish, I’ll have to try to catch up all over again! 

But I wouldn’t really have it any other way.

Kate’s latest Presents EXTRA The Konstantos Marriage Demand is still available  and in the UK  she has The Good Greek Wife coming soon. Look o0ut for this book in Presents EXTRA in October 2010.

 You can find out more details on her web site or on her blog

I’m  writing this away from home. I’m visiting a special friend and staying in her lovely cottage by the sea in the English Lake District. My friend is fellow Presents author, Michelle Reid, and the reason why I’m here is because we are celebrating our birthdays together.

When I first met Michelle, 15 years or so ago, we ‘clicked’ at once. It seemed like it was only a couple of minutes before we were chatting as if we were already old friends and she’s been an important part of my life ever since. The fact that we both write for the same Harlequin line (the best line, we would both say!} has something to do with it, but we are also very close in many other ways. One of these is the fact that we look very similar, and can almost be taken for sisters, another is that our birthdays are just 3 days apart. Which means that we are both stubborn Taureans with our birthdays in the first week of May.

Writing and family commitments meant that we couldn’t get together on the actual days last week,  but our birthday ‘treat’ to ourselves has been to promise ourselves this weekend together to celebrate. It’s a great feeling getting together with someone I like and admire so much. I loved Michelle’s Presents books long before I ever met  her – I remember that one of the first things we talked about was her book Passionate Scandal, and my own Shattered Mirror. So last night we spent the evening just talking and talking. About books, writing, heroes, heroines, life in general – and more books and more writing! Luckily our real-life heroes, our husbands, also get on really well together and they didn’t mind  that we were so absorbed.

And it’s a wonderful way to celebrate  our birthdays. One of the best gifts we can give and share . This is a milestone birthday for me but there’s really no thing that I specially want. But there are great experiences I want to enjoy. Last weekend I spent with my family, husband, son, son’s partner, this weekend I’m with a special friend and it’s fabulous. The sun is even shining which, believe me, after the rain and cold of the past week, is something else to celebrate.

And as anyone who knows me knows, when I’m celebrating, I love to share. So I have some copies of my backlist titles to give away to anyone who posts a comment on this post today. (I’ll get Sid the Cat on the job of picking the winners of course.) Tell me, if you were celebrating your birthday – or perhaps if you actually are – who would you love to share your special day with? Real or fictional? We’ll take family as read  – we’d all love to celebrate with them – but who else would you like to share your special day?

I’m a little bit late posting today – even allowing for time zones between the UK and America. That’s because I was away for a couple of days, talking to a writing group in Yorkshire about writing romances and how I work. This reminded me that one of the questions I was asked at the beginning of this year, when I first started Kate’s Corner, was about this sort of topic. Heather said:

• Time to Mentor — You’re known for helping others and doing workshops, how do you have time? Is there a reason (other than your good nature, of course!) that you make the time rather than producing more books?

 I’m often asked this question. In fact some people actually disapprove of the time I spend working with would-be writers and teaching writing courses etc. I’ve never really been able to understand that. I know some people think that if I help unpublished authors work toward being published then they will take their place in the line up of published authors and there will be less readers buying their books – or at least I think that’s what they think! Personally I doubt it. There are so many readers out there, all reading lots of books. And as I haven’t yet found the next JK Rowling, I don’t think they’ll take too many sales away from me.

No, for me the best part about running workshops or – even better – teaching writers face to face – is that I also benefit in lots of ways. Obviously, I hope that I teach these unpublished authors a lot that helps them on their way towards getting the writing right and hopefully getting published themselves (in fact at least 6 people I’ve tutored have now been published and have a good number of books behind them too). But I get to talk with other writers, we look at how to create a book, how to write things well, how to create characters and build tension and all the other things you need to put into a book.

And as well as having my own opinions, I get to hear other people’s ideas. To discuss the techniques they use, the ideas they had. Because there isn’t only one way to do anything, particularly not in writing. It would be a really boring world if we were all the same – and a desperately boring world if all books were the same! That’s why Harlequin has so many different lines, and different authors and styles – because all readers don’t like the same things. And when I’m talking with my students I often get a new idea for find a new way of writing something that I’d never thought of before.

 Just chatting with other writers can stimulate my imagination or make me look at things in a very different way – and then I can go back to my own noel with a fresh perspective on things. And when students ask me question – How do you create characters – or what sort of conflict do you think works . . . or could you create a romance between a three-eyed alien and a mermaid (OK, I’ve never actually been asked that one – but it would make me think!) – these sorts of puzzles and queries make me think about what I do and how I do it – and that’s so often a good thing because if I keep on doing the same thing over and over again the same way then I might get bored – or, even worse, my writing might get boring and then I’d really risk disappointing my readers.

So that’s one of the real benefits I get from teaching and mentoring that I do. I’ve also made a lot of really great friends by doing this. Believe me, there’s nothing better than working with someone who is just starting out and then sharing in their excitement when they make their first sale. Then I get an extra bonus because the writers I’ve worked with all send me their first boos – and often more. I probably wouldn’t need to buy any ore books with all the fabulous reading that friends keep sending me. Authors like Julie Cohen (who used to write for Modern Heat and now writes for Little Black Dress) Natasha Oakley, Natalie Rivers, Anna Louise Lucia . . . and I’m hoping there will be lots more in the future.

I also never knew that I would be any good as a teacher. Before I became a writer lots of people thought I might want to be a teacher because my mother was one – and an excellent teacher too. But it wasn’t something that appealed to me. So I trained to be a librarian instead. I never really wanted to be a teacher. But when people asked me about writing, I found I could explain things so that people understood easily. I could see those ‘lightbulb moments’ happening as I explained. This is one of the reasons why I wrote the 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance – it started as an IM conversation with someone who wanted to know how to write romance and then it grew into a workshop and the workshop grew into a book and now that book can help people who can’t get to any of my personal workshops or courses. And that’s another thing about these workshops etc, they’ve taken me all over the place – literally all over the world! I’ve taught in Wales, Australia, New Zealand. I’ve travelled the length and breadth of the UK and stayed in some wonderful places. And there are still more coming up.

If you’re in the UK and you’d like to think about one of my workshop weekends, check out my Events page on my web site and you might find that there is one near you. If so do come along and say hello. Unfortunately I don’t do any workshops in America at the moment but you can always get your hands on a copy of the 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance and that will help you. People say it’s like hearing me talk so I hope it will give you lots of useful tips.

And if you’d like a chance to have me critique a partial of yours – aimed at the Presents/Mills & Boon Modern line – then I’m offering a special one-to-one critique as a special lot in the upcoming Brenda Novak Auction for Diabetes Research. I’ll read and comment on 3 chapters of a novel. The bidding opens on May 1st – so if you’d like to make a bid, why not give it a try?

 So you see. I get a lot out of mentoring and tutoring – and hopefully so do the peple who come along on courses etc.

Kate’s latest Presents EXTRA The Konstantos Marriage Demand is still available and in the UK she has a 3 in 1 Collection – Claimed by The Sicilian with reprints of 3 of her best selling stories with sexy Sicilian heroes.

 You can find out more details on her web site or on her blog

I’ve just sent  in my latest book.  And for the last week, anyone who walked past my office could tell how close I am to writing those magical words ‘The End’ because – well – let’s be honest here, because of the tip that my office has become.

It’s always like this. I’ve tried to work tidily. I’ve tried to plan things so that I get moments in between chapters to sort out this room and put things away. But it never works out that way. It’s pretty hard to understand, really. I mean, writing a book doesn’t actually take up much space. I need my computer, keyboard, a notepad and pen to scribble down those new ideas of important points I just must not miss. Perhaps a research book or two, one for the language used by the hero I’m writing ( Sicilian this time if you want to know) and one about the country in which he lives or where the book is set. And – er – well, that’s it.

So how does my office come to resemble a landfill site – overflowing with bits and pieces and with the surfaces overflowing so much that things even end up on the floor which is affectionately nicknamed the ‘filing cabinet’ by my family? They have lived with this so long that they can tell what stage a book is at simply the state of the floor.

So I was relieved to read somewhere that people who can’t work unless the place looks like a disaster  are said to be geniuses.

Now that’s the perfect excuse I need – I work in a mess like this because I’m a genius. I can live with that. Or, as my friend Anne McAllister says, we’ share the same interior decorator – “Rooms by Untidy”. I think it’s because as I get deeper into a book, I become more and more involved in the fictional world and less involved in the real one. I’m an ‘all or nothing’ writer so when I start writing I concentrate on it hard until I’ve finished. After which I finally lift my head up and look around at reality again. And I’m usually pretty shocked by what I see.

There are   books I’ve used for research, books I’ve read and need to put  away. Books I’ve bought and  mean to read.  The TBR  pile– Keepers – books to pass on to my son (his reading habit is worse than mine).  There’s the bundle of letters I need to answer the bigger bundle of  receipts for my accounts, there’s the critique I’m supposed to be doing, the  cards and gifts I need to wrap and send to friends with birthdays. There are notes for my next project, research books for that. Maps of Scotland where I’m teaching next week.  Notes for the course I’m teaching . . .

But now that I’m done I can clean my office, sort everything out, buy new office supplies – and maybe even read some of those books.  The only problem there will be choosing which ones to read and in what order.

I’ve been looking forward to this day for  what seems like ages. To a time  when I can heave a sigh of relief, press send on this manuscript and then turn my attention to the tip. I’m looking forward to it . . . The sun is shining outside, reminding me that it’s Spring and time to freshen up the house anyway and I’m beginning to wonder just what colour the carpet is in here.

And next time I’m really going to try to be more organised. . . . honest!

But  I’ve also been looking forward to today for another important reason – today I’m celebrating the publication day of my brand-new USA release – when The Konstantos Marriage Demand comes out in the Presents EXTRA line-up.   It’s always a  fabulous and exciting  day for me, even if I can’t actually get to see the book on the shelves in the bookshops.  And it’s  the day that makes all the work, all the time and  – yes – all the mess  – so worthwhile.   And this book is special to me because it’s earned me the honour of a Romantic Time Top Pick award and a rating of 4.5 stars.  (If you’d like to read more about it, then I’m talking about The Konstantos Marriage Demand over on the I(heart) Presents web site today). And I’ll be chatting with everyone here – and there – when I’m not busy sorting and tidying my office.

What about you? Are you a messy genius like me? Or are you super-organised and efficient. Leave a comment – maybe give me your best tip to help me get things done and keep some order in future. And I have a signed copy of  one of my back list books for whoever Sid picks as  a winner (if I can find Sid in all the mess!)
And I hope you enjoy The Konstantos Marriage Demand if you read it.

For my blog today, I thought I’d  answer some of the questions I’ve been asked in the comments on past posts.  I’m always happy to answer questions, so if you have some, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Heather said:

One thing I’d love to see covered is what people will get from your 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance. How did you get all the authors to share their secrets!?! :-)

Well, one of the really great and unexpected benefits from having been in this writing/publishing business for 25 years is the fact that I’ve met a lot of fabulous people and made some really great friends.  And interesting thing about that is that if I love someone’s books then I usually really like them as a person. It works out a lot.

So, when the 12 Point Guide To Writing Romance sold out its first edition and it was going in to the second edition, I knew that one thing that would boost it’s usefulness was some input from writers for other lines. After all, I write for Presents/Modern Romance  and although I know about the other romance lines, I’m not an expert as the authors who write for them can be.   So basically – I asked!

I sent out an email to  20+ other authors, all writing for the range of romance lines for Harlequin and I gave everyone the same questions. And they all responded!  Romance novelists are great that way.

So now the 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance has all the information it had before – the 12 points and the explanations about why they are so important. It has the things to think about and the exercises to do at the end of each chapter. And it has this great section at the end where those 20+ authors all talk about how they write and what they think you need to know about the line(s) they write for. And I will always be grateful to those fellow authors who stepped up and answered all my questions just for that section.

Shayla said -

I’d like to see more about the process you go through to get published. Does it change once you are published?

The most important way that the process of getting a book bought and scheduled  changes once you are published, is that once you have one book accepted and scheduled then you are assigned to a personal editor and you work exclusively with her. Everything you submit goes straight to that one person and she assesses it, suggests revisions and hopefully buys it. Your book doesn’t go into the ‘slush pile’ – the pile of unsolicited manuscripts that is shared out amongst all the editors in the office.

The other major difference is that you are given contracts for a certain number of boos – I’m currently contracted for 3 new titles  – and you are given deadlines – dates on which you will aim to deliver the manuscript to your editor so she can read it. I call these dreadlines as I always have too much book left at the end of too little time!  But I do try to submit as close to the date as possible.  Then my editor reads the book, she will probably suggest revisions – it’s a rare book that doesn’t need some ‘tweaking’ – and I will do those. Then – hopefully – she buys the book and a publication date is set. This is usually some months (up to a year) ahead.  And that is when editing/marketing decide on a title – I have very little input into that.

The next stage in the process is that at some point I am sent copies of my ‘proofs’. These are a print out of the whole book as it will look when published and I need to go through it to check for any mistakes, misprints etc. Meanwhile my editor will have been working with the art department – telling them a couple of scenes that might work on the cover and they will design and create the cover. Finally the book is  printed, bound and I will get my author copies.

Rr4ever said -

Personally, I’d love to know a little about what kind of books you read.

And I’ll try to remember to chat about my reading most months. But I have a problem this month because I’ve been reading books that have been entered for the Romance Writers of America big contest – the RITA awards. And as the judging for that is strictly anonymous, I can’t tell you which books I’ve read.  So I have been reading – but I can’t tell you what!

Oh – and I almost forgot two of my special friends and great authors Liz Fielding and Anne McAllister and I are sharing a great contest this month. This is the 4^th year that we’ve been running our Here Come the Grooms contest . There are three great prizes of three great books – so why not take a look at  my blog and my contest page for details and enter and try your luck.

Finally – I wanted to share some really great news –

As many of you know, I’m celebrating 25 years of being published  – my first ever book, The Chalk Line  was published in December 1984.

In all those 25 years, one of the things I always dreamed off was to win the honour of having my book names as a Romantic Times Top Pick in the month it was out.   It never happened – well,  not until now. Several of my books earned the score of 4.5 stars, but none of them were ever awarded that elusive Top Pick.

Then suddenly, at the end of 2008, my November release, Bedded By the Greek Billionaire was the first of my books to be awarded the Top Pick for that month. I was thrilled.  An ambition achieved. So imagine my delight when I just discovered that it’s happened again. I just learned that my next release – The Konstantos Marriage Demand has also been given the Top Pick selection for March. Once again I’m celebrating.  And it has really made my month.

The Konstantos Marriage Demand will be out in America in Presents EXTRA on March 16^th but I’ll have another Kate’s Corner to write a post for before then so I’ll tell you more about that book then. (Though if you want to grab it early, it is available on eHarlequin right now both as a print and an ebook.)

So that’s it for this month – I’ll be back on March 15^th to chat with you again. Don’t forget if you have any questions to post them here.  See you soon.

And if you’d like to know more about me and my books then you can find lots of information over on my web site or read the really up to date stuff on my blog.

Happy Reading

Kate

I never meant to write a trilogy. The start of The Alcolar Family trilogy came when I was asked to write an on-line read for eHarlequin.com.  That was a real challenge! Getting a passionate emotional story into 10,000 words, and ending each episode of it on a cliff-hanger so that readers wanted to come back and read the next instalment.

The story I came up with was Wife For Real  and the hero was Alex  Alcolar, the illegitimate son of aristocratic Spaniard.  It was in the next to last instalment of this story that I suddenly found that Alex not only had a Spanish father but he also had two brother – Joaquin and Ramon, and a sister, Mercedes.   As soon as I wrote those names, and I realised that the people I had created had a complicated  family history, I knew that I had to write it.  I had the father – Juan Alcolar who had three sons and a daughter. One son and one daughter were  from his marriage to his wife but the other two sons were from affairs he had with two other women. That took some explaining.

First I had to get the idea past my editor.  I can still remember the warm summer day when we enjoyed a lunch sitting outside beside the river Thames and talked of my plans and ideas for the future. One of which was the idea of writing the story of the three other members of the Alcolar family. Luckily she was  as keen on the idea as I was and so the next three books were contracted and I was given the go ahead  to write the mini series. (She also gave me a fabulous idea for one of the most important scenes in the second book – The Spaniard’s Inconvenient Wife  when she told me about a  bridesmaid’s dress she had to wear for a friend’s wedding. But that’s another story.)

Once I had the go-ahead, I had to plan out the series. Not just one but 3 separate and  yet linked books. It was the linking that made it more complicated. If I put some fact  into one of the books, I had to note it down because it couldn’t be changed in another story. And I’d already created some of the family’s story in Wife For Real.  The first member of the Alcolar Family I created was Joaquin – the oldest, and only legitimate son.  And because he was the only legitimate son part of his story had to be about how he felt about his father’s behaviour. After all,   his father had been  unfaithful to his mother not once but twice. (The whole story about that came out  in the later books.)

So Joaquin was the eldest and  he was rather different from his father. Ramon, the second son was much more like his father- and that’s why I created the nickname the Lone Wolf for Joaquin. He was a man who had created his own world, set himself to doing what he wanted and not following his father’s path in life.  He lived by his own rules and one of those rules was that he didn’t believe in lover. Or in lasting relationships. And so he had the rule that he was never in any relationship more that twelve months, so that the relationship didn’t  have a chance to break down as his father’s relationshoips had done.  That was why the book had the title it has – The Twelve Month Mistress.

Of course then in the romance my hero came up against Cassie who was, it turned out, the one woman he couldn’t   break up with at the end of a year.  But being the determined man he was Joaquin might well have acted to break off that relationship anyway, just in case, in order to avoid the problems his father had created.
So I had to find something that would make him go over that twelve month deadline whether he wanted to or not. And the way I did that was I pushed him down the stairs!  I remeber telling my author friends that I was going to push my current hero down the stairs and they didn’t believe me! But I did just that.I wrote a scene in which Joaquin fell down the stairs, hit his head – and when he came round he had  temporary amnesia so he didn’t  know his time with Cassie had reached that critical point.

And this was where part of the fun of writing a trilogy came into things. Because  Joaquin’s brother, Ramon was in the story and I was able to introduce him to my readers ready for his own next book.

One of the really interesting things about writing the trilogy was that my readers all had their own very favourite brother – or the hero of the 3^rd book in the trilogy, Jake.  Lots of readers loved Joaquin  best , others voted for Ramon. Heather from this site of course loves Joaquin – she has told me that The Twelve Month Mistress is her favourite ever of my books. That’s why she chose it as part of the fabulous We Write Romance.com Selects Presents Blogger Bundle And she’s not alone. Back in 2006 when I ran a poll to see which of my books was my readers’ favourite – The Twelve Month Mistress came top of the poll, collecting up the most votes of any of my books. I’m running that poll again this year to mark my 25^th year of being published and Joaquin’s story is still there – up there in the top 10, currently at number 7.

It was an experience writing The Alcolar Family trilogy. Would I do it again? I’d love to if I had  stories that all linked together.  I’ve done a couple of duos but right now I’m busy with some special commissions that my editor has asked me to write – the first of which is coming out in the UK in July. But when those are done you never know!

What about you? Do you like books that are linked in a miniseries? Or do you prefer stand-alone titles?   And if you’ve read The Alcolar Family, which of the books – or heroes – is your favourite? Do you love Joaquin or prefer his brother Ramon?

I’d like to send special thanks to Heather for putting my book The Twelve Month Mistress into the WWR special ebook selection. It’s a  great honour to be there – along with some other really great books by fabulous authors. Thank you Heather!

Kate Walker’s latest Presents hero appears in The Konstantos Marriage Demand which is published in Mills & Boon Modern on January 15th. It will be out in  America in Presents EXTRA in March.

And of course one of her earlier books, The Twelve Month Mistress is also featured in a brand- new ebook ‘Bundle’ We Write Romance.com Selects Presents – one of the Blogger Bundles now available on eharlequin.com.

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.

Hello again 

I can’t believe that it’s already December 15^th and a whole  month has passed since I  last posted in Kate’s Corner.

Or do I mean since I first posted in Kate’s Corner because that is what that post was – my first.  I had lots of great respoinses  with some questions to anser and requests for things to talk about  and I’ll hope to get to those as I have more time and more posts. Because at this time of year we all have so very little time don’t we?  We have gifts to biy and wrap and deliver. Cards to write.  Food to buy, prepare and cook. Visitors to share out home with or p[arties and celebrations to go out to.
Celebrations. Yes – this holiday season is a time for celebration and for me it’s a very special celebration on a personal level.  So that’s what I want to talk to you about this time.

If you’ve spotted  the wonderful banner that Heather has made for me and is now displayed  at the top of the We Write Romance Home page you’ll see that  December 2009 is a very important anniversary for me.  Because this month  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 storiesto me – with FIRST BOOK in the subject line. Or share them with me in the comments section of this blog and I’ll add those into the special draw just the same. And I’ll add in two extra prizes just for this Kate’s Corner blog  – after all it’s Christmas and the time for special Presents! Closing date for all FIRST BOOK stories is December 31st 2009. But I’ll be posting some of the titles and stories on my personal blog before then.

Or maybe you’d like to vote for your favourites of my books – your Top 5 Kate Walker titles? If so, check out my Contest Page for details how to do that.

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. 

One of the questions I’m going to be answering on a regular basis is the ‘What are your reading’ question – so to answer that  for this month. I just finished a Harlequin  Romance by Marion Lennox called Betrothed to the People’s Prince which I thoroughly enjoyed. And now I’m having a change of pace with a thriller by Zoe Sharp. Zoe is a friend of mine who writes great thrillers with an unconventional heroine – Charlie Fox who acts as bodyguard to a lottery winner.  I’m finding it fascinating reading this very different style of book from my own. Oh – and the title is Second Shot.

I’m going to try to please those of you who have asked and upload photos of  my  ‘furry gang’ – Dylan, the small grey tabby. Sid (A Cat of  Superior Breeding) and Flora The Floozie  the silver ‘shadow’ Maine Coon.  Wish me luck  – I hope it works.

If it doesn’t then I  need another lesson! But you can always see pics of them over on my personal blog  where you’ll also find my latest news.

Finally I want to wish you all a truly happy  Christmas Hanukkah or whatever you’re celebrating. I’ll look forward to seeing you again and chatting with you in the New Year. Don’t forget to post any questions you want me to answer  or things you’d like to discuss.

And I’d love to know which one was your ‘first’ Kate Walker  – or your five favourites. Sid will help me pick a couple of winners in a few day’s time.

See you in the New Year!

Happy Christmas and happy reading

Kate

Hello and welcome to the very first Kate’s Corner at We Write Romance.  I’m looking forward to  meeting you all and hopefully getting to know a lot of you through this blog and the comment s and maybe some special  contests and such along the way.

But first I have to  say a great big thank you to Heather for inviting me along to run a monthly column here at WWR.  I’m thrilled to be taking an even bigger role in this fabulous site. I can’t quite recall exactly when I first linked up with Heather and  WWR  it was in 2006 that Heather took over the redesign and the running of my web site and made such a fabulous job of it  that I’m still getting compliments about it.  She’s now busy with the design and maintenance of my husband’s site too (http://www.stephen-wade.com )  so we’re keeping her in the family! 

I thought I’d better introduce myself  to those of you who don’t know me. Obviously I’m Kate Walker! I’ve been writing for Mills & Boon Modern/Harlequin Presents since December  1984. In that time I’ve had  over 54 novels published in over thirty-five countries. I’m  also the author of the award-winning 12 Point Guide To Writing Romance.  This guide to writing romance sold out its first edition and is now in a revised and updated second edition.  Her latest book, Kept For Her Baby  was out in Harlequin  Presents Extra in  October so it’s still around on Amazon and eHarlequin.  My next title will be The Konstantos Marriage Demand which will be published in the UK in January and in America – again in Presents Extra  in  March 2010.  I live in the UK (which will mean that sometimes I’ll be in a different time zone from this blog, so if I don’t manage to answer questions/comments  for a while that will probably be the reason why).  And as I’ve mentioned my husband’s web site, you’ll see that I’m married to another writer – but my DH (affectionately known as the Babe Magnet to many romance writers!)  writers true crime books and history of crime. Etc. That’s why, here in the UK, we often do talks and workshops as ‘Crime and Passion.’

 I’ve already asked what you’d like me to blog about  – and  a big thank you to everyone who answered. I’ll hope to deal with your comments as soon as I can. But I hope that you’ll all join in and comment and ask questions when I do  blog so that I can talk about the things you’d like to know about.  Obviously, with the 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance as part of my published book line up, I’m interested in teaching people how to write romance. Here in the UK  I do a lot of workshops and writing courses  but obviously it’s not so easy to connect up with writers in America or Australia.  So if you have questions about writing romance, or writing for Presents then please post them in the comments section and I’ll answer as much as I can.

Or if you want to know more about my books, how I work,  that sort of thing, just ask. If you’ve noted  what I said in my introduction – about the fact that I was first published back in 1984  (I was a child author – honest!) then you’ll realise that I’m coming up to a big anniversary of that date. My very first book ever – the  Chalk Line – was published in December that year so from next month I’ll be celebrating my ‘sliver anniversary’  as a published author. There will be special celebrations on my web site and my blog  so I hope you’ll all join in with those and help me mark this special occasion.   When I celebrate I love to share with my readers so there will be contests and prizes too.

Looking at the comments  from my last post, I’ve noticed that one of them reads – Via Heather – :

I’ve had an email request for you to talk about your cat…I was told you’d know which one. :-)

So obviously  this comes someone who reads my personal blog – because anyone who does that will know all about my cat.  Well, cats(s) actually – I share my home with three of them. They all think they run things. There are  – in order of age – the little grey tabby Dylan . Dylan is 14, he was a rescue cat from the RSPCA and he only has one eye as a result of a very bad bout of cat flu when  he was just six months old.  He may be small but he’s the real hunter. Then there’s Sid – or Sir Sidney  as he likes to be known. I think this will be that cat most people know about. He  is known as ACOSB (A Cat of Superior Breeding)  and he is also a cat of character.  He adopted us  one day when I opened the door and he walked in with a sort of ‘I live here’ swagger.   That was over ten years ago –  He’s been  with us ever since. And yes, I’ll talk more about him in this blog. Finally there is the youngest cat, a beautiful Maine Coon called Flora  who was my Christmas present in 2007. She knows she is beautiful and she  thinks she is Queen in this house. She’s also known as Flora the Floozie as she is very flirtations and frivolous.  When I can work out how to upload photos here I’ll post some pics of the furry gang.

So that’s a bit about me to introduce myself.  If there’s anything else you’d like to know please ask. I  think I’ve rambled on for quite long enough now, but obviously I’ll be back next month – December 15^th so I can answer more questions then.  But another comment that  can answer quickly here – and perhaps I can make it a regular part of my blog  – is the one from ‘rr4ever’ who said:

Personally, I’d love to know a little about what kind of books you read.

The honest answer to that is that I love to read anything and everything – the problem with writing books is that it then becomes difficult to find time to read them!   But as I’ve just sent in my latest novel to my editor, I have  little more time to read right now.  As I said. I think it might be fun  to let you know what I’m reading each month.  But for this month, the books I curled up with after I sent the book off were Anne McAllisters’ latest in the story of the lovely Savas family  – One Night Mistress . . . Convenient Wife.  I love Anne’s books – she’s also a very special friend (and a special friend of Sid’s) so I really enjoyed this one . Anne is a writer for Presents who shows the range of styles and types of these books. They’re not all revenge and blackmail books even if the titles make it look that way.  ( I’ve heard that there are plans to change the titles so hopefully I’ll be able to tell you more about that when I learn more myself.)  Another book I’ve just finished in Christmas Angel for The Billionaire by Liz Fielding. This is a Harlequin Romance. I may write for Presents but I also love reading some of the lovely emotional books in Romance and Liz is a favourite of mine.

But I don’t just  read romance – one of the next books on my TBR list is  a book by an author who’s new to me – F G Cottam – my son gave me  The House of Lost Souls for my birthday (that was in May and I still haven’t got round to reading it – see what I mean about not finding enough time) – it’s  described as  ‘brilliant, chilling and spooky’ – so I’m looking forward to reading that by the fire, with one or more of the cats to keep me company.

Well – I think that’s it – but as  I said, when I celebrate, I like to share so every now and then I’ll be running a special prize draw through this blog so that one reader/commenter can win a copy of one of my backlist books. Sid is the one who picks the winners for me – I put out all the names with a cat treat on top of each one and the one Sid eats first is the winner – so  And I’ll start today and Sid has  with picked the comment  with the question I’ve answered – so rr4ever – please contact me kate AT kate-walker.com and I’ll sort out that book for you.

And I’ll look forward to seeing you all same time next month – when I expect we’ll all be deep in Christmas preparations – or are you all efficient and organised and busy with those now?
See you soon

Kate

You can find out more about Kate at her website and on her blog