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