It recently came to our attention that the ebook bundle that we participated in selecting with Harlequin is definitely making an impact on some readers.  Specifically, Jane at Dear Author was inspired to by reading The Brazilian’s Blackmailed Bride to read more of Michelle Reid’s wonderful stories.

And Jane isn’t alone.  I’ve heard of a few others who were caught by Margaret Mayo’s book,  Surrender to the Millionaire and both Anne’s and Kate’s books as well!  So have you downloaded your copy?

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.

Some of you have probably already heard about Harlequin launching their new ebook publisher, Carina Press.  Some maybe not.  Either way, it’s a great opportunity for not only romance authors but others as well!

Their guidelines for Romance and Erotic Romance submissions state:

We are seeking submissions in all subgenres and all levels of sensuality. We welcome everything from the very sweet to the incredibly sexy, featuring couples (or multiples) from all walks of life and sexual orientation, including same-sex romances. Romances should focus on the development of the relationship, as well as external and internal conflict; the heat level should be appropriate to the book and enhance the story, and the primary relationship in the book should offer a happily ever after (HEA) or happily for now in an emotionally satisfying manner.

The key element to a successful romance is characterization, creating a unique, believable hero and heroine who need to end up together in order to achieve the happily ever after. Alpha heroes remain popular.

Subgenres of romance we are seeking include, but are not limited to, historical, romantic suspense, romantic comedy, futuristic, contemporary, western, Egyptian, Roman, paranormal, erotic romance and fantasy.

Miniseries have proven to be very popular with readers and Carina Press is looking for interesting twists on established, popular romance themes (marriage of convenience, cowboys, vampires, babies). We are interested in seeing your fresh interpretation on novels featuring astrology, pets – especially rescue animals – playing a role within the story as matchmaker or catalyst, and other unusual or fresh themes. The only limit is your imagination!

Please also see the science fiction, fantasy and futuristic guidelines.

Some of the other genres their interested in include thrillers, mysteries, science fiction, futuristic, horror, women’s fiction and family sagas.  There are a few other types they take but these are the ones that stuck out as possible alternatives for authors who visit here.

You might want to note (though this is not from an official source!) that the rumors are they do not pay advances, only royalties.

But they do have Executive Editor Angela James heading them up so I believe they are sure to be a success.

Check them out and let me know if you submit to them (use this link to find out more:  Carina Press).  We’d love to hear the stories!

A few years ago I had never really heard of ‘ebooks’ or ever thought anything about reading a ‘book’ that wasn’t in manuscript format.  Well, times change and I began receiving numerous requests on WWR for reviews of ebooks and ARC’s of upcoming print books. 

At first, I thought it’d be interesting to check them out to see how they differed from paper copies.  Hey, I had a computer that could open a PDF file…so why couldn’t I just use it? 

So I agreed to a few, and I had a few reviewers who agreed to review them.   All set.

But I found that reading on computer (or laptop) wasn’t easy.  It wasn’t very convenient to take with me.  And for some reason my eyes blurred after only a few pages.  That’s when I decided to give in and buy a Sony eBook Reader.  I love it!  It’s been the best investment for me.  I am able to download a ton of books (literally with the help of a storage device added into a little slot), pictures, audio, and more in this slim little package and take it with me.

I thought about an Amazon Kindle.  I compared it.  I didn’t find that I needed to be able to download ebooks in seconds from anywhere.  I can plan ahead.  And no matter what reading mood I’m in I have a book to cover me on there.  I’m also able to find books at the R.E.A.D.S. library that work on it. 

But I guess the biggest reason I’m so glad I went with the Sony Reader is that I REALLY didn’t like the idea that Amazon (though I adore buying from them!) had access to delete off a book that I put on their Kindle…remotely!  [See the tons of articles going around right now about this!]

And while Amazon is a great source for ebooks, you can also use books that you purchase from eBooks.com (Buy One, Get One Free with this link!) or many other ebook sites.

And that’s my journey into ebooks!

Barnes & Noble recently announced that they will now enter the ebook venue!  They’re touting a FREE ebook reader and even have several FREE ebooks available for download.

They’re basically the books that are now out of copyright, but they’re some interesting ones like Little Women and Pride and Prejudice.

They also have a larger selection of ebooks under $5 so it’s definitely worth checking out!