Guest Blogger - Kate Walker

What do you plan to read – and where?

It’s almost November 1st. I’ve just been planning ahead, realising that the AMBA (Association of Mills & Boon Authors) lunch I’ve been looking ahead to is actually next week. On Tuesday – just as this blog is launched - I’ll be heading for London, meeting up with so many fellow authors and friends, and the event I’ve been thinking of as ‘late in the year’ is actually just a few days away. And after that . . . I just turned over another page on my office diary to see that then we start off a whole new month. . And as I did so, a nursery rhyme from long ago came into my head. It’s the one that begins:

January brings the snow,
Makes our feet and fingers glow.
And then goes through all the rest of the months,

The lines for November go:
Dull November brings the blast,
Then the leaves go whirling past.

They couldn’t really be more appropriate to the sort of day we have outside. It might not be November quite yet, but the wind has been howling round the house, whirling the leaves wildly and throwing heavy cold rain at the window panes. After a short but beautiful and amazingly warm ‘Indian summer in October, winter has definitely come a lot closer as soon as November appears on the calendar. But once I’d done my daily walk - getting drenched and feeling frozen as I did so – had my shower and I started to feel virtuous as a result, the idea of staying in and keeping warm really appealed. And then my DH lit a real fire in the grate so that the cats and I could get really cozy and curl up beside it and it seemed just the perfect place to sit and read to my heart’s content.

OK, I can’t quite do that just yet. I’m on a very tight deadline ( I call them dreadlines) and I need to deal with the black sheep prince who is my current hero before I can look forward to tackling the huge TBR pile I have waiting for me. And then the fire is going to be so welcome.

But then I had an email from my sister who lives in Australia where of course everything is ‘upside down’ and so she’s heading into summer. So she’s talking about taking her TBR books out into the garden (also with her cats!) and soon, hopefully, on to the beach. (The cats will stay at home then.) And that made me remember how much I loved sitting outside under a tree . . . or on a beach, enjoying the sunshine . . . and reading. I’ve been trying to decide which is my absolute favourite place to be when I have a pile of books I just want to dive into. In the end, I couldn’t choose. OK, I admit that right now the fireside wins but that’s because the weather is so dreadful and cold – and WET.

But it made me wonder – do you have a favourite place to curl up with your latest books you buy and lose yourself in a story? By the fire? On a beach? In the woods? By the pool? And what books are at the top of your TBR pile right now? I have The Night that Changed Everything by Anne McAllister, The Kanellis Scandal by Michelle Reid, a fascinating novel about a heart transplant patient – Second Hand Heart by Catherine Ryan Hyde. Oh yes and the other three books in the Powerful and The Pure mini series.

The Powerful and the Pure is a special mini series where Presents Authors took the themes of classics of romantic fiction - Jane Eyre, Emma, Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights. I was thrilled to be asked to take part in it, especially when I learned that the book they wanted me to work on was my own favourite - Wuthering Heights. I've had an amazing time looking back at this great book and honouring it by using it as the inspiration for my own Presents version of this amazing story in The Return of The Stranger. I've had to make changes of course - Wuthering Heights isn't really a love story. It's a story about passion and possession and power - so while all those other books had happy endings already set, I had to create one for my characters. I also had to take wild, willful Cathy and dark, dangerous Heathcliff and give them the happy ever after ending that Emily Bronte's story never had.


The Return of The Stranger which is my own contribution to this mini series is out in Presents Extra this month – and I’ve been getting so many emails from readers saying how much they’ve enjoyed it – and some really great reviews (one reviewer said : Ms. Walker does a splendid job weaving a modern-day tale of Heathcliff and Lady Catherine in The Return of the Stranger. Rich with intrigue, scandal, revenge and forbidden, unleashed desire her take on the classic Wuthering Heights reminds us why some love stories are truly timeless. And Ms. Walker’s current story based loosely on that epic tale lives up to the bar set by Bronte.)


You don’t have to have liked or even read the original Wuthering Heights to enjoy The Return of The Stranger – it’s a stand-alone romance that can be read as a classic Harlequin Presents as well as a story inspired by that great classic novel. And I want to read the other three books to see how my fellow authors have dealt with the stories they were working on. So three more books (by Sharon Kendrick, Kate Hewitt and Cathy Williams) on my TBR pile.

But first I have to finish dealing with this black sheep prince and send him to my editor – and then I’m really going to read . . .and read . . .

So what about you – where do you prefer to read, indoors or out? And what’s on your
TBR pile that you’re looking forward to getting your hands on? Tell me what you plan to read and where and I’ll get Charlie the Maine Coon to pick a winner of a book from my backlist – that’s if I can get him away from the fire! And that way you’ll have even more titles on your TBR pile!

PS I know I’ll be in London but I’ll hope to be able to visit as often as possible and chat with your all – always providing the wifi in the hotel works!
Happy Reading!


THE RETURN OF THE STRANGER


Blurb:

Standing high on the windswept moors, the lone figure of Heath Montanha vows vengeance on the woman who destroyed the last fragments of his heart...Lady Katherine Charlton has never forgotten the stablehand with dangerous fists and a troubled heart from her childhood. Now the rebel is back, his powerful anger concealed under a polished and commanding veneer. When ten years of scandal and secrets are unleashed, with a passionate, furious kiss, Heath's deepest, darkest wish crystallises...Revenge - and Kat - will be his!


BUY LINKS:
Amazon UK
Mills & Boon
Ebook at Harlequin
Amazon
Mills & Boon Australia

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Author Page created by Romance Book Paradise Promotions

Bad Manners (but Good News!)

Since I’m Southern and I was raised to believe it’s very bad manners to brag on yourself and blow your own horn, I should be ashamed of this post. (Look Away, Mom! Look Away!)

But I can’t help it. I’m just giddy and busting at the seams with news. I’ll try to get it out of my system in one post today.

My sailboat book, Magnate’s Mistress…Accidentally Pregnant! is out in the UK this month! I (heart) this book in so many ways… in no small reason because it was one of those books that just seemed to write itself as fast as I could make my fingers move across the keyboard. I’m totally in love with the hero (and we’ll all tell the Darling Geek that Chris is totally modeled on him), and I adore Ally. I got to mix sailboats and Greek mythology and Caribbean islands and steamy sex and I had a blast doing it. I even love the cover!

(Magnate’s Mistress…Accidentally Pregnant! will be out in the US in February.)

Of course, I’m counting down to the US release The Millionaire’s Misbehaving Mistress (which, if you’re just on the edge of your seat and can’t wait for it to hit the bookstore, is available on the eHarlequin site now). I love the alliteration of the title, and when you find out the heroine is an etiquette expert nicknamed "Miss Behavior," the title becomes that much better! And this cover captures Will and Gwen perfectly, I think.

If you look in the sidebar, you’ll see we’re planning a party in October to celebrate its arrival in the bookstores. If all goes well, I’ll have a special announcement to make that day too!

And if that's not enough...

The Secret Mistress Arrangement just keeps on going! I love the fact I get three English-language releases – US, UK, and Aus/NZ – on all the books, but there’s a whole different excitement in having a book translated and released to a different country.

First it was France:

Loosely translated, that’s The Perfume of Temptation. (And yes, I’m out with Day Leclaire!)

Now it’s in Italy in a 2-in-1 with Robyn Grady (who is just fab):

The title of the duet is Seductive Agreement, and TSMA is rechristened Seven Days of Desire.

See why I’m giddy?

Be giddy with me. Share some good news. We’ll all squee together!

PC

**Oh, and I'm guest blogging over at Lynn Raye Harris' blog today and tomorrow about writing for Modern Heat.

Being the Author, part 2

You know, there are certain phrases you practice in front of your mirror, so that when the time comes to use them, you’ll be ready to say them with style, panache, and just the right amount of calm collectedness. Like:
“I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille”

“I’d like to thank the Academy…”

“My fellow Americans…”

“I, Kimberly, take you, Jon Bon Jovi…”

And

“I’m off to London to have lunch with my editor.”

Well, I still haven’t had the chance to use any of the first four, but practicing that last one really came in handy recently. Because I did go to London and have lunch with my editor. Squee!

Okay, so I got on the wrong train (totally not my fault and I wasn’t the only one on the wrong train. It had been announced incorrectly), and then I got a little bit lost in Richmond and went the long way around to the Mills and Boon office, but those mishaps aside didn’t take the glam out of the event. Other than showing up at the office a little sweaty from my trek.

Sadly, I have no pictures (sorry, Angel, but you weren’t there to remind me).

I presented myself to the receptionist and told her who I was. She had to call up for someone to come get me. (Boy, security is tight. I was wondering if aspiring authors wander in off the streets occasionally trying to find an editor.) There’s a M&B rack in the lobby, so I perused the books while I waited. Happy of happiness, I found one of my books on the rack! I’m on a lobby display rack! How cool!

Then Lucy (Gilmour – my lovely editor) and Bryony (Green – Senior Ed of Modern Heat) came down to get me from the lobby and took me upstairs into the M&B sanctum. Just the thought of all the creative energy and book-making gave me the shivers. Alas, it looked a bit like any other office (I’m not sure what I was expecting). But then, editors came out of their cubicles to say hello: Tessa Shapcott (head of the Modern/Presents line), Jenny Hutton, Sally Williamson (Lynn Raye Harris’s editor), Joanne Grant, Kimberley Young (who let me interview her for the Playground a couple of years ago) – if anyone from the M&B office is reading this and I’ve left you off the list, my apologies. A newbie author can only absorb so much fabulous editorial at one time. Talk about feeling special – after so many years of stalking editors at conferences, having so many actually want to say hello is just surreal.

Then it was off to lunch. Lucy and Bryony led me to a wonderfully hidden-down-a-back-street French restaurant where we sat in a walled-in courtyard. A bottle of wine, a menu of things I didn’t quite recognize, everyone around me with either a British or French accent – I felt like the punch line to every Alabama Redneck joke ever invented.

And then I began to babble. Hmm, seems I should have spent less time practicing accepting my Oscar and more working on making small talk with my editors. I don’t know why I was nervous. Bryony and Lucy are both wonderfully friendly people, and I know this wasn’t a job interview, but still… Babble city. Ugh. Did I mention the Alabama Redneck part?

But all good news from my editors. My books seem to be doing all right. They seem happy with what I’m writing and want me to write more books. Lucy has confidence I’ll be able to get the revisions on the current book done (glad one of us does!). And I was told that I could come back for lunch again when I bring AC over to see her grandparents next year. (Annual lunch with my editor in London? Really? Man, I love this job!)

Then I was back on the train headed back to central London with a couple of M&B books in my bag for the ride home. (Okay, so I asked for books. Tacky, but I’d read my entire magazine on the wrong train earlier.)

Back in London, I met up with the fabu Heidi Rice, fellow Modern Heat author, who continued my day of author glamor by taking me to the National Gallery Café for drinks. Drinks overlooking Trafalgar Square while talking about editors and books and royalty statements made me feel very Author-like indeed. I didn’t miss the surreptitious glances of “Are they famous people?” from the folks at the next table as we tossed around publishing terms. Good for the ego -- if not great for my liver or waistline.

The most horrible train ride ever followed as I made my way back to where I was staying with some friends. However, in the midst of my misery (and trust me, crowded commuter trains out of London when there’s been an accident on the tracks and mucked up the entire schedule is misery indeed), I came up with an idea for book number five. Yep, I felt like an author.

Now I’m home in Alabama and there’s absolutely no glamor to be found as I dig through the post-vacation mess of laundry/mail/empty fridge – oh, and let’s not forget the optimistic deadline I gave Lucy about my revisions looming on the horizon.

But I had lunch with my editor in London. Squee!