Kate Walker's Blog, page 13

Parties and Pins

One of the very best moments from the Harlequin Author Party on Friday evening - being there to applaud   Michelle Styles  when she was presented with her special pin for publishing 25 Historical Novels. So pleased for her - and the fact that I played a tiny part in her career when I encouraged her not to believe the people who said HMB would never publish a novel with a Roman hero - they did - and the fabulous Viking heroes Michelle wrote after that. . . It made my night to be there to applaud her.Congratulations again Michelle!
And another very special moment at the Harlequin party on Friday night - Kate Hardy receiving her award for her 75th title - what else can I say but Congratulations Scary Kate!

Busy busy . . .

The week is crazy busy - and now I'm packing for a trip to London and the annual Association of Mills and Boon Authors lunch with a reception afterwards at the Harlequin offices - just hope the weather is rather better than the icy showers we have here - it's only September!

 One bright spark in the cold dampness has been the arrival of a bundle of new foreign translations - German, Dutch, French and several from Japan - including my favourites - two brand new Manga editions.
 
One of these is The Return of The Stranger which seems to suddenly have had a new lease of life with people talking about it (and it being on sale at £0.99p) on Amazon. The other is The Antonakos Marriage. Great to
see these older books getting a new lease of life.


Now it's time to pack and head for the big city! I'll be back at the weekend.
Waving to everyone I'll see there - travel safe and I can't wait to meet up again.

Courses coming up 2

So having written about the course that is fully booked - now on to one that still has places available. I was going to write about this yesterday, but my post got delayed by - guess what - another two people enquiring about making a booking for the course, So if you're interested in

'Writing Fiction that Sells -with KATE WALKER

Now's the time to make a booking for this one.
Dates: 20-22 October 2017
Venue: Keele University Management Centre Staffordshire
Cost £249 - including accommodation and meals - and tea/coffee breaks.
Check out Relax and Write with Lois Maddox

Although not specifically about writing romance- this will deal with so many things that are important for writing romantic fiction - characters, conflict etc
Writing Fiction that Sells also includes
- Know your market
- Knowing yourself as a writer
- Hooks
- Your ‘brand’
- Tried and tested – adding a new spin
- Spotting the ‘band-wagon’

Relax and Write want me to do another course in Cirencester in April this will take the form of a writing retreat (I think!) - where you have written several chapters and I discuss those with you and give you ways to work on problems - and you have time to write and discuss with the rest of the group. I don't have full details of dates yet but hope I soon will have. The thing with these courses is that they need the demand to run them!

Unfortunately the basic Writing Romance course I ran every year in July in Wales has now ended as the whole Writers' Holiday in summer had ended.

Courses Coming Up 1

Ok so, I said that I would give some details about the courses I have coming up in case anyone was interested in joining me on one of them. But then it seemed that as soon as I mentioned that, bookings took off with the one just on the horizon - so -

The Advanced Romance Writing Course in February in Fishguard is now totally booked up.Writers' Holiday just in case.
The last two places were allocated this week - so if you wanted to put your name on the waiting list you can - contact Gerry Hobbs  at

 I believe that most of the February Weekend is also full or filling fast - so if you want to consider
Poetry with Alison Chisholm
Short Story writing with Della  Galton (though that may be filled as well!)
Novel Writing with    Rachael Thomas              
Writing Feature Articles with    Simon Whaley
or Painting and Drawing with    Susan Alison 


It will be a good idea to at least make an enquiry with Writers Holiday right now.

And another bargain book . . .

Life has been so hectic lately that I've not had much time to breathe. And I've had my head down, mind focused, practicing BICHOK  (bum in chair, hands on keyboard) in a determined effort to
 finish  The Book That Would Not End.   What's that some people say about giving birth to a pineapple - there's a vivid (and apt) description!

Anyway, the Pineapple has finally allowed me to finish it,  it's with my editor now so I have a  moment or two to draw breath and look at the  huge To Do list, together with the mound of correspondence that has piled up.  I'm working my way thought that at the  moment  - my apologies to important people who have been waiting for me to get back to them!


Several of those are people who have been asking about any courses that I have coming up - so I'll write a post about those just as soon as I can.

In the meantime, the fact that I have raised my eyes from my computer screen has meant that I've discovered that Amazon has another of my backlist titles available at a bargain price right now. So if you don't have a kindle version of  the 2009 book Kept For Her Baby then it's up on Amazon at £0.99 right now. Not sure for how long but it's a bargain price if you want to read it.  Like The Return of the Stranger which is still at £0.99 too.
 

Return of the Stranger - at a bargain price on Kindle

Yesterday on Facebook  Ali Williams  who is both a romance editor and academic writer  was asking about romance novels based on classic romantic fiction and Michelle Styles was kind enough to Laura Vivanco on Teach Me Tonight - a talk at the Haworth Festival of Women's Writing (speaking in a schoolroom where Charlotte Bronte herself had taught) and the Bronte Parsonage Museum put a copy of The Return of the Stranger permanently in their library amongst the fiction inspired by the Bronte sisters' writings. mention the mini series 'The Powerful and The Pure' which was brought out in 2011 (was it really that long ago!) in which several Modern Romance/Harlequin Presents authors created romance novels to 'Modernise' some fabulous classic novels - Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Emma. My own contribution to this series was a reworking of Wuthering Heights (chosen for me because I'd written my MA thesis on the childhood writings of Charlotte and Emily Bronte) It was a fascinating experience and led to some interesting results - an interview with

Because of this several people wrote to enquire about the book and I had to go hunting to see where they could find a copy. As a result, I discovered that Return of The Stranger is currently on sale on kindle for only £0.99p.   (Not sure if this is the same on Amazon.com as it's not showing kindle details for me there)So if you're interested or you have been looking for a copy of this novel - now's the time to grab a bargain! I've sent the only re maining paperback copy I had on its way to Ali, so I think this is the best way to get hold of it now.

And if you're interested in  any of the posts I write about  this book and the talks in Haworth etc  back in 2011 when it was first published - put Return of The Stranger or Wuthering Heights  into the search box and they should come up.

Book deliveries

Sometimes there are no book deliveries to this house - and other times, there are more deliveries than we can cope with! This week has been sort of average - but most of the book boxes have been for the Babe Magnet who seems to have half a dozen new titles publishing in the next couple of months, So we have Write Your Self which arrived this week. Ilove this cover.
And talking of covers - there's this translation of one of my more recent titles - but it's a little worrying! The Translated title isMork, Vacker, Mystik. Now in Yorkshire that 'mork' is not a flattering description! In the slang dictionary too, it's defined this way:mork n. someone who is completely witless. a low level nincompoop who rarely sees things in perspective.

One of the best parts of summer.

As you probably already know, I spent a  fabulous week in  July at Writers Holiday in Fishguard. Yes, I was teaching a course - and so was my husband - but there is so much more to Fishguard than the teaching and the courses, there's the friendship, the laughter, the after-dinner speakers, the food, the massages (yes - we have a lovely lady who gives fabulous back and shoulder massages - just what you need after a day's teaching!) the music - the Cwmbach Male Choir - perhaps a little bit of wine - the conversations, the new friends,. . the husbands.  (yes husbandS)

Sadly, this summer's event was the last on in Fishguard in July - though, thankfully, the February Writing Weekends are still continuing - thank heaven or I'd pine away completely.

One of the unexpected delights of teaching with Gerald P Hobbs Writers' Holiday every year is that some years back I unexpectedly acquired another 'husband' !

A Special Memory

More years ago than I care to reckon up,  as a barely 10 year old,  my mother allowed me to spend Sundays watching TV. This was a rare occurrence because as far as my mother was concerned, Sundays were for going to mass, eating Sunday lunch, going for a long walk,  tea, a bath, washing my hair  - and bed.  TV did not figure in that timetable at all.

But this was different - this was the BBC's production of Shakespeare's history plays  in one long sequence - 15 episodes.  I watched the first  and was lost. For all those 15 episodes, my mother and I shared this experience and I was totally engrossed in the drama, the language, the acting.  It was only years later that I realised how much I had absorbed of Shakespeare's power - and how many of the stage and screen's later great actors I had watched on that rather blurry black and white screen.

One of those actors I have always remembered - have never been able to forget  - was the man who played Henry V - and that was Robert Hardy.   Later he became well known as Siegfried in    James Herriot's  All Creatures Great and Small.  He played  Churchill several times and  was known to a new and wider audience when he appeared as Cornelius Fudge in Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix.   But to me he was always the very first Prince Hal I'd every seen - dynamic  and powerful and, in spite of a strange 'pudding basin' haircut, mesmerising and unforgettable.

So I was truly sad to learn today that Robert Hardy has died at the age of 91. Such important memories went with him. And he will always be Prince Hal to me.

RIP Robert Hardy.

RNA Conference weekend

So here’s how the statistics for the weekend stack up:
First and foremost  - people to thank for a wonderful, fantastically well organised and stimulating conference once again  - Jan Jones and Roger Sanderson
Hours spent getting lost en route to Telford 2
Minutes left to prepare/change clothing/brush hair before Wellington Library panel 5

People attending Wellington library  panel  30
Wedding anniversary celebrated 1
Old friends met up with again  100- maybe more
New friends made – 30
Talks/workshops attended 20
Quiz won  - 1 (by ½ point!)
Bottles of wine consumed . . . err – lost count
RNA ex-virgins (from when I ran the first-timers group)and writers now published after my courses/12 Point Guide – Janet Gover Rachael Thomas Brigid Cody Iona Garrett Cathy Mansell
Discussions with past course students after one to ones -   10
Books added to my TBR pile – 15 – with special thanks to Janet Gover, Lara Temple (see above)
Person to thank for all the photographs – 1-   John Jackson
Late nights in the kitchen with wonderful friends – 4
Cats to appease after abandoning them for 4 days – surprisingly, none. The wonderful cat-sitter we  asked to look after them did the job so well we actually had no complaints, no sulks, no retribution when we came home. 
Except – number of mice sacrificed to cats’ need to bring presents for cat sitter – 3

Hedgehogs to feed in the evening after we got back – 4  - that’s including one brand-new half-grown Heck who is currently eating his/her way through everything we put out for it.

Bundles of washing to dump in the machine and get dry before we head out to Writers’ Holiday- 4
Days to go before I have to turn round and head out again towards Fishguard and teaching on this summer’s Writers’ Holiday – 3 ….

Eeek – thank heaven I planned the course well in advance and had only to pack my handouts etc.