Kate Walker's Blog, page 16

Trying to catch up

So far. 2017 has been a not-very-successful attempt to catch up with everything I have on my To Do list (OK - so it's the To Do List carried over from 2016!) so if you're waiting for messages/emails/letters from me - I promise - soon! I was about to talk about courses coming up in the not too distant future - like the one with Writers Holiday in Fishguard in February.
I was about to say that there were a few spaces left on the Advanced Romance Writing Course on the we
ekend of February 17 - 19th 2017. But even as I was writing that post, more people had booked - so there is perhaps just one space on the weekend now.
Was it something I said about the new Mills & Boon Love to Write contest that people wanted advice and help with?
Anyway - this is a last chance to book a place on this weekend before the course is filled up.Meanwhile, there is another tutor on the February Weekend - Della Galton who teaches Writing Short Stories. She was supposed to be guesting on my blog at the beginning of the week, but obviously she's having the same sort of start to the year as I am - so she will (hopefully) be visiting my blog this weekend. See you soon (both on the blog and in Wales) Della!

Happy New Year - and Pink Hearts

Happy New Year to all friends and readers. I hope 2017 is kind to you and that it is more gentle on the world. Last year seemed to bear out that old curse 'May you live in interesting times'.
It was a bit of a bumpy ride at times, but at least the end of the year spending time with loved family and very dear friends pink was a lovely way to wind down 2016. Ruby and Charlie have fallen in love with our welcome visitors and are now relaxing after their endeavours in choosing the winners of the prize giveaway over Christmas - hopefully the parcels have now arrived or will very soon. Thank you to everyone who has let me know their books and angels have reached them.
Happy 2017!

I'm so late with this that my New Year greetings to you all coms on January  3rd - which is also my day for blogging over on the Pink Hearts Society - so there's a proper blog over there today  too.

Giveaway books

Giveaway books have gone out to all the winners who have sent me their addresses. Obviously (sadly) I can't guarantee them reaching anyone by Christmas Day but they will be heading your way just as fast as the postal service organises it. Thank you to everyone who posted a comment and joined in.

And the good news is that, yes, my sprained back is a lot better! It feels wonderful to be able to move around more easily at last.
The Babe Magnet's brother has gone home now - it was rather a confusing time for Ruby as she couldn't quite tell the two of them apart! She enjoyed sharing Andy's bed with him, though! Now she's back cuddling up to us again until the spare bed is occupied again - there will be more visitors in the week after Christmas. Great to have dear friends close enough to visit when they have been on the opposite side of the world for years. I'm sure Ruby will make them as welcome as she did the Magnet's brother - we had to check that his luggage wasn't purring as he left!

12 Days of Christmas Giveaway winners

OK - Charlie took some persuading that he needed to pick some winners before he had his supper - but I managed to persuade him -

So the winners are:
Jeanne M whose cat Nathan wants a knitted angel to play with!Denise who nominated her friend Kim, 'Petite' who nominated her friend Anne who is dealing with illness. Ann Cameron Franca PoliLynn BrooksAmanda GardnerMahalakshmi ChariGretchen Miller
There are a few more winners but Charlie has lost interest and I'll have to find Ruby instead! Hang on!! So Ruby has picked:Cheryl LangRemya PillaiMaia JohnMari LouPlease send me addresses ladies!That is the end of the 'official' number of winners - but as it's Christmas I have let Ruby choose one special person who needs an extra treat this Christmas - and she has picked  a lady nominated by your friend Gillian on Facebook.  I think she's made a good choice as this lady has  had a some sad times this year.  A gift package has gone out to her.

I think I’ve contacted everyone to ask for an address-  but if you haven’t yet been in touch with me, then  please email me - katewalker at ntlworld.com to send me your postal addresses ladies!If you're on Facebook please contact me with your postal address
Some winners were on Tote Bags N Blogs so I'll contact them direct

Ruby and Charlie would like to wish you all a very happy Christmas and  holiday time - with love peace and joy to come in  2017

12 Days of Christmas - some winners

OK - Charlie took some persuading that he needed to pick some winners before he had his supper - but I managed to persuade him -  so first set of winners are:
Jeanne  M whose cat Nathan wants a knitted angel to play with!Denise who nominated her friend  Kim,  'Petite' who nominated her friend Anne who is dealing with illness. Ann Cameron  andFranca Poli
If you're on Facebook please contact me with your postal address Some winners were on Tote Bags N Blogs so I'll contact them direct
And  there are still   7 more prizes  and three more days to comment/post/share either here or on Facebook  for a chance to win!
This giveaway closes on Monday

12 Days of Christmas - partway there!

Well,  I think I was rather over optimistic  to think that I would be able to get caught up, wrap all the gifts and put them in the mail, write and post the cards. . . .

And run the 12 Days of Christmas!!

OK so some of this got done - there are parcels on their way to people - and there are cards out there in the mail system too! But unfortunately I've found that this wretched back injury is taking longer to heal up that I had hoped for - and wished for.

But not to worry,   Charlie has  decided that we can get some names out of the hat (or in his case out of the  cat treats selection!)  so that these can get on their way - and you still have the weekend to post a comment and   be in with a chance of winning if you haven't already had your name chosen this time.

So this is how it works - here is the bundle of books  in the giveaway









And here is the bundle of angels - knitted ones and glass ones - that are the extra gifts in the giveaway.






And here is Charlie   ready to pick the names from those who have entered already!

Each of the books has a number on the back - from 1 to 12 and as Charlie picks names they will be assigned  a book - #1 for the first  #2 the second, and so on.
So I'm off to get the Maine man to do his job and will post some winners' names as soon as I know them.
And as I said, if you didn't win  yet or if you haven't entered and want to be in with a chance then past a comment here - and share the giveaway with your friends - or post on my blog as well.
Back soon! 

Writing course queries . . .

Another thing that got forgotten - well, no, not forgotten but had to be put on the 'to do list ' that is s-l-o-w-l-y being worked through is the answer to the enquiries I've had about writing courses I'll be running in 2017 - which is getting dangerously, frighteningly near!

So here's a quick reminder of the first such course/weekend that is coming - in February 2017 - - Winter Workshop Weekend
Friday 17th February – Sunday 19th February 2017


 As always, I will be running the Advanced Romance Writing Course in Fishguard at Writers' Holiday Fishguard
A series of six advanced novel workshop sessions led by Kate Walker. This course is open to previous Fishguard workshop OR Caerleon Romance course participants OR those who have been on Kate’s basic Romance courses OR Kate’s workshops elsewhere. It is NOT for beginners. Designed especially for Fishguard to move you on, the whole weekend will be concentrated on this workshop – without other distractions. Guests are encouraged to complete and submit work to Kate prior to the weekend commencement.Usually this course is booked up months ahead but this time because of unexpected health issues or travel problems, I do have a couple of spare places if you're interested - either message me/email via my web site - or send and enquiry via the Writers Holiday Newly updated web site.
And if you don't want to join the Advanced Romance Writing Course - there's always Poetry (with Alison Chisholm) Short Story Writing with Della Galton,   Basic Novel Writing with Rachael Thomas and Painting and Drawing with Susan Alison.  All details are on the web site.
I haven't forgotten the need for details of the 12 Days of Christmas giveaway - but I went out to the shops this morning and so have to recover first!! But those details will follow. But everyone's posts/comments will be noted and go into the draw for winners next week - Charlie is delighted!

12 Days of Christmas . . . .well, it was meant to be!!

I'm running late for  Christmas - a nasty fall and a badly sprained back has seen to that and meant that everything is  running behind right now.  Er . . .no, not really - I really mean that everything is crawling behind  s-l-o-w-ly and I'm buried under lists of Things To Do, parcels to wrap, presents to post . . .

Normally I run a sort of Advent Calendar countdown on my blog but that's not going to be possible this year  - so I'm doing a sort of   condensed 12 Days of Christmas version - crammed into  6 days! With 2 gifts each day.

And as today is the 12 th December,  you'll know that the 12th is the day I post my regular blog over on Tote Bags N Blogs -  so that's where I'm posting the news about the start of this  (mini!) celebration.

So why don't you join me over on Tote Bags N Blogs today  - and then from tomorrow on this blog here  or on my Facebook author page   and you might be able to win yourself an extra little Christmas gift - or maybe one for a friend or family member who could do with  something to brighten their day  at the moment . (I love sending giveaway books that are a surprise and come with love and thoughts
 from one of my readers.)

Charlie the Maine Coon is busy investigating  his own purrsonal Advent Calendar so that he can join in this mini-celebration and help me give away some Christmas cheer to readers.

So why not join in and give him something to do??

Special treat for my Australian readers (another one!)

It's December - so as I turned over the page in my calendar and opened the first door on my lovely Advent Calendar (Thanks to Anne Mcallister) I was reminded that my lovely Australian readers have
a special extra book treat coming out this month - and so I thought I'd share the cover with you. I love it.

Surrender to the Sheikh is another 3 in 1 collection - this one has At The Sheikh's Command, Desert Affair and Destined For The Desert King in one volume - so if it wasn't hot enough for you already down under, this could warm things up quite a bit!!

Interesting Q&A

Life has been a bit hectic  and I've had my head down focusing on the revisions for the latest book -  all quite straightforward, it's just that things keep happening  that have interrupted my work time.

Anyway, this focus has meant that I foolishly forgot to mention that there is a great  books site (interviews, reviews etc) for romance and Women's Fiction   - called Bookish Jottings,  This is run by Julie who used to review my books on the  now sadly defunct  Cata Romance site.

Bookish Jottings is  Julie's own venture and  she asked if I would do a Q&A with her when Indebted to Moreno came out. I did - and then promptly got buried in  stuff and  forgot to let everyone know about it.
But today I've remembered  again - and I'm posting about the interview before I forget.

You can find the Bookish Jottings Q&A here 


And if you're interested in Julie's reviews - she reviewed Indebted To Moreno here    and she's also read the 12 Point Guide To Writing Romance and has reviewed that here

Thank you for the lovely rreviews, Julie - sorry I was so late letting everyone know about them!!   The Trouble with this writing job is that sometimes  one has to focus on writing!!