Author Spotlight - Kate Walker

This week the Minxes are proud to welcome back multi award winning and USA Today Bestselling Author Kate Walker. Kate has recently had her 60th title accepted and I'm sure everyone agrees she is an absolute inspiration to all aspiring authors.

Kate has very kindly offered a signed copy of any of her backlist books to a random (non-Minxy) commenter today, winner will be picked randomly and announced at the bottom of this month's Man of the Month post on Friday 7th October.

What is your writing process?

I’m half plotter, half panster!! I spend a lot of time before I put finger to keyboard thinking about my hero and heroine and getting to know them so that I hope I know how they will react to things. Then I have the basic ‘seed’ of an idea – it’s ‘what if he is this and she is that and then this is what starts things off.’ I have a good general idea of what the main conflict between them is and why it’s there – and how they meet. Then I have a strong idea of some key scenes along the way. After that it’s like introducing two people to each other and seeing what happens. I have a sense of where I want to head but not too sure how I’m going to get there – but knowing the characters and what they are feeling keeps me heading in the right direction. After that it really depends on the story – some books need more careful planning than others, for example if there’s some sort of mystery to be revealed or an explanation to be given. My latest book is inspired by Wuthering Heights so there was a basic backstory already set out and I knew I had to start the point where Heath comes back after a long absence. But with books where I don’t have that theme to work on, often the most difficult thing is knowing where to start the story for the best.

Everyone who writes knows it's not easy - what methods do you use to keep at it on days when it would be so much easier to go shoe shopping?

I just had my 60th title accepted (The Devil and Miss Jones out in March 20120 so I’m well used to the good day/bad day thing that can happen with writing. I also know from experience that there will be days when it’s like ploughing through mud – some days through mud mixed with treacle! – and there are rarer wonderful days when it flows. I wish there were more of those. What keeps me going? A contract! And a deadline! (I call them dreadlines!) I know that I’ve been here before and sweated blood to get it moving so I sit at my desk and I put the words down, even if they are rubbish. As – I think it was Nora Roberts said – you can always edit a bad page, you can’t edit an empty one. And sometimes you have to go through the tortuous days to set the scene ready for the good ones. But sometimes I do give in and go shoe shopping! There is a lot of advantage to relaxing your mind and letting it roam free while you're wandering about looking at shops – often that gives the confusion/muddle in your head time to shake down, settle and then inspirations strikes. And I have a lovely husband who if I’m really stuck I’ll go for coffee with, and tell him what I’m puzzling over then he asks what he calls ‘idiot questions’ – why doesn’t she do so and so or what if he thinks . . .. I usually end up saying ‘No way!’ but because I know then what he/she wouldn’t do, it becomes clearer what they would do.

Keeping fit: Do you have an exercise regime to counterbalance all those hours sitting at a computer?

3 years ago I made a resolution that I was going to do something to counteract the effects of hours spent sitting at a desk. I decided that if I was going to take any exercise, I had to do it first thing in the morning - if I get started writing etc then I would just keep on doing that and never get the exercise. So I decided that I would ‘walk to work’ – I go out of the house, walk for a set time and then go back home ready to start work. I started with 30 minutes and now I do an hour almost every day. I love to do this early in the morning when everywhere is quiet – there’s a park and some woods near our house and I walk through there. I meet lots of dog-walkers and I get plenty of quiet time to think. I can work out knots in my story that way – and plan scenes or dialogue. I had to force myself to begin with but now I miss it if I don’t go.

Do you believe in writer's block?

If you mean the sort of temporary block I’ve described above, then yes it happens all the time – but real solid permanent writer’s block when you never write again . . well, I’m glad to say I’ve never experienced that. I do think block’s happen through lack of confidence and through not knowing your characters well enough. Even after all this time and 60 published books – more if you include the 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance - I can still get horrible days when I think I can’t do this and the fraud police will find me out. But I have great writing friends who’ll listen to me moan – I’ll do the same for them – and ask questions, make suggestions that make me grit my teeth and go on again. Because the only way past writers’ block is to write.

Have you ever used an incident from real life in a book? If so, did it get you into trouble?

No I can’t say I have – but really every book has a bit of me and a bit of things I’ve known, seen, experienced in them. I just wouldn’t use them wholesale but change the details to protect the guilty!

In what way is being a published writer different to how you thought it would be?

Being a published author is constantly changing, the longer I do it. I started out with a manual typewriter, turning in a book when I could, waiting two years or more for it to be published, doing very little promotion, not even having the books go into different lines – there was no Modern Romance etc in the UK. Now I work on a computer, submit by email, connect with readers through the internet, and have fixed deadlines. . . I never expected that I would go to America and meet readers there. One thing I never ever expected was that I would be so much in demand to teach writing - and that I would end up writing the 12 Point Guide To Writing Romance so that now lots of people write to me to tell me how much it’s helped them. I regularly run courses in Wales and all over the UK and next year I’ll be teaching a week long residential course in Tuscany - I certainly never saw that coming!

Promotion is no longer a dirty word. In what ways do you strive to reach more readers?

Promotion shouldn’t be a dirty word. As a writer you create a - I hate to call it a product but that’s what marketing would do – you create something you are proud of and you want to reach as many readers as possible. It makes sense to let people know about that. You can’t force them to buy but you can hope to let them know your book is out there and hope that they will pick it up. After that the best way to sell your next book is to write the best possible one this time so they want to see more. I join in chats on the internet, on the romance writing site, I run my web site and keep it up to date and I blog regularly at Blog Kate Walker. I also have regular guest posts on other blog – like Tote Bags ‘n’ Blogs, The Pink Heart Society and We Write Romance.

What is your top promo tip for other authors?

Never do the hard sell – I have an inbuilt resistance to someone praising something because they're pushing it. And I strongly believe that readers will feel the same. In the end, what it really comes down to is as I said above – the best way to promote your other books is to make sure that the one in the readers’ hands is the best you can possibly make it.

What did you learn while writing this book?

As I said, this book is inspired by Wuthering Heights as part of the special mini-series The Powerful and the Pure. I have always loved Wuthering Heights as a book, I read it when I was young, I grew up near Haworth where the Bronte sisters lived and I studied it for both my first degree and my MA – I wrote my thesis on Emily and Charlotte Bronte’s books - so I loved going back to it again and relearning – not learning new – just how brilliant a novel it is and how amazing Emily Bronte was as a writer.

What was the most fun part of writing this book?

I had the perfect excuse to reread this fabulous book - and watch all the different films/TV adaptations of the novel – then to go away and create my own Heathcliff, rework his story in the spirit of, but not copying the original – and to give Kat and Heath (my characters) the happy ending the original Heathcliff and Cathy could never have had because deep down Wuthering Heights isn't truly a love story – it’s about passion, possession, power – but I got to put the love in there!

And just for fun: what would your hero’s honeymoon destination of choice be?

When Heath comes back after so many years away, he has made a new life for himself by going to Brazil and working there. He’s made himself a fortune out there too, and bought a huge estate where he breeds horses. Kat has stayed at home in Yorkshire all that time, so I’m positive he would want to take her to South America to show her his new home and his very different way of life – but then I have a suspicion that they’d make their home back in Yorkshire in the end.

Thank you to the Minxes, for inviting me along to Minxes of Romance. My Maine Coon Charlie loves rewarding readers – and he would like to offer a special giveaway of a  signed book from my backlist to one commenter.

The Return of the Stranger by Kate Walker

M&B Modern September 2nd 2011
Presents Extra October 4th 2011

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 The Return of the Stranger at the following:

Amazon UK, Amazon US, eHarlequin, Mills & Boon, Mills & Boon Australia

Where can readers find you?

Website
Blog
Facebook
Author Page created by Romance Book Paradise Promotions

Author Spotlight - Kate Walker

Today we welcome 'Queen Kate' as she is affectionately known in romance writing circles. Kate Walker has published more than fifty novels for Harlequin Mills & Boon, and is the author of the must-have book for all aspiring writers, 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance. Thanks for joining us here today Kate.

Where were you in your writing career 5 years ago?

I had to go to my web site to check on this! 2005 was an interesting year for me – I had a couple of new projects. One was my trilogy, The Alcolar Family. The came from an on-line read I wrote for eHarlequin, called Wife For Real. When that went live in 2004, the hero had two brothers and a sister. The readers wanted to know their stories and so I wrote The Alcolar Family (The Twelve-Month Mistress, The Spaniard’s Inconvenient Wife and Bound by Blackmail) was the result. The Twelve Month Mistress was short-listed for Best Harlequin Presents by Romantic Times that year.

I also did a project with the would-be writers on eHarlequin which was a Writing Round Robin where I wrote the first chapter of a story, members of the community wrote the next one and sent in their entries. The winner’s chapter was published on line, and then after four episodes, I rounded the story off. This story has been made into a free download on eHarlequin and apparently it has been on of their most downloaded titles ever since.

I remember I also had a change of editor in that year – one of many! I’ve lost count how many editors I’ve had but I think it’s about 15. And I was celebrating 20 years as a published author.

Where did you get the idea from for this particular book?

My editor rang me up with the idea they had had for a mini series. ‘It’s a bit different,’ she said, ‘. . .a bit of a challenge.’ Well, I’m always ready for a challenge, and when I heard about this one I was really intrigued. It was a mini-series of books based on the ancient Classic Greek Myths, updating them to fit into the Modern Romance line.

I wasn’t sure what story to Modernize, but then I remembered the story of Odysseus. A man who goes missing for years and whose wife waits at home, never knowing if he is coming back or not. That was just the inspiration I needed. It was the sort of story that fitted perfectly into the Modern Romance line–up. Of course there were some things I needed to change slightly. Odysseus was a King who had gone off to the Trojan Wars and he didn’t return for over ten years. That might have worked in ancient times, but would be more difficult today.

Where do you hope to be in 5 years time?

Still writing romance ! Five years ago, I was counting down(or do I mean counting up?) to my 50th title. Now I’m looking at my 60th – in 5 years time it would be great to be looking at my 70th or even 75th! But no matter how many titles I’ve published I will be really happy if my books are still selling in as many countries worldwide as they are now, still being reprinted and still being enjoyed by readers. I’m celebrating 25 years published now so hopefully I’ll be celebrating 30 years then.

Which was the last book you read that you wish you'd written?

The last one? I can’t recall a recent title– except that whenever I read a romance by Michelle Reid, Liz Fielding or Anne McAllister I often wish I’d written that! I also wish I’d written The Moonspinners by Mary Stewart (one of my great inspirations – see below) or Dorothy Dunnett’s Game of Kings series.

Was there any particular author or book that made you want to be a writer?

As a child I lived near Haworth where the Bronte sisters lived and where they wrote their books. I read "Wuthering Heights", very early, when I was about 13. I probably didn’t understand all of it but the power and the intensity of the story, the passion and the emotion swept me away and I’ve always wanted to write that sort of story ever since.

When I was growing up, my mother had a friend (Marguerite Lees) who wrote romances for Mills & Boon. She was the only published author I knew and she was one of the very few people who encouraged me by telling me that I could write and I should try for it. She had brought up two children as a single mother by writing and I thought she was a wonderful example.

My writing inspirations have been authors like Mary Stewart whose books got me hooked on romantic stories about dark, ambiguous heroes and Dorothy Dunnett whose Game of Kings series would have to be my desert island book – I can read it over and over again. And when I was a child an old book (even then) called Simona’s Jewel had that dark, ambiguous hero that I fell for – even is he was only 14!

Do you find writing love scenes giggle-worthy or cringe-worthy – or neither?

Neither. They are important to the emotional journey of my characters – part and parcel of their love story. No one would ever believe that my hero and heroine loved each other passionately if there wasn’t sexual passion between them too.

Writing a love scene shows my characters in a way that no other scene can do – they are ‘naked’in more ways than one. A love scene should not be just put into a book because sex sells or the demands of the line but to show the way that the relationship is changing/has changed between them. And what leads up to it, as well as what follows from it (the ‘before and after’) is even more vital to that development.

Having said that, sometimes I do think that it’s very hard to be different or original and a love scene can often be a very cold-blooded scene to write, rather than getting hot and bothered about it. And I have an embarrassing record for being at the stage of writing such scenes when there are workmen in the house and they have seen what’s on my computer!

What's the most romantic moment of your life so far?

I’m often asked if I’m romantic and I think that people expect the answer that yes, I’d love to be showered with diamonds and roses and chocolates. But those are clichés and the commercial idea of romance. I believe that romance is caring for someone so much that you will want them to have what they need and love even if it isn’t what you’d think of as important – or romantic. So the big dramatic gestures aren’t the really romantic ones unless they have this very personal touch – and go with real romance which is real love.

So in those terms, I’d have to say that I’m truly lucky in that every day of my life has that sort of romance in it when I know that my husband is with me as he has been for almost 40 years! He’s loved all the different people I’ve been – from the student he met, through my being a librarian and a mother and now as a writer. Having said that. We’ve had some lovely special romantic days – the obvious ones like our wedding day (we didn’t have a penny between us but we didn’t care) the birth of our son, our silver wedding . . . A couple of years ago, when I had had two of my beloved cats die in just 3 months, knowing I had always wanted a Maine Coon cat, he bought me Flora, a Maine Coon kitten for Christmas – even though he personally didn’t want any more cats – or so he said – but since she arrived, she has had him wrapped round her paws! There are lots of other moments – some big, some small – like I said, I’m lucky!

What do you wish you'd known about being an author before you were pubbed?

I wish not just that I’d known about the internet etc but that it had existed when I was first published! My early books had very little publicity that I could do as I was here in the UK and they were going out across the world and there was no way I could go with them! If I had a first book out now, the advantages of having a web site, a blog, being able to talk to readers through other web sites etc are amazing and so very different from the few local talks I managed in my early years. New authors today are at a great advantage with that. But somehow I’ve managed to survive for 25 years, for many of which I didn’t even have a computer.

Nothing ever happens quickly in publishing! Editors take ages to read submissions, when a book is scheduled it’s usually a year or so before it comes out, and the royalties from that book are only paid out every six months – if they’ve been collected in. If not, you’re waiting again for the next six months. Everyone thought that being published by Harlequin Mills & Boon I was on the fast track to a fortune . . .er- no.

And I wish I’d realized how valuable having ‘thinking time is’. When I was writing around caring for my son etc, I had more time to think when I wasn’t actually sitting in front of the computer. Now I feel the need to keep putting words down on the screen when in fact I should let my mind wander and create the story.

What's the best writing advice you've ever been given?

Early on in my career, I was lucky enough to meet the fabulous Elizabeth Oldfield who sadly died in May this year. We were talking about revisions and she said ‘Oh, I always do half of them exactly the way they’ve asked to prove that I am co-operative and easy to work with. And I do the other half completely differently – to prove that I am the creative person around here!’ That advice is always in my head when I’m looking at a revision letter and wondering where to start!

One thing I always say is – read, read, read. I know that a mistake I made when I started out was that I didn’t read enough romance and so I didn’t have a true sense of what sort of books were being written. The only way to get a real taste of the line is to read extensively – and read as many different authors as you can.And when you write, write from the heart. I keep saying that romance is all about emotion and I think you have to feel those emotions with your characters. Get deeply involved with them and know what’s in their hearts – and then write it from your own heart too.

Tell us about your latest release.

As I said, this is a book that’s based on a Greek Myth, turning the story into a Modern Romance. The story of Odysseus.

Odysseus was a King who had gone off to the Trojan Wars and he didn’t return for over ten years. My 'Odysseus' - Zarek Michaelis – is a Greek shipping magnate who went missing for two years after an attack on his boat (the Troy). And like the original, when he returns he find that his wife(whose name is Penny, after Odysseus’s wife who was Penelope) has new suitors, all wanting to take over the kingdom (or in this case the company) he owned. They had problems before he went missing so he’s not sure whether to trust her, and she doesn’t know if he really loves her. So he has to prove himself to his wife and she has to prove that she has stayed faithful and loving all the time he has been missing. They have to get to know each other all over again and rediscover the love that had brought them together in the first place.

What’s next for you?

Writing – I have a book that I’m writing as part of another mini series – this time Modernising some classics of English Literature. My book is based on Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, so after my answer to question 5, you’ll know that that is a real thrill for me.. And then . . . another book – but at the moment I have no idea what!And there’s a reprint of the 12 Point Guide coming up in autumn.

Teaching etc – I’ve just come back from the Romantic Novelists’ Association Conference in London where I taught a workshop on Conflict. Then I ran a course on Writing Romance at Caerleon Writers’. Coming up next are some workshops for Mills and Boon because of a new contest they’re planning (more details when I can tell you). The National Association of Writers’ Groups conference in Durham in September, Writers’ Roadshow in Yorkshire, Novel-Writing Weekend (teaching a new course Romance Writing – Moving it On) in Fishguard, Wales . . phew! That will keep me busy until the end of February next year.

You can visit Kate's website at http://www.kate-walker.com/ or her blog at http://kate-walker.blogspot.com/. You can buy The Good Greek Wife on Amazon, or direct from Mills & Boon.

RNA Conference Top Ten and an announcement!

Better writers than me have posted excellent write-ups of conference talks so instead of a deep, insightful blog post I thought I'd do a list of "Ten things I didn't know before the conference". There are probably an awful lot more than ten but I know you haven't got all day. So, before your cup of tea/coffee gets cold I'll get on with it...

Conference Top Ten (facts, tips and gossip)

1. The biggest sector buying books in supermarkets is women aged 40-49 and for some titles supermarkets can account for 90% of sales.
2. Digital is seen as the way forward (but beware, if the supermarkets are giants Sony, Amazon and Google are monoliths...) ebook sales and audio downloads have rocketed, particularly with the release of the ipad. Ebooks and audiobooks may be released as packages in the future
3. Watch out for 'author apps' - a kind of fan club app, with the opportunity to get sent free excerpts. .
4. Writing a 'Trojan Horse' - Romantic plot-lines are selling really well, especially when dressed up as something else e.g. an aspirational plot-line (lifestyle change, travel etc). If you write romantic suspense emphasize the suspense part of your pitch! It's sad but true - there are women out there who want the romance stories their grandmothers read but to have it dressed up as something modern, more contemporary perhaps.
5. Romance accounts for 20.5% of all fiction sold.
6. It takes a brave and a good writer to start a new trend, to innovate rather than imitate. One point from the Mills and Boon talk (see photo below) was that writers need a commercial awareness of the market and to keep their fingers on that market's pulse to create fresh stories that are relevant to the twenty first century reader.
7. The words 'twenty first century' appeared no fewer than 7 times in the key points of the M&B talk. Methinks they were making a point.
8. It is possible to be creative at 9 am on a Sunday morning with a screaming headache and the cogs of your brain grinding painfully - Julie Cohen's workshop taught me that - despite feeling crap I came out of the workshop with a new hero and story idea. From discipline can come inspiration. Actually think I'm in danger of getting deep there, so moving swiftly on...
9. You don't have to be a Planner or a Panster like it's your religion for life - you can be somewhere in between or a flexible planner (thanks Kate Hardy for the excellent talk :-). Switching off your email while you're writing can lead to better productivity. (Okay I already knew that one but sometimes it's good to be reminded... Like Kate Walker's workshop on Conflict, you can never be reminded too many times).
10. Sadly there were rumours that our favourite 'party outfit' publisher may be having distribution problems, we firmly hope for the sake of it's fab writers that there will soon be better news on the inkvine...

But now it's time to finish dunking that biscuit and make an official Minx announcement (drumroll please):

We're very pleased to announce that we've lured one of our lovely blog friends over to the Minxy side. She probably doesn't know what's hit her yet so we're announcing it before she changes her mind. I'd like to welcome Joanne Pibworth as a new member of the Minxes of Romance. Welcome Joanne.

Joanne will be introducing herself properly here on the Minx blog on Monday 9th August so I hope you'll come back then to welcome her properly :-)