Monday, July 15, 2013

Publication day!

Current work: revising #57 (Baloo) and outline for #59 now on ed’s desk
Listening to: mainly Joe Bonamassa (and no, I am not touching my lovely new blue guitar today – see below)
Reading: next on TBR
Gym: 121 (new PB today on upright row – 25kg; and since last blog new PB on deadlift – 72.5kg) plus, as it’s Monday, zumba and jazz dance tonight

So today is publication day – my second book, this month. It’s a reprint of Surrender to the Playboy Sheikh, but I’m particularly pleased to be in an anthology with one of my favourite authors (Liz Fielding is also one of my favourite author friends, but that’s by the by – this is my fangirl moment). Available now in shops and on the M&B website/Amazon/the usual places :o)


What else have I been up to? We-e-ll. The thing about social media is that it can be a very bad influence. And several friends asked if I had bought myself a treat for working very, very hard over the last year and getting 30lbs of lard off. (Actually, they phrased it a bit more nicely than that – this is me being realistic, as it was actually 30lbs of lard. Probably more, if you take into account the fact that muscle is denser than fat and I’m a lot fitter than I was at this time last year.) Um, no. I hadn’t.

And, yes, I think they were right. 30lbs might not be a lot in weight loss terms if you’re a normal person, but if you’re insulin resistant that’s a very good result and equates to a LOT of hard work. So this is what I bought to celebrate.



A Les Paul that I’ve had my eye on for months at the local guitar shop but hadn’t worked out the right excuses to buy it for myself. (It’s second-hand, so it’s not quite as bad as it looks, cost-wise.) It’s pretty (this photo doesn't do it justice). It sounds nice. I can do barre chords on it, which I find harder to play on the classical. And it’s easier to play on days when I’ve overdone it at the gym and my forearms hurt so I can’t grip properly (that isn’t one of my spurious excuses, btw, because you do have to press a lot harder on the strings of a classical guitar than on an electric and you need a strong grip).

And, of course, it goes nicely with the cover of my newest release :o) (Best excuse EVAH!)

Dear ed. Please can I write another musician hero?

4 comments:

Lorix said...

30lbs not a lot - Kate it is AMAZING. If I lost 3lbs I would be absolutely thrilled - I give up after about half an hour of dieting and two days on the Wii fit. You, not only manage to keep writing fab books, to REALLY tight deadlines, but are fitting in dieting, the gym, dancing, guitar playing...not to mention those little things of looking after the house, being a wife and mum.
You're an inspiration, so don't you dare say it's not a lot!

Ooh, sorry a bit lecturey, but you've done brilliantly!

Caroline said...

30lbs is a massive achievement, Kate! Go you. And congratulations on the release today. Love the cover. Enjoy your guitar - you deserve it! Caroline x

Mia said...

Note To Kate's Ed: Kate's readers would love a heroine who plays a Les Paul and is on a keep fit regime, and a hero who can't hold a note, is sex on legs like Viggo Mortensen and bit of a history geek.
Note To Kate: Well done. 2013 seems to be the year of Kate!

Kate Hardy said...

Lori, Caroline and Mia - thank you! xxx