Guess who’s on the Waldies again?

Current work: Med duo

Listening to: Genesis, Calling All Stations

Reading: Liz Fielding, Dating Her Boss (another thoroughly enjoyable read)

The Pregnancy Ultimatum is on the Waldies’ top 10 bestseller list this week :o) Thank you to everyone in the US who bought my book and put it there.

And I’m doing an interview on Future FM at about 10.30 (UK time) this morning.

Nice post yesterday: Italian edition of Seeing Stars (lovely title, too – La luce delle stelle), Greek edition of Seeing Stars, Greek edition of Where the Heart Is, Hungarian edition of The Baby Doctor’s Desire, and French edition of The Doctor’s Very Special Christmas. Clearly I’m up for world domination of Europe at the moment…

oh, yes, it is!

A red letter day, that is. Icing on the cake today – two lovely reviews from Cataromance, both with four and a half stars.

The Doctor’s Very Special Christmas
Take the phone off the hook, put your feet up and get ready to lose yourself in this spellbinding tale of second chances and new beginnings written by an outstanding writer of romantic fiction: Kate Hardy!

Packed with intensity, drama, emotion and heart-stopping romance, The Doctor’s Very Special Christmas will move you to tears and leave you breathless as Kate Hardy tells this powerful tale of two kindred souls finding one another.

Nobody tugs at the heartstrings better than Kate Hardy and romance readers will find themselves devouring The Doctor’s Very Special Christmas in a single sitting!

Read more here.

One Night, One Baby
Romantic fiction does not get any better than this! Fresh, funny, heartwarming and absolutely unputdownable, One Night, One Baby is vintage Kate Hardy! Featuring a lovely heroine, a gorgeous hero, sizzling sexual tension, an adorable cast of secondary characters and steamy romance, One Night, One Baby is the perfect book to curl up with on a cold winter night!

Read more here.

Thank you, Julie Bonello, for making my day. :o)

And some nice stuff...

1) Harlequin are having a special 'open house' Christmas party where you can come and chat with authors and win stuff (I'm giving away a copy of The Doctor's Very Special Christmas and One Night, One Baby).



2) Go and see India and wish her happy anniversary (she was a child bride).



3) My fabby new cover for my March title, Sold to the Highest Bidder (ignore the mountain - there are none in my part of the world, where this book is set - but at this angle you wouldn't see the lake from his bedroom!)

competition(s): winner and more chances to win!

Thanks to everyone who left comments last week. Winner of the competition to win a signed copy of One Night, One Baby is J Squires. Please email me your snailmail address (to kate(dot)hardy(at)btinternet(dot)com – replacing the stuff in brackets with a dot and an @ symbol – sorry to make it complicated, but I’ve learned the hard way that if you put your email address in as a link, the spam merchants rub their hands together and deluge you!).

To find out who won a copy of The Doctor’s Very Special Christmas at the Medical Romance Authors’ joint blog, go take a look (sorry, I am such a tease)… and while you’re there you get the chance to win a copy of Fiona Lowe’s fabulous Vietnam book.

There’s also a Christmas Stocking competition over at Kate Walker’s blog (win lots and lots of excellent books, including a signed copy of One Night, One Baby), and at Liz Fielding’s blog she’s doing daily giveaways from her backlist – she writes the most beautiful books (and I allowed myself a bit of her new Sheik book last night – what a treat).

(And if you don't win, One Night, One Baby and The Doctor's Very Special Christmas are both available on the Mills & Boon website. As is Liz's excellent Sheik book.)

how many days to go?

Current work: revisions to Modern Heat (archaeologist)
Listening to: Sheryl Crow
Reading: Judith Lennox, All My Sisters

Yesterday was a bit scuppered. Two littlies at home with a tummy bug. I am a bad mother because instead of being the ministering angel (hmm – that’s the Victorian idealised view of the perfect mum) I let them curl up on the sofa with the dog and a duvet and watch the Simpsons. I was in the room next door so I was well within hailing distance, and I checked on them every half an hour… but… arggh. Work. Christmas preparations. Difficult. Especially when they perk up and you hear a herd of elephants going upstairs. Then again, it’s a tummy bug. They’re on the mend but I don’t want to send them back today in case it takes another downturn or they pick up another one on top of it.

I can feel the panic starting now…

Good weekend lined up. ‘Early Christmas’ with my fave aunt and uncle tomorrow (am doing beef rather than turkey, though) and hopefully finishing my revisions and the Christmas shopping on Sunday; plus I want to look in Smith’s as I have TWO M&Bs out this month… (The Doctor’s Very Special Christmas – a weepie to warm your heart – and One Night, One Baby, aka my stormchaser.)

sneak previews of the new books…

I’ve spent much of the day working at a very gentle pace (waves to the Slowing Down Police), so my website is now up to date. (It’s going to have a makeover soon, but I’m keeping that under wraps until I’m ready!)

So do go over and take a look (and I have to say I’m very pleased with my November/December bookshelf – what do you think?).

There are also some new excerpts – from The Doctor’s Very Special Christmas and One Night, One Baby , both of which are out in the UK shops at the end of this month (and the Christmas book is out in Aus and the US too) – and a page about my new medical, The Spanish Consultant’s Love-Child (including a very scrummy recipe for spinach).

Go and have a read. Meet Rob and Emma (and yes, you may recognise her dog) and Jane and Mitch. Enjoy. (And then – if you want to get your hands on them early – they’re on the Mills & Boon website.)

exciting anthology

Current work: archaeologist c10/11
Listening to: Genesis, Calling All Stations (I like this album. A lot.)
Reading: Nicola Cornick, The Virtuous Cyprian (very good)

The Modern Heat/Sexy Sensation releases seem to have skipped a couple of months in Aus. I was a bit disappointed to think that Giovanni wouldn’t see the light of day (especially as it’s my 25th)… and I was just fossicking on the Aussie M&B site (as all paranoid authors do) when I discovered something… Am very excited to be in such company.

The radio interviews went really well yesterday; followed by a useful session in the library. I need to consolidate my notes and write them up properly, and then I can see where the gaps are.

Also had some really good post – as in my December paperbacks arrived yesterday. Both have nice covers - The Doctor's Very Special Christmas has a bauble and One Night, One Baby has a couple by a cathedral and lamp-posts (nooo... I haven't repeated the lamp-posts!). But, best of all – despite the fact that One Night, One Baby isn’t an October release, it’s been flagged as part of the Breast Cancer Campaign and 10p from each book is being donated. I am SO PLEASED. Apart from the fact that I’m doing the publicity for the M&B support for the campaign, it’s a cause close to my heart. I think my mum would approve of the way I’m making something bad into a way to help others, as she used to do a lot to promote the British Heart Foundation and became a cardiac nurse because her mum died from a heart condition. (I’ll spare you the gooey stuff, but my mum was the nicest person I’ve ever met and someone I admire deeply.)

Bit tired last night so I ended up loafing and watching Nigella. (Her version of eggy bread looked lovely… except not coated in that much sugar and I’d add a little cinnamon with the vanilla.) I have severe envy of her pantry. Cue much whimpering of ‘why can’t I have a pantry like that?’ and DH saying, ‘Well, you can, if you convert your office…’ – no, my books do not move…

Plan for today: school run, radio interview, guitar lesson, radio interview, school run – and in between work on fiction. (My lovely ed is being so nice about this. She knows I'm back in the land of the living and hasn't put any pressure on me.)

Organised again

Current work: thinking about new MX outline; pics and notes for new nonfiction
Listening to: Crowded House, ‘Time On Earth’
Reading: Kate Harrison's The Self-Preservation Society

I have my to-do list organised again and blu-tacked to the wall above my desk. So I know what I’m doing and when, and what looked like a scary list feels much better. (Tidying my office doesn’t have a deadline… actually, I do need to sort this, and I want to get my cuttings folder in a decent state too.)


Had a brilliant day yesterday researching with the kids. Started in the cathedral – and I’m so pleased with the new camera. In the vaulting of the nave (which is at least 70 feet above your head) there are these amazing bosses, all telling the story of the Bible. And because the new camera has a) a decent zoom and b) quality pics, it meant I could get a reasonable shot of single bosses. (Not perfect but I’ve only had the camera just over a week. Left is the view above... I zoomed in for the later ones.) The guide at the cathedral was lovely and showed us various bits I hadn’t seen before. Kids loved every second and then made me buy them elevenses in the refectory. They were also very taken by the stained glass window (which is pretty stunning) and the wall paintings (oh good, they're going to share another of my little obsessions).


Also went to St Peter Mancroft’s and the verger was fantastic and let us into the sacristy; he also suggested some things which he got out of the cabinet for me to photograph. (Definitely getting a mention in the acknowledgements.)

And that, um, took up all our time. (As well as helping me do over 14k steps.) And I forgot my M&S vouchers anyway. So… we’ll do it today instead. And the weekly shop. We did get my camera tripod, though. (Need to try that out… maybe later today.)

Came home to the large print of The Consultant’s New-Found Family – and also the hardbacks of The Doctor’s Very Special Christmas. Third Christmas book in a row but this time it’s a close-up of the tree. (I love writing Christmas books.)

Took the children swimming when DH was home; great fun.


Plan for today: school uniform, weekly shop, and maybe some more picture research. The St Giles area of the city today, methinks. (Yup, more churches...)