Kate's Blog

We're here!

We've moved to the city--we're in our apartment! It still feels a bit surreal, a sort of when-are-we-going-home feeling. But overall things went well, and we even have a playdate scheduled for tomorrow! Friends for the kids are the main thing.

I haven't written anything, surprise, surprise, but hopefully I will soon...

posted by Kate Hewitt at 10:34 AM 1 Comments

D-Day

Or should I say M-Day for Moving! The movers come tomorrow at 9 am, and we've been busy packing since then--our house is a sea of boxes! I always find with moving there is a certain sense of unreality about it all, leaving a place and people, all the familiar faces, friends, grocery stores.. your comfortable routines and so forth--it's just impossible to imagine. But it's less than 24 hours away, so there you are.

Thanks to everyone who responded for the Italian Bought Bride's freebie--Jane, Sue, and Christine will all have copies winging their way to them in the mail. Meanwhile, despite the ensuing and everlasting chaos, I've managed to write 6,000 words of my current novella, which has been an escape of sorts from the upheaval of my own life!

Back in a few days, writing from the Big City...

posted by Kate Hewitt at 4:46 PM 1 Comments

He really bothers some people!

I'm continuing to get comments about Cormac, my hard-to-like hero in Ruthless Boss, Hired Wife. Wow, he really got under some people's skin! I think that's a good thing though. I set out to write a totally ruthless, manipulative man who is redeemed by love and I suppose I succeeded--at least in the first part! He is a total jerk. I won't apologize for him :) But I hope by the end he is changed, and the reader can see that.

It's interesting, and I've written this before, how my books have developed and changed. I'm starting--weeeell, supposedly starting--my eighth book, and it has a very different feel than my first three. I think my heroines have matured and my heroes have mellowed, although I hope I'm not sacrificing that wonderful intensity that is so much part of a Presents!

Speaking of books, I have a few copies of my fourth release, The Italian's Bought Bride, to give away! This book will be released in the UK in September, and sadly I don't have a US release date yet. This is also the book that I wrote 47,000 words of before realising it didn't work and having to start over--a week before my deadline! Can we say stress? Just remembering it kicks my heart rate up. But I'm happy with the result, and it's one of my favourites so far. So! If you'd like a copy, please e-mail me. First three people get a freebie :)

And if you have been trying to e-mail me, and your message bounced back, I apologise. My mailbox was full and I didn't know it! So I've deleted a bunch of messages and everything should be fine now...

posted by Kate Hewitt at 6:22 PM 0 Comments

More moving chaos

You're probably getting bored of me writing that, aren't you? Well, I'm bored of telling it! I heartily look forward to the day when we are settled and happy and the contents of our house aren't spilled across the floor like so much detritus.

I checked the Waldenbooks series bestseller list this week, and Ruthless Boss, Hired Wife debuted at number 9! Always a thrill to make the top 10. I haven't actually written anymore of my latest work-in-progress; my mind is simply too crowded and scattered to focus, and [for once] I'm giving myself a bit of a break and waiting until we're moved & settled to work in earnest.

My oldest daughter is preparing for a two week vacation with her grandparents and cousin; this is the first time she's been away from home for more than a day or two--she's almost 10. They're taking the two girls on a cruise through Scandinavia (nice, eh?) and I've been sorting through her motley collection of clothes looking suitable daywear as well as evening formal wear--ie, Sunday church dresses. I think we'll have to schedule a shopping trip, though, which is both fun and daunting. She's a picky dresser and we've already spent what feels like boatloads of money on moving--ie, apartment rent in NYC, new bunkbeds for the girls' [tiny] room, fixing up THIS house... oh, I think I want to stop thinking about all that right now... that's one reason I like writing for Presents: if there are any money troubles, they are soon fixed by the jawdroppingly wealthy [and handsome] hero!

posted by Kate Hewitt at 7:18 PM 1 Comments

New work

So I've started my Italian summer novella, although I haven't written much because of TOTAL MOVING CHAOS. Ugh. I never want to do this again. Anyway, for your enjoyment and mine, here is what I just wrote, rough draft, unedited, banged out :)



Zoe Clark slipped the sunglasses off her nose to survey the discreet grey limousine idling at the kerb.
“Nice,” she murmured as the uniformed driver opened the door with a flourish. He’d already taken her one beatup suitcase and stowed it in the boot.
Now she slipped into the cool leather interior of the fantasy car and leaned her against the plush seat.
This was going to be a fantastic summer.
A smile bloomed and grew across her face as she leaned forward and flipped open the minifridge.
“Is this complimentary?” she called to the driver, who stiffened before answering in heavily accented English,
“Of course.”
Zoe grinned and plucked a Coke from the fridge. She’d rather have had the little bottle of Cognac, but she didn’t think it would be prudent to meet her future employer with brandy on her breath.
She flipped the tab and took a swig of soda as the limousine pulled away from the Milan Airport and into the crazy Italian traffic.

I received some nice things in the post today: an invitation to Harlequin's cocktail party at the RWA conference, which I won't be going to do, boo -hoo, cover flats of Ruthless Boss, and two copies of the large print edition of Another Country. Plus my editor has been in touch after 3 weeks away (she got married!) and we're going to chat about my next few books.

posted by Kate Hewitt at 7:23 PM 0 Comments

Estonian, anyone?

I received copies of the first translation of The Italian's Chosen Wife in the post a few days ago--and had to google what language they were in ! Turns out it was Estonian. And as much as I wanted to keep them, with their pretty covers and Estonian dedication (Cliff became Cliffile) I realized there won't be room in our apartment for all these books so I sent them off to the Estonian Educational Society in New York in the hopes that someone will enjoy them.

Now that I've officially sent my seventh book off, I am starting to research the gorgeous Italian lakes region for my novella. It's not due until late September but with everything else going on I'd like to finish it sooner rather than later...

posted by Kate Hewitt at 6:47 AM 0 Comments

Finished!

I finished my book and am now just formatting it from Appleworks to Microsoft Word--a painstaking process for a dedicated Mac user. But--it's done! Seventh book completed, which is a wonderful relief.

We've been at my parents' cottage in Canada for the last two weeks--except for my brief foray to NYC--and now it's back home to pack and organize and store and give away--oh, and write a novella! Somehow I'm going to get that in there...

I'm also updating my website again--I skipped June but I'm trying to get something up for July.

posted by Kate Hewitt at 7:30 PM 1 Comments

Sorry for the absence

I've been in Canada at my parents' summer cottage, and then I left the children there to go to New York with my husband to look for apartments. What an... interesting... experience. Manhattan is the only place I know where when you tell a leasing agent that you're willing to spend $5000 a month on rent, you feel cheap and shabby. And the apartment he shows you looks it too. Fortunately, we managed to find an apartment we can live with, and that hopefully the children can live with, although one of them right now is digging her heels in, determined to dislike everything about New York and our move ahead. Sigh. Since I'm feeling my own anxiety about our move, it's hard to keep my spirits buoyed up for my children, but I suppose that is what being a mother is all about.

I'm retreating into my book which is still one scene and about 2,000 words from the end, but the first 110 pages are complete and revised and so I'm hopeful I can send this in to my editor when I said I would, which is in five days. Eek! And then on to my novella which will be part of an 'Italian Summer' anthology. And we move in a month! More eek.

Here is another sneak peek at my work in progress. This is the opening of the prologue:



I’m sorry.
The two words seemed to reverberate through the room, even though the man who’d spoken them had gone.
I’m sorry.
There had been a touch of compassion to the doctor’s voice, a thread of pity that had sent helpless rage coursing through Khaled as he lay there, prostrate, and watched the doctor shake his head, smile sadly, and leave. Leave Khaled with his shattered knee, his shattered career. His broken dreams.
Outside thick grey clouds pressed heavily downward upon London, obscuring the city view with their dank presence. Prince Khaled el Farrar turned his head away from the window. His fists bunched uselessly on the hospital bed sheets as pain ricocheted through him. He’d refused pain killers; he wanted to know what he was dealing with.
Now he knew: nothing. No amount of surgery or physical therapy could restore his rugby career or his ruined knee, or give him a future. A hope. At twenty-eight, he was finished.

posted by Kate Hewitt at 7:59 PM 0 Comments