Kate's Blog

Chapter Three...

Here is the first sentence of chapter 3:

'What...?' The single word came out involuntarily, a gasp of shock and fear as the sight of Leo standing there so calm and assured brought the memories flooding back.

JANET, you are the chapter 2 winner! Send me your address and I'll mail you a copy! And leave a comment anyone for another chance to win... :)

Meanwhile, I just got the title for my 12th book: Awakened By The Count of Cazlevara! As long as there isn't an alarm clock on the cover, right?

posted by Kate Hewitt at 6:48 PM 7 Comments

Blogging and Winners

I'm blogging about waiting during the writing process at The Writing Playground . You can stop by and leave a comment for another chance to win Royal Baby, Forbidden Marriage.

Meanwhile, MARILYN, send me your details and I'll send you a copy--you're the lucky winner!

And here is the first sentence of chapter 2:

It was raining in Paris, a needling drizzle that blanketed the royal mourners in grey, and made the images on the television screen blurry and virtually unrecognisable.

Leave a comment for another chance to win!

posted by Kate Hewitt at 4:43 AM 3 Comments

Contest!

I promised I'd run a contest for the month of October and I'm realizing it is October 21 and so far no contest! Sorry about that. So... onwards! Here are the first few lines of the first chapter of my November Presents Extra release, Royal Marriage, Forbidden Baby:

'How much?'

Phoebe Wells stared blankly at the man slouched in a chair across from her. He gazed back with a sensual smile and heavy-lidded eyes, his sable hair rumpled, the top two buttons of his shirt undone to reveal a smooth expanse of golden skin.

Leave a comment and I'll draw a winner to receive a copy of the book! And stay tuned for the first line of chapter 2, and another chance to win... :)

posted by Kate Hewitt at 5:50 PM 4 Comments

How to be a savvy shopper

My friend Rebekah has just launched a blog, Restyle with Rebekah, which is all about savvy thrift store shopping here in NYC, although there are tips for everyone who, like me, wants to look good for less. So check it out at her blog.

I'm still at the hmm point, alas!

posted by Kate Hewitt at 11:28 AM 2 Comments

A little bit stuck

So I managed 5,000 words of my latest book so far, and it all went swimmingly. Then, at the beginning of chapter 2, I came to my first 'hmm'. Fortunately it's not so bad a 'hmm'--like a 'what the...?' but it is a time where the writing no longer flows and I really need to take stock and think where the book, and more importantly, the characters are going next.

I realize my tendency as a writer is to give away too much too soon in terms of emotional conflict and development. I generally have to scale back and put things I wrote in chapter 1 in chapter 5 or 7 or even 10. Yet writing it in chapter 1 helps me see what I need in later chapters... part of the drafting process, I suppose.

We've had workmen in our apartment all week putting doors on--something that is a long time coming. We moved apartments in July, and when we moved in we discovered that the contractors in charge of the renovations had taken off all the doors and thrown them away. Why, you might ask, would someone do that? Well the apartment is old and the doors were in bad shape, and the management company was rushing to get the new tenants--us--in. So they trashed the doors and I guess they thought we wouldn't notice, except with 4 kids and no doors to the bedrooms, guess what? We notice!



First we piled boxes and then we got a shower curtain, but now we have lovely double doors, which I will take a photo of tomorrow to show you... anyway, all this to say with the workmen in the apartment all day, and an extremely inquisitive one year old following them around and fascinated with the circular saw, it's a wonder I got any writing done at all.

posted by Kate Hewitt at 6:07 PM 0 Comments

Starting a new book

It always feel a bit like jumping off a cliff when I start a new book. I make notes, I sketch character bios, I think a lot about the story and possible scenes, I research the locations... and then comes the time when I actually have to sit down and write. And when I actually put the first sentences on the page, it feels so... strange. So new, and it's exciting, but it's also a little daunting to think in just two months I'll have a book (I hope!) when all I have right now is a paragraph. Yet the first few paragraphs really encapsulate my vision for this story, which I had over the summer, and I thought I'd share them with you so you can see my process. Here's the beginning I just wrote:


'Did you know my wife was having an affair?' It was a simple question, Rafe Sandoval thought, deserving a simple answer. Yes or no. So very simple. Yet Freya Pearson stood before him, her grey eyes unblinking, her face a mask of irritating composure. She didn't speak. Rafe's hand curled on the smooth mahogany surface of his desk; outside a dank grey London sky pressed heavily upon the city. Still the nanny said nothing. 'Well?' Rafe demanded, and he heard the raw note of pleading in his own voice. It made him angry. He was not the guilty party here; he had done nothing wrong. Yet he felt condemnation in that cool grey stare; he saw judgement in the thin line of her plum-coloured mouth. He shook his head slowly, his own mouth thinning to match hers. 'You knew, didn't you? You knew--you saw it all along--and you never thought fit to tell me.'
Finally Freya spoke. Her voice was pitched low, calm and even unconcerned. 'Yes,' she said. 'I knew.'

What do you think? Are these people you'd like to read more about?

posted by Kate Hewitt at 6:31 PM 4 Comments

Left brain, right brain?

Last night my five year old son challenged me to a game of checkers, a game, I might add, he only learned a few weeks ago. I agreed, and we had a pleasant time playing after dinner; I sipped my wine and pondered my moves, feeling quite relaxed and confident. I was planning to go easy on him and then beat him by just a little bit--I don't generally let my kids win at games just because they are young, as you then lose the satisfaction of a battle hard fought and won... except in this case, I was the loser. I looked down at the board and realized my son had, quite neatly, trapped me into a corner so I had no choice but to slowly and inexorably lose all my pieces. I looked up at him to see if he realized what he'd done--and he grinned and said 'You lose, Mommy.' So much for going easy on him. Clearly checkers is not my forte... or maybe it's simply that it's his!

posted by Kate Hewitt at 5:27 AM 0 Comments

Cheap thrills

And I mean that in the best possible sense, because it costs me nothing! Dear Author picked The Sheikh's Forbidden Virgin as one of its recommended October reads! It hasn't been reviewed there yet, but I feel pretty good about it being recommended at all.

All About Romance did review the book, and while the reviewer didn't seem to like Presents-style romances in general, she had some positive things to say about the book: "Kalila is a sensible, mostly mature heroine, and was a pleasant surprise. Aarif is a tortured soul, poor guy, and rightly so. His first duty is to his family, even at the expense of his own happiness, and he is a quiet, rather taciturn, man with heartbreaking glimpses of humor; I love the quiet ones. Overall, I am convinced of their mutual suitability, and the wildly romantic ending...' Complete disclosure: I am cutting out the cutting, sarcastic bits she inserted into the review, and overall she could not recommend it because of the unbelievability of the Karedes-related plot points. So judge for yourself whether it's worth reading or not--I certainly enjoyed writing it!

I am just beginning to outline my next book, which has a Spanish hero and an English heroine and is set in the gorgeous hill country in Southern Spain--I went there once a long time ago and I've been enjoying reacquainting myself with the region, all in the name of research!

posted by Kate Hewitt at 1:34 PM 3 Comments

Hello out there...

There is something a bit dismal about a neglected blog, isn't there? Have you ever stumbled upon a blog--whether it belongs to an author or someone else--and there hasn't been an entry for months or even years? It's the equivalent of a dusty, sheet-shrouded room, and not a place you would want to linger.

On the other hand, a blog that has a lot of entries--and comments--feels like a cozy library or living room with a blazing fire and a comfy chair, and perhaps even a pot of tea and something yummy to eat--cookies, scones, take your pick! It's a place you want to stick around and explore.

So I'm realizing that my blog has become a bit of the former, and I regret that as I had the best of intentions to keep it going, and in fact I kept a personal blog for family and friends for about three years--writing just about every day--so I thought I wouldn't have a problem doing the same here. Unfortunately, I did. Part of it was the increasing chaos of life, and part of it was the number of deadlines I gave myself, writing 4-5 books a year. And part of it was I was blogged out--that part of my brain that attempts to write witty and thoughtful summaries of my life and my writing had been sucked dry--not that there was all that much there to begin with! Blogging is a different talent than novel writing, and some writers are blessed with both. I'm not sure I am.

That all said, I'm going to *attempt* to give this blog another try and write diligently--if not daily--here. I love reading blogs when I get the chance--and the time--and I know that there are people out there who read this, even if you don't comment!! I check my stats and I get a regular number of hits every day, so whoever you are, I hope you want to read a bit of my blathering.

I just submitted the updates for my website to my webmistress, and she will hopefully have those up for you in the next week. At some point I am hoping to change the layout of my site with photos of beautiful New York City, and even a couple of me I'm notoriously camera-shy, and feel terribly unphotogenic, so this is big--for me). In fact, when I first met the fabulous Jennie Lucas, one of the first things she said to me was how much better I look than my photo on eharlequin! Thanks, Jennie!! :)

I also just handed in my 12th book, now titled Italian Count, Untamed Innocent, although I am 0 for 11 when it comes to picking titles the editors stick with. My last title--The Playboy Prince's Convenient Wife--seemed to hold all the relevant hooks, yet it was discarded for Royal Baby, Forbidden Marriage, and it is now available on eharlequin. Anyway, titles aside, I enjoyed writing this book because it features a tall heroine who is a bit insecure about her height--and I am 5'11" and have definitely gone through phases of insecurity about it, so it was nice to be able to put a little relevant personal experience in the story! Here, to tempt and tease you, is the first paragraph:

Vittorio Calzevara, the Count of Ralfino, stood on the threshold of San Stefano Castle and searched the milling guests for the woman he intended to be his wife. He wasn't certain what she looked like, for beyond a single blurry photo, he hadn't seen her in sixteen years. Or if he had seen her, she hadn't made much of an impression. Now he planned to marry her.

I'll let you know what my editors think of it!

Labels: Harlequin Presents, Italian Count, Untamed Innocent, writing life

posted by Kate Hewitt at 6:56 PM 1 Comments