Let's get to meet Harlequin Author Kate Hardy and a Giveaway!

WINNERS first!

Before starting today's festivities, I'd like to announce the winners of Author Edie Ramer's three eBooks....drumroll....Nancy R Williams, Talli Roland and Kerri Cuevas! Congratulations! Get in touch with Edie Ramer via her website.  Now without further delay I give you....

Today I’m honored to be hosting Award-winning author for Harlequin Mills & Boon (Riva/Presents and Medical Romance) Kate Hardy.

Kate, thanks for agreeing to be under the spotlight today. It's great to have you here!

Thank you so much for having me, Nas – and how lovely to be here in such a romantic setting as Fiji.

Once Kate got comfortable on a beach chair on the sandy beach under a large beach umbrella with a coconut in her hands inserted with colorful straws to drink, I started the questions and found out her views ...

On Writing and Reading…

So, when did you start to write and how long did it take you to be published?

I started writing well before I started school – the earliest stories were about ponies and ghosts, but I veered over to romance in my teens. I had some novels published in my 20s, but my first M&B came about when I was 34 and pregnant with my daughter. I was a freelance health journalist at the time, and my husband suggested that as I loved medicine and romance, I ought to try writing a Medical Romance. I read a few, got completely hooked – and then Chloe spent her first Christmas in hospital, aged 7 weeks. The only way I could cope was to start writing my first Medical Romance. My agent loved the outline and first three chapters; so did Mills and Boon, and they wanted to see the full. It was accepted on Chloe’s first birthday and published on her second birthday.

What do you love most about being a writer?

Being able to tell stories that put a bit of sparkle into people’s lives. The best thing of all is getting an email from a reader saying that she’s had a lousy day, read one of my books, and it made her day a whole lot brighter. There aren’t many jobs where you get to do that!

What do you like least about being a writer?

 Revisions. (They’re a necessary evil because authors are always too close to their books to see what needs fixing. But I still hate doing them!)

Where were you five years before?

I’d been writing for Medical Romances for 5 years , and I’d just moved to being a two-line author – my very first Modern Extra, The Cinderella Project, came out in April 2006.

Where do you envision yourself five years from now?

Still writing – and heading towards writing my 75^th M&B, I hope! 

What is your favorite recent title by another author?

 Ooh, that’s a toughie. In the Harlequin lines, Liz Fielding, India Grey, Kelly Hunter and Sarah Morgan are all autobuy authors for me. But the book I know I’m going to wish I’d written (and I’m about to start reading it tonight) is Sophie Page’s “To Marry a Prince” – I always loved her Harlequin books, and a longer book is going to be a real joy!

What are your five all-time favorite books (with authors)?

 Diana Norman’s “The Vizard Mask”; George Eliot’s “The Mill on the Floss”; Liz Fielding’s “Gentlemen Prefer… Brunettes” (but there are half a dozen more of hers that have almost equal billing with that one!); Daphne du Maurier’s “Rebecca”; and Sharon Penman’s “The Sunne in Splendour”.

What one specific piece of advice would you give a would-be writer trying to kick-start a career?

Particularly for romance, you really need to care about your hero and heroine and make them “real people” (because then your reader will care about them, too, and want them to have a happy ending – so they’ll keep turning the pages to find out if you’ll give them that happy ending).

On Romance...

What does a romantic meal means to you?

Bearing in mind that I always read menus backwards (because if I’m having a seriously naughty pudding, I will choose my main course and/or starter sensibly), my ultimate meal would finish with crème brûlée and strawberries :o) I’d probably choose salmon as a main (especially if asparagus was also involved) and maybe stuffed mushrooms as a starter. But the most important thing would be sharing it with my husband.

What is your all-time favorite romantic movie?

 For years, it was “When Harry Met Sally” (the dialogue is SO good), but it might just have been superseded by “How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days” (fantastic structure as well as superb dialogue).

How do you keep the romance alive in your relationship?

 Making time for each other – it’s getting a little easier now the children are older and wanting a bit of independence. i.e. being allowed to stay home if we take the dog out for a walk. And the next step will no doubt be going into the city and meeting their friends while we have a romantic coffee together!

Where is the most romantic place you’ve ever traveled?

Venice – we went there in the Easter holidays last year, and it was just so special. There’s nowhere else like it in the world. I’d dearly love to go back in the winter, when it’s all misty and romantic.

All About her...

Have you always wanted to be a writer?

Yes – I even persuaded my parents to buy me a proper typewriter for my 6^th birthday!

Besides writing, what other talent would you most like to have?

 I’d love to be able to draw – I can’t even draw a straight line with a ruler!

What quality do you most admire in a man?

 Patience. (My husband has this. And he really needs it, as half the time I’m in the world of my book when I’m not supposed to be!)

If you weren’t a writer, what would you be?

I couldn’t be anything else! If pushed, I’d maybe have a café as I love, love, LOVE cooking. I did once think of opening a café-bookshop if I couldn’t make it as a writer, and my family fell about laughing, saying that I’d never be able to let a single book go out of the shop…

What quote or personal saying do you live by? Who said it?

"Life’s like a marmalade sandwich – you only get out of it what you put in.” (Paddington Bear. And it’s SO true.)

To finish up, do you have any advice/handy tips/craft skills you'd like to share with unpublished authors?

·        Read, read, read, read, read. If you’re targeting Harlequin, read the latest books in the line to give you an idea of the direction the line’s taking, as things do change over the years.

·        If you get stuck in a scene, talk to your characters – you might be taking them off in a direction they don’t want to go in. Go with the story they want you to tell. (This sounds a bit crazy, but I know I’m far from alone in doing this. If they’re real people to you, they’ll be real people to your readers as well; it gives your book more depth.)

·        “What if?” is a very useful question when you’re plotting. No matter how crazy the idea, keep a note of it, because it might lead you on to the right idea for your characters.

NOW TELL US ABOUT YOUR BOOK….

THE FIREMAN AND NURSE LOVEDAY is part of the St Piran’s series, which takes place in a Cornish hospital and a village nearby. Flora’s a very shy nurse, but she comes out of her shell when she helps gorgeous fireman Tom Nicholson learn to be a stand-in dad to his orphaned nephew Joey. I guess it’s a kind of Cinderella type tale, in that Flora blossoms over the course of the book and then ends up with her prince at the ball.

It’s a continuity book, which means that I needed to keep talking to the other seven authors in the series about where I was taking the characters in the other love story in the book (Megan and Josh, whose story is told over all eight books), and we all needed to make sure that the story moved smoothly between one book and the next. It was great fun doing that – and I’m so glad we have email, because it makes it much easier to talk to people in different time zones!

Thanks for sharing your insights about writing and some fun facts about your life, Kate, it's been a honor having you here. Please do visit Kate's Website for more news and recipes, Yum! Her Blog is also an awesome place to hang out on!

Thank you very much for having me – it’s been lovely.

The goodness doesn't end there though, folks. Kate has generously donated a signed copy of The Fireman and Nurse Loveday to one lucky person.

All you have to do is “Like” her Facebook page and leave a comment or question for Kate and you'll go into the draw for this book.}