Kate's Blog

New covers!

Here are some new book covers, which I love seeing and sharing.

My Corretti Dynasty cover:



My July release cover:



My new women's fiction, out sometime in the next year with Lion Hudson:



What do you think??

posted by Kate Hewitt at Saturday, April 27, 2013 0 Comments

The last two weeks here have been amazingly sunny for Cumbria, with a hint (and just a hint!) of spring in the air. The daffodils are in bud, the snowdrops have poked their heads up, and you can almost feel like the long, grey slog of winter is over. At last!

What I'm really waiting for, though, is not spring but a more literal birth--that is of my baby, due April 10. The last few weeks are always so long and uncomfortable, and fifth time round I am feeling it! Every day is a countdown.

I'm also trying to get a lot of writing done before the baby comes, so I can hopefully have a short break afterwards. I'm writing the second in a royalty duet for Presents, and I've been doing revisions on a women's fiction that I am excited to talk about soon!

I also thought I'd spice this blog up a bit (since I'm sooooo good at keeping it up to date, ha!) with a little bit of what I'm reading, baking, and a photo I've taken recently. So...

What I'm Reading: The Fallen Greek Bride by the wonderful Jane Porter



What I'm Baking: Lemon Polenta Cake from Nigella Lawson's Kitchen



Daily Photo: Walking the dog in the rain pre-pregnancy

posted by Kate Hewitt at Sunday, March 03, 2013 0 Comments

Bad Blogger! BAD Blogger!

Yes, that's me. I always promise to do better, and then I... don't. Christmas is a busy time for anyone, and in particular for my husband as he is a vicar and had six services in two days. My parents were also visiting for the month of December, and of course I'm (now six and half months) pregnant. So those are all my excuses for being a bad blogger!

Oh, wait... there's also the writing! After finishing His Brand of Passion in October, the third Bryant brothers book, I took a short break from Presents to finish a women's fiction I'd been working on for awhile now. It's titled The Last Breath and is a very emotional story (especially for me as a pregnant woman) as it deals with IVF, infertility, and the heartbreak of losing a child. It will be available for sale sometime in the near future, although I'm waiting on some details to be confirmed about the outlet.

I was also working on a serial for The People's Friend, The Vicar's Wife, which will be out in the UK in April. I've started a new serial, On Renfrew Street, which is the second in my Amherst Island trilogy. And I finally finished the third book in my Emigrants Trilogy (the first, Far Horizons, is available for free as an ebook through all ebook outlets). Whew! So that's the writing front.

As for the home front... my body is not taking pregnancy well. I've been increasingly uncomfortable, tired, and grumpy! I'll be 40 in September and I'm feeling it. Having 5 children in 15 years was not necessarily how I would have chosen to arrange my family, but since we can't arrange these things I'm trying not to mind too much that I feel like I've been pregnant, well, forever.

But there are bright moments and days! Here is one of me with my children and dog at Buttermere in the Lake District, on New Year's Day:

posted by Kate Hewitt at Monday, January 21, 2013 0 Comments

New cover!

I love seeing new covers. I'm always curious how someone else envisions my book and my characters, and in this case, it's not too far off, although I think Luke looks a bit snappier in the photo than he is in the book! He's a hardworking, taciturn type of man, but I think he could probably rock the shades :)

What do you think?

In The Heat of The Spotlight is the second book in my Bryant Brothers trilogy, and the first is out in January. I'm so excited about this series, and to celebrate it, I will give away copies of *both* books (the third, His Brand of Passion, will be out in July) to one lucky commenter. Just let me know what you're reading this Christmas season. Contest runs until December 20th!

posted by Kate Hewitt at Thursday, December 13, 2012 3 Comments

So it's coming up on Christmas and life has been crazy. What else is new? I announced on Twitter and Facebook but not on this blog that I am... drumroll... unexpectedly expecting. How does that happen, you wonder? Carelessly. However, after I took three months to get over the nausea and the shock, I am looking forward to this new addition to our family--a girl due in April, and our fifth child (and fourth girl)!

Being pregnant after nearly 5 years of not being pregnant and thinking I would never be pregnant again has been hard. I turn 40 next year and my body has been resisting everything, or so it feels. I feel old and creaky and no more so than when I threw my back out and was in bed for two weeks with muscle spasms, unable to take more than Tylenol and unable to move.

Writing took a backseat for a little while to simply getting through each day. I'm still feeling very tired, and am working hard now to finish my deadlines before D-Day. I recently finished His Brand of Passion, the third book in the Bryant Brothers trilogy and Aaron's story. The first book, Beneath The Veil of Paradise, is available now on Harlequin and I do hope people try it because I love this book. It was such a joy to write--one of those books that is just fun and easy, and I love the characters of Millie and Chase.

There is also a prequel online read available on Harlequin as a daily serial, and as it takes place in New York City at Christmastime, it's definitely worth reading this holiday!

I have some fun special projects coming up in the next few months, which I'll write about later, and my historical novels continue to be available through Kindle and Smashwords. You can see them on my booklist or find them on Amazon here . Free Horizons is free!

Meanwhile I am getting bigger and bigger--I'll pop a few months after our Christmas turkey! Happy reading!

posted by Kate Hewitt at Wednesday, December 05, 2012 5 Comments

The Author-Reader Relationship

There has been an interesting discussion on Dear Author about the relationship between readers and authors. It began with an opinion piece about authors responding to reviews and generally behaving badly, i.e., chasing reviewers who didn't like their book, and/or insulting, threatening, or belittling them. I don't want to talk about that, though, because there are plenty of places where that discussion is going on and in any case I could simply state the obvious: BE PROFESSIONAL.

No, what interests me is the relationship between the reader and author, both what it is and what it could be. I am realising that I come to this from a different angle than many authors, mainly because my background in writing is theatre, and particularly group theatre. During university (a long time ago, admittedly) I created collaborative pieces of theatre in which those involved were both actors and writers with joint ownership of the material. My final thesis was such a piece, and while I admit I did most of the writing, the piece of theatre we produced was something I could not have created on my own. Here, for my own embarrassment, is a cast photo:


Because of this background I have always viewed writing fiction as a collaborative process, albeit a lonelier one than producing theatre--generally the collaboration is simply between me and my editor. In fact I always vowed I'd never write novels because it was too isolating, and I preferred the give and take possible in theatre. Sadly, I didn't make it as a professional playwright.

Anyway, the point of this background info is to point out that I am probably in a minority as an author. I am not precious or possessive of my work; I probably should be at least a little more. I would love to see a place on the internet where authors and readers can engage in a critical, open, and friendly discussion about books. Some of the most invigorating discussions I've had have been with people who have had negative or mixed reactions to my book. When someone says 'I hated your hero', I want to respond, 'Really? What made you hate him? What did he do that made you so angry?'. I want to ask these questions out of general interest, not as a defence mechanism.

Now before I sound too good to be true, I fully admit some bad reviews hurt. One of my first ever reviews on Amazon was simply: 'what a stupid book'. Newbie author that I was, that affected me for days. I also fully admit that part of me wants a hundred percent adulation; who doesn't? I wish everybody adored my books--although who knows, perhaps that would be boring. Even so, I wish there was a forum for author-reader discussion, and by that I don't mean readers fawning over authors or only discussing the parts of the book they liked, etc, etc.

I think there are several reasons why this isn't really happening online yet. First, authors are possessive and defensive of their books, and understandably so. Writing a book is hard, long, personal. Having it torn apart is not necessarily an enjoyable experience. The result, though, can be that authors defend their books to the death, acting as if nothing is wrong with the book, there are no mistakes, and no reader response except 'I loved it' is appropriate or even correct.

On the flip side, readers can be possessive and defensive of their responses. There is a belief that you cannot argue or engage with someone about how they feel, because feelings are never wrong. There is truth in that, but anyone who has critically discussed or studied anything should know that the conversation shouldn't end there. Just as an author needs to let go of the belief that her book is perfect, the reader needs to let go of her belief that her first impression of a book is unassailable--at least, both parties would have to let go of those beliefs if they wished to engage in the kind of critical discussion I envision.

So where do we, as both readers and authors, go from here? Truthfully, I don't know. I might be in an incredibly small minority of authors who long for this kind of discussion. And the apparent hostility that often seems to exist between readers and authors, because of bad behaviour, often by authors, will be a continual detriment to such conversations happening at all. And in all honesty I don't know how many readers want to engage with authors in this way. So perhaps this whole discussion is moot--but I'll still dream of the day when there can be a round table of readers and authors engaging in lively, critical debate of a book.

posted by Kate Hewitt at Thursday, October 25, 2012 2 Comments

Breaking the silence

So I haven't blogged in awhile, and that is because shortly after my last entry life did one of those crazy things it sometimes does and completely overwhelmed me. It's not bad news, but it did take over daily operating procedures for awhile and I'll happily share with you the full details in a few weeks. In the meantime I am trying to get into a new normal and that, of course, includes writing!

I've just started revising the third book in my Bryant Brothers trilogy, which has a wonderfully dark hero whom I love--the oldest brother, total control freak, unbelievably cold. Of course it takes the right kind of heroine to warm him up...

Meanwhile I am continuing to dive into the shallow end of the huge self-publishing pool... I must admit I am really enjoying all the creative control involved with self-publishing, not to mention a much larger take of the profits. I'm updating my booklist pages shortly but you can see some of the things I'm offering--historical novels, anthologies, and a new romance series based on Greek myths! I will, of course, continue to write Presents as I can't imagine not doing that!

How have you been over these last few months? Drop me a line and let me know how life is treating you. I'm glad to be back online more after a few months of mostly silence!

posted by Kate Hewitt at Tuesday, October 16, 2012 2 Comments