And our Sue's Clues Mystery Author is:

Kate Walker has been writing romance novels for Harlequin Mills & Boon since 1984. She has published 35 novels and contributed to one anthology since that time. It's not too surprising considering she has always wanted to write books. Even before she could write she was making up and telling stories to her younger sisters.

Kate was born and raised in Yorkshire, England; the third in a family of five girls. She was constantly reading and "...scribbling away at something, and I wrote my first 'book' when I was eleven, an adventure story, most of it in secret in lessons at school - particularly maths lessons, which I hated."

Despite this obvious knack for writing and dreaming up stories, Kate was discouraged from a career in writing and steered towards something that would provide security. With this in mind, Kate headed off to University to earn her degree in English and Librarianship. She reasoned that "... if I couldn't write books, I could at least work with them and so I settled for becoming a librarian." While there Kate met her husband, who was also studying English. After marrying, they eventually settled down in Lincolnshire and Kate became a children's Librarian. She left her position when her son came along to be a stay-at-home mom.

It was 3 years later that Kate decided she needed a little change; something more to do. But she needed something she could do at home. It's seems natural that she would turn to writing stories again and has been ever since. So we could get to know her a little better, Kate was nice enough to answer my questions below. Thank you, Kate!

1. There are several writers out there named Kate Walker. Do you get confused with the others very often? How awkward is this for you?

I was amazed when I discovered that there are a couple of other Kate Walkers writing, but I suppose it's not that unusual a name so I should have expected it might happen. So far the only one who has caused any confusion or problem is the Kate Walker who was born - and I think still lives in Australia. She has written some fairly serious fiction and apparently her books are taught in schools in Australia - so I sometimes get emails from students asking me questions about books or short stories that the other KW has written! It's only a mild inconvenience to have to send back an email saying 'sorry - this isn't me!' - but they could have found that out themselves by checking out my web site (http://www.kate-walker.com) where they'd see that I only write romances or books on how to write romances. I once had an enquiry from a American library, asking if I could list my birthdate to help differentiate between me and this Australian writer - but that didn't help much as we turned out to have been born in the same year!

2. Looking at the pic of your cat, Sid, I couldn't help thinking "That is one big cat!" How big is he? How long have you had him? Like most cats, it sounds as if he's got a mind of his own. *G*

He is big! I just weighed him and there's 16 pounds of cat there. Sid is a great friend to me - he sits on my desk when I'm writing and often falls asleep curled up around the keyboard- He's dozing there now! And he's definitely a character with a mind of his own - he actually chose to come and live with us. We have no idea where he came from. About four years ago, my son opened the door to let one of our other cats in (we have 3 others - 'Bob' Redford, Spiffy and Dylan) so when the door was open, Spiffy came in, bringing a friend with him - Sid! We tried to find who he'd belonged to but had no success and he didn't really want to go anywhere else - he made it plain that he wanted to live with us. So he stayed. And now he gets a lot of interest and fan mail from being on my web site! And he gets to choose the winners from the prize draws.

3. Have you ever thought about writing historical romance?

When I first started out writing, I always thought I'd want to write historical stories - I loved to read them so much. But then when I looked at what I enjoyed writing and what I was good at, I changed my mind. Writing modern romances for Presents gives me a chance to tackle contemporary stories about modern relationship problems. Historical romances are a very different sort of story - and you have to be very careful to make sure that your facts and all the historical details are accurate. I would only ever want to write something else if I knew i could do it well and I don't have the historical knowledge to do historical romances well. It's a specialised field and I find that the ideas that come to me are in the modern settings so I stick to them.

4. Where do you get your ideas?


Ideas come from everywhere and anywhere - you just have to be open to them. I always say that life is the best source of ideas to any writer. But I also read as much as I can and I feed my imagination by watching films, plays, TV dramas, soap operas - anything with a story to it. You need to nourish your 'story telling' parts of your brain. If I'm reading a magazine for example, it might be a description of a person's job that will set me thinking, or a photo in a fashion shoot that has a setting and an atmosphere that sparks an idea. Some songs have such a story behind them that I just have to tell it. Or if I'm watching a soap opera, I try to guess where the plot is heading - or think of a different path I could take it along - all this gives me food for thought and keeps my imagination working. But I have to admit that sometimes I just have no idea where that flash of inspirtation comes from -I'm just grateful that it does!

5. What do you find to be the hardest part of writing? The easiest? Do you have a routine you follow when you write?


The hardest part of writing is making myself sit down and actually type the words out on the keyboard. This is because the answer to the other half of your question - what is the easiest part - is that dreaming up stories and planning them in my head is easy and relaxing and fun - but no one will buy the stories from your head! So you have to make yourself sit down and WRITE. And when you are just starting a new book, then with just the words Chapter One on the first page, it seems a long, long way to the end.

Routine? Well I try to do something that's work every day - but that can be something like answering your questions or writing and sending out my newsletter. A lot of creative work goes on when I don't look as if I'm doing much - when I'm thinking hard! But once the story has developed to a point where I have to write it down - or when the deadline is getting so close that I have to write it! - then I work at least office hours, sitting at my desk after breakfast and working through until the evening. If the book is going really well, I've been known to work right from early morning to late in the night to get the words down when they're flowing. I can work almost the equivalent of 2 days in one then!

6. You have a son who must be in his 20's now. What does he think about having a mom who writes romance?

Yes, he's 25 and just got engaged. Now, he's proud of my writing and of my success. He knows how hard it can be to make a living as a writer. I think that perhaps when he was younger, he might have been more embarrassed by the fact that I wrote romance - when his friends saw some of the 'clinch' covers of the books for example. But his fiancée reads my books and enjoys them and he sees the copies of my novels that come from all over the world and he's proud of that.

7. How about your sisters? I think you have 4?

Yes that's right - I'm the middle one of five girls! I think that really there's only one of my sisters who actually appreciates my books and reads them. Some of the others don't read very much - or they don't read romances. It's not just my books, just that romance is not their sort of thing. But it's an interesting fact that every single one of my sisters has 'changed route' partway through their life. Just as I started out as a librarian and then changed to writing - they've all started out on one job and then later in life they've turned to something else. So they understand how I wanted to do something different with my life and that I've succeeded with it.

8. Does your husband ever read your books?


My husband is a writer too - he writes poetry, books on Creative Writing, and criticism. So he's always writing too - and the problem is that we both end up without any time to read each other's writing. We're also very different sorts of readers - I love fiction, historical, romances, anything - and he likes facts and poetry. When I first started out, I used to read aloud some of my books to him to see if it sounded right but it wasn't really his sort of thing and occasionally I'll ask him to look at something to see if it works or it makes sense. But that's as much as we have time for. And I have to admit that I haven't read everything he's written either - I read the poems and sections of the Creative Writing books but that's about it. We're both so busy!

9. You have been writing romance novels for nearly 20 yrs. What changes in the romance market have you noticed since you first began? Do you think readers expectations of an author have changed?


Now that's an interesting question. I remember that at the beginning of my career, I said to an editor that I was worried that I might not be able to write the sort of heroes that were popular at the time. The heroes then were much more macho, and actors like Clint Eastwood and Sylvester Stallone were very popular in films. The editor told me to stick with the sort of heroes I loved and write as I wanted to - and I've done that. The interesting thing is that I've had more success in the last ten years or so than I did at the beginning. And I think this is because of some of the changes in the romance market.

For one thing, the characters of both the heroes and the heroines have changed along with the changes in society. To take just one very small example - cigarettes - In the past, heroes and often heroines too used to smoke a lot. That was when it was thought of a sophisticated and elegant - no one would think that now. And the way that the heroes treated the heroines, sometimes even slapping them or worse, would be something that readers wouldn't stand for these days. The major changes for the writer have been in two areas - one is the obvious one of writing love scenes. The reader is no longer content to stay this side of the bedroom door, with the door firmly closed! They want to follow the hero and heroine in there and the author has to write the scene for them. The other big change is the way that the hero's point of view is used a lot now. In the past, he could stay totally mysterious and distant and aloof and only at the end would the reader - and the heroine - find out why he had behaved as he did and what he was really thinking. Now the author needs to show this all along, so that the reader knows what he's thinking and feeling, even if the heroine doesn't. I think the challenge there is to make the hero understandable and yet- especially in a Presents book - not lose that potent Alpha quality that makes him the sort of hero the readers want to fall in love with. Even in a romance, I think that the readers want rather more realism and believability in the characters - we all know that, say, Greek tycoons or Italian millionaires are fantasy figures, but the problems they face in their relationships and the way they fall in love are still the same as more ordinary human beings. I think it's great that I can tackle more difficult topics, ones that perhaps wouldn't have been in a romance before, and still keep that fantasy element.

And I hope that the books continue to develop along with the way that society changes. After all, that's what keeps the stories alive and keeps the readers coming back for more. And as an author I love the new challenges that keep my writing as fresh as possible because I want to meet the challenges of keeping up with the changes and giving the readers what they want.

10. When you have time to read, what type of books do you pick up? Who are some of your favorite authors?


I said already that I'll read anything and everything. I love romance - obviously - but I also read historical fiction, crime fiction, fantasy. I love good biographies and factual books. One of the few tastes that my husband and I share in our reading is real crime books. Sometimes when I want a real change from romance, I'll read a real crime book then - is so very different!

Favourite authors - well, in romance, I love Michelle Reid and Anne McAllister (and that's not just because they're great friends of mine - they're both wonderful writers). Day Leclaire, Holly Jacobs, Anne Stuart . . . One of my favourite ever historical writers is Dorothy Dunnett - she writes these huge, complex historical stories in a series of 6 books or so - they're totally absorbing. I'm currently readin g Barbara Erskine's new book - I love her combination of ghost stories and romance. Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley books. Robert Goddard. And sometimes I go back and reread old favourites - like Mary Stewart and Georgette Heyer - but I'm always on the lookout for someone new to read and enjoy - if I have time! The problem being a writer is that I spend so much time on my own books, I don't get anything like enough time to read anyone else's!

Thank you again, Kate, for being so generous with your time!

Visit Kate at her website: www.kate-walker.com