Kate Rothwell's Blog

The Misadventures Of Super Librarian: Auntie Wendy's Unsolicited Advice To Romancelandia

A two star Amazon review on His American Detective: "Bodice ripper about gay men by a woman."and I'm longing to comment "don't you mean a waistcoat ripper?"
God, no. Stop me.
The reviews rarely rattle me any longer -- except when I spot a truth in a bad one. When that happens, I actually lose sleep. This means I still care about writing. 

Speaking of reviewers and writers:

A couple of days ago, a writer said she was tired of getting white ladies writing reviews of her books. She had an excellent point in the long run: her stories are meant for a particular audience and she wants them to resonate with those people and get more reviews from them. 
But that first line was just....horribly obnoxious. I say this from my POV of course. Not a white lady who writes reviews -- but as a review grubber.  
Anyone who disses any reader (especially ones that give honest reviews) deserves to be cast into the pit of being ignored.  
The big phrase these days is "privilege" I argue that writers who have never experienced putting out a book to thunderous silence should understand that they operate from a position of privilege. They should understand that getting good notice on their books is something they shouldn't take for granted. 
Having occupied both sides, I know this to be A Truth. 

His Irish Detective is now on sale! 

Buy it at Amazon. 

Buy it at Kobo. 

Buy it at Barnes and Noble 

Colm Kelly, a popular constable, is happy to be a big fish in his little pond of an Irish village—until his secret sin is revealed by his best friend. Overnight, his happy life is ruined. He loses his job, and even his family, and flees to England.

Colm might get another chance in London as an inquiry agent. His first job: watch the honorable Q.R. Marrill, the next heir apparent to a fortune, who lives under a cloud of family deaths. It’s unclear if Marrill is the perpetrator or the next victim of a killer who has struck before. Colm must discover the truth, and the best way to do that is to act as the man’s valet, a menial job Colm is ill-suited for. Worse, the young gentleman is nothing like Colm’s image of an aristocrat and more like his idea of perfection. He has no desire to ruin his life again with unwelcome passion.

The bookish Quade Marrill, fourth son of a wealthy landowner, has led a contented solitary life in London separate from his family. But as his family members die one by one, he becomes heir. Even as he mourns his dead brothers, uncle, and cousin, he wonders if the deaths were more than bad luck. Someone sinister might be on the hunt, and he would be the main suspect The only way to discover the truth is to allow the alarmingly intrusive Colm Kelly into his life. 

* *

This book is the second in a series. Patrick Kelly, a hero in the first His American Detective, is Colm’s annoying cousin—and now his employer.

You can get a full-length award winning historical romance by me! It's featured on BookBub

Another upside to this sale? You buy the Kindle copy and pick up a discounted audio version too -- both for less than $4.

This was my first published title, put out by Kensington. It's still one of my favorites, in part because I really love Mick, the cop hero. When I wrote it, alpha heroes were the way to go. My editor took a chance on a what she called out-of-the-norm sort of hero: a guy who isn't rich or pushy.

I also had a great time doing research about the corrupt New York City police department for this book. Turns out I had too much fun -- I had to take out pages and pages of Gangs of New York non-romance sort of content.

I wrote Intrepid Heroine Who Gets into Trouble Timona soon after watching a few episodes of the Perils of Pauline--the real ones made in 1914. It shows.


Somebody Wonderful will be 99 cents until 2/17/18 

here's the link at Barnes and Noble. 

Actually there are quite a few Summer Devon books out, but today I thought of writing this here, in Goodreads, because this story originated here.

The original is still free--this is an expanded (nearly twice as long) version of the short story, The Scent of Hope.

Condemned for murder, Dez Moore awaits the hangman’s noose. Though he killed to defend a woman, the court shows no mercy, and, resigned, he attempts to make amends with his estranged sister. His letter bidding his sister good-bye falls into the wrong hands, and suddenly, he is facing another future—one that may exist, thanks to a man he doesn’t know.

Once a poor mudlark, Carl Reis is a powerful businessman with an erratic inclination to rescue the less fortunate. When Dez’s letter comes to him, he takes an interest in the prisoner. But the charming and disruptive Dez Moore proves to be more attractive than any of his other rescues. He stirs urges Carl has long suppressed, and makes him yearn for a future even he could not foresee. One with the lively Mr. Moore by his side and in his bed.

Long used to doing for others—some might say controlling them--while maintaining his solitary existence, Carl struggles to keep Dez from breaching his walls. But the tenacious Dez will do all it takes to capture his rescuer’s heart.

I'll post a link when I have one.....

My coworkers hear it all the time
 and are profoundly uninterestedme: Okay, this isn't going to work. I have these characters drinking tea again. They need to do something else immediately. These words are chopped. Two hundred gone. And let's see, the confrontation is coming up soon. Any suggestions?

also me: Oh. My. God. Why bother? No one reads your books. No one thinks they're anything more than adequate. You can't seem to change your style to fit what people want. You're old news. OLD. NEWS. Stale old voice. There's no point in writing yet another book that no one will wants--

me: How about if they finally talk instead of just hinting around? Yeah, and maybe that guy will say what's been on his mind since chapter two.

also me: Jesus. So boring. Talk, talk, talk. You know that your--

me: How about if they--

also me: --you know your books are worthless because people want conflict and angst. They don't want to read another book with so little at stake.

me: Good point for once. Let's get some conflict with an actual meanie for a change. I have his motivation and--

also me: Why aren't you listening to me? there is no point in doing this anymore. You have dozens of books out, no one reads them, you lame, sad lil creature.

me: Uh huh. We do this every few months. Get it alllll out. Juuuuuuust finish up the whining so I can back to the story. I really need all of me to figure out why these people aren't--

also me: Don't you get it? YOU WILL NEVER BE A SUCCESS. You sort of were but that bus dropped you off and the route is shut down and--

me: Yup, got it.

also me: Why the hell are you still bothering with this nonsense? Why don't you go do something useful in the world before you're too old and gaga?

me:  Right. I don't have time for this. Maybe I'll make them drink coffee instead of tea in this scene. And some little cakes.

also me: We're hungry.

I just noticed that Lois McMaster Bujold likes Ben Aaronovitch too.  I saw that mention on her blog which shows up on her Amazon page.  Which reminded me of my own blog and .... maybe this will show up on my Amazon page?

If it does, and you've clicked on the link, hello! Here it is, my new cover for a new novella -- the first new book in a while, actually.

Have you missed my writing? Whoops, never mind, not going to rub a toe in the dirt and peek over at you to see if I get some pats on the head.

I've missed it and that's going to get me cranking again



This was inspired by Bonnie Dee who wrote to me and said, hey, want to write a story about dogs and guys? 

Yes please. Yes. A nice break from reality and, hoo boy, I have missed routine and fun stories.

Thank you, Bonnie. I'm going to include an excerpt to her book at the back of mine. Hers will show up May 20, I think.

HOT UNDER THE COLLAR will be out in May too -- probably May 15.

Isn't that nice? I think so too.
I'm not going to rant about Trump, or Clinton, or BLM anything else.

I'm going to wash out the chicken coop, make sure the ladies have enough to eat, and go about my boring life. Maybe I'll write some words in a story.

In order to maintain this mild outlook, I'm going to stay away from social media and since I'm used to yammering, I suppose I'll just have to talk to myself here. Also I'm going to open my picture page and, without paying much attention, drop a picture from there. A random picture and today we have . . .

HUBIE!

Thank goodness it isn't a picture of naked people. Just a naked dawg.

I think, I HOPE, it's easy to do.
They won't let me try it out. So why don't you? It's easy (I think) to enter.

 #AmazonGiveaway for a chance to win: The Private Secretary (Kindle Edition). https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/5c35ed8f725fc1e4 NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Ends the earlier of Jun 24, 2016 11:59 PM PDT, or when all prizes are claimed. See Official Rules http://amzn.to/GArules.