Hallsfoot, puzzles and story thoughts

Have most of the day working away on Hallsfoot's Battle - the writing seems slightly easier when I'm with Ralph. Possibly because he has more exciting action-hero type stuff to do, rather than the Gathandrians, who have to puzzle over their battle plans and worry about the mind-executioner's next move. As well as wondering where the hell Simon is. Then again, Ralph is first and foremost a soldier, so he's used to a bit of derring-do. He's best when he doesn't have to think, you know ... So, I'm now at over 84,000 words and I have plans for the Lammas Lord (AKA Ralph, for those of you not quite keeping up at the back - which probably includes me these days too ...), so there'll be something to write about tomorrow when I come to it again. I hope.

And this morning's meditation poem is:

Meditation 60

I’m pleased that camel,
rock-badger and rabbit

escape the call
of the cooking pot,

but I’m not too worried
about moles, rats

or mice.
Hurry through the dark streets,

usher the poor, the blind
and the lame

to a feast
they have not looked for.


I've also managed to pick up a copy of next week's Radio Times today. This time, all the good TV (or most of it anyway) appears to be on Monday. In fact there are four programmes I want to watch then, all on at the same time, deep sigh ... How I long for a more sensible viewing policy so more than one day a week gets the chance of some good stuff. Hmm, I won't hold my breath then. However the joyful, utterly amazing thing is that I solved the Radio Times anagram puzzle in only one second!!! Double hurrahs and crack open the champers indeed. The word simply leapt out at me, my dears, and I was so excited that I jumped up and down in the flat yelling and congratulating myself. Good job no-one was here then - I trust that my impending lunacy is a secret you will not divulge ... Maybe I need to get out more? Or possibly less. Anyway, that effort must surely beat Lord H this week, as to my shame he usually gets the word first. He comes from a long line of expert, highly trained anagram-solvers, so it's in the genes, you know.

There's also a plot and a character for a short story chasing themselves around my mind at the moment, courtesy of something Lord H said yesterday. They are even now pecking at the inside of my head and I will have to let them out at some stage before they become too irritating. But I don't want to get too carried away and do too much so I end up in a sobbing heap. Patience is all - so they say.

And talking of short stories, I've just finished the I Do Anthology - in support of gay marriage equality in eBook version. A nice mix of stories, some erotic and some not, though I do think that the first one in the collection, The Lindorm's Twin, is rather weak and shouldn't have been included at all, let alone be in pride of place. It rather put me off and I was desperately skipping it. However, that said, the collection picks up again once you get to the second story and from there on it's fine. Particular favourites include Outed by Clare London (a witty tale of an unexpected coming out moment which includes a brother/sister conversation that made me laugh out loud. It's my joint favourite and a classy read), Lust in Translation by Storm Grant (where a hooker isn't entirely what he seems and a cop gets rather more than he bargained for), Making Memory by Lisabet Sarai (a moving encounter between two very different women) and Code of Honour by Marquesate (my other joint favourite in the collection - a short story with considerable depth set in the Foreign Legion with two very strong leads. I couldn't put it down, in a virtual sense). And special mention has to go to gay fiction stalwarts, Alex Beecroft, Sharon Maria Bidwell, Fiona Glass and Erastes (whose story of grief relived actually had me crying at the start), all of whom can always be relied on to produce a good solid tale well told. Worth a read for sure and of course it's a very good cause.

Today's nice things:

1. Getting on, slowly, with Hallsfoot
2. Poetry
3. Being a brilliant solver of anagrams - at last!
4. Short story ponderings
5. The anthology.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website - not averse to a spot of derring-do herself