Poems, dinosaurs and a landmark word count

Am thrilled today that six of my meditation poems have been published by Emuse webzine and can be found here. The pictures that go with them are fabulous, so a big thank you to whoever chose them - great choice!

Talking of poetry, here's this morning's meditation:

Meditation 91

Your remembrance
waits in blue tassels
that brush against your history
at every turn

while a good answer
brightens the heart,
makes all things live.

Speaking of things religious, it's been (fittingly enough for a Sunday) a good day for that - I've just found out that my short story, The Voyage, will be published by Bridge House Publishing later in the year as part of their Real Bible Stories anthology. I've already signed the contract and will get that posted tomorrow, so many thanks to Gill for including mine in the list.

And we've even been to church - that's two Sundays running, well gosh. Whatever next?? It was the 1662 rehash today, which I do always rather enjoy, and it only gets an outing once a month, so nice to catch it really. We also had another of those sermons where we discuss our responses to what's said - it wakes us all up and makes us think a bit more and that can only be a good thing, although of course any longer than ten minutes' thinking time and we'll all self-destruct. It's the Anglican way. Mind you, talking of Anglican ways, Lord H and I were rather amused to hear the vicar call for more volunteers to help out with the post-church coffee rota as we all enjoy our post-church coffee and chat so much. Arrrggghhhh!!! Surely every good Anglican (and some not so good ones) knows that post-church coffee is a living hell and EVERYONE hates it???!!! It's one of the great penances of our faith. The sacrifice we make for having been cleansed from yet another week of sin, if you like. Or is that just me?... Either way, it's a nightmare of standing around, dredging our minds for suitably bland topics of religious or social conversation and drinking lukewarm coffee as quickly as possible in order to get away. I've always hated it. Really, it's not a good way to get to know anyone. As Lord H says, it would really be much better - and we'd get to know each other at more than a purely surface level - if we were given a topic each week that we had to ask each other about, eg our first childhood memories, the person whose birthday is nearest to ours, how many times during the week we'd sworn and why. At the very least it would save the agonies of trying to find common ground with people we only see for two minutes no more than once a week, and it might well break that peculiar brand of Anglican politeness. Dream on, eh ...

Back on home ground, I've been scribbling away at Hallsfoot's Battle and I am now well into the 100,000 word range, hurrah and put out the bunting! Well gosh, I was beginning to think I'd never get here - pauses for short round of applause. Well, thank you, thank you - how very kind. Anyway, the views from here are okay though there's still rather a lot of fog and the finishing point for Draft One is still about 20,000-40,000 words away. So we're not done yet, but the promise of the beginning of the end is almost in sight. As they say. Onward and upward, Carruthers.

Still in book world, and taking a leaf from the very talented Roger Morris, I've started to upload Maloney's Law in bitesize pieces onto My Twitter Page. So if you've never read any of Maloney at all, you can catch it there. The first line is already up, divided into two and interspersed amongst other goings-on in my literary life. You'll know which ones they are as I add in the web link at the end of the uploads. Enjoy. Heck, it's going to take a while, but every word will be worth it, believe me ...

However, the utter thrilling (and I'm so thrilled I think I might be sick) news is that Lord H and I have booked tickets to see the upcoming Walking with Dinosaurs 2009 Live event at Wembley in August. I love dinosaurs - next to Lord H they're my most favourite thing ever, and I can barely contain my excitement!! It looks utterly fabulous, it's already toured Australia, I think, and it's taking mechanical puppetry to a whole new level. What more could you ask for? I've marked the date on my calendar with a huge asterisk and I can't wait to go. Mind you, if it's anything like Jurassic Park, I shall probably spend most of the time screaming and hiding in Lord H's jacket, wimp that I am ... Lord H however mutters darkly that I could probably kick-ass a few marauding dinosaurs into submission, should I choose to do so. Hmm, what confidence in my wifely abilities - I think ...

Tonight, it's the last (oh noooooo ...) of Lark Rise to Candleford, and I'll watch the rather-too-irritating read-one-book-and-you've-read-them-all (hush my mouth) Botswana Lady Detective thing too, though I'm not convinced I'll last the whole of that series. We'll see. Bring back Lark Rise, please, and soon.

This week's haiku:

A heron in flight
pulls shadows across the lake
while cormorants pose.

Today's nice things (gosh, where to start?):

1. Six meditation poems being published
2. Poetry
3. Acceptance of The Voyage
4. Interactive church sermons
5. Getting to the 100,000 marker in Hallsfoot
6. Beginning to Twitter Maloney (as it were)
7. Dinosaurs, hurrah!
8. TV
9. Haikus.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website - gearing up for dinosaur city