Candy and Catharsis

Am hugely pleased to say that Candy and Catharsis, my comic short story about the loves, tragedies and traumas of living in a dictionary (well, it's a hard life for a working word ...), has now been published by The Oddville Press and can be found in their free Issue 3 magazine download here. It's the first story you scroll down to and I hope you enjoy the read. It should at the very least raise several laughs on this bright and bubbly afternoon.

Keeping on matters literary, I've been in poetic mood and have written a couple of poems over the last day or so - one came to me while I was doing my back exercises and the other while I was driving home from the shop. Whilst paying due care and attention to the road conditions, naturally. I was also thrilled to be asked by the marvellous Nik Perring to contribute a haiku to an upcoming book of photographs and words that's being produced for charity. More information on this exciting new project can be found at today's entry on Nik's blog. Do have a read and admire the photograph - it's great! And have a go at the competition if you feel so inspired too. Oh and yes, I've sent him my offering already (for a different picture), so thanks again, Nik.

Apologies though for the lack of meditation poem today - I was sent skittering frantically from my bed at 6am with a rampant bout of girly pain (say no more - oh, actually, I'm going to anyway, sorry ...), and so any concept of Bible reading went out the window while I was searching for a hot water bottle, painkillers and the Deep Heat cream. I wonder if this unexpected onslaught (usually my monthly pain levels are far more under control than that these days ...) might have been partly caused by the fact that I forgot my HRT gel last night? If so, it's certainly taught me my lesson, I can tell you. Anyway, Lord H rubbed my back while I groaned for a while (what a hero!), but thankfully all is now well. I can never find the words to say how utterly utterly wonderful it is when the pain stops. Complete heaven indeed.

Back to the literary life, I have written another 1000 words of Hallsfoot's Battle and I think I have more ideas about the battle scenes. Thank goodness. I've got rid of one secondary character too - rather too harshly, I suspect, so I may have to revisit the handling of that in the edit. So I'm now at the 111,000 range and back into Simon's viewpoint. He's not a happy man (or rather half-Gathandrian), believe me. After all, he's a scribe, not a soldier - as the good Star Trek doctor would say. I feel he's going to have to learn fast however. Ah well.

Meanwhile, never say TV is not inspirational: as a result of last night's programme on the building restoration projects updates, I've finally become a friend of our local Watts Gallery. It's not open again until 2010, but friends are allowed to have tours around the site as it progresses, and that's way too tempting an offer ... A building site! Builders! What more could you want?? Anyway, tonight, our viewing pleasures include My Family and Graham Norton (I've recently become hooked on this), which are of course inspirational in their own special ways. Not to mention unique.

Today's nice things:

1. The publication of Candy and Catharsis
2. Writing poems
3. Writing a haiku to order, hurrah!
4. When the pain stops ...
5. Getting more of Hallsfoot down
6. The joys of television.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website - a refuge for troubled words ...