Cancellations, False Colors and book groups

Look! I’m back reading my bible, so I must be getting better, thank the Lord – here’s this morning’s meditation:

Meditation 125

Add nothing
to what you see

and take nothing away.
Leave the earth

as you found it
and let your breath

be a whisper
on the wind

heard only by God.

At work, the boss is ill, poor chap (it’s not really been a good year so far for office illnesses …) so I’ve cancelled his meetings for today and hope he’s on the mend tomorrow. One of the meetings to fall by the wayside was our monthly Care Services Steering Group, so I’ve kept the sandwiches order (it’s too late to cancel them anyway) and will bring it up to our new offices as an informal get-together for whoever is around. UPDATE: Not many were around but hell we ate them anyway. What heroes we are.

Tonight, it’s the University book group, so I’m planning to go to that. We’re discussing the marvellous Kate Fox’s Watching the English which I loved, so hopefully they’ll be some lively debate there. You can never trust the English, after all – we’re a funny lot. UPDATE - it was wonderful. A really good discussion, made all the more interesting by the presence of an American lady in the group. Fascinating stuff indeed.

Talking of good reads, I must say Alex Beecroft’s GLBT historical romance False Colors is a total and absolute pleasure. The plot is marvellous and terribly exciting – and heck I don’t even usually go for seafaring novels, but there’s a perfect and very real level of detail there which meant I felt part of the whole scenario without being overwhelmed by it. The characters were gripping, well-rounded and very human – even the minor characters felt real. Plus the level and detail of sex was just right. I can thoroughly recommend it and look forward to more. In fact, I’m hoping to do a more in-depth review of this one, plus take a brief look at the new GLBT historical romance line from Running Press (from whence it comes) for a future Vulpes Libris article, so watch this space … In the meantime, I’m working on a short story with the theme, Lost and Found. It appears to be shaping up into a tale about mental health or the lack of it. Hmm, how I like a challenge, eh. Why can’t I write happy at all these days?...

Finally, I’m delighted to say that Every Day Poets will be publishing my poem, Blutherbung, sometime in the near future, so that’s lovely news, hurrah.

Today’s nice things:

1. Poetry
2. Informal sandwich chats
3. Books.

Anne Brooke - the queen of cancellations ...
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