Disasters, Miracles and strange Connections

I’m very pleased to be able to tell you that Disasters and Miracles, the new Bible Stories anthology, is now available for purchase at Amazon UK. One of the stories in it is my own The Voyage, based on St Paul’s journey to Rome and his shipwreck in Malta and is told from the point of view of the centurion who took him there. Other stories in the anthology include an animal’s eye view of Noah’s ark, what it might have been like for the people in Jericho when the walls came down, and what really happened to the boy with the loaves and the fishes. More information can be found at my website.

Which is good news for me, as since last night I’ve been caught up in a small but rather vicious wave of depression, goddammit. It hasn’t been nice. And this morning I woke up to the news that Dreamspinner Press aren’t going to use my story in their upcoming Games in the Dark anthology, even though they thought it was good. I don’t know – I felt utterly winded by that and really quite tearful. They suggested I send it in as a stand-alone story, but I don’t feel strong enough for that, to be honest. So I’ve sent it off to another publisher who have a similar style anthology in the offing, to see if I have any more luck. And I’m trying to not think about it too much.

Anyway, what with all that, I didn’t have the heart to open my Bible this morning, so I apologise for the lack of poem, but there it is. But thank goodness work has been busy so I’ve been able to keep the doldrums at bay by throwing myself into writing up yesterday’s minutes, creating a draft presentation for the wardens, forming a To Do list for Freshers' Week, and all that whilst maintaining a reasonably calm exterior and not bursting into tears and rushing to the loo every five minutes. Lordy, but I’m good.

I’ve even taken my Coolreader – which is working, hurrah! – on my lunchtime stroll with me and sat reading it by the lake. The book I’m reading on it is utter chick-lit tripe (of which more when I’ve finished it) but at least it’s working. Though it did take us a while last night to realise we had to authorise the machine first before it would open anything. Sigh. We should have remembered from discovering this the time before. And on the way back to the office after lunch, I nipped in for a quick Starbucks – bliss, as ever.

At home, however, I've been hugely cheered by the fact that my erotic flash fiction piece, Connections, is now up at Babel Fruit Journal. This is a significant milestone for me as it was the very negative (and actually very hurtful) reaction from my former writers' group to this story that made me leave it and, eventually, the self-publishing company attached to it. Nice to know they might have been wrong. Sorry if that seems bitchy, but that's how it was. And I've never pretended to be perfect. Besides of which I don't think I would ever have reacted in a similar way to a piece brought to a writing group for comment. It was quite devastating at the time, but looking back I'm glad it made me take the decision I did. So I suppose it worked out for the best for all in the end, and thank you, Ren, for publishing it now!

Tonight I might stare for a while at my current short story and wonder what the heck it’s all about, so thank goodness for Who Do You Think You Are? Sometimes TV is a veritable lifesaver.

Today’s nice things:

1. Disasters and Miracles being published
2. A working Coolreader
3. Starbucks
4. Connections being published
5. TV.

Anne Brooke – fighting back disaster even as it strikes
Disasters and Miracles: a summer read for all the family