Painting and proofs

Book News:

This week I've been working on the final proofs for A Dangerous Man and have just now sent them back to Cheyenne Publishing and Bristlecone Pine Press ready for publication date on 15 October. Nearly there, gosh. I've been thrilled today to see that the novel is included in the Lambda Literary October listings (Mystery & Thriller section), and that's a seriously good place to be showcased, double gosh.

Meanwhile, Maloney's Law gained a 5-star review at Goodreads, so many thanks for that, Nicci - so glad you enjoyed the story. I'm also very happy indeed that Tommy's Blind Date is No 4 in the Amber Allure September Bestseller lists, and many thanks to those who've put it there. And I'm equally happy that I appear twice in Jessewave Reviews' September Recommended Reads list, once with good old Tommy's Blind Date and once with Tuluscan Six and the Time Circle - thank you, Wave!

Over at Vulpes Libris, you can find my review of Jane Green's Girl Friday, which is a fabulous novel for the over-forties, and we so definitely need more of those. And the lovely Kirsty has also published a wonderful haiku-review of my Sunday Haiku collection - many thanks, Kirsty!

Here are this week's meditation poems:


Meditation 438
Wine and women
are a heady brew;

they befuddle kings
and confound the things

that are true.
Who knew?


Meditation 439
Men become liars
and truth hides
in the deepest well

when the story we long for
is not the one
where we dwell.

Life News:

K has been in Dubai all this week and I have missed him LOADS. Thankfully he's back tonight (hurrah!!) and is even now jetting his way towards Heathrow, so it will be totally lovely to have him back again. Goodness me but I was super-wimpy when he left at some ungodly hour on Monday morning - only barely managing not to grab him by the ankles and weep. Lordy, never say I'm not stylish, though what style it actually is must be anyone's guess.

Anyway, it's been strange rattling about in this old Victorian house all on my own for several days, but I have kept myself busy by doing bucketloads of DIY each evening when I got back from work - with the result that the spare room walls and ceiling are now painted with four coats, and the skirting board and door glossed with two. Oh and those proofs have kept me focused too, so that's been good.

Work's been horrendously busy as well, what with being the first week of term, and I simply haven't had time to sit down, my dears. Not one second. I couldn't even spare the time (or the energy) to go to Starbucks, and the wonderful Ruth had to bring me not one but two coffees where I sat pinned to my desk and panicking like a trouper. What a superstar that woman is. It's the froth that keeps me going, you know ...

Today, one of the vendors from the flat below has been in the house though, so I've not been entirely alone. I think we are studiously ignoring each other, which is no doubt best, and really I don't have any desire at all to communicate with them again, to be honest. Yes, that probably means I'm a bad person but hey at least I'm honest about it. I'd feel happier about it if K was home as it's a little unsettling, but as long as said vendor doesn't try to talk to me I'll be fine. Though if you do hear tell of a man being pinned to a landing wall with a screwdriver in a small Surrey town, I trust that all of you will vouch for my obviously impeccable character. Ho hum.

Anne Brooke