Rosie by Name

Book News

I'm delighted to say that my comic and just a little bit naughty short story, Rosie by Name, is now available at Bluewood Publishing, and what a totally fabulous cover that is. I love it. So if you want some springtime laughter, do pop along and find out more. Rosie's quite a gal!

On a rather different tack, I've just found out that my lesbian erotic short story, Butterfly Girl, has been accepted for publication by Oysters & Chocolate webzine, so I'm thrilled about that one too.

In terms of reviews, A Dangerous Man has been doing well though, sadly, royalties for the paperback version are continuing to be very poor, which I'm sorry about really - I feel rather guilty for my paperback publisher as they've taken a risk on it and I fear it's not paid off ... Still the ebook is doing okay so that's some consolation for sure. Anyway, at Goodreads, it gained an interesting 4-star review (thanks, Kate) and a fascinating 5-star review (thank you, Sonya), so both of these were lovely.

Meanwhile, I'm happy to note that 5 copies of The Secret Thoughts of Leaves have been borrowed from libraries during April, so I hope the borrowers have enjoyed that. Call me old-fashioned but actually having someone take one of my books from a library always gives me a thrill. It's almost like being a real writer, you know.

And my review of Andy Frankham-Allen's magnificent fantasy novel, Seeker, is now up at Vulpes Libris, so please ignore that quite dreadful new cover it has (!) and go along and find out more. It's a work I can thoroughly recommend for all.

Meditations so far this week are:


Meditation 514
A long, bleak path
from the place you know
to one you do not;

with every slow step
the chance for life
fades away

and you know you will not
make the journey back
one day.




Meditation 515
Great power
brings greater risk

so do not choose
to seek it.

Walk the quieter path
and mark your step

on the earth most suited
to meet it.




Meditation 516
Freedom comes by being open
to the day’s surprises

which often arrive
in strange disguises.


Life News:

Difficult news on the house front, alas. It appears that our vendors might be having second thoughts about selling us their very nice house, groan. I appreciate they're in the middle of a tricky divorce and have every sympathy for that, but we've got so far down the road that I can't bear the thought of our second attempt at purchase falling through. We're getting zilch information from their solicitors or their estate agents, though the solicitors did tell us their clients were probably too busy divorcing to pay us much attention or words to that effect (nice, eh!...), so we're really none the wiser. K sent a firmly worded email earlier in the week, which has been ignored. And today I've rung up the estate agents - actually to ask them if we can view another house on their books, which put the wind up them rather, but frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn - who got terribly panicky and promised to ring back asap. Which they have now down, so hopefully someone's on the case ...

Anyway, in the meantime, we're keeping our options open and I've arranged three other house viewings for Saturday and, if we find one we like and they're actually willing and able to sell it to us, we'll seriously consider withdrawing our offer and starting afresh, with a keener vendor. The one good thing that comes out of this is our solicitor is likely to make a fortune from our misfortune (glad someone is!). A few more situations like this and we won't be able to afford to move at all. Hey ho, you've got to laugh, I suppose. Thank goodness for anti-depressants! Though, understandably, I've had a bit of a relapse this week and have been supplementing them with Quiet Life pills, which seem to have helped a little.

However, all is not lost as nice things have happened too, hurrah. I had a totally lovely reflexology session with Helen at work on Wednesday which was bliss. I even fell asleep twice so it was great to feel that relaxed. What with Easter in the way, I've made my next appointment in May, and I can't wait. Today, I've popped in to see the ground-floor neighbour now in Woking and was delighted to find him in much better form than during my last visit. We talked about politics, the environment, gardens, war and tea, so a great time was had by all. I swear that, between the two of us, we could probably change the world.

The world of television has been a fascinating one this week. The Model Agency was as grippingly shallow and socially horrid as ever but, now it's over, I shall miss it, I fear. It was, I imagine, much like watching a Victorian freak show - the freaks being the agency bookers, definitely. Something one is fascinated by but never wants to connect to ...

However, it was wonderful to have Lewis back on Sunday nights and I wallowed in its classiness, bliss. Sooooo much better than the increasingly wretched Midsomer Murders. Talking of which, I'm told that the Jack Russell now taking the main role in Midsomer is the same dog as the one in the recent series of adverts (advertising what, I really don't know) who's attempting to find a home by doing the washing-up and the gardening etc etc for its potential new owners. Give that animal an Equity card - it could go far ...

And I watched (again, as the same episode was on last year, I think) the pilot episode for the utterly surreal, terribly rude and strangely accurate university comedy series, Campus. Ah, that Vice-Chancellor - how I loved him. It's bold, brutish and takes some breathtaking risks, but I laughed out loud several times, particularly at how well it portrayed some of the current issues of universities (though in a larger-than-life way, I hasten to add!), and I'll definitely be watching again.

Tonight, K and I are off to the theatre to see To Kill A Mockingbird, so that should be ... um ... fun. Sort of! Well, classy anyway. Which should round off the week nicely, hey ho.

Anne Brooke