Blog tours and beauty

Book News:

Well, it's almost here - as of tomorrow until 16 February, my literary gay short story The Heart's Greater Silence is going on tour and will be appearing at a variety of venues at a computer near you. Don't miss out! Especially as there's a big bag of goodies and other fun stuff to give away while we're travelling. Plus don't forget you only have till Monday 5am UK time to preorder and be in with a chance of winning a year's supply of books - happy shopping! Also because of the tour, I'll be posting a quick blog each day to update you as to where I am and what I'm up to (in the politest possible sense, naturally ...).

In addition, I'm pleased to say that I've received a few very nice reviews for The Heart's Greater Silence in the past couple of days: there have been three 5-star reviews at Goodreads, one from Nithu, one from Suzette, and one from Aija. Thank you so much to all of you, both for reading and commenting. Plus there's also a lovely 4.5 star review at TWLIB Reviews - many thanks indeed, Nicci.

Meanwhile, my Buy One Get One Free offer continues - so if you purchase a copy of my fantasy novel The Gifting in ebook OR paperback version, you get a FREE ebook from anything on my backlist as well. This offer absolutely has to end on 7 February so don't miss out on that one either!

Keeping to the subject of The Gathandrian Trilogy, I was thrilled to receive back the first impressions from my independent editor in response to the final part of the trilogy, The Executioner's Cane. She very kindly said it's a "powerful evocative final book for the trilogy." Gosh, thanks, Sarah! This was especially welcome as the so-far poor sales record of The Gifting has left me feeling rather down recently, and I was wondering if I had the ability to finish it properly at all. Well, maybe I have, and maybe it's not as awful as feared. I hope not anyway. I'll certainly be getting lots of edits and alterations from Sarah (I hope - as I really love getting my teeth into a good editing task), but now I feel there might be something there worth improving. You never know, eh.

Other book news is that there's a 20% discount on my Sunday Haiku collection direct from the publisher, so it's the ideal opportunity to slip some nature poetry into your shopping basket. Enjoy. Speaking of which, here's my latest Sunday haiku:

This golden evening
dreams away the honeyed time,
making winter warm.


Life News:

As both a traditional Christian and a staunch believer in LGBT equality, I'd like to draw your attention to this petition to allow vicars to bless the civil partnerships of gay and lesbian couples in church in the UK. It's something I believe in very strongly indeed and I've already signed it, so I hope some of you out there will consider signing it also. One day - surely! - the church has to show at least some understanding of equality and justice ...

On a more practical level, our roof problems continue. The third roofer chappie came round for a third time this week to discuss options, and he's coming round again next week with a scaffolding expert so he can begin to get together a proper quote for us. Really, it's all fun and games here in the shires. As always.

Plus there's wonderful local news: I've won a free MOT with our local garage in Elstead, so I'm looking forward to taking that up later in the year. And my neighbour and friend, L, and I sipped champagne on Friday afternoon at the reopening of our local beauty salon, hurrah, and hic! It looks marvellous, and we've both booked treatments for next week. I'm having the rebalancing facial and they're going to cut through my eyebrow hedge at the same time. Good luck to them on that front, eh ... Honestly, I'll be a new woman next week - you won't recognise me.

Astonishingly, I also managed to win our golf game on Friday morning - I can't remember the last time I beat Marian so we were both severely shocked. Perhaps I've been swopped with an alien? Who can tell ... I've also had a haircut which I'm very pleased with and can now see out (well, apart from the eyebrows problem), hurrah. And on Friday evening, we had L & J, and R & G round for dinner, which was fabulous. Our first dinner party at the house, dahlings - what fun! K really pushed the boat out, and we ate pate and crispbreads, followed by mushrooms in Yorkshire pudding with potato wedges and green beans, all finished off with pears roasted in honey and pine nuts with clotted cream. Oh and not forgetting the cheese & port course, and coffee and chocolates. Bliss .... That should keep us nicely going through this sudden onset of winter.

Because, arrggh, the snow! Horrid. Though thank goodness it appears to be melting. Let's hope that continues. After all, I don't want anything coming between me and my new eyebrows next week, ho ho ... Perish the thought.

Anne Brooke
The Gathandrian Trilogy - critically acclaimed but commercially sagging
Gay Reads UK - for intelligent kink (as it were)
Biblical Fiction UK - for a new look at those old stories

Death, dinners and silence

Book News:

For the first time ever in my writing life, I actually have a book you can pre-order, well gosh. I'm delighted to say that literary gay short story The Heart's Greater Silence can now be pre-ordered from Riptide Publishing (and if you do so, then you also enter their giveaway competition!) and is also up at Goodreads. The cover's pretty classy too and it's due out on 6 February.

Here's the blurb:

Mark isn't sure he believes in love, especially when he's torn between two very different men: his reliable boyfriend, Craig, and his illicit lover and priest, Richard. Mark knows what he should do, but he can't bring himself to give Richard up. The sex with Richard is unlike anything he's ever known with Craig, and he hungers for it as much as - if not more than - the truer intimacy he finds in his boyfriend's arms. When Craig discovers his betrayal, Mark is forced to look at his life more closely, but the path to self-knowledge is never an easy one. Richard seeks the way back to God, but Mark finds no solace there. Can he ever discover the truth of his own soul, or is he too afraid of what he will - or won't - find inside his heart?


Keeping with Riptide Publishing, I'm also happy to say that another literary gay story, Where You Hurt the Most, has just been accepted by them, so I'm looking forward to working with them on that one also. You can also visit my author page with Riptide here.

Meanwhile, I've just sent back the final proofs for biblical short story A Little Death to Untreed Reads, so that should be available soon. Watch this space ...

Don't forget my newsletter competition is still running, so enter soon to be in with a chance of winning something from my backlist! And a big thank you to Elstead Writers' Group and the lovely Sue who hosts it for a wonderful Saturday morning talking about writing. Fabulous.

This week's meditations are:


Meditation 599
Whatever we may say
or secretly think
about God

He’s more merciful
a leader
than any mere man.


Meditation 600
A lifetime remembered
for the increase of power
and a passion
for all that is wrong

does not in the end
whatever we say
make for a very
meaningful song.


The Sunday haiku is:

Each ripe red berry
plucked one by one from my hedge
like vanishing stars.


Life News:

It's been an odd week this week, what with working on Thursday and Friday, and having Tuesday and Wednesday at home instead. Most disorientating. Still, we had the office Christmas lunch on Thursday, at All Bar One in Guildford, which was great as I could actually hear what people were saying (hurrah!) and the food was wonderful. We had a lovely time. On Friday we had the Managers' Away Day which was very worthwhile indeed, in spite of the fact that we saw our first snow of the season (yikes!). Thank goodness it didn't settle. How I hate snow ... And in the evening, K and I were at Marian's for dinner, during which - for some strange reason - we were nearly visited by the local youth group's Santa sledge, but he somehow escaped so we never actually saw him. Probably too busy trying to find where the good children are, ho hum.

Yesterday, we spent the afternoon gardening and in the evening we were at Liz's two doors down for her pre-Christmas dinner - great company, great food, including a home-made Yule log to die for, and possibly rather too much wine than was good for us. Hey ho, it's Christmas after all.

And today, we've spent a lovely day (though a chilly one!) with Peter and Sue at The Vyne, catching up and exchanging presents. Unfortunately, I seem to have bought poor Peter something he already has, but there are other gifts too, so all is - probably - not lost. I hope ...!

Anne Brooke
The Origami Nun

Gardens, Gifting and Rosie galore

Book News:

Happily, Rosie by Name has begun to spread her wings a little and can now be found at Amazon US, Amazon UK (where it's actually got a ranking so someone must have bought a copy - many thanks indeed!), All Romance Ebooks and Bookstrand (where it's classified as "steamy" - mainstream with some adult language, in case you're wondering ...). And it looks as if someone might just have bought a copy there too, so thank you for that, whoever you are.

Keeping with exciting packages from Bluewood Publishing, I'm thrilled to have received the final proof copies of The Gifting today, so my main focus over the next days will be going through that and marking down any typos I might find to get it ready for publication. As a result, though I've completed Annyeke's part of the epilogue for The Executioner's Cane (a milestone which actually has made me feel quite sad, even though I've been longing to get there for weeks), I'm leaving Ralph's and Simon's parts of the epilogue until I've finished the proof checks for The Gifting.

My most recent meditation is:




Meditation 517
Methuselah is a name
to conjure with:

fire and wind
and storm,

a wildness to cling to
when the days

are dusty and dry,
and the journey bleak.


And the Sunday haiku is:

When a plastic bag
grows up, it becomes a swan:
feathers and sunshine.


Life News:

After I threw all my toys out of the pram last week in terms of our potential house-purchase and our issues with the vendors, things look set to improve, I hope. The estate agent called yesterday to say that the vendors are both 100% behind selling their house to us, and therefore answers to the two outstanding questions will be with our solicitor by the middle of next week, at which point we can start discussing an exchange date. Plus they apologise for the delay, which is nice. Lordy, if it actually happens as the estate agent promises, it will be bloody brilliant as I am more than desperate to get into the new house.

However, we're keeping a Plan B route open in case that doesn't happen and so viewed three other properties yesterday also. Top of the list is a very nice bungalow in Wood Street Village, with a great garden, which we can both happily see ourselves living in. But we won't make any decisions until next week begins to unfold. Wish us luck, eh - we need it.

Meanwhile, our selling estate agent, the marvellous Lucy of Seymours (may her name be praised) seems to be the only one who really knows what she's doing and has been chasing round in terms of the sale of our flat. She's also beaten everyone over the head with the information (which we keep on telling people but nobody pays a blind bit of attention) that we are not in a chain and can leave here and rent somewhere whenever we need to, and on the other hand occupy the next house without initially selling this one. I hope they have now understood these details from Lucy, when they cannot do so from us. It also appears that the only one left to sign our transfer document is the new middle neighbour, so we hope he begins to be rather more amenable than he has up to now. It's about time he did something positive and pleasant - as so far he hasn't really covered himself in glory. Watch this space indeed ...

Anyway, our trip to the theatre on Thursday to see To Kill a Mockingbird ended up being pretty damn classy. A very slow and rather unnecessary start finally gave way to a stonkingly good finish so it was well worth the wait and the journey. I can only recommend it if it travels your way.

Friday night saw us out for dinner at Robin & Gavin's, along with Liz & John (hello, all!) and it was lovely to catch up before Easter rolls over us. This morning we have pottered along to church where the first two hymns were utterly unfamiliar to everyone and we were desperately struggling with the tune (how I hate it when that happens) but luckily the final two were more familiar though, as a congregation, we were so emotionally drained by the first two hymns that we were barely able to squeak our way through at all. We did our best, but the spirit was willing, etc etc, as they say.

We've had a wonderfully relaxing afternoon strolling round Coverwood Lakes & Gardens, which is open today as part of the National Garden Scheme. Being a working farm, it was really more parkland than garden, but still very pleasant especially in this weather and the tea & cake were lovely. Mmmm.

Tonight, it's the glories of Lewis on TV, and once more I can't wait for it. The perfect end to a Sunday.

Anne Brooke

The Decluttering Queen

Book News:

This week I've been delighted that Martin and The Wolf gained a 4-star review at Goodreads - many thanks, Chris. Tuluscan Six and The Time Circle received a 4.5 star review at Jessewave Reviews, so thank you to Val for that.

Meanwhile, Tommy's Blind Date has been doing well, with a review at Tam's Reads (scroll down to view), and two 5-star reviews at Goodreads, one from Lisa and one from Stephanie, so a big thank you to you both! And, for the blink of an eye, The Delaneys and Me found itself at No 40 in the Amazon charts but has dropped out now.

Finally, in this section, K and I have been parsing the verb to Kindle, and have decided it's an irregular verb: I Kindle; you don't have a Kindle; he/she/it doesn't know what a Kindle is ... Really, I'm loving it.

My latest meditations are:


Meditation 430
To question God
with raw honesty

is better
than a thousand pleasant lies

told in the secret passages
of your heart.


Meditation 431
Sow in the field
of desire

and reap
a harvest of death;

sow in the field
of kindness

and reap
a harvest of life.


Meditation 432
A whisper from the sea
seven times softer
than the salty air
you breathe.

When the dark clouds dance
and the wind sings,
run before the promise
of rain, rejoicing.

Life News:

Well, it's been inevitable really, and certainly since the beginning of September when it all went horribly wrong, but K and I have this week now officially withdrawn from the flat-buying disaster and have, in a brief email to them and their solicitors, wished the vendors luck in whatever they decide to do with their flat from now on. Well, a former boss of mine once told me - and he was right - always to end a quarrel with courtesy so that is what we have attempted to do. Time to lick our wounds, take a deep breath and move on, once our solicitor's bill is paid, of course!

With this in mind, we've been continuing to paint and declutter our flat ready for potential buyers, and have managed to clear the place of nine bags of recyclable clothes and two bin-bags of clothes not even charity shops would take. We have also thrown away a lot of our old video tapes (though I can't bring myself to part with all my Star Trek ones - no way!) and have therefore all but filled three wheelie-bins full of rubbish again. And the binmen aren't collecting rubbish until Tuesday week as we're on a fortnightly cycle so Lord knows where I'll be putting the old/unwanted food leftovers ... Help!

We have also given at least one coat of paint to everything in the hallway that needs lightening up, apart from the skirting board as we need to take the carpet up for that. And I have washed the spare room walls where I can get to them between the bookcases ready for giving that a coat of paint too. There'll be more stuff to throw away from the spare room but some of that is a council tip job so I think K and I will have to tackle that together.

In the midst of all this, I've also had my regular hospital appointment with the lovely Alli, and we've now decided that I'll be coming off the HRT to try to avoid the need for another operation to take my right ovary out, as it's not very good really. Poor thing, I'm quite fond of it, you know - I think it's called George - and I'd like to try to save it. But I am a bit worried as to what it might do in terms of my mood swings, which the HRT was helping a lot with, so I will have to try to keep a close eye on how I am (not easy when I could be either screaming with rage and brandishing the nearest weaponry or weeping like a klutz all over the dining room table, and sometimes both!...) and keep taking the St John's Wort which is also marvellous for my happiness levels. We'll see.

So, thank goodness for a night out on Tuesday with the lovely Jane and Tanya, the latter of whom I'd not seen for ages so it was great to catch up. The French restaurant Jane chose ( Cote in Guildford) was fabulous too and the food top-notch though we were all puzzled as to why there was a choice of having your mushroom soup either hot or cold. Yuk! The French are a mysterious folk indeed. We're also at that age where none of us can read the menu unless it's at arm's length, which caused great amusement to our fellow diners. Ah well. We're not getting any younger, you know ...

Anne Brooke

Popes, Prayer and paint

Life News:

A hell of a lot of painting has gone on this week - we've painted the bathroom door and skirting board, the hall cupboard, the spare room door & cupboard, some of the hall skirting boards and two sets of the three wooden frames that are a feature of our hallway. It all lightens it up nicely, which is hugely pleasing - if we'd known it would look so good, we've have done it much earlier, but it certainly should make it more desirable at the very least. And it's a lesson to us for our next home - paint everything light colours and watch the space increase!

Not only that but I've tidied the living room and spare rooms so they look much bigger - or the spare room would if we hadn't today moved everything around in order to paint, but it will do when it's back in its right place again! I've also recycled six bags of books last week and have created another nine bags of books today to take to the recycling point this week. We do have a lot of books - K did an estimate a while back and made it 1200, but it's 15 bags less now! We've also chucked away a load of old videos and tapes that we never watch/listen to - Lord only knows why we were keeping them. Laziness probably.

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon behind the Student Care stand at the University Open Day - not as hectic as the last time which was truly horrible, but I wasn't feeling that well really, so I kept smiling inanely and hoping that people believed whatever it was I was saying. Most seemed to.

Oh, and Marian and I played an outrageously bad game of golf on Friday - we were so bad we became utterly hysterical at one point and couldn't stop laughing. Thank goodness no-one was behind us. Marian managed to get both her tee shots on the 6th hole into the pond, which is at least consistent, and I managed to hit not one, not two, but three trees on the 8th, two of them with the same shot. Lordy, but I'm good, um not. Thankfully, Marian and her husband came round for dinner on Friday night (pre-painting extravaganza) so we were able to drown our sorrows in good measure.

Finally, rumour has it that some elderly Catholic gent has come over to the UK for the weekend, Gawd bless 'im. I hope he enjoys his brief stay, though I do think the least we could do is give him a car he could actually get in and out of successfully. He is 83, after all, and Jaguar's don't really allow for much leeway ... Mind you, K reminded me that he must have been greatly chuffed indeed during his private audience with the Queen and Prince Philip - to be at last the youngest person in the room must have fulfilled a lifetime's ambition for him, hurrah!

Book News:

I've finished the edits for The Prayer Seeker, so I now feel happier with that. Now all I have to do (ho hum) is find someone who might want it. Suggest no-one holds their breath though! And I'm pleased to say that Tommy's Blind Date is now available at All Romance Ebooks and, not to be outdone, The Delaneys and Me popped briefly back into the Amazon Charts at No 78 though not for long.

This week's meditation is:

Meditation 429
If you’re in a desert
where ravens bring you food
and God provides the water

sneak away quickly
as your odds for happiness
probably just got shorter.


The Sunday haiku is:

A sparkle of birds
wheels and dances in the sky.
Sunlight on water.

Anne Brooke

Torchwood Day Three, Diabetes Day Five and a Cool-er Reader

Another good episode of Torchwood yesterday, though not quite as hot and on-the-edge as the first episode, I think. It’s also strange how Jack and Ianto seem to blow hot and cold, and there’s very little consistency in it. In Episode One they appeared to be a normal couple (well, relatively normal, bearing in mind Jack isn’t entirely human …), yet in Episode Two when Jack dies several times and is then rescued by Gwen & Ianto from his cement prison by the means of dropping the whole lot into a quarry so he dies and lives again, neither man appears to be that pleased to see each other. Bizarre really. Perhaps they have evil twins who occasionally take over and that’s another Torchwood secret yet to be revealed? And, while I’m on the subject, Lord H is rather puzzled as to where the Government managed to get hold of such quick drying cement and why can’t they let any of the rest of us have it … The plot thickens indeed, Carruthers, much like the cement.

Still, I’m looking forward to Episode Three which I plan to watch on the i-player tomorrow as I’m out with Jane H for pizza and chat in Godalming tonight, hurrah! (Hello, Jane).

In the meantime, the Diabetes charity auction continues and Maloney’s Law is still up for grabs. It’s a wonderful chance to support a very worthwhile cause and there are only five days left to do so … Says she, sounding only ever so slightly desperate that she’s one of the two authors who’ve received no bids yet. My reputation goes before me, I fear.

At work, we’ve had a briefing meeting for the upcoming open day next week – though I won’t actually be involved in that one, it’s always worth knowing what the plans are, especially as I’ll be organising our office team for a couple of them coming up later in the year. The excitement of the day though was when one of the Students’ Union staff came in and wanted to stamp a letter with a “Received on …” date stamp. However, without the Dean of Students’ office here today, nobody knew how to change the date stamp, and it took four of us and a lot of wasted ink to work our way to that conclusion. In the end, we just used a pen. Ah the old ways are sometimes the best, you know. New-fangled date stamps – bah, we say, bah!

And, horrifyingly, it’s that time of year for our annual review – yikes! I don’t think I’m even halfway towards completing last year’s goals yet. Best get a move on then … Oh and this week’s heroes are the Monty Python team, Ram from Student Advice, Lauren from Mentoring, and Brother Lawrence. Just because they are, really.

Still no news on the car front though – I was hoping to get it back today, but it’s all gone very quiet. Perhaps poor Rupert is beyond all hope now? Sob. Mind you, I might finally get round to looking at a new (well, second-hand new …) car at the weekend, so maybe this is a push in the right direction? Trouble is, all the cars we’ve looked at appear to be silver or black, and I was hoping for a colour this time round. Has the car industry run out of spray paint? UPDATE – sadly the car is worse off than we feared and the aircon, clutch and fanbelt are all very very unhappy. The garage man’s going to ring me again tomorrow with an ultimate price update – deep deep sigh, combined with sobbing …

I’ve now finished reading Chris Cleave’s novel, The Other Hand, which I hope to review for Vulpes Libris later. Hmm and hmm is all I can say, and editors aren’t really what they used to be … Mind you, the great news is that my new Cool-er Reader (in the picture, mine's the violet one) has arrived and I'm now charging it up ready to upload my first eBooks for reading away from my computer, hurrah. I can't wait.

Today’s nice things:

1. Torchwood
2. Charity auction
3. Date stamp fun
4. The week’s heroes
5. Thinking about a new car, maybe
6. The Cool-er Reader
7. Dinner with Jane.

Anne Brooke - bringing her reading into the 21st century at last

The wild social whirl and the beginnings of battle

Something of a social whirl day today, so I got up early and got down to getting another 1000 words of Hallsfoot's Battle into the pot. Which meant actually starting the big battle scenes, which I suspect will go on for some time and have a variety of different viewpoints in them. So that brings me safely into the 108,000 word range. I'm still a tad (well, more than a tad) worried about whether I'll be up to the task of making the concept of battle terrifying enough, particularly as I don't think war is my strong point, but I'll do the best I can and see what comes out - or goes in - during the edit. Thank God no-one ever sees the draft version, eh. That would be very frightening indeed. Even I can barely bring myself to read it.

This morning's meditation, meanwhile, is this:

Meditation 106

A vow
is like a pearl.

It belongs
to the man

who pays for it,
not to she

who wears it.

Talking of poetry, I'm very happy to say that Perpetual Magazine will be showcasing some of my work as part of their May/June Featured Poet slot, so that's good news indeed. Thank you, Russell!

Had a pub lunch out with Liz from the choir today, and we managed to find the last remaining pub in Godalming that actually does baguettes for lunch - which was wonderful news, but no doubt now I've said that they'll probably take them off the menu, dammit. Sigh. Had a great chat, and we were also joined for coffee (coffee, my dears - how very Surrey!) by another of her friends before doing a spot of shopping in the garden centre opposite the pub. Lordy, we are women of a certain age, aren't we? I even stocked up on my dwindling supply of Epsom salts for the bath, so that puts at least twenty years on me, to start with. I'll go and order my bathchair immediately ...

Tonight, I'm seeing Jane W in London for another chat and catch-up session so, as I said, it's one wild social whirl today. I have carved out a day tomorrow though where I don't have to talk to anyone apart from Lord H, so there's time to recover at least. I don't want to get too excited after all, not with my rapidly advancing years.

And I've been gravely disappointed in Leslie Marshall's novel, A Girl Could Stand Up. Quite, quite dreadful, my dears. I think it thought it was cleverer than it really was, but to be honest it had absolutely no charm and very little plot. Oh and some very dull characters to boot. I cared not a jot for any of them. The girl, Elray, is the only survivor of a freak accident that kills her parents at the start of the book, and I then spent 400 pages or so wishing that she'd died too and wondering if in fact her parents had arranged it all simply in order to escape. I could not find it in my heart to blame them. On the front cover, no less a literary icon than Edmund White says it's "the best first novel I've read in years" - which leads me to think that he hasn't read many first novels in a long, long time. The trouble is it's trying to be surreal when it doesn't know how, it's trying to be a novel when it should be a piece of flash fiction and it's trying to be literary when it's simply languid. Enough said already. Don't buy it.

Today's nice things:

1. Meandering along with Hallsfoot
2. Poetry
3. Being a future featured poet, well gosh!
4. Lunch out with friends
5. Dinner out with Jane W.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website - less of a party animal than she evidently appears

Chat, article success and a cleaning frenzy

Plunged this morning with a merry wave and gay abandon into creating my article about writing sex. My, what fun. Almost as good as ... um ... actually writing it. As it were. It's a little longer than anticipated (much the best way, in my opinion, ho ho), but I've submitted it anyway and the Strictly Writing Webzine have accepted it for publication in May, hurrah! Instant satisfaction and everyone's smiling (goodness, I'm a cheap date indeed ...). Thank you again, Samantha.

After all that heady excitement and panting, it was time to enter the chill-out zone, so I spent the rest of the morning chatting with Jane H (hello, Jane!) and putting the world to rights over tea and chocolate hobnobs. We Surrey ladies have a hard life, you know. Jane was also suitably impressed with the results of my current cleaning frenzy - we have people round for dinner tonight so I am endeavouring to clear up the dead bodies and remove the blood from the walls. As you do. Well, what else are attics for? Much of this wild activity consisted of womanhandling the contents of our airing cupboard which have been piled up across the living room for three months (Mike, oh plumber of ours, where are thou now?...) and depositing them in the bedroom. Thankfully, even though we live in Surrey, we're not part of the Strange Set, so we won't be needing that room until everyone's gone tonight. Phew, that's all right then. I've even dusted the outside hallway, which only gets done about twice a year, so I feel cleansed indeed. Hell, that must be worth a good few Wife Points at least.

Before we forget, here's this morning's meditation:

Meditation 102

Between the first census
and the second

all are destroyed
except three:

Caleb; Joshua; Moses.
A whole people

swallowed up by the desert
and the Lord’s dark anger.

In the silence of the heart
the need to betray

whispers its own journey.

Oh and on the subject of poetry, I've written a poem about lameness and deceit. As you do. Well, there's not much TV on so nothing much else to distract me. This afternoon, I've fiddled about with Hallsfoot's Battle but not to any serious intent, though I think the end scenes are beginning to have a purpose of sorts. Thank goodness. And I've had my Alexander Technique lesson, which was revelatory about how to go up and down steps. Apparently, it's the back foot which takes the weight, not the front one on the step, so that's where I've been going wrong all these years, aha! It made sense and I practised it coming up the outside stairs on the way back (Lordy, hope the neighbours weren't looking ...) and felt much more floaty rather than the usual sack-of-potatoes-having-a-hard-day feel. So maybe there's hope for me yet? You never know.

So, tonight, it's Robin & Gavin, Liz & John for dinner (in the hospitality, rather than the catering sense), Lord H is cooking and I'm doing the talking. Always play to your strengths is what I say.

Today's nice things:

1. Acceptance of the sex writing article
2. Tea and chat with Jane H
3. Poetry
4. Writing a little of Hallsfoot
5. Alexander Technique
6. Dinner with friends.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website - an acknowledged expert with stairs

Medical lies, wildernesses and chat

A slight relapse on the health front this morning, I fear - my nose has a mind of its own, alas (and how I've always wanted to use "alas" in a blog, so that's hugely cheering ...). And I feel as if my head is full of mud. Could I have caught the cold a second time from Lord H - who is now feeling better? An image of the future stretches ahead in which the cold becomes something that never leaves us, scary thought ...

Anyway, I was determined that today we would have our holiday jabs, come what may - as we're off next week and are taking it to the wire. As it were. So when the lovely nurse prepared her syringe and asked if I was feeling well enough, I looked her straight in the eyes and lied for Britain. Well, sometimes it's best for the medical profession not to know entirely everything - if only for the stress levels of the patient.

But thank goodness I have a day off today - I don't think I could have coped with being at work, as whatever it is - the cold, the jab, me - I feel as if I could sleep for a week. And some. Despite that, however, I have bravely faced down my half-finished short story, The Wilderness Room, and I have actually finished it, hurrah! It's turned out roughly similar to what I envisaged too, so that's a miracle in itself. It feels nice to have got it down - I do so hate things floating around half-done.

I've also managed to cobble together a morning meditation:

Meditation 72

In the middle of the parties,
the poor are a shadow

at the corner of your field,
at the edge of your eye.

You remember them
when the last of the grain

is gathered, the last
of the crop cut.

Do not keep what you do not need
and let your hand be open

to the song of the wind,
to the sky’s wideness.


Exhausted by all this excitement, I then collapsed on the bed and have spent a whole three hours asleep. Three hours! What a waste of an afternoon, my grandma would say ... Still, as she's dead, I don't need to worry about her opinion, hurrah, and I so definitely needed the nap. I'd even go so far as to say I feel a little better now.

Which can only be a good thing, as tonight I'm out with some old workmates (old as in former - we're all young and glamorous, naturally ...) for dinner and chat at a local restaurant, so I'm looking forward to catching up for sure. Just hope I don't fall asleep over the pasta - that wouldn't be very Surrey.

Today's nice things:

1. Getting the jabs sorted at last
2. A day off
3. Finishing my short story
4. Poetry
5. Napping - big-time!
6. Dinner out.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website - just about keeping its eyes open

Reports, a quick shop and novel reading events

First off, here’s this morning’s meditation, which is possibly the one moment of calm I will get today:

Meditation 69

Before us lies
a rich and fertile land

but the way is barred
by regulations

so intricate
it is impossible

to keep them.
Easier to fall

into the sea’s warm beckoning,
let its salt embrace

cover your dreams.


I’ve spent the whole morning typing up a series of rather intricate corrections for an urgent report from the boss which he needed by lunchtime. My how I love a deadline. Though at least it does take my mind a little away from worries about tonight. I definitely do not feel at all in control right now. In fact I’m rather shaky. So shaky in fact that, when I drove in, I had an utter mental blank and couldn’t remember where I usually park my car. Even though I’ve been coming here for over four years and have never had any problems. With the result that I drove pathetically around the executive carpark trying to find the way out, then into the visitors carpark and got stuck and then finally found my way to the usual main one. Honestly, I don’t really know what was going on – I just panicked. The campus layout is a complete enemy to me today. Sigh. Really, anything could happen tonight … UPDATE: So far I’ve lost two of my helpers so am down to a stalwart two people – I hope they’re good at moving chairs … Mind you, on the plus side, we’ve managed to contact the English Society who are being wonderful too, so that's great.

Managed to pop into town at lunchtime to do a spot of shopping. Including buying more food for tonight, as I’m not sure there’s enough. Bearing in mind this morning’s geographical crisis, I also checked up on where the restaurant is tonight – and, yes you’ve guessed it, I went down the wrong street entirely and panicked again. Lordy I am a wimp to end all wimps. Still, I found it in the end without bursting into hysterical tears – just. I intend to start hyperventilating any moment now, as you can see … Mind you, it seems the first chance I’ve had for ages to go to Guildford indeed – and the walk in was nice. Did I even see sun? Ye gods and little fishes.

This afternoon, I signed off at 4.30pm to go and set up the room for the novel reading with the lovely Emma Darwin. I hope (a) there’s enough wine and nibbles; (b) people turn up but not too many people as that will be terrifying, frankly; (c) I don’t make a mess of my introduction; (d) I can keep up with the English Department intellect and at least understand one of the questions they ask (are translations available for the mentally challenged?...); (e) I don’t sound too stupid in my concluding thank yous; and (f) people apart from me buy the novels. I’m also hoping the dinner afterwards goes well and Olivo’s in Guildford remember we’re coming (and I remember where it is …). So, as you can see, I’m hugely calm and on top of it all. Ho ho. Still, I’m looking forward to Emma’s actual reading though. Can’t wait to buy the new book. UPDATE: it was fabulous and it all went very well, hurrah. I have no idea why I was in such a state - is it my hormones?? Anyway, Emma was fascinating (as ever), the English Society & the Department were fabulous and I even got chocolates (thank you, Fiona!). And dinner was great too. The only slight crisis was that I drove four of us including Emma into Guildford as taking one car from the Uni was just easier - and I actually couldn't find my way out of the ruddy carpark. Sarah had to direct me. Lordy, but I am a klutz. It's astonishing I get to the end of a normal day at all. Slinks off in embarrassment ...

Ooh, and at home I see a publisher has asked to see the full MS of The Gifting. Goodness me indeed!

Today’s nice things:

1. Poetry
2. The walk into town
3. The moment when Emma reads
4. Emma’s new book
5. Dinner out
6. A publisher requesting The Gifting.

Anne Brooke
Anne Brooke - whatever you do, don't ask me for directions ...

Wake up to Waterfowl and other unlikely events

Up at the ungodly hour of 4.15am today. Ye gods and little fishes indeed. I had to be up then as - whatever I do - it always takes me at least an hour and a half to leave the house, and we had to set off at 5.45am in order to get to the Wake up to Waterfowl event at Pulborough Brooks. My, but we know how to live here in the shires ...

Anyway, it was fantastic. We watched the sun come up over the marshes, and got to see teal, pintails, widgeon, black-tailed godwits, dunlin, snipe and all sorts of delights in the first rays of the morning. Marvellous. We were promised the magnificent spectacle of the Bewick's swans leaving their roost in order to feed - which, bearing in mind there were only three of them, they did their best to provide. It reminded me very much of the time Lord H and I were in Prague (wonderful city, by the way - if you haven't gone, you really ought to) and attended a performance of Beethoven's Fifth played by ... um ... a string quartet. It was charming and brave, but didn't quite have the pizzazz of the full monty orchestral version.

The walk round also threw into focus the ongoing problem I have with men and telescopes. I appreciate this is probably just me but I do always feel terribly vulnerable if a male birder finds something exciting in his telescope and then (as they often kindly do) offers me a view through their scope as I don't carry one of my own. Looking through the telescope of a man who isn't Lord H feels faintly rude, my dears. Mind you, when I raised this interesting little issue with Lord H, he stared blankly at me (probably calculating how much the psychiatrist might cost ...) and said he often looked through other men's scopes if they had a better view, even if they hadn't asked him to. Though of course he always made sure not to mention it if his telescope happened to be larger than theirs. Lordy, but there is a whole world of confusion lurking in the wings (excuse the pun) - best leave it there, I feel ...

Anyway, new birds seen for this year today include a ruff, pheasants, a barnacle goose, the black-tailed godwits and the daring Bewick's swans. We rounded it all off with an excellent cooked breakfast which set us up nicely for having a second walk round the reserve (yes, we are indeed gluttons for punishment) before also having lunch. I'm sure the volunteers were fed up with seeing us by that point. To crown it all, the lovely Lord H has bought me the new much improved pair of binoculars I've been salivating over for weeks so I can now see great vistas of countryside whenever I look through them and can even track birds in flight without cursing. Double hurrahs and give the man an extra Husband Point. He deserves it.

Back home, I am attempting to keep awake and prepare for tonight, as Marian and Siegi are coming round for dinner. It will be lovely to see them, but also scary as this is the first time in at least eight months or so that we've actually had any people in the flat apart from the plumber and the odd stressed neighbour. Yes, we are entering into the Hermit Couple of the Year awards for 2009 - please do vote, you know you want to ... Anyway, all this voluntary solitude means neither of us can remember how to be sociable so we're practising our host/hostess smiles. Yes, they are a bit rusty. Not to mention slightly terrifying, so if our guests flee to the hills once they see us, I will not find it in my heart to blame them.

Today's nice things:

1. Birds at dawn
2. New binoculars
3. Dinner with friends (assuming they have the courage to stay).

Anne Brooke
Anne's website - staying alert as best she may

Short blogs and hot taps

A short blog tonight (you lucky people!) as I'm desperately typing this between social engagements. Well one is so much in demand this time of year, you know (ho ho) ...

Anyway, today we've spent a really rather nice day at Mother's exchanging presents - which we won't open till Christmas Day. And I've had a glorious hot, foamy bath while I was there. Bliss.

Before setting out, I left a note for the plumber in case he had time to pop round and deal with our crises - and miraculously he has! He's put in a new immersion tank and sorted the electrics on it out so we now have hot water. That comes from a tap! Gosh. I'm so excited I think I'll say it again. We have hot water that comes from a tap! Even now Lord H is in the bath enjoying the benefits and it's my turn next. Well, a girl in her prime can enjoy several, you know (baths, people, baths ...).

I must admit we don't yet have central heating but we do feel as if we're getting somewhere for the first time in days, hurrah! And the plumber is popping in tomorrow to look at the heating problem, so there's hope we might be fully functional by Christmas. Well, gosh.

In the meantime, here's a poem inspired by a brief chat with my ground-floor neighbour last night:

Revelation

She was the heart
of my family,
says the grey-haired man.
I miss her still.

Mysterious God,
may I too
one day
gain wisdom enough

to know myself
not always
the centre

of my own existence.


Ooh, my turn for a bath now - must dash! And then dinner with Liz and John & co - lovely.

Today's nice things:

1. A pleasant day with Mother
2. Hot water from the tap
3. Dinner out with friends.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website - thinking taps are a wonderful invention ...

Of shopping, plays and assorted trivia

Well. I must be the only girl I know who can rush with cries of glee into a hoped-for Glam Shopping Experience (GSE for short) and after two hours come away from the shops with ... um ... a flannelette nightie for going to hospital in. Ah well. It's evident I haven't got the concept of Being A Woman (BAW for short) quite right yet. Not that Guildford helped at all. Yesterday, there was absolutely, entirely nothing in the whole of that fair metropolis that I actually wanted to buy. In fact, 90% of shoes, trousers and tops appear to be only available in brown or black this year. Is it the effect of the Credit Crunch or another Government directive I have missed??... Anyway, the urge is gone now - and as I only get the shopping urge once every decade, you'll have to wait to my mid 50s to see me in pink or green or orange. Which is no doubt a good thing of course.

However, my mood of total despondency yesterday afternoon was much lifted by (a) a great meal at the Riverview Restaurant, which we shall definitely be visiting again, play or no play; and (b) the best, most incredible and richly human play I've seen in a long, long time. Yes, The Drawer Boy (it's "draw-er" like an artist, rather than "drawer" like a table, and yes I should have realised that from the blurb but I didn't, sorry ...) is a real-live tour-de-force and a total pleasure to watch. It's like witnessing the creation of genius before your eyes. This is what the theatre is really about. Every line is perfect and the actors were brilliant - excellent individual performances all round (and that even with one of them being a stand-in at only seven days' notice as the original actor broke his leg last week - yes really) and even better teamwork. Honestly, I can watch a play like that every day and never get tired of it. If The Drawer Boy comes anywhere remotely near your way and even if they're acting it in a shed with no lights, drop everything and sell your body for a ticket. It shines. Great stuff.

Anyway to today. I have been beaten into exhaustion by a wave of tiredness and have only managed 500 words of Hallsfoot's Battle, with little inclination for more. I've also managed to get my medication sorted out, thank the Lord, and now have the right pills in the right dosages. I think. Mind you, the pharmacist said the nasty doctor had still not got one of them written out correctly, but she dispensed it anyway along the lines of the hospital instructions, the sweetie. So at least I have them, phew. However, the pay-back is that I have to make an appointment to see the nice doctor - who was also kind enough to respond to my letter in writing today - just to get some kind of grip as to what's going on, and hopefully before my operation on 9 October. That said, the nice doctor has no more appointments until 13 October when he's off on holiday anyway, so I have to do the irritating "ring up first thing in the morning" palavar and not get anywhere until we all self-destruct or something. How I hate that same day appointment nonsense. It's soooo wearisome and, really, I'd rather book ahead - in an emergency, I'll use the walk-in centre at hospital. Still, I'll start the 8am ringing routine on Monday and see how I get on ...

In the midst of all that, I've nipped into Godalming to stock up on essential items - the local paper, a sandwich, flowers etc - and fitted in a two-hour nap. Which has been bliss, and I feel more normal now, hurrah. Though, with my recent history, I doubt that will last. Tonight, there's the joys of the Strictly Come Dancing gossip, Ugly Betty and QI to look forward to, and I really do have to do some ironing. Sometime.

Ooh, and I've finished the marvellous and very enlightening "Hadrian - Empire and Conflict" by Thorsten Opper. It's the book that goes with the British Museum Hadrian exhibition. A lovely and very worthwhile read, and I can highly recommend it.

Writerly Facts:
Time since The Gifting Submission with no response: 4 months and 6 days.
Number of copies of A Dangerous Man sold since 2007: 145 (though I admit I haven't asked Flame Books for an update since the end of March 2008, as it's too depressing).

Today's nice things:

1. Dinner at the theatre
2. Thinking about the really wonderful play
3. Writing a little more to Hallsfoot
4. Napping
5. TV
6. The Hadrian book.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website

Of doctors, massages and theatre

Slept like the proverbial last night - at last - and was indeed barely awake whilst waving Lord H goodbye on the school run (as it were). Mind you, I deserved the lie-in as I have at last reached the magic number of 40,000 words of Hallsfoot's Battle so, hell, a day off is mine, all mine, mwa-aha-ha (that's evil laughter, by the way ...).

But what fun I've had with the doctor this morning. I ordered more of the Metformin and the HRT patches last week online and put all the information down on the description box as per the hospital notes. Today, I've collected my prescription and nipped next door to the very lovely pharmacist to get it made up. Which she duly did. At home, I did what I always do (BIG NB: ALWAYS DO THIS YOURSELVES, AND IF YOU IGNORE EVERYTHING ELSE ON THIS BLOG, FOR GOODNESS SAKE DON'T IGNORE THIS), which is to check the new packets with the packets I had before, ie the ones from the hospital. My dears, they were all wrong. I looked at the prescription the doctor had typed out and she'd put down (a) the wrong type of Metformin tablets; and (b) (which was rather worse) she'd quadrupled the dosage of my HRT patches. So instead of Slow Release Metformin, I'd been given the non Slow Release version, and instead of 25 mcg HRT patches, I'd been given 100 mcg. Ye gods indeed. None of this of course was the pharmacist's fault as she'd obeyed exactly what the doctor had typed. So I've rung the pharmacy and talked to the lovely lady there - who was totally shocked, I have to say - and the upshot is that the pharmacist is going to talk to the doctor, get the right information sorted out for me and then I have to go in again tomorrow morning to get the right medicines. Phew! Thank goodness I always restock in advance and I don't need the new packets for tonight, eh? But I'm making damn sure I triple check them tomorrow, I can tell you.

Interestingly, of course, the doctor who wrote out the prescription is the nasty doctor I never go to, and also the one from a while back (if you remember) who said there was nothing wrong with my hormones and I should stop being silly, and from whose appointment I drove home in tears, swearing I would never see her again. To paraphrase a great man the buckles of whose sandals etc etc: to mess up with a patient once is unfortunate, but twice looks rather like carelessness ... Unless of course Nasty Doctor really is in cahoots with Scary Consultant and they're out to get me, by George. Hmm, time for my anti-paranoia pill, I feel - which I would take, but can I be sure it's the right dose??

Anyway, this afternoon, I'm buggering off into town and looking at things for me. Ye gods, yes, I'm going to bloody well do some shopping. I might even get some shoes. I feel the urge, strangely. Must be my hormones, Carruthers ... And I also have my glorious Clarins facial and massage booked with Thirza, so am hugely looking forward to that. As my massage won't finish till 5pm, I've arranged to meet Lord H in Guildford rather than go home and rush back out again, so we're eating at the Riverview Restaurant at the theatre and then we're off to see the award-winning The Drawer Boy at the Mill Studio. Fabulous. I can't wait.

Time since The Gifting submission: 4 months and 5 days
Amount of royalties I've received for the award-winning A Dangerous Man since 2007: £0 (I have to get more than £100 in royalties before the publisher pays me and I haven't done that yet. It's unlikely now I ever will. Really, sometimes I'm amazed I have the chutzpah to carry on writing at all, you know)

Today's nice things:

1. The pharmacist's reaction to my news
2. Shopping
3. Massage
4. Dinner out with Lord H
5. Theatre.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website

Birds, dinner and dancing

Lord H and I have spent a lovely day out, lurking behind bushes and staring at birds. As you do. We started off in Pagham Harbour (hard "g" if you're saying it in your head ...) and had a great time staring at lapwing, godwits, herons and the usual sea-loving suspects. Mind you, we were surprised by a determined flock of linnets who had obviously decided there was much safety in numbers and were brave enough to lurk on top of the bushes we were in and stare back at us. Shades of Hitchcock indeed ... We were also treated to an incredible and long-lasting view of a kingfisher flying up and down one of the creeks. Marvellous. All that electric blue and orange. And the turnstones were nice too - once we'd spotted them about ten yards away from us - the only reason we saw them at all was the slight clicking noise they made on the pebbles. They therefore win the Best Camouflaged Bird of the Year award - well done them!

On the way back, we popped into Pulborough Brooks and managed to spot a Little Stint - hurrah! So another tick on the great bird list. Ooh, and a greenshank too, which was fun although we have seen one a while back.

Once home, we had half an hour before getting out again for dinner at Prezzo in Godalming. Being a sad couple with no life, we like to eat early so were in at 7pm and out again at 8.15. Result! That's the kind of service we like here in the twilight zone. It means that we still have time to watch the Strictly Come Dancing preview which I videoed before we went out. Double hurrah. Must get my glitz-frock and strappy sandals on first though ... noblesse oblige, as they say.

And I've finished reading F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Which I've never read before, and I know that's an appalling admission, but hey I'm from Essex and think Jilly Cooper is class. Anyway, I rather enjoyed it - lots happened but very subtly, including beating up and later "accidental" killing of a mistress, adultery and murder amongst the drinking classes. So kudos for Fitzgerald for being able to do any of that subtly at all. Not sure I could. And not bad for a literary novel. He should have turned his hand to crime - he would have wowed us all then.

Today's nice things:

1. Birds
2. Dinner out
3. TV dancing.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website

A Starbucks crisis, unusual reading matter and a possible night out

Just as we got used to the sun, the rain has returned in all its glory. It’s so dark outside the office window that it might as well be the middle of the night. Perhaps we’re all on Australian time now? We may even be having their winter. Anyway, I’ve rung Mother who’s just got back from her first post-op holiday and it’s all gone very well, hurrah. So she might feel confident enough to go abroad next year, or even later on in this year, depending on how things go. That’s good news then.

In the meantime, we trudge on in our day though, to be fair, it’s actually quite quiet on campus at the moment – students are poring over their exam timetables so have no thought to spare for anything else. And the same is true of the academic staff. I’m hoping to go for a walk at lunchtime, but if the rain keeps up, I might have to think of something else to do. I have to get out of the office if I can though – it clears the brain. UPDATE: the weather cheered up, thank goodness, and the lunchtime walk was much-needed. Though I don’t know if it’s pepped my brain up much.

Tonight Lord H and I are supposed to be out to dinner at the Mythos Greek Restaurant in Cranleigh but we’ve heard nothing from our friends who were in charge of booking it, so it’s anyone’s guess as to whether we’ll actually get there or not. I’ve sent an email asking if they’d like us to pick them up and what time that should be, but no response. If it gets to 8pm and all is still silent, then it’s fish, pasta and an early night, Carruthers. UPDATE: We're going so best brush my hair - soon!

Oh and I finally got round to watching “Wedding Date” on the video last night – I really enjoyed it. Romance, comedy and Debra Messing. What more could you want? The bloke playing the lead was pretty hot too, but to my shame I don’t remember who he was. I was so impressed by it all that I’ve even added the book on which the film is based – Asking for Trouble by Elizabeth Young – to my Waterstone’s wish list. Yes, I have now entirely given up ordering any books from ruddy Amazon at all. It’s not my usual dark and dangerous reading matter, I have to admit – but what the heck. I’m allowed a slushy sassy moment once in a while.

Back in the office, Ruth and I are pretty much on our own today and desperate for a Starbucks special to warm us up – but everyone is having the same thought, darnit, and the queues are too damn long! UPDATE: we managed to infiltrate the queue and I ordered a frappucino, hoping it would be a nice hot caramel flavoured coffee. Um, not. Once again, I have been stymied by the complexities and modernity of Starbucks – nobody told me a frappucino is ice cream! It is now terrifying me, like some huge alien beast from a very cold planet sitting on my desk. Which often happens of course, here in the University outback. I’ve managed a few teaspoonfuls of the beast and have now put it in the fridge, hoping I might feel more kindly disposed to it later. Hey ho. Next time, I’ll order something I understand. Oh how I long for the old days when a cup of coffee was … um … hot. And I think I’m nursing a cold, groan. Echinacea pills, here I come.

And here’s an office poem, of all things:

My strange yet compelling relationship with my staple remover

It's a small tiger -
black mane, silver jaw -
biting the noses
of people at work I don't like.

It's the thing I fiddle with
when there's nothing to do:

sharp incisors
graze my skin,
baptism of self-inflicted
bearable pain.

A barrier between me
and the outside world.

Teeth tear into paper,
liberate thought
back to the air
it came from.

My boss doesn't like it:
uses paperclips.



Today’s nice things:

1. Mother’s successful holiday
2. A quiet campus
3. Poetry.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website
Goldenford Publishers

Don't break a leg, Mr P!

A lazy lie-in this morning and then I continued with the Darshan edit for Goldenford. I'm now on Page 123 and am enjoying the flow of it. Not making many suggestions either - just typos and one or two minor changes only. Certainly nothing major. It's lovely to edit a novel where it's been given a good polish already. Makes all the difference to the job!

This afternoon, Lord H and I went into Guildford and I stocked up on supplies of Dr Stuart's teas from Food for Thought healthshop - as, unlike Holland & Barrett, they're still stocking them, hurrah! I also actually did some girlie shopping (shock! horror!) in M&S and ended up buying a posh tee-shirt, a pair of trousers and a cardigan (sorry, soft jacket ...) - and amazingly they all go together. Ye gods, it must be the extra hormones I'm taking. I never normally buy anything that goes with anything else. At all.

After all that excitement, we settled down to watch "Uncle Vanya" at the Yvonne Arnaud theatre with the hugely sexy (or is that just me?) Nicholas Le Prevost and the nearly-as-sexy Neil Pearson. A wonderful production to my mind (although Lord H thought it might be a tad rushed to be truly Russian - if you see what I mean). Unfortunately, the divine Mr Le P. never quite got to that moment where he holds the pistol and goes "bang!" as during the very dramatic pre-shooting argument, he fell headlong over a chair and twisted his ankle. He and the cast bravely battled on for a few minutes but it was obvious that he wasn't going even to be able to make it off-stage to get the ruddy pistol, at least not without some off-script screaming, so they brought the curtain down. We then had a twenty minute impromptu interval where they carted poor Nicholas off to hospital and prised the understudy out of the pub for the last act-and-a-bit. Ah, of such delights is the British theatrical experience truly made. Still, the understudy scrubbed up well and at least we got to the end, where Sonja makes that glorious lyrical speech which finishes the play so marvellously.

It's certainly a production to remember anyway!

Tonight, we're off to Marian's for dinner and I'm hoping to get a relatively early night as, frankly dahlings, I'm pooped. Must be all the excitement.

Today's nice things:

1. Editing Darshan
2. The drama - both scripted and unscripted - of Chekhov
3. Dinner with Marian.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website
Goldenford Publishers

Reviews and Interviews

First, I must say thank you to Jane, Ang & Jane’s mother for a wonderful evening out last night. I think we put Godalming to rights and we talked a great deal about vomit. My ideal evening really. Jane’s mother also managed to dissuade me from breaking into the (naturally shut – but it was evening so I forgive them, this time …) briefcase shop which is opposite the restaurant. Probably a wise move. Even I can see it might have been tricky explaining it to the police …

Had a very nice review of A Dangerous Man today on the Obsidian review site. Many thanks, Val - and I’m glad you liked the book.

And the lovely Lisa Glass, author of the marvellous Prince Rupert’s Teardrop, has interviewed me today for the Vulpes Libris site and you can find the interview here under today’s date. I nearly sound normal too – which is an achievement! Many thanks, Lisa – I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Back at the coal face, Carol is back and unable to get into her computer. I fear it is the amount of comings and goings to do with keyboard changes, but we hope she’ll be able to use the machine soon. I have confessed however, and she is still smiling at me. Phew! And it’s the boss’s birthday, so we are celebrating with cakes and strawberries. As you do.

This lunchtime, I have the first of my beginners’ Pilates classes – so I’m hoping it will be less scary than the super-scary open class. I’m going to quiver at the back and look sad. Well, it’s a life plan. UPDATE: The beginners’ class is fab – and the woman who takes it is really, really lovely. I felt soooo incredibly chilled and relaxed when we finished. Not a feeling I have very often, I can tell you. More please!

And I’m busy hacking my way through the system to try to produce enough leaflets for students to have – we’re running rather low, and I’m making a bid to have access to my own template, rather than sending stuff off to other people all the time. Heck, I am becoming the Marketing Queen after all. Sigh!

Tonight, I’m off to Scottish Country Dancing, and then I must dash back to catch “Torchwood”. I really need to know what my next online mission will be soon, so I can practise holding the torch. Lord, but I am so sad.

Today’s nice things:

1. The Obsidian review
2. The Vulpes Libris interview
3. Pilates.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website
Goldenford Publishers

Writing and eating

Hey, my two favourite things. Well two of my favourite things anyway. And sound the trumpets but I’m having a good day today. Hurrah! I managed to get the first draft of the Nursery Group minutes done and the Acting Chair is happy with it. Actually, he said he was more than happy – he went so far as to say they were excellent. Ye gods! It’s not often the Head of HR says that to anyone, believe me. Naturally I took the opportunity to ask if now was a good time to enquire after a pay rise – to which he replied that I’d be more than welcome to do so, but to bear in mind that HR knew at least 100 ways of saying no. Ah well, that’s me told then. But hey, it was classy. I might well use that line later …

And, double hurrah, my new keyboard has finally been delivered, so I can now actually type things without the keyboard talking back at me and putting spurious letters in – usually b or k or #. It got to the point where the only one in the office which worked was Carol’s old clackety keyboard so I’ve been using that (Carol’s been away, in case you think I truly am the office bitch …) and irritating the hell out of everyone with my noise levels – my job involves more typing than Carol’s does, you see (in case you think Carol is lazy, which she isn’t – poor Carol …). Though actually I do usually irritate the hell out of everyone with my noise levels, keyboard or no keyboard. Anyway, my lovely sleek black typing machine is here and I love it. So soft and classy – ooo-err, missus.

Oh, and tomorrow’s meeting has been cancelled, so the minutes crisis is easing, here in the shires. Sound those trumpets again indeed. Took the Writers’ Group at lunchtime and really enjoyed that too (ye gods, what is wrong with me? Is it something Lord H has put in my tea??). We had a lot of new people due to Jo’s clever advertising, and had some great manuscripts to look at. And I think they got something out of the very brief writing game I gave them too. At least, some of them have asked when the next meeting is, so that can’t be bad. I was mean though and asked them to write something on “obsession” for homework. Hmm, that should be interesting.

Tonight, Jane, Ang & I are out at Prezzo’s in Godalming for dinner and catch-up. And Jane’s mother is coming too, so that will be great – haven’t seen her for ages. I’ve already been super-sad and looked at the online menu – I’m leaning towards the risotto. As you do.

Today’s nice things:

1. Writers’ Group
2. My new keyboard
3. Dinner with the gals.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website
Goldenford Publishers

Dinner, dances, Bones and carols

Goodness me - what a busy day indeed! But fear not (as the angels said ...), some of the title events actually took place yesterday so I am not stretched out in a gutter somewhere attempting to regain my strength. Not entirely anyway. Had a wonderful dinner at Liz & John's - great food, great company and a really really good laugh. The social highlight of my Christmas, I believe. Many thanks, Liz. I was also very touched as three of the couples there (Liz & John, Robin & Gavin, Michael & Mary) are all very keen to come to the February launch of Thorn in the Flesh, and take me out for a celebratory dinner afterwards. Gosh indeed! And they might even buy a copy of the book - double gosh!

What with one thing and another, Lord H and I didn't actually get to bed till 2am (dirty stop-outs, us ...) and so understandably we haven't seen a great deal of this morning. But we have watched the results show of "Strictly Come Dancing" - we saw the bulk of the main show before setting out to Liz's - and are fairly happy that Alesha won. (Well, naturally, I would have preferred Gethin to be there and win, but hey life ain't always fair!...). But I do think that Matt's Judges' Choice dance was far better than Alesha's, as was his showdance. Both of his performances were risky and marvellous, whereas I feel Alesha rather played it safe. Now of course, the Sunday Mirror (Shock! Horror! Probe!) tells us that the wicked Matt is dating both Flavia and Alesha, and has caused Vincent to break things off with Flavia. Ah, the drama, the pain, the excitement that is the dance world, eh ... And before you start shouting, no, we do not get the Sunday Mirror - Lord H saw the headline when in town today and we looked it up on the web! Honest!

For the rest of the day, I have been doing more to The Bones of Summer, and I have to say I'm really enjoying it today. A key violent scene is coming together nicely (I always think my violence scenes are a strong point - at least that's the way it feels when I write them). And I'm coming down from it fairly smoothly too. I just have to write the lead-up to it sometime. Probably next. Then I'll need to go back and write the middle searching sections - which I've written notes about in the text - and we may even have a first draft by, say, March?... Hell, you never know!

This evening Lord H and I have been to the Carol Service at Peper Harow Church. I do love a good carol service, and it was very enjoyable, I must say. I continue to think that "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear" is the best carol ever written with the deepest, most arresting and most resonating words. Not to mention that stonkingly poignant tune. It always makes me cry. That said, it's soooooo lovely to be at a carol service (or any Christmas service, to be honest) where I don't have to worry about the candles, the altar, the vestments, the Bible markers, the tapers or any of the zillion other ruddy things I used to be in charge of and which could go wrong at the drop of a service sheet. You wouldn't believe how pleased I am to be shot of all that.

Interestingly, a couple from St Peter's (the church we left in April) were also at the Carol Service - and during our brief chat afterwards, they said how much they missed us at St Peter's and asked if we would ever come back. I simply said that wasn't an option, though I was very sweet about it (Christmas Points for me then! At last!), and we all moved on. It felt good to say the words though and to know I meant them. I'm not going back to St Peter's, and I don't ever want to be that involved in a church again. I'm happy going once a month or so to the churches we visit now, and keeping my distance. That feels fine.

Tonight, we're hoping for an early night, and a good run-up to Christmas itself. As, I'm sure are all of us! This week's haiku is:

Thursley Common: After the fire
Through the blackened grass,
gorse springs up gold, woodpeckers
hunt. Nature rises.

Today's nice things:
1. Strictly Come Dancing
2. Writing Bones
3. The carol service.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website
Goldenford Publishers