A mystery tour and the royal garden

Book News:

Fantasy novel The Gifting is now showcased at the Awesome Indies website - the mark of a quality read, so I'm delighted to be up there.

And the anniversary book tour for The Gifting should be taking place from 11 to 22 June, but I'm afraid I can't give you any details, as I don't know any yet. Yikes and help! If anyone out there knows anything, then don't hesitate to let me in on the mystery as I'd love to be part of the celebration ...

If you do happen to stumble over the tour, I am offering a FREE Kindle worth £89 to one lucky competition winner, plus a runner-up prize, so it's worth seeking it out if you can. If I find out any information, I'll let you know, ho hum.

Turning to other less mysterious book news, my children's book publisher, Karabeth Publishing, has a lovely selection of new banners for their website, which I'm delighted to reveal for you here. Very nice indeed, I think. The Origami Nun will be coming out from them under my children's fiction pseudonym Lori Olding (watch for Lori's website coming soon!) later in the year.

The Pride Month 25% discount continues on my lesbian literary fiction at Untreed Reads, and recent reviews have included a 5-star rating for gay short story The Heart's Greater Silence at Goodreads, plus a review of For One Night Only, also at Goodreads. Many thanks indeed to both readers for those.





A recent meditation poem is:


Meditation 665
Listen for the sorrow
beneath the laughter
and music.

It is there
in an indrawn breath
or the brief silence

between notes:
in the midst of dancing
we are in death.


The Sunday haiku is:

Sun drifts me to sleep
in the warm poppy garden
and I dream of you.


Life News:

Had my six-monthly trip to the dentist on Friday which was all very jolly as they're such a lovely surgery. But the bad news is I have to have a filling updated (groan) so will be back there again next week - which probably won't be quite so jolly, ah well. However I consoled myself by making a really scrummy coffee & walnut cake yesterday (probably not what the lovely dentist wants to hear ...), but very tasty it is too. Though I say it myself and most certainly shouldn't. Will be making that one again at some point.

Apart from that, it's been a Garden Extravaganza weekend, hurrah. K has created a new bed in the front garden so it all looks a lot tidier, plus he's put edging down which is fantastic. And yesterday, we rushed to the Crocus Nursery Open Day and gorged ourselves on all manner of amazing plants, including those from the Jubilee Royal Barge (created by Crocus), so we have a small part of history in our garden, well gosh. Our newly-named Royal Garden includes an allium, lots of camomile and a salvia. The Queen may well have touched them, you know ... I will be charging a very reasonable price for tours at some point, ho ho, but you will have to wear your tiaras. Other plants in the Royal Garden (I have to keep saying it, you see ... noblesse oblige) include six dahlias in two different versions, three red-hot pokers, a myrtle in a pot, and three very tall poppies. It all looks wonderfully dramatic and I utterly love it.

Today, we have popped to Secretts Garden Centre and added in a gorgeous dark orange lily, a tall pink carnation and two stripy plants to the front mix. Bliss. Oh, and we have harvested our first strawberry (singular deliberate) crop - it was delicious, and yes K and I shared it. I hope its friends ripen soon.

Anne Brooke
The Gathandrian Fantasy Trilogy
Gay Reads UK
Biblical Fiction UK

Seeking Pleasure and an Unexpected Gift

Book News:

Much to my delight, fantasy novel The Gifting (featuring gay scribe Simon Hartstongue) received a lovely review at Goodreads from Tahlia Newland (many thanks, Tahlia). She comments:

"The character development is exemplarity. It’s rare that you see characters grow so deeply and well supported by the action ... I recommend it for anyone who likes something different and especially if they like a bit of psychological depth in their reading."

All this for only £1.91 at Amazon UK, and also available at Amazon US. Naturally it also comes as a paperback, so the choice is yours. In the very near future, the book will also be featured on the Awesome Indies website, so watch this space. In the meantime, if you buy now and pay very special attention to Chapters Four, Six and the Third Gathandrian Interlude, then you could be in with a chance of winning a brand-new Kindle when the anniversary book tour starts next week! Further details to follow very shortly ...

Turning to my gay erotic fiction, The Delaneys at Home (Delaneys *5) received a review today from Brief Encounters, so thank you to Jen for that one. Over at Goodreads, it's also gained two 5-star reviews, one from Judianna and one from Kazza, and a 4-star review from Sandra. Many thanks to all for reading and commenting. There's one more book in the series left: The Delaneys, My Parents and Me, and I hope to start writing that one at some point later this year.

In addition, Where You Hurt The Most has just been reviewed at QMO Books, so thank you, Serena, for that.

Today, I'm also officially blogging at two other locations: my review of Richard Mason's wonderful rush-out-and-buy-it-right-now novel History of a Pleasure Seeker is now up at Vulpes Libris; plus you can find out just how big a step living with someone actually is over at the Amber Quill Press blog. Happy reading!

I'm also very pleased to say that new British Gay Romance website is now up and running, and you can even find me there, amongst other authors who also write UK-based gay fiction. Come over and browse, and you're guaranteed to find something to your liking - all visitors welcome.

The most recent meditation poem is:


Meditation 664
In returning
to what we did not know
was lost

we grasp
our inheritance
no matter the cost.


Life News:

Happy work anniversary to me! Today, I've been at the University for 8 years, which is the longest I've worked anywhere, to be honest. I'm quietly pleased and hoping they keep me on for a little while yet. Really, it's the most fun I've had in a job since I went to work in the first place.

K and I have had a good couple of bank holiday days earlier this week - we love the Jubilee! We spent a happy morning at The Savill Garden (where else on such a royal weekend?...), then moved on to a local garden centre followed by an afternoon's planting in the garden. We've discovered a new love of alliums (so alien and so beautiful), and plan to get more, definitely. Apparently, as an added bonus, deer hate them so I don't have to worry about spraying the Brut deodorant on them as a deterrent, hurrah.

This morning, I have had the first session on my brand-new exercise bike (the pedal fell off the old one - no, please don't comment on that ...), and honestly it's so quiet even I don't know I'm using it. Though, as always, the seat needs a towel or two before the essential comfort is achieved, deep sigh. Plus the car has had its MOT and service at Chandlers the local garage - who were very good indeed. Thank you, Caroline, for being so efficient and so lovely. I do so love a garage I can actually walk to, and now the car is acceptable for another year - I hope!

Anne Brooke
The Gathandrian Fantasy Trilogy
Gay Reads UK
Biblical Fiction UK

Happy Jubilee weekend!

Life News:

Hope everyone's having a really wonderful Diamond Jubilee weekend - it's been pretty amazing here. A big thank you to Elstead Tennis Club who very kindly lent us their marquee, which we all spent a happy couple of hours putting up yesterday afternoon, and which has served us very well indeed today. And today was fantastic - wonderful food, wonderful organisation (many thanks, L, J & K), and really wonderful neighbours. The souvenir stall sold out and the raffle prizes were a big hit.

After we'd celebrated in style, we took the marquee down, and have now rounded off the day with coffee & cake at L&J's. Great stuff, and a big thank you to everyone who joined in and made it such a top-class event. Next stop: the street's Christmas celebrations. Watch this space ...

One of my really important roles this week has been Chief Frog Rescuer. Yesterday, I saved one from the garage and helped it into the stream at the bottom of the garden. And today, I spotted one in the marquee as we were decorating it this morning and rescued that one too. At least I assume it was a different frog, but really who can tell ... The other wildlife excitement we've had today is when we woke up, we looked out of the window and there were two wolves (yes, I do mean that) roaming round the road. They were quite tame, but no collars. The RSPCA wouldn't come, the police weren't interested and the local council could only come out on the next working day (Wednesday). Not much help there then. However the glories of the village Facebook page came into its own, as I put a message up there and the lost huskies (so not wolves then, but pretty damn close) are now reunited with their owners. Hurrah! So I am on Wolfwatch as well as Frogwatch. A woman's work is never done, hey ho. Thank goodness for the Interweb thingy.

Due to the Jubilee excitements I have cheated and made a packet chocolate cake with shop-bought icing. Not bad but the cake's too dry so I think I should have added the whole dessert-spoon of mayonnaise instead of just a half one. I shall remember next time. No complaints from K though.

Also, a couple of very worthwhile causes to draw your attention to: I've just discovered the Out4Marriage site which is working for same sex marriage equality in the UK, so am very pleased to recommend that to you. And, on a more local level, my doctor is cycling across the length of Britain in September to support the British Lung Foundation - and her JustGiving site is here in case you're feeling generous. Thank you.

Book News:

Today's other big celebration is that The Delaneys At Home (Delaneys *5) is published today by Amber Allure Press, and is discounted for the first week, so buy early buy often. The blurb is:

Liam is ready for a whole new life with the dangerous Delaney twins, and dives into it with great enthusiasm. But when the men reveal they know he's not been entirely honest with them about his previous art career, the scene is set for a rather different experience of punishment. Can Liam rise to the occasion this time around?

More than that, Liam's gallery boss appears to be in cahoots with the Delaneys about the talents Liam's convinced he simply doesn't have. Will he find the twins' commitment to his profession rather more than even he can handle?

Happy reading.

Keeping the subject of discounts, as it's Pride Month in June, you can find my literary lesbian titles discounted by 25% direct from Untreed Reads. Again, happy (cheap!) reading to all.

And Where You Hurt The Most gained a review at The Romance Reviews, so many thanks for that, Valentina. Much appreciated indeed.








This week's meditation poem is:




Meditation 663
There is safety
in numbers:
the cool, determinable
logic of shape,
the way they slot
perfectly one against another
in silent agreement
to make a greater truth.

Numbers control
our universe;
from birth to death
they colour our view
with how much, how many,
how few.


The Sunday haiku is:

The blue damselfly
dances over the bright stream
as we dig the earth.


Anne Brooke
The Gathandrian Fantasy Trilogy
Gay Reads UK
Biblical Fiction UK

The Gift of the Snow and last chance blogs

Book News:

Don't forget that the Blog Hop Against Homophobia is still running until tonight, and you can find my blog about it here. All comments are entered into a competition to win something from my ebook backlist so don't miss out!

In addition, the last stop of my blog tour for Where You Hurt The Most was at Amara's Place, and there's still time (just!) to enter that ebook competition also, but you'll have to hurray. This week, the story has received a 4-star review at Goodreads, so many thanks, Sadonna, for that.

And I'm happy to say that my literary paranormal short story The Gift of The Snow has now been published by Untreed Reads, and was briefly at No 67 in the Amazon UK horror charts (though more literary than horror, to my mind), so thank you to those of you who've bought it and I hope you enjoy the read.

Life News:

I've come somewhat under fire once more this week for being a Christian who fully supports same-sex marriage and GLBTQ inclusion in the church. People are very happy to tell me in detail how wrong and unChristian I am, which is interesting as I don't feel I have to take other people to task for believing in a different way to me. Actually it makes me even more determined to stand up for what I see as reasonable equality and to make it known as much as I can that Christianity is - or should be - as much for the GLBTQ community as it is for the straight one. In fact there should be no difference. We're all human and all fully equal in God's sight, and I'm more than happy to keep shouting that joyful fact. It's good news indeed. For this reason I can thoroughly recommend Changing Attitude who work in the UK helping to encourage churches to be more inclusive of GLBTQ people. Well done to them!

This weekend has been hugely busy. We had the meeting of the Jubilee Street Party Committee yesterday, and I think we're now on track to sorting out the final details of what we're all doing. Only two weeks to go now, goodness me. Also yesterday I made a pretty fine carrot cake with orange frosting which not only tastes good but also looks almost exactly as it does in the book. Golly gosh, that's a first for me, eh ...

And Saturday just wouldn't have been the same without the Elstead Rubber Duck races at lunchtime. So wonderfully English and strangely gripping, we loved it - though sadly our ducks Troilus and Cressida weren't anywhere to be seen in the winning heats. Maybe next year then.

It's also been a plant-filled weekend, which has been great. We bought a lilac phlox, a hebe, 4 cosmos and one broccoli at the church plant sale, plus a purple osteospermum and another sunflower from the village florist. Today, we've visited Rake Garden Centre, where we bought a huge trolley-load of flowers, including nine French marigolds, six salvias, an impatiens, six chrysanthemums, four large fuchsias, two lupins and a veronica. And a partridge in a pear tree (that last one's untrue, btw ...). All now safely planted up in back and front gardens, and very good they look too, hurrah!

Oh, and our azalea and one of the three rhododendrons are now doing pretty well too, as you can see ...

On the way back we also popped in to see Lowder Mill which was open today as part of the National Gardens Scheme. A totally amazing place and if you get a chance to go, I can really recommend it. Beautiful grounds, and so very quirky and peaceful, at the same time. Plus the cakes were magnificent. What could be nicer?

Here's this week's haiku:

On this soft morning
the garden dances in pink
while small birds flutter.


Anne Brooke
Hop Against Homophobia
Gay Reads UK
The Gathandrian Fantasy Trilogy
Biblical Fiction UK

Blog tours and a GLBT-friendly faith

Book News

Whilst it's not officially published till tomorrow, I'm happy to say you can now buy my latest gay literary short story Where You Hurt The Most at Riptide Publishing. Apparently pre-sales numbers have been strong (hurrah!) and I even have my first review from Tracy's Place. Many thanks, Tracy. Don't forget the blog tour for the book starts tomorrow, and doesn't end till 18 March, so there's plenty of time to enter the free giveaways competition. Good luck!

I'm also happy to say that gay thriller The Bones of Summer gained a 4-star review at Goodreads - many thanks, Stephanie. And, not to be outdone, biblical short story Dancing with Lions received a 5-star review at Amazon US - thank you, Melissa.

My most recent meditation poem is:




Meditation 651
Where time perfects the gift
life’s best offerings
cannot be hurried:

see how the hills
breathe out their fullest shape
over centuries

and the rivers
carve their quiet path
to the seas.


The Sunday haiku is:

Goldfinches flutter
and glow amongst the grasses:
our only sunshine.


Life News:

This wonderful image which I found on Facebook really sums up my approach to faith and homosexuality, and is especially apposite as it's a question I've been asked at point blank range this week. For anyone who's still wondering what my Christian stance is on gay and lesbian relationships (and who evidently hasn't been paying close attention to my blog or FB/Twitter posts), I'd like to reiterate that I don't worship a God who hates gay and lesbian relationships, or indeed transgender or transexual ones, and neither could I agree to worship a God who holds those views. Occasionally, God also even quite likes heterosexual people, though we do tend to act as cultural bullies more often, which does irritate Him hugely. Just so you know. Here I stand, as they say, and I can do no more.

Managed to get out on Friday and play some golf, which was a good laugh, partly because my game was such rubbish. I think they must be making the holes smaller or the balls bigger (um, as it were) - as my ability to sink the wretched little white beast was minimal, to say the least. Sigh.

Neighbours L, KM and I have also formed the Jubilee Street Party Committee for our road, and all systems are go for having a great celebratory lunch on the Sunday of Jubilee weekend, hurrah. We've got about 40 people coming so far, so all we need is to coordinate the food and pray very hard for the right weather. Wish us luck. I'm threatening to wear a tiara (ah, if only I had one ...) but I fear it might be a tad too much bling for Surrey. Though really, as an Essex girl, I don't actually think there could ever be too much bling ...

Yesterday's cake attempt was Boston Cream Pie, which was disastrous, my dears, disastrous. It took me about an hour to get the filling right and I was weeping like a crazy woman over the simmering pot - yes, you do have to heat it up whilst beating it. Heck, that sounds bad. In the end I thought it would never thicken up so I added a ton of cornflour to the pesky thing, and now it just tastes of cornflour. In addition, the chocolate topping didn't really harden up but eventually it was thick enough to pour onto the cake, and has just about stayed on it. Luckily, the taste of the chocolate overpowers everything else, but I will not be making this again. Life really is too short.

I was so fragile in the afternoon that K kindly took me to a garden centre, where I bought another wallflower, a senetti, some carnations, three dwarf dahlias and a foxglove. Have now planted or potted all these up, so the garden is once more brimming with colour.

This morning, K and I went along to church, where we twice had the angelic accompaniment of a mobile phone. Being English, we all carefully ignored it and carried on regardless. Which, if God was desperately trying to get his message across by phone, might of course have been a mistake. Ah well. There were also far too many chorus-type songs (bah, we say, bah!) for me, though really one would still be far too many. Give me a hymn and I'm happy.

And this afternoon, L & J from down the road have accompanied K and me to the Chandlers Open Garden event in Elstead. Where we also met S & K from the road as well, so all had a jolly nice tea and cake in the garden. This may all sound just too 1950s for words, but that's just the way things happen here, and very pleasant it was too.

Anne Brooke
The Gathandrian Fantasy Trilogy
Gay Reads UK
Biblical Fiction UK

Cake, bunting and a giveaway

Life News:

Yesterday's baking extravaganza was a brave attempt at Grasshopper Cake - i.e. chocolate cake with a peppermint fondant icing. As my cake mixture has been proving a little dry in the new oven, I added a dessert spoon of mayonnaise, and it's worked a treat. All perfectly moist now. Mind you, with one small success comes a little failure - the icing didn't really work, and what you see in the picture isn't at all how it looks in the book. Not sure what I did wrong - but at least it tastes okay. The peppermint gives a nice edge to the rich chocolate cake, which I like. Next week it's the turn of Boston Cream Pie, so watch this space ...

Other excitements of the week are that we're planning a Jubilee party in the road, so I've ordered a job-lot of Jubilee bunting for the occasion. Hey, maybe I should make a cake, but goodness knows what.

Yesterday, I was planning to attend a day's Introduction to Contemplative Prayer with the local church, but sadly that had to be cancelled, but I'm hoping we can still get to do it later on. Silence is so wonderful. Instead K and I visited the Festival of Tulips at Dunsborough Park Gardens. I don't think it was as good as the last time we went - I suspect the weather has held the poor tulips back, but some of them were out, at least.

On the way back we popped into the Wisley plant shop and bought two skimmias, four wallflowers, six chrysanthemums and one monkshood - which, dodging the raindrops, we've planted out this afternoon. I also took the opportunity to prune (i.e. hack down to manageable proportions) the forsythia against the front fence as it was utterly out of control. Much to our delight we found a plant underneath it we hadn't known was there as it was hidden in the forsythia branches. Goodness knows what it is, but at least it will get some sunlight now. Um, if there is some ...

And, oh joy and rapture unforeseen, the azalea in the shrubbery has a wonderful scattering of pink buds on it so can't wait for those to come out. It's going to be quite something, I think.

This morning, K and I attended our first Mattins at church and very nice it was too. I could have done with one or two fewer hymns, frankly, but chanting the psalms is really the perfect way to start any day. In my opinion.

Meanwhile, I've grasped the technological nettle and linked my Nectar card to my British Gas account. Mind you, the amount we appear to be paying British Gas, we should be able to earn enough Nectar points to get a Caribbean island any day now.

Book News:

Don't forget - today is the LAST day to enter the FREE giveaway LibraryThing competition for fantasy novel The Gifting. So far 67 people have entered, and I'm hoping that somehow we can get to 70 by the end of the competition. Only three people to go. All help with this is greatly appreciated!

This week, I've also sent back the first round of edits for gay menage short story The Delaneys at Home to Amber Allure. It's due out on 3 June, so not long to go now. At the same time, I'm working on an office-based gay short story I'm hoping to submit to Riptide Publishing by the summer. Trouble is it seems my main character, Alan, has a mind of his own - I wanted him to be dark and dangerous, but he's fighting back as he'd rather be quirky and wry. Goodness knows how I'm going to work that into my planned-for plot line, but I'd best go along with it for the moment and see where he takes me. Ah, the joys of writing, eh. The author is always the last person to know just what the heck is going on, dammit.

My most recent meditation poem is:




Meditation 647

This morning sun
and silence

are a setting
and a space

for the cuckoo’s
soft call:

the promise of spring
and its dying fall.


Which is cunningly linked with my Sunday haiku:

The cuckoo's soft song
drifts over these morning fields,
announcing the sun.


Anne Brooke
The Gathandrian Fantasy Trilogy
Gay Reads UK
Biblical Fiction UK

Fun Facts about Guildford

The setting of my literary gay short story, The Heart’s Greater Silence, is Guildford, my nearest town, and most of the action takes place in the church at the bottom of the High Street. One of my friends recently created a brand new genre for my story which she calls Hot Clerical Action, or HCA for short, and she’s not far wrong, but you’ll have to read it for yourself to find that one out!

I used the town as I wanted somewhere I thought of as ordinary as a backdrop for the intense and obsessive relationships that my main character, Mark, is involved with. But actually when I started looking more closely, I soon realised that nothing is as “ordinary” as we think it is, when we start investigating. Not even a town … 

I didn’t know, for instance, that Guildford Cathedral was the setting for the 1976 film version of The Omen – there was a brave decision of the church to make, that’s for sure. Sadly though, even in spite of having a cathedral, Guildford still isn’t a city. It last made an application for city status in 2002 but the Queen decided against it. Shame … Though in this Jubilee Year, perhaps she might change her mind (hint, hint)?

If I’m looking for more obvious literary connections, then I find that Ford Prefect from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy claimed to be from Guildford (good man!), and Lewis Carol, the author of Alice in Wonderland, lived and was buried here. Both great classics indeed. 

Turning to other places of worship beyond that visited by Mark and Richard in my story, one of the oldest sites we have in Guildford is a Jewish one, as in 1995 the remains of a 12th century synagogue were discovered in the High Street. In fact it’s believed to be the oldest remains of a synagogue in Europe, so an important religious centre for all indeed.

Naturally, the town is also a centre of sporting excellence, especially with the new Surrey Sports Park just opened nearby, with a special emphasis on this year’s Olympics (well, we’re only 30 minutes from London by train). But as early as 1598, a court case referred to the game of cricket being played in c1550 at the Royal Grammar School. Keeping tradition alive, the School still exists and still has a cricket team though I don’t think any of them remember that first game …

Finally, the two most likely possibilities for the origin of the name Guildford itself are the yellow (Guild = Golden) sand the river runs through, or the yellow marigolds that grow down by the river. Perhaps not as strange as the other facts I’ve unearthed in my investigations, but certainly just as poetic. I shall never look at my home town in quite the same way again, nor assume any setting I use in my fiction is ever really ordinary.

So, what’s the secret life of your home town, and does it have a quirky fact or two of its own? If so I’d love to hear it! And don’t forget if you leave a comment on the blog, then you’re automatically entered in the below competition:

1. Two contests per stop - the first one being a backlist ebook giveaway for one commenter, and the second one being one signed Heart's Greater Silence cover flat and magnet for another commenter.

2a. I also have two cumulative competitions throughout the blog tour, the first one involving answering 3 questions from The Heart's Greater Silence - with the prize being 3 backlist ebooks for one commenter from the tour as a whole. Please send your answers to: albrooke@me.com - thank you! The questions are:

(i) What item of his trade is Richard wearing when Mark sees him in church? 

(ii) When Craig discovers Mark and Richard together, what does he do just before leaving? 

(iii) What action does Mark take at the end of the story?

2b. And the second cumulative competition is for a gift certificate to be drawn at the end of the tour - with this NOT being the winner of Item 2a (see above).

Good luck!

(With grateful thanks to the Guildford Fun Trivia site for the facts!)

Anne Brooke

The Gathandrian Trilogy

Gay Reads UK

Biblical Fiction UK