Goldenford site - done!

Sound the trumpets and raise huzzahs! The Goldenford site is now uploaded! Phew! Do pop in and have a browse around - we hope you like the new site. And with May bank holidays and summer coming swiftly upon us, now's the ideal time to stock up on all your perfect summer reading! Go on - you know you want to ...

Today, I finished off my office encounter short story - and very short it is too, but that's okay as I think it works. I've uploaded it to the Writewords Novel Group (somewhat cheekily but I did say I hoped it was okay), and people seem to like it. One or two do think it might be part of something longer - but I'm not sure I can cope with thinking about another novel at the moment! What with waiting for the agent's view of Draft 2 of The Gifting and gnawing away at The Bones of Summer, I fear I probably have more than enough to be getting on with. For now.

I've also had a lovely lunch with Robin and Liz at the White Hart in Guildford - great to catch up. And the food is sooo good there. Not to mention the barmen. Ideal totty for the pre-menopausal women. Mmmmm. After that, I popped round to see my sick friend - who's doing very well, and things are continuing to look positive. Double hurrahs.

And I've read Rachel Seiffert's Afterwards. Hmm. Very poetic and beautifully written - but honestly nothing happens for 250 pages, so it was rather on the dull side of dull. Sigh. I also hated the formatting of speech in the book, which irritated the hell out of me. Why can't publishers just use speech marks like everyone else?? Why must we be subject to the pretentious literary dash - it's soooo pointless. Double sigh. I also loved Joseph but thought Alice and her family were prissy and narrow-minded. Good grief, if every woman got so stressed just because a bloke didn't tell her everything, we'd none of us be long for this world. Aren't silent blokes a part of the ecosystem? Mind you, all that said, the book really comes to life from Page 251, a happy event which lasts for the remaining fifty or so pages, so my advice is start there and you'll have a really good read. With nothing much lost that can't be gained from the blurb. My feeling is that actually Afterwards is a long short story that's been ruined by trying to be a novel. It should have stuck to being a short story - and would have been an absolute gem then. That ending is magnificent, truly magnificent.

I've also finished my read through Maeve Haran's Froth on the Cappucino: How Small Pleasures can Save Your Life. Perfectly pleasant but very frothy and pink. Which was about what I expected really. And much like having a Chinese takeaway, I enjoyed the experience, but half an hour later I can't remember a thing about it. Ah well.

Tonight, I'll be seeing if I can add any more lines to The Bones of Summer and, oh, did I say that the new Goldenford site is up?

Today's nice things:

1. The Goldenford site
2. Lunch with the gals
3. Visiting.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website
Goldenford website - oh look it's new!