The Hit List - publication day

I'm very happy to announce that my latest novel, m/m romantic comedy The Hit List, is now published by Amber Allure, where you can also read a brief extract.

The blurb is:

Jamie Chadwick is straight. Determinedly straight. Or so he keeps telling himself. His small conference business is doing okay and, even though he looks after his ailing father, he loves living in the countryside and life is good. Sort of. But the arrival of old college friend, David Fenchurch, who’s just come out on the distinctly camp side of camp, together with Lucy Reid, his father’s sexy new physiotherapist, sets Jamie on a path he’d never dreamed of taking. On top of all that, the unexpected return of long-lost family friend, Robert Trevelyan, himself openly gay, means that Jamie can no longer ignore the past he’s kept hidden for six years. When Robert and David get together, Jamie’s feelings begin to surface in surprising ways. Who, amongst the crowd of people set to blow his life apart, will make it onto his fantasy hit list? And in the midst of Jamie’s own emotional battlefield, how can he keep things together at all?


I'm really happy with this one, as it's taken me six years to get it right - which, coincidentally is roughly the amount of time it takes Jamie & Robert to get their very rocky relationship sorted out too. All of which proves that writers do indeed grow to be like their characters, in time. I'm also happy to say it's a very different beast in tone from its distant self-published beginnings, and it's great to feel I can finally let it go, having got it to where I wanted it to be, probably all along.

Anyway, at heart, it's a modern, gay retelling of Jane Austen's Emma, so I hope you might take a chance on it and enjoy the read! The ebook is available now, with the paperback being published in mid-March. There's also a book trailer, featuring some rather good-looking young men, so what could be nicer on a Sunday?

Meanwhile, in other news, Lord H and I saw a chiffchaff yesterday (hurrah!) so another bird to be added to this year's list. And here's this week's haiku:

Words batter like rain.
They soak my skin, infiltrate
blood and aching bone.


Anne Brooke - in romantic and humorous mood
The Prayer Seeker's Journal