Tea and sympathy

Life News:

Lordy, but I'm sick. As the proverbial. My bank holiday weekend has been spent coughing pathetically, trying to be brave (ho ho, as if), quaffing Lemsip, Sudafed and Echinacea as if they're all going out of business, and trying to breathe through the catarrh. Whilst smearing castor oil on my throat. Odd but it does help, I'm sure. Oh joy abounding. Not much sleep has been going on, but I've done a heck of a lot of reading and crosswords. There's indeed a silver lining to every cloud. And, as Lord H tells me, at least we're not missing out on the glorious weather.

I only hope I haven't infected my friend Pauline who came for tea yesterday with her family - lovely to catch up, but I just wish I hadn't done quite so much snorting. Um, in an innocent way, I hasten to add ... We had scones, jam & cream - which I did eat, hurrah! Very bad for me, but what the heck, eh.

All this is, I'm sure, playing merry havoc with my Alexander Technique exercises, but I did manage to make it to Reflexology on Friday. Oh Lordy though, I hope I haven't infected these good people - I wasn't quite so bad on Friday ... I don't want to be known as the Bringer of Misery in the local area. No more so than normal anyway.

Writing News:

I've finished the read-through of A Dangerous Man and am sending very slow feelers out to see if there might be any reaction, but I don't want to rush into anything. Not this time. The Delaneys and Me has managed to gain a 4-star review at Goodreads and is graded Very Good at the Well-Read Book Blog - scroll down to see the review.

I'm also pleased that Give and Take gained a 5-star rating at Goodreads, How To Eat Fruit gained another 5-star review at Smashwords - thank you, Padraig! - and for one brief moment of glory Maloney's Law found itself at Number 90 in the Amazon UK gay fiction charts. Sadly, not any more but it was nice while it lasted.

Meanwhile, I'd like to draw your attention to this wonderful source of independent e-reading - from our newest and most exciting independent ePublisher, Untreed Reads. It's definitely one of the best places to be seen in on the Web, and not just because you can find some of my books there. Go explore!

You can also read an interview with me, and find out more about my approach to writing at the Midnight Seductions site - many thanks to Cassandra for posing the questions. And my GLBT Hot Fiction Tip for May can now be found at Queer Magazine Online - it's a great book from one of our best known GLBT authors, Josh Lanyon, and it's a story I just couldn't put down. Wonderful stuff, Josh!

Finally, the latest chapter - about the spiritual hot potato of speaking in tongues - can now be found at the Prayer Seeker's Journal, so never let it be said I bypass the difficult issues at least. And here's this week's haiku:

Summer clogs my throat
as the air spills out tulips,
bluebells, memories.

Anne Brooke
The Prayer Seeker's Journal