Miracles and men

Life News:

Such miraculous news to know that at last the Chilean miners are safe - so many things that could have gone wrong and they just didn't, hurrah. Amazing news indeed! I just hope the world now leaves them alone to recover from such a terrible ordeal, but no doubt we won't. But it's seriously lovely to hear of something glorious rather than something grim for once.

From the sublime to the ridiculous, we're finally putting the flat on the market next week as three estate agents are coming round on Wednesday, so I hope there's at least one there who's confident about selling it. Great to be taking the next step in the process indeed. On the left you can see what the Victorian house itself looks like. We're the servants' quarters at the top. As it were. Because when it was built for one of the local schoolmasters in 1873, the servants would have lived where we do now. Plus ca change, eh ...

Turning to television matters, it's a serious delight to have the glorious Whitechapel back on our screens at last, though sadly for too swift a time. Though it's a serious disappointment that the otherwise extremely classy Downton Abbey took a turn for the worse last Sunday and included a very ridiculous Midsomer Murders plotline, sigh. Don't get me wrong: I love Midsomer Murders with a great and abiding passion, but not in the middle of Downton Abbey, per-lease. And it was doing so well too ...

Book News:

I'm thrilled that today my author's copies of A Dangerous Man have arrived and look lovely, hurrah. Publication day is tomorrow (Friday 15 October) so I'm really looking forward to that. Erastes has very kindly republished an original review from 2007, when the book was first published, so a big thank you for that! And I'm pleased to say that people do seem to be preordering the novel at Barnes & Noble, which is very nice indeed.

Also at Barnes & Noble (what great people they are!), you can find a copy of Sunday Haiku, which is a more meditative read. Meanwhile, Tommy's Blind Date gained a really enthusiastic 4-star review at Three Dollar Bill Reviews, so many thanks for that, Kassa - it's much appreciated. And The Delaneys and Me appeared briefly at No 58 in the Amazon charts, but has now slipped back onto the shelf once more.

Finally, I've reviewed Diana Wynne Jones' magical children's fantasy, Enchanted Glass at Vulpes Libris Reviews. It's pretty dang good for adults too.

These week's meditations are:


Meditation 442
A downbeat end,
the epitome of grim

when what one expected
was a rousing hymn.


Meditation 443
The first man
to fall off a balcony
didn’t make
particularly good choices
but he certainly
started a trend.


Meditation 444
A journey, an oath,
a cloak and divided water
show that a miracle

can also be
the beginning of grief.


Anne Brooke