Thursday, January 06, 2011

Discounts, dentists and danger

Book News:

For a brief but happy time, A Dangerous Man found itself at No 77 in the Amazon US Kindle charts, but it's not used to those dizzy heights so it's not there now, ah well. Other amazing news is that I have received my first ever royalties for this novel from Cheyenne Publishing (the book's previous outing with another publisher I cannot mention will remain ... um ... unmentioned ...), so thank you, Mark, for that. Hurrah!

I'm also pleased that The Girl in the Painting was the No 2 International Bestseller in December for Untreed Reads, so that's heartening news too. And, not to be outdone, the 25% discount on my Amber Allure books is still in place until Saturday 8 January, so there's still sale shopping time.

Meanwhile, I've finished the publisher edits for The Gifting and have sent those back to be put into the proofreading process. And I've made some formatting changes to Hallsfoot's Battle ready to send them to my second lovely independent editor. Well, she made such a wonderful job of the edits and the blurb for The Gifting prior to submitting that novel to places that I really hope she's got time for the second in the Gathandrian Trilogy also. Good editing makes such a difference, so much so that I go through one consultancy stage and two independent editing stages before I even think of submitting a novel anywhere. Never say I don't take writing seriously, eh!

And at Vulpes Libris today, you can find my review of Yasutaka Tsutsui's picaresque novel, The Maid, which is definitely worth a read and a fascinating addition to my list of Japanese novels in translation.

This week's meditations are:




Meditation 477
All your history
written on
your skin:

the grief, pain
and shadows that let
the hope come in.




Meditation 478
What man abandons
is left to God
to finish

and in the beginning
is already written
the end.




Meditation 479
When you’ve killed once
anything
is possible

but nothing you do
will bring back
that life again.


Life News:

Back at work this week, which is always a shock. Really, I think my true vocation is not being at work, but there you go. Though actually it wasn't as fearsome as I'd been dreading, but of course it's been a shorter week, so let's see how things go when the real week kicks in next week ... Mind you, the Dean brought chocolates in to keep us all going, so gains at least ten Dean Points for that generous act. We definitely needed it.

Today, I've started off my year with glittery teeth as my rescheduled appointment (due to weather and the frozen shoulder crises) was this lunchtime. I was a bit peed off though as I turned up twenty minutes early as usual but they wouldn't let me in as they close between 12 and 1pm (which I didn't realise), and my appointment was at 1pm. Not a problem usually, as they are charmingly old-fashioned, but it would have been nice if when I'd attempted to get in the locked door, someone had at least come to chat to me, apologise and ask me to come back at 1pm. But no - they were sitting in the waiting room having their lunches, from where they could all see me (shivering and soaked through with the rain, btw ...), they all turned round to stare, but nobody smiled and nobody got up, and then they just all turned round and went back to eating and chatting again, which I thought was rather on the rude side of rude, really. Seeing as I pay privately for treatment, a modicum of customer service would have been nice! So I trudged back to the car feeling sad and rejected (cue violin music ...), from where I then decided to walk to the nearby garage to get a sandwich, and as a result got more soaked by cars/buses going through puddles on the way, and then came back to sit in my car till the magical hour of 1pm turned up.

Once inside, I did make my point clear to the unfamiliar dentist who happened to be on Reception, but she didn't seem greatly interested, and she didn't apologise but just pointed out to me that the sign on the door said they closed for lunch. Hmmm, not the pleasant attitude I'd been hoping for then - especially as I wasn't querying the sign, but just the staff response. Ah well. Hell, if I'd been in their position, I would have at least got up and been nice when I saw a customer trying to get in. I would probably have let said customer in too, and sod the rules, just to get them out of the cold and damp - but perhaps it's me that's the old-fashioned one these days? With all that, I didn't make much conversation with the hygienist (who was, I think, one of the ones who'd ignored me in the first place), and just grunted when asked questions. Because, when it comes to discourtesy to someone who's not a customer, I of course am the Queen of the Art, ho ho. Still, at least I have shiny teeth. Perhaps when I go tomorrow - for a filling this time; Lordy, what fun my week is proving to be! - my teeth will be so dang shiny that the nice dentist I actually know might let me in without argument. At least I'm not going at lunchtime though!

I also had some difficulty when at my physio appointment this afternoon as I was trying to check whether I'd come to the right place (as the physio has other locations in the area she goes to as well), but the surgery receptionist kept trying to send me away to sit down as she said she didn't have a list from the physio today. Which wasn't actually the question I was trying to find the answer to. Seeing as I am of course a calm and loving individual full of the milk of human kindness, I did not collapse to the floor weeping and kicking my legs - though it was tempting - but just asked again until the receptionist finally understood what I was getting at. I did a lot of smiling too - good teeth, you see - so I hope to get my reward in heaven, one day. And at least I was allowed to be inside.

Anne Brooke

4 comments:

Jason Shaw said...

Super super and even more super!

How hard is it to get back to work? Very!

Anne Brooke said...

Thank you! How jolly super we all are this week! :)) And work? I've forgotten it already ... until Monday that is!!! xxx

Jason Shaw said...

Oh and to show how good and happy we all are, I've given a little award to you.

http://www.seafrontdiary.com/2011/01/spatula-award.html

Anne Brooke said...

Ooh lovely, an award - thank you! I do love being a spatula, tee hee - so useful! :))