Women, cupcakes and cappuccinos

Book News:

A Woman like The Sea gained a very kind review at GLFiction Reviews this week (many thanks, Victor & Alan), and that same review has also found its way to the San Francisco Examiner, so that was lovely too.

Not to be outdone, Brady's Choice received a very thoughtful 5-star review at Goodreads (thank you, Nicci), and A Dangerous Man gained a 4-star review at Goodreads (many thanks, Andy!). I was also pleased that, very briefly, The Hit List found itself at No 50 in the Amazon UK Kindle charts, well gosh.

And I also received my annual influx of cash from the ALCS (Authors' Licensing & Collecting Society) who give much-needed support to poor authors, so that was very nice, thank you. And, if you are an author who hasn't joined them yet, it's definitely worth it.

And news hot off the press is that the third in my Delaneys' series, The Art of The Delaneys, will be published by Amber Allure Press on 15 May, hurrah! Many thanks, Trace ...

Meanwhile, at Vulpes Libris, you can find my review of Chris Bohjalian's magnificent crime novel, The Double Bind, which is one of the best and most startling novels I've read in a long, long time. Go treat yourself to it!

Today's meditation is:




Meditation 493
The silent grass
and the rooftops,
bleak against a clear sky,

wait for the east wind
to blast them
with its dark unforgiving
purity.


And the Sunday haiku is:

On my downbeat walk
they stop me with dark glimmer:
purple crocuses.


Life News:

Much to my delight, our flat now has the magical note "Sold STC" on its website entry. Phew. Let's hope that keeps there then. And I was also sneakily delighted that the lovely next-door neighbour had a chat with me about the pesky middle neighbours over the weekend and it transpires that they don't much like them either and were really sorry and shocked about what happened last year. Which made me feel a lot better, I must say, and it's nice to know that it's not just us overreacting either. Ha!

Anyway, K and I had a really fantastic day yesterday visiting The Savill Garden. It's astonishingly beautiful even in February, and we were frankly amazed at how much the rhododendrons had come out, giving fabulous splashes of unexpected colour around almost every corner. I also had a deeply moving experience in the cafe where we indulged ourselves in cupcakes (free with a voucher because we visited before!) and cappuccino. I suddenly realised exactly how happy the cupcake was making me feel - which is quite rare as normally I don't realise when I've been happy until after it's over. Is this my nirvana moment? If so, then if my ashes are scattered across the restaurant at Savill when I'm dead and gone, I'll be a contented woman indeed.

Finally, a very happy wedding day to Laura Ives at work who got married yesterday - and I hope the sun shone internally if not in reality, thanks to our pesky English weather. Many congratulations indeed!

Anne Brooke