A mystery tour and the royal garden

Book News:

Fantasy novel The Gifting is now showcased at the Awesome Indies website - the mark of a quality read, so I'm delighted to be up there.

And the anniversary book tour for The Gifting should be taking place from 11 to 22 June, but I'm afraid I can't give you any details, as I don't know any yet. Yikes and help! If anyone out there knows anything, then don't hesitate to let me in on the mystery as I'd love to be part of the celebration ...

If you do happen to stumble over the tour, I am offering a FREE Kindle worth £89 to one lucky competition winner, plus a runner-up prize, so it's worth seeking it out if you can. If I find out any information, I'll let you know, ho hum.

Turning to other less mysterious book news, my children's book publisher, Karabeth Publishing, has a lovely selection of new banners for their website, which I'm delighted to reveal for you here. Very nice indeed, I think. The Origami Nun will be coming out from them under my children's fiction pseudonym Lori Olding (watch for Lori's website coming soon!) later in the year.

The Pride Month 25% discount continues on my lesbian literary fiction at Untreed Reads, and recent reviews have included a 5-star rating for gay short story The Heart's Greater Silence at Goodreads, plus a review of For One Night Only, also at Goodreads. Many thanks indeed to both readers for those.





A recent meditation poem is:


Meditation 665
Listen for the sorrow
beneath the laughter
and music.

It is there
in an indrawn breath
or the brief silence

between notes:
in the midst of dancing
we are in death.


The Sunday haiku is:

Sun drifts me to sleep
in the warm poppy garden
and I dream of you.


Life News:

Had my six-monthly trip to the dentist on Friday which was all very jolly as they're such a lovely surgery. But the bad news is I have to have a filling updated (groan) so will be back there again next week - which probably won't be quite so jolly, ah well. However I consoled myself by making a really scrummy coffee & walnut cake yesterday (probably not what the lovely dentist wants to hear ...), but very tasty it is too. Though I say it myself and most certainly shouldn't. Will be making that one again at some point.

Apart from that, it's been a Garden Extravaganza weekend, hurrah. K has created a new bed in the front garden so it all looks a lot tidier, plus he's put edging down which is fantastic. And yesterday, we rushed to the Crocus Nursery Open Day and gorged ourselves on all manner of amazing plants, including those from the Jubilee Royal Barge (created by Crocus), so we have a small part of history in our garden, well gosh. Our newly-named Royal Garden includes an allium, lots of camomile and a salvia. The Queen may well have touched them, you know ... I will be charging a very reasonable price for tours at some point, ho ho, but you will have to wear your tiaras. Other plants in the Royal Garden (I have to keep saying it, you see ... noblesse oblige) include six dahlias in two different versions, three red-hot pokers, a myrtle in a pot, and three very tall poppies. It all looks wonderfully dramatic and I utterly love it.

Today, we have popped to Secretts Garden Centre and added in a gorgeous dark orange lily, a tall pink carnation and two stripy plants to the front mix. Bliss. Oh, and we have harvested our first strawberry (singular deliberate) crop - it was delicious, and yes K and I shared it. I hope its friends ripen soon.

Anne Brooke
The Gathandrian Fantasy Trilogy
Gay Reads UK
Biblical Fiction UK