Nigeria Anti-Gay law proposal and novel writing

Life News:

Some very difficult and frightening things going on in Nigeria at the moment, particularly concerning the imminent possibility of hefty gaol sentences for gay people and supporters of gay people over there, so do please consider signing the petition before such a sad measure can become law. It includes:

• 10 years in prison for living with someone of the same sex
• 10 years in prison for supporting the idea of a pride march
• 14 years in prison for trying to have a wedding

I've signed it and hope some of you out there can see your way to signing it too. Thank you.

Turning to more mundane matters, it's been a very stressful week at work - I really find it challenging enough to deal with one meeting a week, and this week I've had four, so I haven't coped at all well. As I knew I wouldn't really, but it's still been tough. Plus there are one or two deadlines for projects I need to finish, or as near as, this next week, as I'm taking some days off the week after - which I greatly need! Still at least there aren't any meetings this week, which is a blessing, phew.

Some nice social outings though - on Thursday, K and I went to see Twelfth Night at Guildford theatre - and it was wonderful. One of the best productions I've seen for a long time, hurrah. And yesterday, K and I had a great pizza lunch at our friends, R&D, in Haslemere, so thank you, both, for that. On the way back, we popped into Rake Garden Centre and bought some Blackthorn with my vouchers so will need to get that planted during the week - K's job, I'm sure of it ...

Today, we've planted 50 alliums and 6 new lavender plants - the latter to replace the old scraggy lavender which needed clearing, so I feel I'm at one with the garden again, or at least my knees are. Hey ho.

And church was fun - we're thinking of prisoners this week, and the themes of belonging to God's church and the requirements to change, both ourselves and the small corner of the world we're in - so much food for thought for sure. The prayers - all written by prisoners or prison staff - were incredible.

Book News:

I'm pootling along with National Novel Writing Month and now have 48,448 words written of The Apple Picker's Daughter, with more to come. So I should get to the required 50,000 words over the next couple of days, and I think the book is going to be longer. It's a very satisfying feeling, I must say, and proves if only to myself that I can write novels fast on occasion.

Elstead Writers' Group was fantastic yesterday, with some brilliant extracts and lots of inspiration for us all - can't wait for the December meeting, which will also be our Christmas Writers' celebration, thank you, Sue!

Some nice book news this week has been that biblical collection The Betrayal of Birds was briefly at No 93 in the Amazon UK historical religious charts. And my free giveaway of lesbian erotic collection The Truth About Butterflies earlier in the week resulted in 95 copies being downloaded, so that was nice. Thank you.

Anne Brooke
Gay Reads UK
Biblical Fiction UK
The Gathandrian Trilogy
Lori Olding Children's Author