Come to the cabaret, my friends ...

I'm just craftily sneaking in a preview of the glorious cover art for upcoming novel Number Two in the Gathandrian Trilogy, Hallsfoot's Battle. It's courtesy of the supremely talented Penelope Cline, and I love it. I'm on the proofing stage now so we're nearly at lift-off. Am beginning to get rather excited about it too.

Have had a great week - our 19th wedding anniversary was on September 11th, so we really feel grown-up now. Will we have to start being sensible? Heaven forbid! It's astonishing that K hasn't sent me back in despair to the Wife Shop really. Twenty years next year, and we don't feel a day over sixteen. Well, almost sixteen ... Anyway, we started the day with chocolate cake (the healthy breakfast, don't you know ...) and ended it with champagne, so a truly balanced diet all round. Hurrah for us!

It's also been a hugely exciting weekend for me, as I attended the UK GLBTQ Fiction Conference in Brighton as a small part of the presenting team for a couple of sessions ("First 150 words of a novel", and "Ideas - Where Can I Get Some?"), and also as a very enthusiastic participant. We had a wonderful night out on Saturday at a Burlesque cabaret at the Brighton Proud Ballroom, which was marvellous and gloriously cheesy, and I swear I will never see The Ugly Duckling in quite the same way again. Really, it's astonishing what women can do with a power drill and nipple tassels. Perhaps not one to try at home, people ... It was also wonderful to meet people I've only met online before, and catch up with those I've met in "real" life too, and the chance to chat with fellow-writers, readers, publishers and reviewers without having to explain why I write and love gay erotic/non-erotic fiction was really great also. I loved it. Can't wait for next year's meeting in July in Manchester. Bring it on ...

Other book-type news is that Untreed Reads have accepted my comic surreal short story about a dictionary, Candy and Catharsis, for publication next March, so I'm thrilled with that. And the book tour (plus prizes!) for The Origami Nun starts tomorrow, so that should be fun. Hope as many of you out there as possible will come and join me with my Lori Olding hat on - she's a great gal. Honest!...

Meanwhile, over at Vulpes Libris on Thursday, I reviewed the crazy but utterly charming novel, Jane Austen Ruined My Life by Beth Pattillo. Definitely worth a read, and a class ending to die for. Great stuff.

Finally, I broke my Star Trek mug last week - oh the trauma. There was weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, I can tell you. Luckily SuperHusband came to the rescue and ordered me a new one, so has gained at least a thousand Husband Points in one easy move. What class that man has ... I am treating my bright, shiny Star Trek mug with great care, and I'm sure the coffee in it tastes much better. Cosmic almost ...

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

Great Blog Hops and the Gift of The Snow

Hop Against Homophobia:

A happy reminder to everyone that the magnificent Blog Hop Against Homophobia is now well and truly on the road and will be visiting a blog near you until 20 May. So there's lot of opportunity to find out about the detrimental effects of homophobia, however subtle, and  the actions people are taking to bring equality and justice to everyone, no matter what their sexuality might be. You can find my blog here, which focuses on the close links between being Christian and being highly GLBTQ-friendly, and other people's blogs here. Hope you have a thought-provoking read, and don't forget a comment on any of the blogs during this event gives you a chance to win a prize. Enjoy!

Book News:

I'm thrilled to say that my literary paranormal short story The Gift of The Snow has just been published by Untreed Reads, and is now available from all good ebooks shops. Here's the blurb:

When Andi moves into her new house, she knows from the outset that it's different. One autumn night, she discovers how different it is when she wakes to find that her past, and the woman she left behind so long ago, aren't quite so far away after all. Will she succumb to her own fear of the unknown or will an old love be strong enough to protect her?

I hope you enjoy the read.

In addition, my gay comic short story School for Doms has just been accepted for inclusion in the UK GLBTQ Conference 2012 Anthology, Lashings of Sauce. So I'm currently working on edits with the publisher, JMS Books, and am looking forward to that one.

Meanwhile, I'm getting more reviews for gay short story Where You Hurt The Most, including three 4-star reviews at Goodreads, one from Blub, one from Stephanie and one from Chris - many thanks, all, for your comments.

Not to be outdone, the Delaneys gay menage series hasn't been doing badly on Goodreads either. Entertaining The Delaneys received a 4-star review, The Art of The Delaneys gained a 4-star review, and Dating The Delaneys received a 5-star review, so thank you to Darien and Kazza for those. Much appreciated.

Here are my most recent meditation poems:




Meditation 655
God’s presence
can be felt
in the rain’s rhythmic fall
and the softness
of snow

whilst his voice
can be heard
in the wisdom
of people
you do not yet know.




Meditation 656
The memory of home
drifts through your skin
in shifting shadows
of dark and light:

both curse and blessing
in a strange land
where the clearest day
becomes your night.




Meditation 657
Eleven years
of poverty and pain
are not enough
to wipe away the stain

of bitterness
which seeps across the earth
when the land cries out
for a purer birth.


Life News:

Very busy week at work this week, plus it's slightly confusing as I'm working Monday, Wednesday and Friday, rather than my usual Monday to Wednesday, so I'm utterly bamboozled as to which day of the week I'm actually in. Must be my age, you know ... Just hope I remember to go into work tomorrow, as there's a very important meeting on and I do really need to be there. Still, if I end up on the golf course as is usual for a Friday morning, I think I shall blame my hormones ...

Finally, is it me, but was the wonderful new series of TV drama Silk which started this week just way too gory for words?? All that stuff about eyes and how to lose them was all rather too much for K and me. Horrid. So not what we want for a pleasant evening's viewing ...

Anne Brooke
Hop Against Homophobia
Gay Reads UK
Biblical Fiction UK
The Gathandria Fantasy Trilogy

Blog tours and bestsellers

Book News:

I'm busy working on the edits for Where You Hurt The Most, due out on 7 May from Riptide Publishing - the first round has now gone back to them, so am looking forward to responding to the next edits fairly soon. At the same time, I'm hard at work drafting two interviews and six articles for my upcoming blog tour (with giveaways!), and now have one more article left to write, but I think I'll leave that now to another day. Subjects so far have touched on facial disfigurement and our attitudes to it, the sex industry, the joy of parks and what my two main characters really think about their story - so hopefully something there for everyone indeed.

Speaking of blogs, I've now signed up for the blog hop in July for Independence Day as the Easter one was so successful. So keep an eye out for details to come for yet another prize-giving extravaganza to keep you in a sunny mood over the summer, ho ho.

I'm also really excited to be a part of the upcoming GLBTQ 2012 Meet in Brighton, and you can now find a fabulous list of participants here (including myself - *cough*) and that's only the first third. Can't wait to finally be in the same event as so many other GLBTQ fiction writers and readers - it's going to be wonderful.

Over Easter, I'm proud to say that gay comic romance The Hit List was my bestselling book on Amazon UK, so that was a pleasant surprise, and I shall definitely be celebrating with a good dose of chocolate. Somehow I feel Jamie my main character would approve.

And for this week only you can find my gay thriller The Bones of Summer has a 20% discount directly from Dreamspinner Press, so don't miss out on that one!

This week's meditation poems are:




Meditation 637
Truth is never expected
and rarely welcome.

It is the fiercest ray
of sunshine dividing

the dark we cling to,
dispelling the comfort of night:

the heat of the day’s desire,
an almost unbearable light.




Meditation 638
Prayer’s steadiness
in our drifting
is like
the strongest rope:

it is simpler
than we imagine
and surer
than we hope.




Meditation 639
Joy’s too precious
to shut down

your week-long party
when it’s going so well

so why not
make it a fortnight

and damn the work
and its sorrows to hell.


Life News:

This week, I've been busy in the garden, and have managed to plant tiger lilies, phlox, cosmos, osteospermum and a chrysanthemum that's really on its last legs, just in case it might somehow survive. In fact it was so on its last legs that I initially thought it was a geranium but my lovely husband soon put me right, bless him. I do not pretend to be a proper gardener indeed. Anyway, I've labelled up almost everything so we know what it is (except the husband - I recognise him without help, you know ...) - although I've made a bargain with the chrysanthemum that I'll only label it if it survives. So it's a battle of wills from now on in ...

Today, I was lulled into a false sense of security by a sunny spell and put the washing out to dry, hurrah. Alas, an hour later I was cosily sitting inside watching the hail and thunderstorm that has suddenly burst upon us and feeling smug - when I remembered the washing. Whoops. But hey, at least there's no need to attempt the ironing tonight.

Speaking of weather disasters (well, sort of), hush my mouth, but I'm really really bored with the Titanic right now. Yes, I know it's an historical event of great importance and we must commemorate it as such, but do we have to with such obsessive glee? After all, one wouldn't wish to make so much of a to-do about 9/11, and it does smack of Victorian freak show voyeurism that we have to watch so many people die horribly over and over again, and then talk about it ad infinitum afterwards as well. Sigh. The absolute last straw has been the recent advert for an interactive child's toy of the Titanic. Where I assume they can make it sink as much as they wish until there is nobody left at all. My husband did wonder if it came complete with a recording of the screams and sobs of the drowning, but the advert didn't specify. Thank goodness, eh. Really, I despair ...

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