Month-long Amber Quill Anniversary and a Half-Price Sale!

Many congratulations to Amber Quill Press who are 12 years old this month! As a special treat and to say thank you to all our readers, all Amber Kisses, Novellas and Novels are HALF-PRICE until 3 October! So hurry along to take advantage of the 50% discount on ALL my books.

Not only that, but all month long, Amber Quill Press will be offering a wide variety of special discounts on all their gay, erotic and general fiction - and even more discounts will be available if you're signed up for the Amber Quill newsletter! So, if you're not already signed up to keep updated on all the latest quality fiction offers, then pop along to the Amber Quill website where you will find the sign-up box at the bottom of each page, or in the sidebar on the right.

Happy shopping and even happier reading!

Anne Brooke Books
Gay Reads UK
The Gathandrian Fantasy Trilogy

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

Books, flowers and the Olympic Blog

Book News:

It's the start of Ebook Fortnight at Vulpes Libris Reviews, where you can find my post confessing how ebooks saved my life, amongst other fascinating articles. Happy (e-) reading.

Gay comic romance Angels and Airheads received an A rating at Brief Encounter Reviews, and over at Goodreads, The Delaneys and Me gained a 4 star review, and Entertaining the Delaneys a 5-star one. Thank you to Kazza for those comments. And, talking of the Delaneys, I've just given the final edits to Amber Allure for The Delaneys At Home, which is due out on Sunday 3 June. Not long to go now!

Meanwhile, there's a sale of all my books over at Books on Board - so hurry over and don't miss out ...

And we GLBTQ UK 2012 Conference writers are not letting the Olympics go unnoticed. We've started a daily Carrying The Torch Olympic blog, and my first post there is all about the joyous cream teas and toilets of Exeter. Perfection indeed!



Recent meditation poems are:




Meditation 658
Power comes
when it will
and leaves
when it must:

its promises
thrill,
though it’s nothing
but dust.




Meditation 659
In these days
prophets are few
and far between

their wisdom
cooling in the air
while the leaves are green

and if we seek them
their shapes are only shadows,
sight unseen.


Life News:

Returning briefly to the importance of supporting the GLBTQ community, Go All Out seems to be a good place to be, so I've added it to my favourites. The focus there is on building a world where we can all live freely and be accepted for who we are - and there's nothing fairer than that. Come and join me - I make good cake! Well, sometimes, eh ...

The last couple of days have been wonderfully garden-friendly. Our strawberries are developing nicely, the choisya is out, the sunflower seeds are starting to sprout, and the remaining two rhododendrons are coming into flower and are both going to be purple. Bliss indeed. On the minus side however, I discovered yesterday that our internal food bin was providing a home from home for a very determined ant community, so I dumped it all into the outside food bin, and it's being recycled tomorrow. Whilst driving out the interlopers, the food bin closed itself very nicely on my finger and I somehow managed to cut myself. Which is pretty impressive, seeing as it's plastic. Luckily I worked the injured digit free, as otherwise the ants would have been in clover, ho hum.

Today, I have planted out the flowers we've grown from seed - so the beds are now full of our jubilee (red, white and blue) petunias, plus verbena, antirrhinums, sweet peas and cuphea ignea. I looked quite charming in my floppy hat and carrying my trusty trowel. It felt like being in an episode of Midsomer Murders before the body is discovered ...

Later on, I'm getting my hair cut, so I'll be able to see out, and then tonight, K's boss is taking us both out for dinner as it's K's 10 year work anniversary. Well done indeed! And what a star boss he has.

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

Hallsfoot, heucheras and hazelnuts

Book News:

I've just signed the contract for the second in my fantasy series, Hallsfoot's Battle, which will be published by Bluewood Publishing probably sometime next year, hurrah! Here's the blurb just to stimulate your interest:

In the second book in The Gathandrian Trilogy, Gelahn the mind-executioner begins his campaign. His powers are sublime, unmatched – even without the mind-cane in his possession. Using fear and pain he enslaves his victims, but next he will break and possess the Lammas Overlord. Recently appointed Acting Elder and left in sole charge of her people, Annyeke Hallsfoot draws on all her mind-skills and courage as the fight for Gathandria rages. The precious ancient Legends are her bedrock and she begins teaching their wisdom to the scribe, Simon Hartstongue, who must quickly learn to work with the mind-cane’s strange powers. But Simon is distracted by his own demons and only fears the artefact. Supported by Johan and Talus, her young charge, Annyeke plots a desperate strategy to defeat the enemy. As the Gathandrians rally behind their new leader, Gelahn strikes at the heart of the city.

And before Number Two in The Gathandrian Trilogy arrives, don't forget there's still time to read the first in the series, The Gifting. Don't delay - buy today! Here's the next small snippet:

It's damning for Johan in so many ways, as Chief Advisor to the Sub-Council of Meditation, but it's true.

Other good book news this week is that gay erotic short story For One Night Only gained a 4.5 star review at Top 2 Bottom Reviews - so many thanks to Michele for that. In addition literary thriller A Dangerous Man gained a lovely 4-star review at Goodreads - thank you so much, Blake. 

I've also uploaded a new blog to The Thoughtful Corner which, this month, concentrates on fresh starts and what they mean, or might mean. I hope you enjoy the read.

This week's meditation poem:

Meditation 570

A people said to be

as numerous as stars

must always remember

not to be distant,

sterile, and a reminder

only of history

but a light

in the darkness

and an absolute promise

of hope.

The Sunday haiku is:

The cardboard boxes

now unpacked and gone: old lives

give way to the new.

Life News:

I appreciate very much that today is a day of quiet remembrance, but it's also K's and my 18th wedding anniversary, so we've been celebrating, but quietly. We've had a lovely lunch out at The Woolpack and then wandered round Wisley Flower Show where we bought a Paris heuchera for one of the borders at the back - K has already planted it and it looks fabulous.

Other house and garden excitements this week have been: we've bought a shoe tidy, a washing line, pegs, a peg bag and some compost, well gosh. And I've hung the washing out to dry for the first time in our married life (18 years today, don't you know! Did I say that already? ...). A fact which, strangely, has made me extraordinarily happy - it's almost like being an adult really, ho ho. I've also sorted out the wardrobes so we know where everything is, and K has planted the French lavender, the rose and the azalea which Jane and Liz (thank you, both!) very kindly between them bought us as house-warming presents. He's also planted our own rose and nemesia, but we have yet to see how they cope with not being in a pot.

And, to cap it all, we've harvested the first hazelnuts from our hazelnut tree - all two of them, and yes they were utterly delicious. Perhaps we'll harvest some more one day ...

On Friday, Marian and I played golf for the first time in ages and I actually won, hurrah! Which just proves that I'm better if I don't play for a while - the weirdness of golf indeed. Practice makes me worse, ah well. And in the afternoon, Liz came round and we had coffee, cake and chat - all perfect for a Friday afternoon really. Ah, this is the life.

Yesterday evening, we took Liz & John to a Proms party at the house of a friend of theirs in Woking - supper and chat in front of the TV. What could be nicer? We were, sadly however, rather late, as I'd confidently programmed the route into Celia SatNav and merrily directed K there from the back seat - but when we "arrived" I realised it wasn't Liz's friend's house at all, but some other address I'd keyed in, and we had to start all over again. Ho hum. Naturally enough, someone else directed on the way back ...

And the Spider Sagas continue. Liz kindly lent us her new spider vacuum (which allegedly allows you to get the spider in a tube and then deposit it in a nature-friendly way in the garden) and we had occasion to use it earlier in the week when I got up at about 1am and discovered one of the evil beasts next to the loo. Well, one can't really go when there's an enemy in the camp so K nobly rushed to get the spider doom machine and attempted to vacuum it into the tube. Alas, the power wasn't strong enough to suck the enormous beast up the tube (as it were ...), and I was so desperate by then I had to dash to the other loo to answer Nature's call - thus abandoning poor K in the ensuite with a cylindrical plastic tube planted on top of a rather large spider. I think he understood, but I may well have lost Wife Points ... By the time I got back, he'd somehow tipped the spider into the loo and flushed it away, hurrah. So whilst I fear that the nature-friendly nature of the vacuum might have been missed, at least it did the job. Sort of.

However, we decided we really needed something stronger so when, after the Proms party, we discovered another spider, this time in my bathroom,  K dashed to get the real vacuum and we sucked it up to its doom in a matter of moments, aha. Nature? Bah, humbug and Death to the Enemy, eh. We are indeed the Spider Destroyers of Elstead - call us anytime, hey ho.

Anyway, for a week or so, our unwanted house lodgers will be safe as we're off on holiday cruising down the Rhone and enjoying the Colours of Provence and Beaujolais and, hopefully, having a lovely relaxing time from tomorrow.  I suspect it will be our last holiday abroad for quite a while but, hey, we definitely deserve it, though I think we'll both be looking forward, secretly, to coming back to our new home afterwards. Who wouldn't!

Anne Brooke

The Thoughtful Corner

Blind Dates galore

Book news:

I'm happy to announce that Tommy's Blind Date is published today and available at a first week discount at Amber Allure Press. Enjoy!

I've also spent a really wonderful day today at the inaugural UK gay fiction writers & readers conference in Ely - it's been fabulous and we're definitely going to do it again next year. It was fascinating to meet some of the writers whom I've known for a while on the Internet and via email, and to meet some new faces/names too. Great stuff. Special thank yous to Alex Beecroft for organising it all, and for Sarah & Jo who had to put up with me in the car - a special medal for them for sure! Can't wait for our Christmas get-together either.

Meanwhile, The Executioner's Cane has finally made it to the 70,000 word marker so well over half-way now. Phew. And the first-round edits for The Prayer Seeker are looking interesting, with my editor/consultant (a new one to me, but she deals with religious fiction) describing it as "quiet and luminescent". Gosh, I didn't think any of my stuff would ever be described in that way and it certainly feels nice. Still a lot to do to improve it but I'm on the road. Somewhere ...

This week's meditation is:

Meditation 424
Beware of dogs
and vultures,

beasts that bite
and beasts that fly:

no good will come
of either.


The Sunday haiku is:

Girl in a pink top
and purple skirt is dancing
amongst the fuchsias.


Life news:

K and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary on Saturday which was great. We spent most of the day at Wisley Flower Show - it's amazing what they can do with flowers, don't you know! - and had a picnic there as the weather was just about okay to sit out. At least it wasn't raining. And we opened a bottle of champagne in the evening - which always goes down well. I've never met a champagne bottle I didn't like.

Earlier in the week I spring-cleaned most of the kitchen. I have to say the under-the-sink cupboard was utterly gross in every way and took 2 buckets of hot soapy water to clean it properly. I don't know what had died in there but I spent a long time mopping up a vast and evil lake of what appeared to be a gravy and soy sauce mix that had flowed everywhere without us noticing (we are such slobs). Honestly I had to prize the tins of peas away from its sticky grasp, so it was not pleasant! All clean now, thank the Lord, and at least I didn't find the head of John the Baptist, or Shergar, both of whom would be grateful not to have spent time there, I imagine.

Finally, the news on the house remains distinctly disappointing and, really, I just don't want to talk about it that much. It just makes me too angry and upset. Suffice it to say we made another slightly higher offer in response to the vendors' new apparent reasonableness, and they have come back with another rude and unnecessary email not really responding to our offer but just expressing their personal opinions about us, so seem to have reverted to type somewhat. All very exhausting - don't these people have any idea how to do business??? Well, obviously not .... Anyway, we will send another letter to them and their solicitors reminding them that our new offer is still on the table if they wish to consider it again and see what that brings out of their very peculiar communications pot.

In the meantime and on a happier note, we continue the efforts to spruce up our flat and are busy admiring the lovely number of buyable properties in the local paper this week. If the vendors want to keep us as potential buyers which is after all the easy and cheap option for them as we're already in the damn house for goodness sake, then they're going to have to be a lot nicer and work much harder than they currently are. Hmm, don't wait up, eh ...!!

Anne Brooke

Fifteen years old today and some unashamed nostalgia

First of all, huge congratulations to Lord H and me for having been married fifteen years today, hurrah! Have a glass of champagne on us to celebrate:



And we have a bottle cooling in the fridge for tonight as well, hurrah (medicines or no medicines, dammit)! Premier cru vintage too - not that I've ever found anything to better Tesco's blanc de blanc £12.00 standard, but heck live dangerously for once, eh. Apparently, fifteen years married entitles us to crystal, glass or a watch. As we don't need any of those things, we have settled for clothes, books and the CD of Purcell's Fairy Queen, which is on the menu for next year's Glyndebourne. There's nothing like a piece of baroque music to lift the spirits, to my mind - although Lord H is less keen, bless 'im. He's more an appreciator of modern atonal music, if truth be told. At least, more than I am anyway.

More than all that though, I am at last wearing the eternity ring - triple hurrahs and wave the bunting in all directions. And it's seriously beautiful. I love it hugely. Goodness my left hand is sooooo heavy now that it's astonishing I can type at all ... I love love love it. It's looks amazing with the engagement ring, and without. And with. And without. But with is my favourite. Well, having it on at all is my favourite, actually. In case you hadn't guessed that. But, glory be, it's true - I have at last turned into my jewellery-obsessed (keep the ring! Always keep the ring!) mother, Lord preserve us. Arrrrggghhh!!!

But thinking of fifteen years of wedded bliss (which probably translates as 12 years of wedded bliss and 3 years of arguments, but hey that's a damn good ratio, I feel) has brought me out in an unexpected fit of nostalgia, Lord preserve us. Again. I have to admit to totally and absolutely loving my wedding day - even though I also have to admit it was the start of a huge and unsurmountable split in the family, which in itself was well, well overdue. So you could say that in some aspects it was in fact the day I began to grow up. And as I got married at 29, growing up was long overdue also. Anyway, the wedding was fabulous - the dress (something simple and ivory with no fuss) really suited me, so much so that even my stepfather said how good I looked (and was rightly astonished to be saying such a thing as well!); the trumpeter turned up with his trumpeter son (whom we never did paid for as they very sweetly waived his fee as they'd had such a good time) and looked amazing in their bright, military-style suits. And the way they played really made the day - they sounded astonishing. I remember thinking as they and the organ played Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring as we were signing the register that it was, and would always be, the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard. Fifteen years later, they still hold that honour. And I'm still grateful.

More than all of this though was the way that everything around us simply vanished when Lord H and I were saying our vows to each other and we suddenly and somehow genuinely were the only people in the church and possibly the only people on the planet. I've only ever had that incredibly magical feeling twice: once when Lord H and I first kissed (and to make everything vanish in the middle of a busy night out in London is some damn trick, I can tell you); and once on our wedding day. It was great. I'm sorry I probably can't explain the sensation any further, but I'm glad it happened once, and incredibly lucky it happened twice. I do understand that.

And now, fifteen years on, I can honestly say that Lord H is the only man I've ever been out with who has never, not even once, bored me. Enraged me to the point of screaming, had me darkly wondering if spousicide is a real word, yes - but bored me, never. There's always something more to find out, in my experience. The Lord H pool runs pretty damn deep and I doubt I'll ever find the bottom. Not in this lifetime anyway.

Though, talking of bottoms (careful, people, careful ...), and to bring my marriage monologue to an end (have I said we've been married fifteen years today?), I have picked up my other prescription from the hospital and now have an Estradot oestrogen patch stuck to my bottom. Ho hum, from the sublime to the ridiculous eh - I am indeed the mistress of that mystic art. The patch is damn small too, so one hopes I don't lose it on the vast acreage of my behind. Which is strange as it comes in an enormous wrapper about ten times its size (the patch - not my bottom ...) - when I'd ripped it open I did think at first there was nothing in it and I'd been sold a bum (sorry!) steer. As it were. But I eventually found it and stuck it on with the aid of a good mirror and some squinting. Apparently I have to wear it for three days (I'm told it even stays on in the bath, well gosh) before I rip it off and shove the next one on. My, what fun we do have here in the cultural outback of Godalming.

What with all this huge excitement, I have only done a few sentences of Hallsfoot's Battle today, so am now just in at 36,000 words or so. Would be nice to hit the big 40,000 marker before the end of September for sure. And I've had a two-hour nap - well, being married for fifteen years is quite exhausting, you know, and I don't want to wear myself out too soon. Tonight, we have lasagne, ice cream and champers to look forward to. I'm sure that will help keep my strength up - all good healthy stuff, you know!

Today's nice things:

1. Our 15th wedding anniversary
2. Our 15th wedding anniversary
3. Our 15th wedding anniversary (did I tell you that yet?...)

Anne Brooke
Anne's website