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

Rentboys, boardrooms and hope

Book News:

I was very happy to see that the upcoming Rentboys Anthology from Riptide Publishing,  which includes my own story Where You Hurt The Most, was mentioned on Top 2 Bottom Reviews this week - very exciting indeed.

I've also just caught sight of the book cover for gay short story The Delaneys At Home (Delaneys *5), which will be available on 3 June and very happy I am with it too. Just the right amount of humour and cheekiness that I hope people get from the series, ho ho.

In the midst of all this, I've started a gay short story/novella set in a boardroom battle scenario which I'm hoping to submit to Riptide Publishing over the summer. Very early days at the moment and definitely no title as yet, but hopefully that will turn up at some point ...

Meanwhile, you can find an interview about me and gay short story The Heart's Greater Silence over at Blak Rayne's Blog, where you can discover my favourite colour, my favourite film and who I'd really like to be. Could be in for a surprise then ...

And at Vulpes Libris Reviews, I find myself a little disappointed with Ken N Kamoche's short story collection, A Fragile Hope. Rather more fragility than hope there, in my opinion, ah well.


This week's meditation poems are:


Meditation 640
Following the party
the riot –
it’s the way
after far too much wine.

So stick to the safety
of bread
and beware
the fruit of the vine.




Meditation 641
In the face of disaster
and a vast sea
of enemies and fear

it’s a powerful act
to step back and trust
that somehow God is near.




Meditation 642
Every word we say
and decision we take
are ripples on the pond
of the whole world

for we cannot measure
by tongue or hand
the secret influence
of our life unfurled.


Life News:

Fabulous news from work this week! We've been shortlisted for the second year running for the Times Higher Education Student Services Awards, which is really thrilling. I'm hoping we'll win this year as the awards ceremony takes place on my birthday, and of course because the University of Surrey Student Support team is obviously the best there is, by a long chalk. Wish us luck!

At home, we've now spotted goldfinches in the garden (hurrah!) and now K and I have both heard the first cuckoo of the year, well gosh. I did actually hear it a few days ago on 12 April, along with several other people in Elstead, so it's arrived earlier than last year when (in case you're interested ...) you might like to know that the first cuckoo in 2011 arrived in our parts on 17 April. So a week early this year - must be the call of the countryside.

Had a great time last night catching up with some friends from the company I used to work for during dinner and chat in Guildford (many thanks, J, M & A!) - though much amusement arose from the fact that somehow A and I managed to miss J & M in the restaurant/bar, and we were only united by the fact that J could hear my voice from a whole room and a dividing wall away and eventually realised it wasn't some kind of auditory nightmare, but was in fact me ... Well, who ever said I needed a phone? I just open the window and shout.

Tonight, K and I are out at the theatre to see Wife Begins At Forty. Which is rather curious as we originally booked tickets for Two Into One, also by the same playwright. So we've been bamboozled for a while as to which alternative universe we are currently in, but the theatre have rescued us from our displacement anomaly by explaining they couldn't get the actors for the original one so had to replace it. Apparently the letter telling us all manner of thing would be well in spite of us having the incorrect tickets never arrived, alas. Good job I looked it up then (I usually don't) though whether we would actually have noticed is anyone's guess. Well, one farce is much like another, isn't it? Hush my mouth.

Finally, I've been impressed by the NHS's First Steps for Emotional Wellbeing site, which has been set up to help us all with our wellbeing. Some interesting stuff there, and as I'm facing scaling down my antidepressants over the next month or two, then I'm sure it will come in very useful indeed.

Anne Brooke
Gay Reads UK
Gathandria Fantasy Trilogy
Biblical Fiction UK

Mamma Mia and the marvels of Nature

Book News:

I'm delighted to announce that my first short story of 2011 is now published and therefore Brady's Choice is now available at Amber Allure Press at a discount price during the first week. And I do love that cover - it's perfect. Not only that, but today you can win a free copy at Jessewave Reviews and so there's definitely still time to have a go.

Another publication this week, and one I also feel very pleased about, is The Best of Every Day Poets Anthology One, which includes two of my poems and has a lovely cover as well. It's nice to be part of a poetry publication as well as a fictional one, that's for sure - I do enjoy the balance.

Speaking of fiction, I've just started the third story in the Delaneys series, which I'm calling The Art of The Delaneys. It's at the very early stages at the moment, but it's great to be on the way - to somewhere and very very slowly ...

There's one meditation today:




Meditation 488
The bronze snake waits
to be broken
and its spirit released

to whisper
in the ears of men
its ancient story again.


And the Sunday haiku is:

May I always dwell
in that deep silence before
the music begins.


Life News:

Today I am still in recovery from spending the day in London with Mother yesterday and will no doubt continue to be in recovery for several more days to come - in the end it was actually surprisingly enjoyable but as always very full-on and insanely intensive. Much like being put through a mangle at very fast speeds over and over again. Hmm, does that description actually fit me? Very possibly ... K is keeping sensibly quiet. Anyway, my eyes are now permanently wide and my hair standing on end - or would be if brushes and exhaustion hadn't been invented. During the day, Mother and I managed to do battle with the Tube which failed constantly to understand the validity of tickets from Essex, we shopped in John Lewis (I spent her vouchers on things for me but gave her the money for them as even I am not that mean!), had lunch in the National Gallery cafe, wandered round the National Gallery and had the best seats in the house for the very wonderful Mamma Mia at the Prince of Wales Theatre. So I think I'm safe in saying she thoroughly enjoyed her 80th birthday Mother-and-Daughter experience. I may even have those elusive Daughter Points, at least for a while ... You never know. Roll on the 90th is what I say, hey ho ... The utterly fabulous thing however was when I finally returned, bloodied and fairly bowed, to Guildford Station, K was waiting for me at the exit carrying a huge bunch of flowers and a hip-flask of almost pure gin. How I needed both! K's first words of greeting: was she still alive when you put her on the train?... Anyway, I drained the gin before we'd got fully out of the station concourse and had another large one (as it were) the moment I took my coat off at home. What a super-hero indeed.

Sad to say though, K is at work today sorting out the IT system ready for tomorrow so a super-hero's work is never done, really. In his absence, I attempted to go to church and be holy, but it was obviously not in the universal plan as the car wouldn't start, so I had to ring the RAC man to come and sort it out. Which they did very efficiently, I must say, but not in time for me to be holy. When I explained this to K when he rang from work, he asked if I wanted to confess my sins to him instead, but I fear he doesn't have enough time in his working day to hear them, alas. Not if he wants to mend the IT system as well.

The great news of the day and my definitive grand finale is that our silver birch sapling now has six twigs and three buds on it. Spring must be well on the way to being sprung at last, hurrah. Nature is indeed a marvellous thing.

Anne Brooke