Time, justice and love

Book News:

I'm delighted to announce that today my gay thriller Maloney's Law is republished by Amber Allure Press and available for the first time in ebook format. The blurb is:

Paul Maloney, a small-time private investigator from London, reluctantly accepts a case from his married ex-lover, Dominic Allen. Before he knows it, Paul finds himself embroiled in the dark dealings of big business and the sordid world of international crime. The deeper he pushes, the closer he comes to losing everything he holds dear.

Can he solve the mystery and protect those he loves before it's too late?

Maloney's Law was shortlisted for the Harry Bowling Prize 2006 (for novels set in London) and the Royal Literary Fund Scheme, and longlisted for the Betty Bolingbroke-Kent Novel Award.

Over at the Amber Allure blog, you can find out more about my borderline autistic Private Investigator and the major issues he has with time, justice and love, as well as enjoying an extract from the novel. And don't forget that Amber Allure will be discounting the book for the first week only, so it's the ideal time to buy! Thank you.

Meanwhile, gay comedy Who Moved My Holepunch? is now available at Amazon UK and Amazon US. During the week, it gained one review at Brief Encounters and another at Hearts On Fire. Many thanks to both reviewers for these.

Not to be outdone, gay erotic menage story The Delaneys, My Parents and Me was briefly in the Top 100 Erotic Gay Fiction charts at Amazon UK, so that gave me a nice little lift. As it were.

I've also completed a brief interview about my latest fantasy novel, Hallsfoot's Battle, and you can discover more about danger, destruction and mind-reading here. Enjoy!

Finally in this section, I'm very happy indeed to be one of the authors signed up with new gay fiction publisher, Wilde City Press, which launches later in April. Don't forget to sign up on their new website and be part of one of the best presses in town! And how I love their new Anne Brooke branding - hey I look almost fashionable, don't you know ...


Life News:

This weekend, spring has been out in almost full force, hurrah. Yesterday, I potted up cornflowers, marigolds and pinks, weeded everything and watered all the rest of the pots too. I even sat in the garden and read my book, well gosh. Today I've spotted two wagtails and a chaffinch, the crocuses are at last fully in bloom and the bees are humming around the heather as if it's the only food in the garden. Which, bearing in mind the apple blossom's not yet out, it probably is.

Also yesterday, I attempted to make Fudge Cupcakes, which was something of a disaster, my dears. Alas and alack. The cake part is fine - though I'm sure the inclusion of fudge in the mixture makes it stickier than it should be - but the icing is terrible. I followed all the instructions to the letter, but sadly it just looks like a cement mixture exploded on my buns (if I'm allowed to type that in public ...). Still, K assures me they taste nice - and as long as we remember to lift the icing off and tackle it as a side dish, all remains well. Ho hum.

This week, I've also played some exceptionally chilly golf where even the fairways (on the rare occasions I'm on them) had ice in places. But it was still wonderful to be out as I don't seem to have been able to get on the course for weeks. I do hope it's a tad warmer next time though.

Meanwhile, I'm under doctor's orders to cut down on my Happy Pills, so now I'm taking one every other day, rather than one a day. So far so good, though I must admit to being a bit nervous about it. I've got a telephone appointment with the doctor in two or three weeks' time, so hope things remain well for then.

Speaking of health, as I come from a family who are very prone to bowel cancer (we tend to die from either that or diabetes - but hey it's great to have a choice!...), may I draw your attention to the wonderful and very useful Beating Bowel Cancer website. April is Bowel Cancer Awareness month, so be sure to join the excellently named Bowel Movement to support the fight against what is one of the deadliest cancer in the UK, as well as being the least talked about. Thank you.

Turning finally to movements of a less physical and more spiritual nature, this week the Angry Anglican takes on Romance, Religion and Retirement - which is quite a mix really. Happy reading.

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

Author of The Week and Daughter of The Year?

Book News:

Gosh, indeedy, but I appear to be in the running for Author of The Week over at Pants Off Reviews - which, you may remember, recently gave me a rather nice review for upcoming gay literary short story The Heart's Greater Silence. Well, if you like, you can even pay them a brief visit and vote for me - and many thanks if you do. Honestly, I'm blushing ... No, really.

I'm also pleased to see that gay erotic short story Dating the Delaneys is now finally up at Amazon US, and Amazon UK - and for a while it was even at Number 69 (no, please, say nothing, people!...) in the Amazon UK charts, so that was very heartening.

Meanwhile my Twitter ebook giveaway fortnight went quite well (it ended yesterday) and I had nearly 40 new followers and gave away about 20 ebooks, so I hope everyone enjoyed their reads. I know some did, as they were kind enough to comment - thank you! I'm planning another giveaway in February to coincide with the advertising campaign for fantasy novel The Gifting - so watch out for that one too. 2012 is the Year of the Giveaway, that's for sure.

Finally, I'm thrilled to announce that the final part of The Gathandrian Trilogy, The Executioner's Cane, has been accepted in advance by Bluewood Publishing (many thanks, Paulette and David), so I need to get the edits sorted out and submit it properly to them by the summer. Am very much looking forward to getting my teeth into that one, hurrah.

Here are the latest meditation poems for you:




Meditation 615
The ocean of blood
connecting a family
cannot be denied:

it’s a wild current
where strange feelings
dance or hide

and when the wind shifts,
the waters press down
in this overwhelming tide.




Meditation 616
The clash of great armies
swallows up the air
and is never silent.

Its echo sings
in the sky
and drifts

across the treetops,
tainting all ages
and people to come:

a memento of pain
when the fighting
is done.




Meditation 617
Perfection lies
not in the wanting
but the waiting

as the whole universe
from the brightest star
to the smallest

blade of grass
lies in grave
expectancy

knowing one day soon
it will come
to pass.




Meditation 618
Out of the quiet shadows
into the full light
and noise of the day

you creep blinking,
with hands which stutter
for a safer way

and you know
the path is always forward
so you cannot stay.


Life News:

Great excitement once more on the garden front as our dogwood hedge has been delivered, so we'll need to plant that in over the weekend. I'm praying for sunshine then, as I no longer have a working brolly, alas. Not that a brolly would be useful when planting a hedge, but there you go, eh.

Yesterday's girly fun was finding one of my colleagues in automobile distress in the car park after work, as her battery was flat. Heck, I've been there so often that I had every sympathy (K and I still wake up screaming at the memory of the time the battery on our rickety old removal van died on the main roundabout linking the A12 to the M25. My, what joy that was ... though the mention on the Radio 4 traffic news was nice). Anyway, as I'm the only person on the planet who actually has jump leads in the back of her car, we managed to get it started though I admit we did have to Ring A Man to ask how to put the jump leads on. Yes, I hear you laughing, but probably not as loudly as the Security staff were as they watched us on the CCTV, hey ho ... Girl Power "R" Us, but only after we've powdered our noses.

And today we've had a recommended builder round to give us a quote on our loose tiles and guttering at the back of the house. Ah, what innocence there is in that statement. After getting to the top of a very tall ladder (me - please admire my courage at this point ...) and crawling round and over the roof (him), it is fairly obvious that the roof of our lovely new house is Not A Happy Place. The cement is disintegrating, hence the falling tiles and damaged guttering and, actually, none of the roof tiles are fixed to anything as a result and can be lifted off without any effort at all. Meanwhile at the front of the house, someone has done a veneer cementing job to fool the casual passerby (a category which, evidently, included our surveyor, sigh) and added chicken wire to keep the tiles on. Chicken wire! Whatever next?... There'll be no damn eggs from that, I fear. Ah, Carruthers, I foresee trouble ahead and a Very Big Bill (as it were - and please excuse appalling Use of Capitals, but really it's that kind of a day). Ah well, we  hadn't planned on having a holiday this year - and maybe best to make that two years. Groan.

Add to that a bit of a Tricky Moment with Mother (TMM for short) last week during our regular phone call and all is jolly interesting indeed in Elstead this week. Mother was telling me all about a woman she met on the bus into Colchester who visited her dying father every day at the hospital, come rain or shine, and then came out with the fatal thought (Note to people: never ever say this phrase or anything like it to anyone if you don't really want to know the answer ...): I don't think any of my children would ever do that for me, would they? Ah, Manipulation, you are indeed a dying art. My less than kind answer to this was: No, probably not, but isn't that what nurses are for? Hmm, I suspect I'm not in the running for Daughter of The Year this year, or any other year indeed ... Situation normal, then.

Finally, as I come from a family of both victims and survivors of this disease and am on the Hit List for testing when I reach 50 (always have something to look forward to, is what I say), I'd like to bring to your attention that this week is Bowel Cancer Awareness Week - so don't forget to get involved and save a life, maybe even your own, especially as it's one of the easiest cancers to cure if it's caught early enough. Keep well and keep going, as they say!

Anne Brooke
The Gathandrian Trilogy
Gay Reads UK
Biblical Fiction UK