Book tours and happy pills

Book News:

The next month or two are going to be excitingly busy. The book tour for gay short story Where You Hurt The Most starts on Monday 7 May, and includes a competition giveaway for three of my backlist ebooks. So make a note of the date and do pop in - you'll be most welcome. You can also read an extract of the book now up at the Riptide Publishing website.

Then from 11 to 22 June, the anniversary book tour for fantasy novel The Gifting will take place, and you'll have a chance to win a FREE Kindle ereader, as well as other prizes, if you take part in the competition! Further details to follow, but do mark that date in your diaries too. It's going to be fun.

I'm also pleased to say that comic sci-fi story Creative Accountancy for Beginners has been purchased by Reading Library in Pennsylvania, so I hope borrowers there enjoy the read.

Meanwhile gay comic romance Angels and Airheads received a very lovely 4-star review at TWLIB Reviews - thanks for that, Nicci. And, not to be outdone, another gay romantic comedy The Hit List is now available at a 25% discount direct from Amber Allure Press. So the ideal moment to add this one to your shopping cart - thank you!

Over at Vulpes Libris Reviews, you can read all about Megan Taylor's rich and poetic novel The Lives of Ghosts. Another stormingly good book from Taylor and definitely one I can recommend.

My biggest excitement of the week though has been receiving my first piece of fan mail for 2012, well gosh - it really started off my day with a big smile this morning, and huge thanks to the couple who sent it. It's much appreciated.

Here are this week's meditation poems:




Meditation 648
Hidden in the stream
the white stone
calls to me

sings for me –
a voice for me alone
in my dancing dream.




Meditation 649
In our beginning
we know the echoes
of our end –

the flower
already blooming
from the smallest seed

and the bird’s flight
written on the sky’s
clear creed.




Meditation 650
Even the distant glimmer
of the furthest star
travels this far
to reach us

so the smallest hope
we cannot believe
can still weave
a pattern to warm us.


Life News:

This week is the week I move off my 20mg Citalopram happy pills and down to my 10mg ones. I've taken the last of the old stock this morning, so tomorrow I begin my new regime. I know it's good to be slowly coming off them after eighteen months or so, but I can't help being rather worried about how it will affect my state of mind. Honestly, things have been brilliant since I've been on them and I seriously don't want to go back to the horrible mental and emotional state I was in before. Ghastly for everyone really. Anyone, a heartfelt thank you for all the advice I've been receiving today - it's made a big difference. And yes the plan is to come off them slowly so the side-effects are kept to a minimum. I hope!

Anyway, earlier this week K and I actually had a moment or two after work when the sun was out (the sun?! What's that?...) and we could sit in the garden and have a mug of tea. Bliss. Sadly, it's not happened again, but we'll always have the memories, eh. Also, today I have had a lovely lunch with G, and it was great to catch up with her news, especially as we don't seem to have seen each other for ages. Where on earth is this year going?

Oh, and I must say how much we've enjoyed the latest series of Scott and Bailey (or Bott and Scaly as we call them, as it took us an age to work out which one was which, sad to say) - but must there be quite so much domestic trauma? Surely there are some nice men in Manchester ...? Anyway, it was all so traumatic on Monday that K and I had to work our way through a bag of giant chocolate buttons just in order to have the courage to keep watching. Really we need something jollier for a Monday night. I hope the TV schedulers are listening.

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

Freshers, fig trees and fans

Life News:

This week has been Freshers' Week at the university so it's been all systems go all week, with not really much time for anything else. Luckily, I was well enough to go in on each day, though I still can't honestly say I'm functioning on all cylinders yet. Same old, then ... I must say this year's freshers' arrangements have gone really well and I found myself enjoying the process even, so that's been good. I think partly that's to do with the fact that my role took a more backseat position this year, and I spent less actual time on our information point table - though I did manage to set it up, get it started with the volunteers and take it down again each day. Having the extra time meant I kept up with the job back at my desk and that's been great too. How I hate it when I get behind.

Plus the really wonderful thing is seeing (and feeling!) the general states of anxiety from our new student intake lessen substantially as the days go by, hurrah. We've got one more day with the information point on Monday when lectures actually start and they're into their real timetable, but it's never so pressurised a day - so on the whole I feel I've survived Freshers' Week (and even enjoyed it!) rather well. Gosh indeed.

Meanwhile at home, it's all go on the domestic front. We had a dishwasher delivered this morning and - silly me - I happily signed and sent the delivery men off on their way. Only then did I think to see if it fitted in the space. Hmmm, sadly not. Groan. Well, the top fits but the bottom doesn't as the wooden frame of the cupboard unit on the right isn't straight. Deep deep sigh. I'm waiting for Super Husband to come home and see if he can work miracles but I fear we will have to tackle the shop to see if they'll take it back and offer us something smaller. It's really irritating me too, as I was so looking forward to using it tonight. Cue weeping and gnashing of teeth ...

This afternoon, I'm also waiting for delivery of a long ladder so K can get up onto the roof and work out if we need to sort any tiles out. With my current luck, it'll probably be too ruddy big to get through the house, sigh. We'll wait and see.

Turning to the garden (or "the estate", as we like to call it, my dears), I fear that my precious fig tree is not long for this world. I haven't a clue what I'm doing wrong. Over-watering? Under-watering? Too shady? Too sunny?? Lord knows - but its leaves are now all curly and yellow, and I don't know how to make them straight and green again. Not only that but the lovely grasses in front of the dining room window are turning all yellow and droopy too from being all shiny and green last week. Should I be watering more? Is it something that should happen in autumn, though aren't they meant to be evergreen? Sigh, it's a mystery. If anyone out there has any answers, please feel free to share them. We need all the nature help we can get.

Book News:

Not much to say - I'm continuing, very slowly indeed, to write the short story I'm currently working on but it's no use holding your breath. Mind you, I was extremely heartened yesterday to receive not one but two pieces of fan email, so that was really lovely. Thank you, both! I usually only get two in a year, and to have them both on the same day is surely a coincidence no fiction writer would ever dare get away with. Onwards and upwards, eh.

Anne Brooke
The Thoughtful Corner