Garden and giveaways

Book News:

The Celebrating Independence Blog Hop has started today and lasts till 4 July. You can find my post here, and if you leave a comment on it, you're in with a chance of winning one of THREE ebooks from my backlist - good luck! You can find all the other participants and their competitions at the Celebrating Independence website. Happy browsing.

Yesterday, we had a great session at Elstead Writers, as ever, with lots of inspiration and advice. And it was even sunny enough to sit outside with our coffee & papers, so that was great. Can't wait till the next meeting.

In terms of current writing projects, I've just started an office-based gay romance for Amber Allure Press, which I'm tentatively calling Who Moved My Holepunch? I think I've fairly safe in assuming the title hasn't been used before ...

The Sunday haiku is:

Held within my throat
all the words I couldn't say:
woman's destiny.


Life News:

Had a good time at golf on Friday, despite the wind which I'm sure was invariably against me. All was going swimmingly until the last hole when I lost my ball in a ditch and had to take a shovel in order to retrieve it, metaphorically speaking. Ah well.

Yesterday afternoon, K and I had a trip out to Nymans to admire their rose garden amongst other splendours and very lovely it was too. The smell was gorgeous. Once back home, I flung myself into baking cupcakes from my new cake book, Marian Keyes' Saved by Cake. Hmm, she seems to have an extremely sweet tooth judging by the amount of icing I had for my cakes, yikes. Even K queried it. Plus, bearing in mind the fact that my icing equipment broke halfway through, and there was more of the actual icing on the kitchen work surfaces and in my hair than on the cake anyway, I think her book should be renamed Traumatised by Cake. I wonder if I should suggest it ... Or maybe just write one of my own.

Beyond that, we've done a fair amount of gardening, and popped into church today, so are single-handedly keeping suburbia going. Lordy, I'll be joining the Women's Institute next, God preserve them.

And, finally, K is now looking for another Accountancy role, so if anyone knows of any finance-type jobs out there, don't hesitate to let us know - many thanks indeed.

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

A day of two halves and roses galore

Book News:

Many thanks to the wonderful KazzaK Book Reviews for commenting on all five books of my gay menage Delaneys series as below (with the straplines in brackets, and in order):

The Delaneys and Me (Small but refreshing and intriguing)
Entertaining the Delaneys (Witty, charming. I love "my" boys)
The Art of The Delaneys (The Delaneys are developing)
Dating the Delaneys (It gets better and better with the Delaneys and Liam)
The Delaneys at Home (My love affair continues)

Gosh, much appreciated, Karen! There'll be one more to go in the series - The Delaneys, My Parents and Me - and then we're done. I have yet to start it though, and it probably won't be till later this year.

The Delaneys at Home (Delaneys *5) also received a 5-star review at Oh My Gigi Reviews, and Where You Hurt The Most gained a 4-star review at Goodreads (many thanks, both!).

Keeping to the gay fiction theme, all my Amber Allure books have a 25% discount until the end of June, and watch out for the Erato Musa GLBT Treasure Hunt starting later on today. Watch this space ...

The Sunday haiku is:

When the dark rain stops
there remains only silence:
a promise of light.

Life News:

As you may recall, it was my 48th birthday on 21 June, and a HUGE thank you to all those lovely people who sent message, cards and emails - it's very much appreciated. It turned out, in the end, to be a day of two halves. K and I spent a wonderful time at Wisley admiring the roses and having lunch, and I received some utterly lovely presents (even from Mother, whose gift buying ability can occasionally be dodgy!...). Then when we returned home, and with such deliciously exquisite timing you couldn't make it up, we received the piece of commercial bad news we'd been waiting for, ah well. I'm sorry I can't say anything useful about this, but there it is. All of which made the rest of the day rather difficult. However, we rallied enough to enjoy our champagne supper later on (hurrah!), and we know that we'll do our best to roll with the punches. And, of course, the best revenge (ha!) is always a happy survival.

That said, a further piece of information turned up the next day (Friday), which made the news somewhat more bearable, at least for a while. Things will, we hope, become clearer throughout the week, not least because we're pretty damn determined to make them clearer in spite of the obstacles thrown in our way. As a good friend of mine said (many thanks, Jane H!) where one door closes, there's another window opening somewhere else. And very true that is too. In the meantime, K and I are indeed very much the better for making our way at last out of the whole Nonsense Area, hurrah and thank the Lord.

Over the weekend, K has very nobly washed my car, mowed the lawn, trimmed the hedge, and created a beautiful pair of rose bowls from the roses in our garden. What a superhero indeed. I have to say the roses smell utterly gorgeous and I love them. They're my favourite flowers.

Yesterday, I also made some funny-face fairy cakes to give ourselves a lift, and very tasty they are too. And we also enjoyed an afternoon out (and more cake & coffee - it's a tough life, but someone's got to do it, eh ...) at the Cleeves Open Garden in Haslemere. Well worth a visit.

Today, we've finally managed to get to church in what seems the first time in ages. I wouldn't be surprised if God had forgotten what we looked like entirely. Some great hymns today, and it was good to get back into the structure of it all. Oh, and for lunch, we've eaten the first crop of our very own potatoes - they were marvellous! Ah, the good life eh ...

Anne Brooke
The Gathandria Fantasy Trilogy
Gay Reads UK
Biblical Fiction UK
Lori Olding: Children's Fiction

Cake, bunting and a giveaway

Life News:

Yesterday's baking extravaganza was a brave attempt at Grasshopper Cake - i.e. chocolate cake with a peppermint fondant icing. As my cake mixture has been proving a little dry in the new oven, I added a dessert spoon of mayonnaise, and it's worked a treat. All perfectly moist now. Mind you, with one small success comes a little failure - the icing didn't really work, and what you see in the picture isn't at all how it looks in the book. Not sure what I did wrong - but at least it tastes okay. The peppermint gives a nice edge to the rich chocolate cake, which I like. Next week it's the turn of Boston Cream Pie, so watch this space ...

Other excitements of the week are that we're planning a Jubilee party in the road, so I've ordered a job-lot of Jubilee bunting for the occasion. Hey, maybe I should make a cake, but goodness knows what.

Yesterday, I was planning to attend a day's Introduction to Contemplative Prayer with the local church, but sadly that had to be cancelled, but I'm hoping we can still get to do it later on. Silence is so wonderful. Instead K and I visited the Festival of Tulips at Dunsborough Park Gardens. I don't think it was as good as the last time we went - I suspect the weather has held the poor tulips back, but some of them were out, at least.

On the way back we popped into the Wisley plant shop and bought two skimmias, four wallflowers, six chrysanthemums and one monkshood - which, dodging the raindrops, we've planted out this afternoon. I also took the opportunity to prune (i.e. hack down to manageable proportions) the forsythia against the front fence as it was utterly out of control. Much to our delight we found a plant underneath it we hadn't known was there as it was hidden in the forsythia branches. Goodness knows what it is, but at least it will get some sunlight now. Um, if there is some ...

And, oh joy and rapture unforeseen, the azalea in the shrubbery has a wonderful scattering of pink buds on it so can't wait for those to come out. It's going to be quite something, I think.

This morning, K and I attended our first Mattins at church and very nice it was too. I could have done with one or two fewer hymns, frankly, but chanting the psalms is really the perfect way to start any day. In my opinion.

Meanwhile, I've grasped the technological nettle and linked my Nectar card to my British Gas account. Mind you, the amount we appear to be paying British Gas, we should be able to earn enough Nectar points to get a Caribbean island any day now.

Book News:

Don't forget - today is the LAST day to enter the FREE giveaway LibraryThing competition for fantasy novel The Gifting. So far 67 people have entered, and I'm hoping that somehow we can get to 70 by the end of the competition. Only three people to go. All help with this is greatly appreciated!

This week, I've also sent back the first round of edits for gay menage short story The Delaneys at Home to Amber Allure. It's due out on 3 June, so not long to go now. At the same time, I'm working on an office-based gay short story I'm hoping to submit to Riptide Publishing by the summer. Trouble is it seems my main character, Alan, has a mind of his own - I wanted him to be dark and dangerous, but he's fighting back as he'd rather be quirky and wry. Goodness knows how I'm going to work that into my planned-for plot line, but I'd best go along with it for the moment and see where he takes me. Ah, the joys of writing, eh. The author is always the last person to know just what the heck is going on, dammit.

My most recent meditation poem is:




Meditation 647

This morning sun
and silence

are a setting
and a space

for the cuckoo’s
soft call:

the promise of spring
and its dying fall.


Which is cunningly linked with my Sunday haiku:

The cuckoo's soft song
drifts over these morning fields,
announcing the sun.


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

Blog tours, brandy and brothels

Books News:

I've spent a very happy time contacting the winners of the recent blog tour for The Heart's Greater Silence and getting their prizes to them. Many congratulations to all, and I hope you enjoy the reads and packages you've won!

Meanwhile, I'm very pleased to catch this wonderful article about the importance of ebooks - some great wisdom there, and I do like the understanding that ebooks are books for grown-ups. Well said indeed. Speaking of which, gay short story Entertaining the Delaneys gained a 4-star review at Goodreads - many thanks, Mickie.

And, if you're looking for a good fantasy eread, why not try The Gifting. At only £1.91 at Amazon UK as well as being available at Amazon US, it's a bargain not to be missed. Trust me.

The Sunday haiku is:

After this bleak snow
crocuses rise up like stars
from the silent earth.


Life News:

Sadly, I've continued to be ill in the latter half of the week so haven't done very much at all. I think I feel better today though, and indeed it's the first time I've been outside since Tuesday, so things must be looking up. K and I popped out to see Brandy Mount Gardens and admired their national collection of snowdrops and daphnes which was absolutely stunning. So I'm glad I made the effort. I think it's the last time they'll be open to the public so even more worth the effort indeed.

The fabulous news of the week however is the launch of the Embrace The Rainbow website - which is a safe place for all GLBTQ people, with a particular emphasis on writers and readers, and I can't recommend it too highly. Do visit - it's a very important cause.

Finally, I was much amused this week to find that someone had stumbled upon my blog by searching for "Elstead brothel" in Google. Goodness me, I had no idea Elstead was such a den of sin. Perhaps a career move is on the cards? Since then, I've found out all sorts of exciting titbits, including the fact that up until 2005 Elstead did have a brothel, and apparently pampas grass is a sign of a swingers' household. Well, goodness me. I don't think we could ever afford pampas grass in Essex, and we Essex gals are in any case way too direct for the swinging lifestyle. I shall however never look at those charming tall fronds swaying in the breeze in people's gardens in quite the same way again. But, hey, at least I've solved that particular searcher's problem, should he/she ever return ...

Anne Brooke
The Gathandrian Trilogy
Gay Reads UK
Biblical Fiction UK

Hearts and minds

Book News:

Heck, it's been busy over the Christmas period, but great fun too. First off there's good news about my literary gay short story The Heart's Greater Silence which is now being sent off to reviewers prior to publication, so I'm looking forward to seeing what people think. You can read a short extract from the beginning at Riptide Publishing's site. Don't forget that if you pre-order, you're also in with a chance of winning a year's supply of Riptide books, so order early to avoid disappointment.

Meanwhile, I've also developed a website devoted to my fantasy series The Gathandrian Trilogy. There you can find out everything you need to know about The Gifting, Hallsfoot's Battle and The Executioner's Cane, as well as getting to discover the ins and outs of the characters in the story, including feisty red-haired women, magical mind-canes and mysterious snow-ravens. There are also extracts from The Gifting and Hallsfoot's Battle, so you can try before you buy. Have fun exploring!

Until tomorrow, you can also win a copy of gay erotic short story Dating the Delaneys at Brief Encounter Reviews. Ideal for keeping you extra warm at New Year. Failing that, you can still get 20% off all my books at Rainbow Ebooks, so don't miss out.

And a BIG thank you to everyone at Amber Allure Press and also Riptide Publishing for the lovely Christmas cards I received from them both. It's really very much appreciated!

Life News:

Christmas has been great this year - really lovely and quiet. Just me and my loved one, which is how I like it, hurrah. Talking of which, K bought me a new Kindle and therefore takes possession of my old one. Plus he was kind enough to buy me the whole of the first series of Blake's 7 on DVD so I can drool over the glorious Avon whenever I like. Mmm, bliss ... Other joys of Christmas were the Christmas Day service at church where the vicar asked the children in the congregation what presents they'd received. Cue one small boy: "I got a toothbrush, and toothpaste!" Well, there's nothing you can say to that really, except to rejoice in how delighted the little chap sounded. Treat 'em mean, keep 'em keen is obviously the way to go, though even I do hope he received rather more than that!

It's also been a time to sort things out in the garden. Together K and I have radically pruned the roses, put up some more trellis (which is looking fantastic, I must say) and sanded down the gate ready for repainting. Having fun outdoors has kept my mind well away from the utter disaster of attempting to change from my MobileMe account to the new so-called improved iCloud. Lordy, it's the worst ever IT change we've had to try (and we must do it as otherwise all our emails and websites disappear next summer without a trace) and I think Apple have done exceedingly badly in making up such a hugely complex set of steps to go through. It actually took us three whole days, one and off, and we're not done yet. The extra pain is that all my MobileMe websites have to find other hosts as iCloud doesn't do websites. Stupid iCloud, eh. I am distinctly not impressed with the whole palaver, deep sigh. And apparently I'm not the only one complaining either.

Still, we've had a couple of great trips out, one to Wisley where I bought a lovely apple-shaped doorstop which can now replace the piece of cardboard which has been holding the living-room door open for three months, phew. Plus we had a fantastic day out at The Hillier Gardens, which has the largest winter garden in Europe. It's amazing, I must say, and the food is to die for too, so we'll definitely be back.

Anne Brooke

The Gathandria Trilogy: for the best in fantasy fiction

On the move again!

Life News:

Tomorrow we're on the move again into a lovely and permanent home in Elstead, so we absolutely can't wait. We know the previous owners have now moved out and the mortgage money reached our solicitors today so there's nothing - God willing! - barring a smooth completion and move-in tomorrow. Wish us luck.

In the meantime, my literary legal situation has been satisfactorily resolved so that's good news for all parties. Many thanks to all of you out there for the support you've given me with this one - it's been very much appreciated. But I can't discuss the actual outcome  - as part of the agreement is that I don't mention anything in public, apart from in the most general of terms, as above. Thank you!

For Bank Holiday Monday earlier in the week, K and I spent the day wandering around Loseley Park Gardens, where the gardens were surprisingly colourful compared to others at the moment, and where the cream tea was excellent, and much needed. And, speaking of nature, we harvested our raspberry crop on Monday - all three of them were very good. Hey, it's quality, not quantity that counts, you know ...

One sad thing this week however is that the very lovely Ruth left us today to take up her promotion in the Registry, so I'll really miss her in the office. She's been great to me - a great mentor and fantastic to work with, and there's going to be a real gap. Still it's good news for Ruth whose bid for world domination continues successfully, and for me there's always a catch-up lunch to be had. I'm planning one very soon (run, Ruth, run for the hills ...).

Book News:

I was hugely pleased to see that fantasy novel The Gifting gained a 4-star review at Goodreads - thank you, Danalia. And here's the next line from the book:

He has been searching for an answer to the wars for some week-cycles now that their mind-skills have failed.

And gay crime thriller A Dangerous Man received a lovely review at Queer Magazine Online (thank you, Cas) and was also mentioned in Fred Bubbers' Reading & Writing Daily News site. Many thanks, Fred.

Turning to the short stories, literary romance Dido's Tale became a bestseller at All Romance Ebooks, surreal short story The Secret Thoughts of Leaves was briefly in the Amazon UK Metaphysical and Visionary charts (which astonished me, and at less than 90p really it's a snip ...), and literary lesbian romance A Woman like the Sea received a very pleasing review at Queer Magazine Online (thank you, Victor). Well gosh.

Finally, before the long-for move comes upon me, here's a meditation poem:




Meditation 565
Joshbekashah
is a musical man.
He plays on the cymbal
and harp.

He makes a loud noise
when the worship is due
so always stays eager
and sharp.

His sisters are nameless
and he wonders if he
might give a few letters
as spares

but he has thirteen brothers
and he’s proud of his name
which is oh so much longer
than theirs.


See you after the move!

Anne Brooke
The Thoughtful Corner

A very expensive lesson ...

Book News:

NB THIS SECTION HAS BEEN REMOVED DUE TO LEGAL NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE PUBLISHER CONCERNED.


Other book news is that the Delaneys series had a rather lovely mention here (thanks, Tracy) and I've chosen the reading for the upcoming launch of The Gifting - it's nice to get that one sorted out. Now all I have to do is practise it and hope people will come along.


Meanwhile, along at Vulpes Libris, my fellow Book Fox Lisa and I have been chatting about Trilby Kent's Smoke Portrait, so do pop along and join in the conversation. It's definitely a fascinating read.


This week's meditation poem is:




Meditation 537
Amongst all the temple’s
sacred equipment – flour, wine,
oil, incense, spices –


it’s the cutlery
that’s mentioned first
proving that people


can’t really face God
without the essential defence
of knives, ladles, spoons.


Life News:


The long-drawn-out agony of our flat sale meanders on, though really K and I have by now entirely discounted the idea of its success, sad to say. This week, our conveyancer (yes, she of the ridiculous questions and no idea what our position is ...) got very excited on Tuesday and was convinced that exchange was about to happen. My, how we laughed. As if. Today, I rang up our tricky neighbours' solicitors again, who admit that documentation is being sent back to them by said neighbours, but they neatly sidestepped the question of whether it was signed or not. Later on, additional information from our conveyancer informed us that the tricky neighbours were questioning the validity of the latest documentation, which they themselves had asked for, ho hum. So, my dears, we pootle on into the abyss. As a result, I sent a snotty email to everyone I could think of asking them not to taunt our poor buyer with ideas of exchange when it is obvious to anyone who has the wit to ask sensible questions that we are still a long way from such a glittering goal. I also asked them not to assume that the tricky neighbours' solicitors are in any way telling the truth about anything and to wait until they can see the whites of their eyes and the black of the signatures before they believe a word that is said. K very pleased with my communication skills ...


This week, nice things have happened too, hurrah! I met the lovely Kirsty of the Book Foxes for dinner in London which was fab-u-lous and we set the world to rights in a very snazzy Italian Restaurant in Store Street. Bliss indeed. Plus I've had a very relaxing session of reflexology at the Uni and dozed off at the end of it all, so I was obviously chilled beyond belief.


Ooh, and we've planted a nemesia in the garden, and harvested our first four strawberries, which tasted like nectar, I can tell you. So enthused were we by this unexpected treat that we have planted (probably too late, but hey what do we know?...) some more strawberry plants in the spaces in the beds and are keeping a close eye to see how they behave themselves. We are indeed Garden Heroes.


Today's excitement was the dental hygienist this morning - please admire my sparkly teeth - and we've gone to two house viewings this afternoon. The first one in Pyrford which was interesting, but would need a heck of a lot of work; and the second in Normandy which was stunning inside, but the garden was smaller than we'd thought. Still, definitely one to bear in mind.


NB THIS SECTION HAS BEEN REMOVED DUE TO LEGAL NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE PUBLISHER CONCERNED.


Anne Brooke

Houses and haikus

Life News:

Well, we've finally made our decision: we've withdrawn our offer on the Woking house because of the general incompetence of our vendors' solicitors who in the last 3.5 months have been amongst the most inefficient people I've ever known. However, our own conveyancer has not been far behind: when we withdrew our offer formally on Friday, we were both annoyed but not at all surprised when the vendors' solicitors and estate agent both asked us what the point was of our decision when we couldn't buy their house anyway without selling ours - as of course we'd told them both about 7 times that the purchase was not at all dependent on the sale of our flat, so we were used to the fact that nobody was listening to us. We were rather more surprised when our own conveyancer emailed us to say she couldn't understand either as surely we "couldn't buy without selling, could we?..." I've never known K be quite so cross and indeed I felt very much like ringing the silly bint up, telling her she was a useless pile of shite and kicking her arse to kingdom come and beyond. But, being the calm and loving person that I am (ha!), I left it to K to send a snippety email saying we'd told her about 5 times that the purchase wasn't in any way dependent on the sale. Oh, and by the way, she was now sacked as our purchase conveyancer, we were making a formal complaint and she'd have to whistle for her fees. Put that in your pipe, love, and smoke it ...

Lordy, what fun we're having right now, eh! Who indeed will rid me of these troublesome conveyancers, and are there any good ones in the whole of Surrey?? Alas, I believe not ... In the meantime, we continue to be utterly bemused that it seems so incredibly difficult for people to accept that we have (a) no chain; (b) savings enough and a decent mortgage to buy a house; and (c) the desperate desire to give vendors money. Why won't the buggers take it?!?

So, back to the house viewing, and we've one lined up to see on Thursday, and 2 more I'm intending to get appointments for this week. Let's hope someone out there starts to take us seriously or I'm going to build my own bloody house in the middle of our former conveyancer's garden. Ha!

However, there is good news! The lovely Brucie finally gets a knighthood and we had a fabulous (and house/publisher crises-free) time wandering round the gardens and enjoying a cream tea at Nymans, and then wandering round yet more gardens at Wakehurst Place - both are definitely recommended.

Today we have got round to visiting our nearest high Anglican church in the area - All Saints Woodham - and, if trying out high church offerings, it's always best to go on Pentecost (today) - ah, the bells, the smells, the ritual, the bling. Bliss. All served (sorry) up with a hint of informality and laughter. We loved it. Plus the coffee they serve is real. Real ground coffee after a church service - we've never had that before! We'll definitely be back ...

And, this afternoon, we have done something we haven't done since our honeymoon nearly 18 years ago (steady, people, steady ...) - we have used the dishwasher that comes with the flat. Gosh! Isn't it lovely. Everything's sooo clean and we didn't have to do it ourselves. How very grown-up we are becoming. Will definitely be doing that again too.

Book News:

NB THIS SECTION HAS BEEN REMOVED DUE TO LEGAL NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE PUBLISHER CONCERNED, AT THEIR REQUEST.

On a happier literary note, The Art of The Delaneys is now available at Amazon UK and Amazon US. And I'm really delighted to say that my Sunday Haiku collection gained a 5-star review at Goodreads, so many thanks to Vicki for that.

This week's meditation poem is:




Meditation 536
It takes 212 men
to guard the temple gates

which just goes to show
women are more dangerous
than you think.


And the Sunday haiku is:

A slow-falling note
soothes this melodious air:
the greenfinch's song.

Anne Brooke

Royal Wedding celebrations et al

Life News:

Well, I must say of course how utterly splendid in every way the Royal Wedding has been. I was up early on Friday and I stayed glued to the TV (apart from very rapid loo breaks ...) from 8am until 2pm. Underneath this prickly and kick-ass exterior beats a heart of marshmallow, my dears, after all. I loved every single moment of it, and I think Kate and William (or Team Cambridge, as we now appear to be calling them) were wonderful throughout. The Middletons came out of it all as the classiest and most elegant family in England and have definitely done their daughter proud on all fronts. Good for them - we middle classes aren't quite as bad as everyone thinks, ha! And at least Mrs Middleton does know how to choose a hat, unlike Posh Beckham who appeared to have a quashed unicorn on her head, and Princess Beatrice who seemed to be wearing a copy of the female reproductive system on hers - or was that a cunning message to the country?... The mind boggles. In fact both Prince Andrew's daughters were dressed by some evil person in clothes more suited to a 70-year-old living in the 1950s - which is a shame as they're such pretty girls. Talking of which, everyone was I think bowled over by Earl Spencer's three daughters - who were giving a good impression of the Three Graces with their very eyecatching blonde beauty and style. Ah, there's trouble ahead there for the Earl, I think ... I also loved the two balcony kisses from Team Cambridge (ahhhh ....) and, earlier on, the wonderful image of the flunkey opening the car door for the Queen and saluting while she ... um ... exited with Prince Philip on the other side of the car. I imagine the flunkey must have been rather startled by her non-appearance, ah well.

Anyway, it was a fantastic day, and just proves that we British are indeed the best in the world when it comes to doing pomp and circumstance with that essential hint of informality and genuine joy. Bliss indeed. I'm already looking for my commemorative teatowel.

K and I have spent the rest of the weekend in a mini-tour of houses & gardens with Royal connections in honour of the occasion. Saturday was Polesdon Lacey (where the Queen Mother and King George VI spent some of their honeymoon) and Claremont Landscape Garden, which even had a Royal Weddings trail, hurrah. Then today, we've spent a lovely day at Highclere Castle where Downton Abbey was filmed, so there's TV royalty there, I'm sure. It was great fun walking round the castle (which has 50 bedrooms, but thankfully there's a whole floor not open so you don't have to take sandwiches to keep up your strength) and seeing where parts of the series were filmed. Actually, I didn't recognise any of the rooms as I think I was too focused on the characters and plot while I was watching it. The only part I did recognise was when we were outside and I suddenly realised I was in the scene at the start when Hugh Bonneville is walking up the meadow (um, their garden, I now realise) to the house with that pesky golden labrador (sorry, I really hate dogs, and golden labradors are the worst ...). Then later on we had lunch on the lawn where the last scene of Series One takes place, and K suddenly put his cup down, leaned over towards me across the table and said: I have bad news, darling. We are at war with Germany. A joke which you will only get if you saw the end of the series, I fear ...

After all this excitement, we popped in to Sandham Memorial Chapel, which is tiny, but the walls are covered with some really wonderful and very moving war paintings by Stanley Spencer. I thought they were great and well worth a visit if you're in the area.

Turning to less exalted matters (unfortunately), I must say that the recent Dr Who 2-parter which ended (well, sort of) yesterday has been quite ridiculously bad. K and I felt as if a handful of writers, probably on speed, had thrown together every plot cliche they could possibly think of and decided to see if they could do it at a gallop to boot. No sooner had one Big Reveal been uncovered than we were swept on to the next, and then the next and the next. It had more plot holes than the Grand Canyon and would have been far, far better if they'd concentrated on only two themes instead of dozens. Or, alternatively, made it into a 7-parter (at least!) so the viewer could have an essential breather now and again, and the writers could work on making it hang together. Such a shame ... So I'm hoping tonight's new crime series, Vera, will be much better, even though it wins the TV prize for the worst-named programme so far this year.

Book News:

The Girl in the Painting has a new buy link at Untreed Reads, and I'm also very pleased with my first quarter royalties for 2011, both for my Amber Allure books and for The Bones of Summer, so that's been a nice boost really.

Here's the latest meditation poem:


Meditation 525
Sheerah is a builder
of towns.
She stands strong
in the foundations,
her bright hair
glinting in fiery sun.

She holds one smooth stone
in her hand and lifts it
to the sky,
already seeing houses,
streets and people
in her mind’s true eye.


The Sunday haiku is:

The morning chiffchaff
lilts its rhythmic springtime beat
in our sleeping ears.


Enjoy the rest of the bank holiday weekend!

Anne Brooke

Gardens and sunshine

Book News:

I've now corrected and returned the galley proofs for The Art of The Delaneys to Amber Allure Press, so am looking forward to publication date on 15 May. I'm currently writing another short story for them, For One Night Only, but intend to get started on the last two of the Delaneys series after that.

Meanwhile, The Gifting is getting ever closer to publication readiness at Bluewood Publishing and I'm just ironing out a few cover issues with my cover artist, Penelope Cline. So it's definitely getting exciting. And I'm pleased to say that my literary short story, A Woman like The Sea, gained a lovely 5-star review at Dark Divas Reviews - many thanks for the comments, Athena.

The Easter Sunday haiku (a day late but, hey, who's counting ...) is:

Lone boy skateboarding
on a blue bridge pulls along
the comforting sun.


Life News:

I hope everyone's having a great Easter holiday weekend - hasn't the weather been glorious. A very rare event indeed here in the UK ... K and I spent a rather pleasant day with Mother on Good Friday, and managed to get to the hour's meditation service at her local church too, so felt pleasingly holy. Ruddy uncomfortable pews though - if I'm sitting still for an hour, I hope, perhaps foolishly, to be able to get up afterwards, but I think we were all struggling. Note to self: next time, remember a cushion.

Back home in Surrey, K and I have enjoyed the Easter Sunday service and have had an equally good time visiting a couple of gardens over the weekend, including Walbury in Lower Froyle - which was small but charming - and Chestnut Lodge in Cobham - which has a collection of glorious tropical birds to die for and doesn't allow children under 15. Double bliss indeed. We loved it. Today, we've also had lunch and a wander round at Wisley, which was very relaxing. The orchid displays are a little past their best now, but still worth a view for the last few days of the exhibition. It was also surprising how empty it seemed in spite of the number of cars in the car park, but that, somehow, is always the nature of Wisley. You can feel on your own whilst ambling around as it's large enough to take it.

In terms of house-buying, there's good news and bad. The bad news is that we didn't really like the house we viewed in Knaphill, though at least we were both agreed on its unsuitability. So we're left with the Woking one plodding its slow, slow way through the purchasing maze. Still, we're keeping our options open until someone deigns to suggest an exchange date (let's not hold our breath, eh ...), so will continue to look. No harm there.

The potentially good news is that the rental property we viewed today in a very nice part of Woking (this afternoon rather than this morning due to timings mix-ups) is quite frankly lovely and we'd move in tomorrow if we could. I hope we get it. Not least because it means we won't be homeless in three weeks' time. Hey ho. Watch this space ...

And we loved Lewis last night on TV - how I wish this wasn't the last of the series and I hope it's back on our screens very soon. I'm getting withdrawal symptoms from the excellent pairing of Lewis and Hathaway already. Honestly, it's the best crime drama around at the moment by far.

Happy Easter week!

Anne Brooke

Gardens, Gifting and Rosie galore

Book News:

Happily, Rosie by Name has begun to spread her wings a little and can now be found at Amazon US, Amazon UK (where it's actually got a ranking so someone must have bought a copy - many thanks indeed!), All Romance Ebooks and Bookstrand (where it's classified as "steamy" - mainstream with some adult language, in case you're wondering ...). And it looks as if someone might just have bought a copy there too, so thank you for that, whoever you are.

Keeping with exciting packages from Bluewood Publishing, I'm thrilled to have received the final proof copies of The Gifting today, so my main focus over the next days will be going through that and marking down any typos I might find to get it ready for publication. As a result, though I've completed Annyeke's part of the epilogue for The Executioner's Cane (a milestone which actually has made me feel quite sad, even though I've been longing to get there for weeks), I'm leaving Ralph's and Simon's parts of the epilogue until I've finished the proof checks for The Gifting.

My most recent meditation is:




Meditation 517
Methuselah is a name
to conjure with:

fire and wind
and storm,

a wildness to cling to
when the days

are dusty and dry,
and the journey bleak.


And the Sunday haiku is:

When a plastic bag
grows up, it becomes a swan:
feathers and sunshine.


Life News:

After I threw all my toys out of the pram last week in terms of our potential house-purchase and our issues with the vendors, things look set to improve, I hope. The estate agent called yesterday to say that the vendors are both 100% behind selling their house to us, and therefore answers to the two outstanding questions will be with our solicitor by the middle of next week, at which point we can start discussing an exchange date. Plus they apologise for the delay, which is nice. Lordy, if it actually happens as the estate agent promises, it will be bloody brilliant as I am more than desperate to get into the new house.

However, we're keeping a Plan B route open in case that doesn't happen and so viewed three other properties yesterday also. Top of the list is a very nice bungalow in Wood Street Village, with a great garden, which we can both happily see ourselves living in. But we won't make any decisions until next week begins to unfold. Wish us luck, eh - we need it.

Meanwhile, our selling estate agent, the marvellous Lucy of Seymours (may her name be praised) seems to be the only one who really knows what she's doing and has been chasing round in terms of the sale of our flat. She's also beaten everyone over the head with the information (which we keep on telling people but nobody pays a blind bit of attention) that we are not in a chain and can leave here and rent somewhere whenever we need to, and on the other hand occupy the next house without initially selling this one. I hope they have now understood these details from Lucy, when they cannot do so from us. It also appears that the only one left to sign our transfer document is the new middle neighbour, so we hope he begins to be rather more amenable than he has up to now. It's about time he did something positive and pleasant - as so far he hasn't really covered himself in glory. Watch this space indeed ...

Anyway, our trip to the theatre on Thursday to see To Kill a Mockingbird ended up being pretty damn classy. A very slow and rather unnecessary start finally gave way to a stonkingly good finish so it was well worth the wait and the journey. I can only recommend it if it travels your way.

Friday night saw us out for dinner at Robin & Gavin's, along with Liz & John (hello, all!) and it was lovely to catch up before Easter rolls over us. This morning we have pottered along to church where the first two hymns were utterly unfamiliar to everyone and we were desperately struggling with the tune (how I hate it when that happens) but luckily the final two were more familiar though, as a congregation, we were so emotionally drained by the first two hymns that we were barely able to squeak our way through at all. We did our best, but the spirit was willing, etc etc, as they say.

We've had a wonderfully relaxing afternoon strolling round Coverwood Lakes & Gardens, which is open today as part of the National Garden Scheme. Being a working farm, it was really more parkland than garden, but still very pleasant especially in this weather and the tea & cake were lovely. Mmmm.

Tonight, it's the glories of Lewis on TV, and once more I can't wait for it. The perfect end to a Sunday.

Anne Brooke

The British are coming!...

Book News:

Next week sees the start of UK Fortnight at Brief Encounters Reviews, which will include spotlights on lots of good authors and your chance to win prizes! Enter now to avoid disappointment ... My own special day will be Tuesday 22 March so do pop in to Brief Encounters Reviews on that and indeed any other day. Satisfaction guaranteed.

At the same time, I'm happy to say that Entertaining the Delaneys is now available as a Kindle book both at  Amazon US and Amazon UK and should liven up your Sunday afternoon no end - so buy early buy often. As they say.

During the week, A Dangerous Man received an interesting 4-star review at Goodreads - many thanks for that, Rod. And you can find out what's coming up at Vulpes Libris this week, which includes exciting new authors, Macbeth and the Bay of Pigs, so never let it be said we don't work hard to revolutionise your reading lists indeed.

The latest meditation poems are:




Meditation 504
Even if you give away
everything you have
and the best of your heart

God cannot be bought
by tricks, deceit
or a liar’s art.




Meditation 505
If you must die
make sure there are men
and chariots enough
to mourn you;

the last thing you desire
is the enemies
of your land
to scorn you.


And the Sunday haiku is:

Waiting by the sink
the pink cupcake umbrella
expects a girl, soon.


Life News:

In a last-ditch and, may I say, really rather generous attempt to sort out the pesky middle neighbours (and their increasingly snippety solicitors - how rude can they get!...), we have tried to make contact with the new middle flat buyer directly via his estate agent to ascertain his address, confirm the ownership of the internal stairs, and a couple of other issues our own buyer has asked us for (and which those wretched solicitors won't answer either). The estate agents are proving very amenable, but so far no response from the middle flat buyer or his solicitors. We will wait and see - but K can foresee a time where we simply have no option but to refuse to sign the transfer agreement for the middle neighbours and they no doubt will refuse to sign the same agreement for us. It may yet be that nobody will be able to sell their respective flats, a situation we don't particularly want to happen in terms of our plans (though we don't care two hoots about them, really) but we may have to live with. Ah well. As I say, we will see, but we are in all honesty doing the best we can under very difficult legal circumstances. Sigh.

To cheer us up, K and I spent a really lovely day yesterday wandering around Nymans Garden and nearby Wakehurst Place (Kew). And for the first time it felt really springlike, which was wonderful. The rhododendrons and camellias were beautiful.

Finally, I must say what a gripping, well-acted and truly classy drama last night's Christopher and His Kind was on TV. Matt Smith really owned that role and, for the first time, I began to see what people see in him. Great stuff - more like that, please. TV producers, take note.

Anne Brooke

The Importance of Fruit and the welcoming touch

Book News:

It is a matter for general astonishment on all sides that during February when it was offered as a free story, How to Eat Fruit was actually downloaded 4,800 times. Ye gods and little fishes, that's more than a 1,000 times a week! I know at least a couple of those who took the punt didn't enjoy it, but I hope some of the others did. Now, just imagine how big a smile I'd have if it hadn't been free! But in any case it's lovely to think of 4,800 readers, or potentially so - therefore a BIG thank you to all who clicked on that button! Well gosh.

A Woman Like The Sea now has its earlier review up at Queer Magazine Online, so thank you to Victor and Anders for that. In addition, if during March you buy A Woman Like The Sea, than you can get any other of my Untreed Reads books with a 40% discount - so there's another good offer to whet your reading appetite. Keeping with Untreed Reads, I was pleased to see that The Girl in the Painting was No 3 on their international bestseller list for February, gosh again.

Reviews this week so far have been as follows:

The Delaneys and Me gained a 4.5 star review at MichelenJeff Reviews.
At the same review site, Entertaining the Delaneys gained a 5 star review.
And Brady's Choice received a 5+ star review, so that was thrilling, I can tell you. Gosh indeed! And thank you to Jeff for reviewing all those so kindly.

Not to be outdone, Sunday Haiku was briefly at No 68 in the Amazon UK Kindle chart, and I even managed to reach the 110,000 word marker in The Executioner's Cane, huzzahs galore and put out the bunting. Heck, I might even finish the trilogy one day - who knows.

This week I've reviewed Ron Butlin's Vivaldi and the Number 3 for Vulpes Libris, which is a musically surreal short story collection that it's wisest not to consume all at once. And recent meditations are:




Meditation 494
The shadow from the sun
retraces the silent step

for a paste of figs
and bitter tears

so one man’s grief
exceeds the worth

of the truth carved out
through all the years.






Meditation 495
Do not trust
the messengers of Babylonia,
do not let them in:

they’ll admire
everything you own then take it
when they leave again.

So do not trust
the messengers of Babylonia,
my friend:

they come
with gifts and smiles but they’ll only hurt you
in the end.






Meditation 496
To be remembered for water
is how to begin

so still the tongue
and let the brightness in.


Life News:

A difficult week, health-wise, but also positive really. Without the HRT, I've been all over the place so I finally bit the proverbial damn bullet and went to the doctor this week about my mood (low, if you're asking). I did the mercifully short (as I didn't have my reading glasses) test she gave me and we discovered I'm 9/21 for anxiety and 8/21 for depression. Which apparently makes me moderately, but not severely, depressed. So it's not all bad news and gloom really! Lord knows it could be worse ... Anyway, the upshot is I'm now on my first medically-prescribed anti-depressant (ah, welcome to mid-forties womanhood indeed ..) which is called Cipramil. Yes, of course I looked up the list of side effects on the NHS site but it was so long I thought I'd stop reading before I jumped out of the nearest window. Ha! Anyway, I'm now on Day 2 of the new Happy Pills and am feeling surprisingly perky. Which must be psychosomatic as they're not supposed to kick in for at least 2 weeks. I can't take the St John's Wort with these, alas, so they're on their own, the pesky little devils. We will see, eh ...

On a happier note, I have decided, along with the lovely Kirsty at Vulpes Libris, to give up worrying for Lent. I was toying with giving up chocolate, but hell I could do without the pressure right now, so an attempted lack of worrying seems like a better idea. I've also enjoyed finishing off the story of Joseph and his brothers at bible study this week. Now there's a disfunctional family if ever I saw one. Too much favouritism is never anything but a dangerous game, my dears ...

I also spent a lovely lunchtime at Wisley yesterday, though I'm afraid there were no cupcakes and the cappuccino just isn't as good as at The Savill Garden, but nonetheless the camellias were out, alongside some gloriously scented daphne sprigs and irises, amongst others. It was all very relaxing which was just what I needed really. And I've popped in to see my former neighbour in Woking today, so that was good to catch up.

I'm hoping all this positive input will help me through the no doubt agonising final episode of the increasingly grim South Riding on TV - I am still traumatised by last Sunday so who knows what I'll be like after the weekend. Someone get me some happy TV to watch, soon!

Finally, I am beyond thrilled to announce that it's now official: UK students have voted our University as the most welcoming in Britain, and my boss gets to have a few words in the article too, hurrah! Good for Student Care is what I say - we all put a heck of a lot of work into Welcome Week arrangements and changes (which takes up a good portion of our year and takes me a month to recover from afterwards!) and it's lovely to think that the students do get something out of our efforts. Well done to them and us, and here's to this year's Welcome Week also - the champagne's on me ...

Anne Brooke

Women, cupcakes and cappuccinos

Book News:

A Woman like The Sea gained a very kind review at GLFiction Reviews this week (many thanks, Victor & Alan), and that same review has also found its way to the San Francisco Examiner, so that was lovely too.

Not to be outdone, Brady's Choice received a very thoughtful 5-star review at Goodreads (thank you, Nicci), and A Dangerous Man gained a 4-star review at Goodreads (many thanks, Andy!). I was also pleased that, very briefly, The Hit List found itself at No 50 in the Amazon UK Kindle charts, well gosh.

And I also received my annual influx of cash from the ALCS (Authors' Licensing & Collecting Society) who give much-needed support to poor authors, so that was very nice, thank you. And, if you are an author who hasn't joined them yet, it's definitely worth it.

And news hot off the press is that the third in my Delaneys' series, The Art of The Delaneys, will be published by Amber Allure Press on 15 May, hurrah! Many thanks, Trace ...

Meanwhile, at Vulpes Libris, you can find my review of Chris Bohjalian's magnificent crime novel, The Double Bind, which is one of the best and most startling novels I've read in a long, long time. Go treat yourself to it!

Today's meditation is:




Meditation 493
The silent grass
and the rooftops,
bleak against a clear sky,

wait for the east wind
to blast them
with its dark unforgiving
purity.


And the Sunday haiku is:

On my downbeat walk
they stop me with dark glimmer:
purple crocuses.


Life News:

Much to my delight, our flat now has the magical note "Sold STC" on its website entry. Phew. Let's hope that keeps there then. And I was also sneakily delighted that the lovely next-door neighbour had a chat with me about the pesky middle neighbours over the weekend and it transpires that they don't much like them either and were really sorry and shocked about what happened last year. Which made me feel a lot better, I must say, and it's nice to know that it's not just us overreacting either. Ha!

Anyway, K and I had a really fantastic day yesterday visiting The Savill Garden. It's astonishingly beautiful even in February, and we were frankly amazed at how much the rhododendrons had come out, giving fabulous splashes of unexpected colour around almost every corner. I also had a deeply moving experience in the cafe where we indulged ourselves in cupcakes (free with a voucher because we visited before!) and cappuccino. I suddenly realised exactly how happy the cupcake was making me feel - which is quite rare as normally I don't realise when I've been happy until after it's over. Is this my nirvana moment? If so, then if my ashes are scattered across the restaurant at Savill when I'm dead and gone, I'll be a contented woman indeed.

Finally, a very happy wedding day to Laura Ives at work who got married yesterday - and I hope the sun shone internally if not in reality, thanks to our pesky English weather. Many congratulations indeed!

Anne Brooke

Gardens, glasses and angst

Book News:

Much to my surprise, A Dangerous Man briefly found itself at No 25 in the Amazon UK charts, so that was nice. In addition, The Hit List gained a 5-star review at Goodreads, so many thanks for that, Chris - much appreciated.

On the sales front, there's 25% off all my Untreed Reads titles until the end of the year, so shop early shop often, and start your New Year with a bang. As it were.

Only one meditation this week as I slowly slowly get back into the habit again, and here it is:




Meditation 475
Sometimes the best victory
and the one
you remember

is simply to outlive
the one
you hate.


Life News:

A bit of an up-and-down week really. We've had a lot of nice outings, including visiting The Egyptian Book of the Dead exhibition at the British Museum, which is well worth it especially if you're into death rituals and bodies, as I am. We also enjoyed seeing the Lewis chessmen, which are wonderful - much smaller than I thought they'd be (silly me, eh) but absolutely exquisite.

We've also visited Wakehurst Place in the fog, where the gardens were interesting but ... um ... foggy and we probably need to go back when we can actually see things. And today, we've had a lovely time at Savill Garden, which I love and which is just as beautiful in winter, with some amazing winter displays and trails, as it is in the summer. The shop's good too and I've finally managed to buy some decent new soapdishes, which I've been looking for for ages, and a nice big happy mug too. So I can aim to be happier in 2011, ho ho.

On the way back we popped into a garden centre to look for candles, and I managed to smash one of the displays and cut myself with glass whilst doing so. Good for me, eh. The staff were lovely though and I didn't have to pay for the chaos I caused, for which I am hugely grateful - it was probably the look of total shock and the blood dripping from the finger that brought out their compassionate side. Anyway, I've calmed down now, thank the Lord, and next time I want to look at anything breakable, I will get K to lift it up for me.

Meanwhile, I've also had another physio session and the frozen shoulder is definitely on the mend, though it makes itself known every now and then. And I've bought a really lovely winter coat in the sales at Debenhams, with which I am hugely happy.

This week's drama has been the Crisis of the Missing Glasses. I attempted to watch the Rolf Harris (I have a soft spot for dear old Rolf) art show last night and realised I couldn't find my tv watching/driving glasses anywhere. Cue frantic searching of the flat, weeping and sobbing (the latter two being mine, naturally). And cue recording of Rolf. I felt really stupid and assumed I'd somehow lost them in Guildford yesterday whilst meandering round the sales. So this morning I spend 45 minutes ringing round shops I can remember being in to see if they had found them. Everyone was really lovely but sadly no glasses. I then did some more weeping and rang the optician's to make an emergency appointment to get replacements. Bearing in mind you never know how long they're going to take and I do take a while choosing new ones anyway, I decided to chance it as it's only a short trip to Godalming and take the car in myself rather than make K wait around while I faffed about. I got in the car and there the buggers were!!! What joy and bliss abounding!!! You can't imagine the relief ... especially as I've just saved myself c£300 replacement costs, double hurrahs and put out the bunting.

Anyway, K has now made me put my phone number in both my reading and my "missing" glasses cases so if they do genuinely go astray at some point then I have a better chance of getting them back. And, when I rang the optician to cancel the appointment, they were hugely pleased that their long-distance customer service skills were as top-notch as ever, gawd bless 'em. How I love a happy ending.

As a result of all that, K and I have also had a discussion about how much of a stressed-out drama queen I'm becoming - though as he freely admits that when he first met me I was stressed-out and hugely unhappy way back then, then perhaps it's not as much of a shock to him as I always assume it is when I get myself in a state now. But I do think I'm getting much worse as I get older - is it my hormones?? Or perhaps the general lack of the sort of hopeful attitude I had twenty years ago that I most definitely don't have now? I'm sure I used to assume in my twenties that things would improve no matter how bad they were, whereas nowadays I just assume they'll probably get worse and I get very angry and frustrated about it. Lordy, what a delight I am to be with indeed ... Anyway, as a result of all this deep thought, I've bought myself an anger management book and a set of bible reading notes to start in January to see if that helps. I should also do more meditation too, I think, as I'm not really very committed to it these days, particularly as my church life went downhill earlier in the year. I'm wondering about going back to the gym too, maybe, as in the old old days beyond recall I used to get rid of a hell of a lot of steam there which helped with the aggression levels, but let's not get too over-enthusiastic. Bloody Rome wasn't built in a bloody day, eh. And I don't want to set myself up for too much personal failure before the year has even begun - there's plenty of time for that yet!

Happy New Year, in any case, to all.

Anne Brooke

Houses, holidays and haikus

Life News:

We've been round a couple of new developments looking at potential new houses today, which has been great fun. We liked one of the houses in the development nearest to Guildford town centre, but we much preferred the ones a little further out. The one we were most interested in won't be built till next year, so we're hoping to do a proper site visit over the next couple of weeks to get a feel for the thing. It will be interesting anyway. In the meantime, we've drafted an official complaint to Mann Countrywide - though I do have to say that the two women in the office, Kirsty & Leigh, were absolutely lovely when I collected my key from them on Saturday, and they apologised profusely and genuinely on behalf of their new manager, who's apparently very appalling to everyone. They also gave me complaint information and encouraged us to go ahead, which was interesting indeed. We're also getting two more estate agents to visit us tomorrow to give us quotes, so we're still keeping all our options open. No harm in doing that for sure.

After all this house consideration, K and I decided to take a quick trip to Wisley for lunch, which was lovely and warm, hurrah. At least inside anyway. Not many people there because of the weather, so it was nice to wander around and have lots of space - though you didn't want to dawdle or one's legs tended to freeze up. In spite of the fact that I was wearing thermals, two pairs of socks, two tee-shirts, a jumper, a fleece and an overcoat. Good Lord, it was astonishing I could move at all really. They were also having a free tree giveaway event, so we have come away with a silver birch sapling. Yes, I know this is ridiculous as we (as yet) have no garden and the beasts grow to about 200 feet tall or something, but how could we resist? We have therefore put it in a pot and put it on the stairs, where it is making a fair bid for the "smallest and spindliest Christmas tree ever" competition. Anyone got a really really small fairy??...

Yesterday, the start of our week's holiday (not going anywhere but having days out and considering house issues, theoretically) got off to a bad beginning as poor K had to work all day sorting out the new phone system at the office. So he left at 8.15am, returned exhausted at 7.45pm and then had to go back to the office as he'd got all the way home and realised he'd left his briefcase in the carpark. Lordy, we were worried, but thank God nothing had happened to it and everything was safe (thank you, thank you - miracles can indeed happen!!), and he got back again at 8.45pm. What a nightmare anyway. And he has to be in work tomorrow too to check the new phone system works so in actual fact our holiday won't start till Tuesday, poor thing. Ah well.

During the latter half of the week, Marian and I played a very cold game of golf, but there was no-one else out there it was so cold, so that was fun too. There was even ice on the tee area so you had to be jolly careful about your swing. As it were. Though, bearing in mind I was as bundled up as I was today, it wasn't much of a swing in the first place. Ooh and on the way back from Guildford later that day, I came upon two young men walking along the central reservation of the A3. The fools!!!! When I got back home, I rang the police so they could check it out and stop them, so I feel I've done my civic duty for the month. But why the hell anyone would walk along the central reservation of the A3 and expect to live long is beyond me ... Men are a mystery, my dears, a complete mystery.

Book News:

I was pleased with this 4-star review on Amazon for gay short story, Give and Take, and even more pleased that Vulpes Libris has been mentioned this weekend in The Guardian as a "top UK literary blog". Now that's class ... We Book Foxes are all smiling hugely indeed.

This week's meditations are:


Meditation 469
The secrets women keep:
hidden in the shadows
and the rooms
where nobody goes,

a flicker at the edge
of an eye, a mystery,
dark corners of life
only a woman knows.


Meditation 470
The temple waits
for destruction

as priests wait
for death,

knowing their completion
lies only in absence.


The Sunday haiku is:

Two mistle thrushes
fill the empty tree with song:
winter symphony.


Anne Brooke

Of beetles and bemusement

Book News:

I've sent the final edits for Tommy's Blind Date back to the publisher, so am now waiting for the galley proofs to come back for a look through. At the same time, I'm continuing the edits of The Prayer Seeker's Journal so will be adding no more to that blog as it stands. I will also be taking it down at the weekend, I think.

Meanwhile, my review of Ned Beauman's novel, Boxer, Beetle, is now up at Vulpes Libris. It's a brilliant and bizarre book let down by a bumblingly bad blurb. Which is a shame, but I hope you enjoyed the alliteration in my last sentence anyway. I certainly did.

Here's this week's meditation poetry:


Meditation 405
Spices, jewels,
gold and the beginnings
of wisdom

warm the air
and bring forth truth
from the heart tonight.


Meditation 406
If I had
all the money
in the world

I probably wouldn’t buy
weapons, spices,
horses or mules

but for wisdom’s taste
and song
there’s no true accounting.

Life News:

I've started a new gardening blog, called The Bemused Gardener, which will explain the joys and horrors faced by Lord K and myself, beginner gardeners extraordinaire. Or potentially so at least. Nope, we've no real idea what we're doing either, but that's never stopped us before, hey ho. It's probably a consolation prize for myself for ending the prayer blog (see above), as I am after all a glutton for punishment.

While I'm on the subject of nature's bounty, it's glorious to see that the first of the English apples are in the shops at last, hurrah! How the smell of them takes me right back to my father's apple farm in rural Essex and that enormous cold-store. Astonishingly, it's Tesco who's won the battle to bring the firstfruits in this time, as usually it's Waitrose, so well done, Mr Tesco. They're great stuff too - Discoveries and they smell like heaven, just like an apple should.

I'm also feeling much better, health-wise, and actually like a real person, rather than simply a huge and sniffly nose on legs. Hmm, nice image, eh. That said, the doctor has just rung up today to check that I do want the referral to the Guildford specialist, and yes I do, as per the other consultant, so at least that's going forward now, hurrah.

I must also say how much Lord K and I have enjoyed the lamentably few episodes of Sherlock which have graced our TV screens for the last three Sundays. Bliss - more please, and soon. I particularly loved the portrayal of Moriarty, but Lord K says that's because I simply can't resist a depiction of male psychotic lunacy contained by intellectual strength. My response was only to agree, and it's precisely why I married him in the first place. He muttered something in turn about me being the female version of that (which is no doubt why we're so well suited), but I fear I am in fact far worse: the lovely Ruth G (formerly of the University chaplaincy but now moved on to bigger and better things) told me only yesterday that she did realise I wasn't actually the Anti-christ, but if I chose to be she thought I'm make a really really good job of it. My, how we laughed, slightly hysterically I admit, but we did laugh. Good to know I may at last have found my ideal career path after all these years - I wonder what the vicar will say ...

Anne Brooke
The Bemused Gardener