Creeping back slowly

Sorry I've not been around for a while. After having been ill, I thought I'd take a little break from blogging, and maybe just dip in when I was in the mood. This morning seems to be one of those moments, so here I am, albeit briefly.

I've fully recovered from the nasty illness that just kept on giving for those two weeks, and am feeling (relatively) normal again, hurrah.

Am making my way slowly through the Olympic zone - and trying to avoid it as I'm not a fan of any sport other than golf. It did occur to me at one point that it would be the ultimate in style for the UK not to win any gold medals at all during the games, but sadly that lifestyle statement has been dashed yesterday by our double win. Ah well.

The garden's looking lovely and my Russian sunflowers are now taller than the gate they're next to, and nearly as tall as the canes they're attached to as well. They might even have the beginnings of flowers. You never know. That would be amazing, as they're the ones I planted as seeds. Anyway, here are some garden pics to keep you going. The one with the tall gate is the back garden, with the sunflowers when they were smaller. The bench one is part of the front garden, with the sweet peas in the pot on the right. They're now in flower and smell amazing. The last one is our unexpected hibiscus flower. I love it!

In terms of my book world, I'm busy writing up interviews and a blog post for Riptide Publishing's one-year anniversary later this year, and also have just sorted out my giveaways for the upcoming UK GLBTQ Conference in September. I'm also working away on a short story for Amber Allure, and am giving some small time to a new Lori Olding children's story, Queen of the Fluffy Pens. Talking of Lori, The Origami Nun will be free at Amazon US and Amazon UK from tomorrow (Friday) until Monday, so a good chance to sample the nun's magic, if you've a mind to.

As a result, work on my gay fantasy novella The Taming of The Hawk has slowed down to virtually nothing, but I hope I can pick it up later on. Also I'm very pleased that my upcoming anniversary blog tour for fantasy novel The Gifting only has two empty slots left to fill - result!

Hope you have a great weekend, and I'll pop in again at some point.

Anne

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

Blog tours and bestsellers

Book News:

I'm busy working on the edits for Where You Hurt The Most, due out on 7 May from Riptide Publishing - the first round has now gone back to them, so am looking forward to responding to the next edits fairly soon. At the same time, I'm hard at work drafting two interviews and six articles for my upcoming blog tour (with giveaways!), and now have one more article left to write, but I think I'll leave that now to another day. Subjects so far have touched on facial disfigurement and our attitudes to it, the sex industry, the joy of parks and what my two main characters really think about their story - so hopefully something there for everyone indeed.

Speaking of blogs, I've now signed up for the blog hop in July for Independence Day as the Easter one was so successful. So keep an eye out for details to come for yet another prize-giving extravaganza to keep you in a sunny mood over the summer, ho ho.

I'm also really excited to be a part of the upcoming GLBTQ 2012 Meet in Brighton, and you can now find a fabulous list of participants here (including myself - *cough*) and that's only the first third. Can't wait to finally be in the same event as so many other GLBTQ fiction writers and readers - it's going to be wonderful.

Over Easter, I'm proud to say that gay comic romance The Hit List was my bestselling book on Amazon UK, so that was a pleasant surprise, and I shall definitely be celebrating with a good dose of chocolate. Somehow I feel Jamie my main character would approve.

And for this week only you can find my gay thriller The Bones of Summer has a 20% discount directly from Dreamspinner Press, so don't miss out on that one!

This week's meditation poems are:




Meditation 637
Truth is never expected
and rarely welcome.

It is the fiercest ray
of sunshine dividing

the dark we cling to,
dispelling the comfort of night:

the heat of the day’s desire,
an almost unbearable light.




Meditation 638
Prayer’s steadiness
in our drifting
is like
the strongest rope:

it is simpler
than we imagine
and surer
than we hope.




Meditation 639
Joy’s too precious
to shut down

your week-long party
when it’s going so well

so why not
make it a fortnight

and damn the work
and its sorrows to hell.


Life News:

This week, I've been busy in the garden, and have managed to plant tiger lilies, phlox, cosmos, osteospermum and a chrysanthemum that's really on its last legs, just in case it might somehow survive. In fact it was so on its last legs that I initially thought it was a geranium but my lovely husband soon put me right, bless him. I do not pretend to be a proper gardener indeed. Anyway, I've labelled up almost everything so we know what it is (except the husband - I recognise him without help, you know ...) - although I've made a bargain with the chrysanthemum that I'll only label it if it survives. So it's a battle of wills from now on in ...

Today, I was lulled into a false sense of security by a sunny spell and put the washing out to dry, hurrah. Alas, an hour later I was cosily sitting inside watching the hail and thunderstorm that has suddenly burst upon us and feeling smug - when I remembered the washing. Whoops. But hey, at least there's no need to attempt the ironing tonight.

Speaking of weather disasters (well, sort of), hush my mouth, but I'm really really bored with the Titanic right now. Yes, I know it's an historical event of great importance and we must commemorate it as such, but do we have to with such obsessive glee? After all, one wouldn't wish to make so much of a to-do about 9/11, and it does smack of Victorian freak show voyeurism that we have to watch so many people die horribly over and over again, and then talk about it ad infinitum afterwards as well. Sigh. The absolute last straw has been the recent advert for an interactive child's toy of the Titanic. Where I assume they can make it sink as much as they wish until there is nobody left at all. My husband did wonder if it came complete with a recording of the screams and sobs of the drowning, but the advert didn't specify. Thank goodness, eh. Really, I despair ...

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

Signs of Spring?

Book News:

Have been very industrious this weekend and written up 5 interviews/blog posts for the upcoming book tour for The Heart's Greater Silence and for other sites who've requested one too (thank you!), so feel I'm gradually getting on top of that. One more to go at the moment, and I must say I'm enjoying it. It's certainly making me think - which can surely only be a good thing.

Speaking of which, I'm delighted to see that the 5-star review for The Heart's Greater Silence is now up at Top 2 Bottom Reviews - so many thanks for that!

Life News:

Friday was a work day due to a big morning & lunchtime meeting involving all departmental staff - thankfully it seemed to come off well, and things went smoothly. The only thing was afterwards I was utterly shattered and my stomach was hellish, darn it, so I struggled through the afternoon. I think part of the issue is that, lovely though everyone is, I'm not my best with a lot of people, so I think I've probably done all my social inclusion for the next three months - at least. A nice quiet week ahead to recharge those batteries is what I need ...

Mind you, Saturday was great, as our good friends, Pauline, Tony & their son Darren came for the day, so we had a wonderful time catching up. As they're keen gardeners, that was pretty dang useful too - we now know the names of some of the plants we weren't sure about and, thanks to Pauline, we've noticed that there are actually mauve crocuses coming out into bloom in the garden. Gosh, indeed! A sign of Spring already, perhaps ... but it's the first ever Spring flowers we've had, so we're hugely chuffed indeed.

Whilst they were with us, we also paid a visit to Watts Gallery, which was great, and I picked up another couple of good but cheap pictures for the house, hurrah. The only thing is I need to sort out the frame for one of them, and buy a new frame for the other before I can actually hang them. Might have to wait until next weekend then.

This morning, we paid our first visit to church for 2012, and very nice it was too, though I was puzzled by the hymns and their tunes - I'm not sure I quite understood where some of the notes were going, my dears. I was also delighted to hear that the vicar has some further group workshop plans up his sleeve for Lent and beyond, so will be looking forward to that, for sure. Roll on Ash Wednesday (um, 22 Feb, since you're asking ...).

Afterwards, we strolled round the monthly Farmers' Market at Secretts Garden Centre and managed to pick up some essential organic and local provisions, as you do. The cakes were nice too, though I suspect they won't last long. And tonight, it's the utter joy of the glorious Sherlock on TV - I can't wait, though my happiness will be tinged with a bitter grief (as it were), seeing as it's the last one, sob ... When oh when will we see the like again?

The Sunday haiku is:

Morning's icy start.
The field outside my window
vanishes in mist.


Anne Brooke
Gay Reads UK
The Gathandrian Trilogy

A Dangerous Man, books and interviews

Lots of exciting news this week, so hang on to your hats! I'm thrilled to say that Cheyenne Publishing will be publishing a new edition of A Dangerous Man later in 2010, so more news to follow shortly on that front. A big thank you to Mark for saying yes!

I'm also happy to say that all my Untreed Reads eBooks are now available at Books on Board and Powell's so thank you to Jay for sorting all that out. It's much appreciated.

Other writing news is that my GLBT fantasy short story, Tuluscan Six and the Time Circle, will be published by Amber Allure on 18 July and you can also read an extract here. Love the cover too! In terms of reviews, it's been a nice week also: The Bones of Summer gained two reviews at Goodreads, which you can read here and here - two very different reactions, but thank you to both readers for sharing their comments. At the same time, Maloney's Law gained a 5-star review at Goodreads, and Painting from Life also gained a similar review at Goodreads - so many thanks to those readers also.

Astonishingly, and thanks again to Jay at Untreed Reads, I've been interviewed twice this week, once talking mainly about The Delaneys and Me at Author Offerings, and once more generally about my writing life by Kipp Poe. I hope you enjoy finding out my little never-before-revealed secret in one of those! Ah, the shame ...

Meanwhile, GLBT Week at Vulpes Libris comes to a stonkingly riproaring finish (oo-err, missus ...), with my review of Clare London's wonderful PI novel, Freeman; Sam's review of Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides; and last but by no means least, Rosy's amazing article on Brideshead Revisited - a big thank you to everyone for taking part and for reading. We've all had a fabulous time! Let's hope we can do it all over again next year.

Speaking of things fabulous, Lord H and I had a great time out at the Guildford Theatre on Thursday seeing Headlong Theatre's production of Oscar Wilde's Salome. I have to admit I wasn't hugely looking forward to it, as I've studied the play in the past but have never seen it - it's rarely performed, and though the poetry is rich and lush and amazing, it's always been hard for me to really "get" it in my head. Well, Thursday was a revelation and it completely opened up the whole thing for me as a play rather than as a poem-drama, proving once again just what an astonishingly good playwright Wilde was, in whatever genre he was writing in. I loved the passion, the humour, the teenage angst, the hugely complex adult relationships shown, the setting and the actors. Everything really - especially that marvellous scene at the end where Salome drinks the blood pouring from John the Baptist's head. Oh, yes, bring it on - I'm a Jacobean tragedy girl at heart and really can't get enough of that sort of thing on stage - Lord H said when that happened I was the only one in the audience smiling and sitting up. Ah well - the more blood and death and drama, the better really ... Anyway, the play was amazing - if you get the chance to go, for heaven's sake do, as it may not be an opportunity we'll see again in our lifetimes. And kudos galore to Headlong Theatre for having the balls to revive it when the audience can be counted on the fingers of one hand - hell, we may have been small in number, but we loved it.

But, keeping to the theme of poetry, I'm pleased to say that two of my poems have just been published in the spring edition of Mayo Review. And there's been 3 meditation poems in the latter half of this week, plus the Sunday haiku:

Meditation 355
Just when you thought
everything you held dear
was lost,

someone you hardly know
steps forward
to stand with you,

taking with him something
of the pain and making
everything clearer:

even the wilderness journey,
even the wild river crossings,
even the grief.

Meditation 356
If you want to steal
your master’s life,

take as much
bread, raisins, fruit

and wine
as you can carry

to your master’s master
and wait

for your ship
to come in.

Meditation 357
Sometimes it’s necessary
to endure the stones

and insults,
knowing the truth

that lies
within them.


This week's haiku:

A silent poem
drifts across the page, seeking
the margin's embrace.

Anne Brooke
The Prayer Seeker's Journal