Book News:
Angels and Airheads is now available for sale at All Romance Ebooks and, talking of sales, Untreed Reads are offering a 29% discount on ALL their titles for today only if you put HAPPYBIRTHDAYPC in as a discount code at checkout, so click here for a fabulous shopping experience.
I'm happy to note that Creative Accountancy for Beginners is No 10 on the Omnilit ebooks bestseller charts, well gosh, so a big thank you to those of you who've bought that one. Speaking of chart placings, The Delaneys and Me is back, after a brief holiday, into the Amazon Gay Fiction charts and is currently lying at No 59. I'm also thrilled to say that Martin and The Wolf has been chosen as one of the Recommended July Reads at Jessewave Reviews, so thank you, Wave, for that!
Also, to my surprise as at heart I'm a glass-half-empty sort of person, The Girl in the Painting appears to be selling well in the UK, so that's lovely to know. Another thank you to those readers out there. And yet another thank you, this time to Charles for his mention of Sunday Haiku at the ever-popular and very classy Ink Sweat & Tears webzine. (Apologies if that last link doesn't work, as Blogger doesn't seem to like it no matter what I do, sigh, but it is there, honest!...)
In addition, I've finished the first draft of my online novella, The Prayer Seeker's Journal, which has come in at about 45,000 words. So I'll start editing that when we're back from our holiday. Weirdly, I've started writing a story with a child who can't speak as a main character, so Lord alone knows where that's going. I'm calling it The Origami Nun - a title inspired by Ruth G at work. I can see the whole story in my head right now, which never happens. Is it my age? Or am I being switched with my far nicer twin after all these years?? Who can tell ...
Meanwhile at Vulpes Libris, my review of Suzannah Dunn's The Confession of Katherine Howard takes a look at bitchy women and difficult men, Tudor-style. I am of course an expert in the former (from self-knowledge, naturally) and have absolutely no knowledge whatsoever of the latter, ho ho.
This week's meditations are:
Meditation 403
All the cedar,
pine and gold
in the world
cannot ease the bitterness
of counting everything
as evil.
Meditation 404
The great temple
was built
not just by Solomon’s
godly obedience
but by the blood
and sweat
of the men he forced
to die for it.
Life News:
Work's been really tricky this week and, once again, I seem to have been at odds with the world, alas. So yes it probably is me. I am naturally angry all the time, sigh. Anyway, I ended up yesterday evening at home sobbing like a baby about it all whilst Lord K attempted to provide sustenance and support, bless him. Surely the change in my HRT regime can't have kicked in quite so soon?? Lord preserve us. Soon I will be wailing and screaming at least once a day while I wait for the menopause to arrive. Hey ho. Again.
Mind you, I think I've been leading up to another bout of nasty catarrh illness as I'm as sick as the proverbial today, a state made rather worse by being able to grab only a couple of hours' sleep last night. Why can't the TV channels have nice light comedies on during the very early mornings when we sick people of Britain actually need them? I'm thinking of writing a letter of complaint along these lines as I don't want politics, news, rampant naughtiness or murders when I'm feeling that delicate. I really don't understand why the programmers can't see that ...
What with all that, I looked like a zombie that had seen better days a long long time ago by the time the real morning was here - so thank goodness Lord K was on hand to deal with the mortgage surveyor who arrived bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 8.30am to give his verdict on the flat below. So I think we've done everything that we need to do to ease the buying process along and all we have to do now is wait for the various reports to arrive, and take stock at that point.
So far today then, I have been enjoying a diet of Lucozade, Lemsips, Sudafed, Vitamin C pills and allergy relief pills, together with lots of castor oil rubbed on to my neck to ease the breathing process - so never say I don't know how to enjoy myself. I ought to have some food later on, really, but with this old familiar monster (catarrh, not me - oh, on second thoughts, maybe me too ...) there's no point rushing it as it's over only when it says it is.
I have managed to do some packing though, trailing my boxes of tissues with me - as tomorrow Lord K and I are off to see the Egypt Group of friends (ie friends we met in Egypt - how good at titles I am!) oop north for the weekend and then we're spending a few days in Northumbria. I hope I don't spread too much disease along with southern largesse and style (if I had any), but I would advise avoiding any of the service stations on the A1 tomorrow as you are likely to meet me doing something unspeakable with castor oil on the way and looking unbearably slimy. What joy for you!
However, to take our minds off that frightening picture, Lord K has now put pictures of the Seville festival on his website, so enjoy the colour and true spectacle that only Spanish senoritas can provide.
See you next week - hope you all have a good (and healthy) one!
Anne Brooke
The Prayer Seeker's Journal
ANNE BROOKE BOOKS: Independent writer of modern fiction
Showing posts with label lord k. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lord k. Show all posts
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Sunday, August 01, 2010
Royalties, rifles and reviews
Book news:
I'm frankly astonished to find out that my royalties this quarter from Amber Allure Press are one-third up on what they were last quarter, well gosh. Perhaps I'm not doing quite so badly after all, then. Does this justify raising my status from Z-list author to Y-list author? Who can tell ...
Not only that but sales of The Bones of Summer in paperback have actually risen since last quarter also, though ebook sales are alas down. It's all something of a mystery, much like the book itself. Meanwhile, The Delaneys and Me reached No 12 in the Amazon Gay Fiction charts, a fact that caused me to have to lie down in a darkened room whilst hyperventilating for a while, though it's fallen somewhat now.
Speaking of Amazon, new in the Kindle this week is The Boilerman and The Bride, and good grief but some kind soul must have bought a copy as it actually has a rating - thank you, kind buyer! Also new at Kindle is Tuluscan Six and The Time Circle, and this also now appears at All Romance Ebooks. I'm also very pleased to say that The Girl in the Painting is on sale at Rainbow eBooks, and that Creative Accountancy for Beginners is mentioned at Spalding's Racket - thanks, Nick.
Turning to future and hoped-for future publications, I'm thrilled to see that A Dangerous Man is now up at the front page of Cheyenne Publishing, noted as Coming in October - so that's getting dangerously (sorry!) exciting. And I've not only written a draft ending of The Executioner's Cane, the third and final part of my Gathandrian fantasy trilogy, but I've reached the 60,000 word marker in it, which puts me at about half-way through, hurrah.
Also in this section, up at Vulpes Libris this week is (a) my review of Sara Shepard's All The Things We Didn't Say and (b) the Coming Up post for next week - in which the real name of Lord H, together with Lord H's fabulous new photographic website, is revealed for the first time. Readers paying close attention will of course notice the startling similarity in design to my own website, but hey it could be worse - we could be wearing Howard & Hilda jumpers (scroll down to view ...), ho ho. Two of my favourite ever characters, don't you know.
I'm also incredibly thrilled that the aforementioned husband (who perhaps can now be called Lord K in future ...) has also produced his very own Daily Office app for the iphone - so even on the move you need never be far from a church service or an apposite prayer for the day! Never say that as a team my husband and I don't look after your every need.
Ooh, and I am very happy indeed to see that Amazon UK will now be producing a UK-friendly Kindle, so I have already pre-ordered mine, and it should be delivered at the end of August, well gosh. How long I've waited for it indeed - so I hope it lives up to my very high expectations.
Meanwhile, I fear that sales of my e-poetry collection, Sunday Haiku, are regrettably poor - so far only 4 copies have been sold, so I am as yet a little below my best-selling poetry collection, which sold ... um ... 11 copies. My mission is to match that target by the end of August, so if there are 7 lovely readers out there who might like some nature-focused and really pretty good poetry to inspire their year, please don't be backward in coming forward - in all honesty, my sad-writer ego can't take it. Thank you!
And here's another little haiku to whet your appetite:
Sparkling green water
ripples in the wind's warm touch,
embraces the dance.
This week's meditation poems are:
Meditation 401
They knew how to party
back then:
seven days’ worth
of spilled blood,
the dark aroma
from burning meat
and the laughter
of men.
Meditation 402
Behind the prayer,
that sense
of strange connection,
the desert
of abandonment
stretches far away.
Life news:
I'm very happy to tell you that my old University friend, Jane, is currently captaining the Great Britain Rifle Team in Canada, and you can find out how Great Britain is doing on their blog. Go, Jane, go! And huge good luck to all. Mind you, the one time I've been lucky enough to see Jane shoot in a national competition, she spent the first 20 minutes of her alloted 30 minutes doing absolutely nothing at all except checking wind speeds and directions and seeing what her competitors were up to, and then took up her rifle and fired all her shots almost perfectly in the space of about 3 minutes. I did wonder why none of her team members bothered turning up to support her until the last 10 minutes - apparently, that is the Jane Messer way, and very good it is too.
This week, I've also popped up to London to see Jane W (another Jane!) and had a fabulous time putting the world to rights and talking houses and what to do with them. Must be my age, you know, and our current house-buying efforts, of course. I've also played some rather appalling golf, which coincided with some incredibly good golf from Marian, who won by miles, and very deservedly. Perhaps I should take a cricket bat next time? I might well do better ...
Yesterday, Lord K (ha!) and I were at Glyndebourne to see Don Giovanni. Verdict: very disappointing and surprising poorly staged, although some individual performances, such as the man-servant and the bride, were very good indeed. However the big excitement was that we sat in the same row as antiques expert, Tim Wonnacott, who was extremely pleasant indeed when attempting to squeeze past me. And hey, I was good! - I didn't giggle or scream: ooh look, it's that man off The Antiques Roadshow on TV - so Lord K is very proud. I am indeed a prime example of modern dignity, well for an Essex Girl anyway.
Anne Brooke
The Prayer Seeker's Journal
I'm frankly astonished to find out that my royalties this quarter from Amber Allure Press are one-third up on what they were last quarter, well gosh. Perhaps I'm not doing quite so badly after all, then. Does this justify raising my status from Z-list author to Y-list author? Who can tell ...
Not only that but sales of The Bones of Summer in paperback have actually risen since last quarter also, though ebook sales are alas down. It's all something of a mystery, much like the book itself. Meanwhile, The Delaneys and Me reached No 12 in the Amazon Gay Fiction charts, a fact that caused me to have to lie down in a darkened room whilst hyperventilating for a while, though it's fallen somewhat now.
Speaking of Amazon, new in the Kindle this week is The Boilerman and The Bride, and good grief but some kind soul must have bought a copy as it actually has a rating - thank you, kind buyer! Also new at Kindle is Tuluscan Six and The Time Circle, and this also now appears at All Romance Ebooks. I'm also very pleased to say that The Girl in the Painting is on sale at Rainbow eBooks, and that Creative Accountancy for Beginners is mentioned at Spalding's Racket - thanks, Nick.
Turning to future and hoped-for future publications, I'm thrilled to see that A Dangerous Man is now up at the front page of Cheyenne Publishing, noted as Coming in October - so that's getting dangerously (sorry!) exciting. And I've not only written a draft ending of The Executioner's Cane, the third and final part of my Gathandrian fantasy trilogy, but I've reached the 60,000 word marker in it, which puts me at about half-way through, hurrah.
Also in this section, up at Vulpes Libris this week is (a) my review of Sara Shepard's All The Things We Didn't Say and (b) the Coming Up post for next week - in which the real name of Lord H, together with Lord H's fabulous new photographic website, is revealed for the first time. Readers paying close attention will of course notice the startling similarity in design to my own website, but hey it could be worse - we could be wearing Howard & Hilda jumpers (scroll down to view ...), ho ho. Two of my favourite ever characters, don't you know.
I'm also incredibly thrilled that the aforementioned husband (who perhaps can now be called Lord K in future ...) has also produced his very own Daily Office app for the iphone - so even on the move you need never be far from a church service or an apposite prayer for the day! Never say that as a team my husband and I don't look after your every need.
Ooh, and I am very happy indeed to see that Amazon UK will now be producing a UK-friendly Kindle, so I have already pre-ordered mine, and it should be delivered at the end of August, well gosh. How long I've waited for it indeed - so I hope it lives up to my very high expectations.
Meanwhile, I fear that sales of my e-poetry collection, Sunday Haiku, are regrettably poor - so far only 4 copies have been sold, so I am as yet a little below my best-selling poetry collection, which sold ... um ... 11 copies. My mission is to match that target by the end of August, so if there are 7 lovely readers out there who might like some nature-focused and really pretty good poetry to inspire their year, please don't be backward in coming forward - in all honesty, my sad-writer ego can't take it. Thank you!
And here's another little haiku to whet your appetite:
Sparkling green water
ripples in the wind's warm touch,
embraces the dance.
This week's meditation poems are:
Meditation 401
They knew how to party
back then:
seven days’ worth
of spilled blood,
the dark aroma
from burning meat
and the laughter
of men.
Meditation 402
Behind the prayer,
that sense
of strange connection,
the desert
of abandonment
stretches far away.
Life news:
I'm very happy to tell you that my old University friend, Jane, is currently captaining the Great Britain Rifle Team in Canada, and you can find out how Great Britain is doing on their blog. Go, Jane, go! And huge good luck to all. Mind you, the one time I've been lucky enough to see Jane shoot in a national competition, she spent the first 20 minutes of her alloted 30 minutes doing absolutely nothing at all except checking wind speeds and directions and seeing what her competitors were up to, and then took up her rifle and fired all her shots almost perfectly in the space of about 3 minutes. I did wonder why none of her team members bothered turning up to support her until the last 10 minutes - apparently, that is the Jane Messer way, and very good it is too.
This week, I've also popped up to London to see Jane W (another Jane!) and had a fabulous time putting the world to rights and talking houses and what to do with them. Must be my age, you know, and our current house-buying efforts, of course. I've also played some rather appalling golf, which coincided with some incredibly good golf from Marian, who won by miles, and very deservedly. Perhaps I should take a cricket bat next time? I might well do better ...
Yesterday, Lord K (ha!) and I were at Glyndebourne to see Don Giovanni. Verdict: very disappointing and surprising poorly staged, although some individual performances, such as the man-servant and the bride, were very good indeed. However the big excitement was that we sat in the same row as antiques expert, Tim Wonnacott, who was extremely pleasant indeed when attempting to squeeze past me. And hey, I was good! - I didn't giggle or scream: ooh look, it's that man off The Antiques Roadshow on TV - so Lord K is very proud. I am indeed a prime example of modern dignity, well for an Essex Girl anyway.
Anne Brooke
The Prayer Seeker's Journal
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