The Gifting - news!

News! I have news! As I'm sure someone in a Jane Austen novel once said. Or should have done. Anyway, much to my astonishment and joy, I'm happy to announce that my fantasy novel, The Gifting has been accepted for publication by Bluewood Publishing. Hurrah! And I'm really so thrilled that, to be honest, I can't even speak. A blessing for those of you who have to deal with me face-to-face indeed. Though I suspect it won't last ... Anyway, many thanks to Paulette & David of Bluewood for saying yes, and I'm looking forward to working with you towards the publication date. It's lovely to think that Simon the Scribe is going to have a voice. Gosh indeedy.

As you can imagine, this news has rather overpowered the rest of the week and I am still floating delicately amongst the clouds - though for that I blame the champagne Lord H insisted we open on Tuesday night. It's a tough life, eh, but someone has to drink it ...

But other writing projects are also happily bubbling away (note the nice blending with the champagne image there, please!). I'm also delighted to say that two of my poems will be included in the first Every Day Poets anthology, so thank you to Oonah Joslin for her work on that.

In addition, Give and Take is now up at the Amber Allure Press site, though it's not published until 21 March. NB: That AAP link does take you to an erotic extract, so please be warned! I'm also very pleased that Untreed Reads have accepted my literary feminist short story, The Girl in the Painting (formerly known as Girl Undecided) for future publication, so I'm looking forward to working with Jay again on that one - thanks, Jay!

In terms of reviews, I was happy to see Painting from Life gained a 4 star rating at Goodreads - thanks, Kassa! And, at the same time, A Stranger's Touch gained another 4 star Goodreads rating - thank you, Deanna, for that also.

Keeping to the subject of reviews, Vulpes Libris now has my review of Ali Smith's novel, The Accidental and it's an astonishing and exciting book, so do pop in and be inspired.

Finally, in this writing life, I was heartened to hear that on the first day of Read An Ebook Week, my short stories, How to Eat Fruit and Dancing with Lions were downloaded for free 40 times. Gosh! I do hope people have enjoyed the reads. And if you do want a free ebook to enjoy, pop along to Smashwords here or here and take advantage of the offer. It ends on 13 March so there's still time!

And I think that's about it really. I'm just off now to have a glorious Hot Stone Therapy massage (hurrah!) so will no doubt be out for the count for the rest of the day. Bliss. Hell, but I think I deserve it.

Anne Brooke - full of sparkle and fizz this week!
The Prayer Seeker's Journal - keeping things grounded

Walking with Dinosaurs

A brief blog today as I have to be out of the flat in half an hour and still have to brush my hair and powder my nose, my dears. So here are today's excitements:

1. Had a fabulous Clarins massage with Alice this morning, which was hugely early so apologies for the lack of poem - I opted for the invigorating oils this time rather than the relaxing ones as usual, so am raring to go. Though I suspect not for long ...

2. It was then straight into a cappuccino with Robin, and then lunch with Robin & Liz (hello, both!). We put to rights the world of books, song and politics. So everything's perfect now. Just in case you were wondering why everything felt different.

3. Tonight, Lord H and I are up at Wembley Arena to see Walking with Dinosaurs, and I'm so very excited about it that I think I might be sick. I love dinosaurs. And I paid a small fortune for the seats so they are truly brilliant. Lord knows when we're going to have time to eat - and indeed I may well be eaten during the evening, which would rather solve the problem. Who can say?

Today's nice things:

See above!

Anne Brooke - wondering if I can fit a dinosaur into the flat ...
Disasters and Miracles - the everyday life of Bible folk

Climbing up the well ...

I can't believe it, but I'm actually feeling more like a normal human being today, bloody hell and put out the ruddy bunting. I feel today that there might actually be a glimmer of hope out there somewhere, but not of course in the publishing trade. That remains, as ever, a veritable pit of darkness and despair. Ah 'tis a place of strange mystery, Carruthers, from which nobody returns alive, or at least in human form ...

First thing this morning, I was bizarrely cheered whilst waving goodbye to Lord H to see a young man in a blue shirt walking an extremely large and very coiffured (is that a word?) poodle past the end of the garden path. It was really almost the size of a sheep. Perhaps it was a sheep, I don't really know. Strange things do happen in Godalming. But a poodle-walker is definitely a first here in the shires. For the rest of the morning, I have been having a wonderful massage courtesy of the lovely and really rather pregnant (should she be doing massage in her condition??) Laura. When she got to my notoriously stiff-as-boards shoulders, she was putting so much effort into beating the tension into submission that I feared she might give birth there and then. But luckily not. That would have been a terrifying start to my birthday weekend.

On the journey back, I was also cheered to see I was following a green van belonging to the Godalming piano company almost all the way home. I suddenly came over all 1950s - it felt like something out of "Dad's Army". I half expected the van to stop and Corporal Jones to appear. Oh God, I'm getting whimsical - I will have to be beaten into sense with twigs again. Sigh.

Later, I was planning to play golf with Marian, but she wasn't able to go after all due to the rigours of her week. Which, to be honest, suited me as my week hasn't been that good either (as you know, you poor people ...) and I was pleased for the extra quiet not-having-to-socialise time. But I'll pick up the golf again in a couple of weeks, weather permitting.

However, some sad news on my sick Guildford friend, which puts my self-obsessed and dark ramblings very much into perspective - unfortunately, she's still in hospital and not up to being visited much at the moment, or even being talked to. I really wish I'd gone to see her this week, as I'd planned, after all - I put it off entirely because of me and I hope I don't live to regret that decision. I hope Ruth from work and I will be able to visit next week. And I hope we can go together. Bloody hell, but sometimes other people's lives and the things that happen to them are just so bloody unfair that it makes me want to take God by the scruff of the neck and give him a bloody good shake. No doubt he feels the same way about me however. I just hope next week brings good news. Sick Friend deserves it.

For the rest of the day, I've been typing up the utterly huge amounts of Goldenford minutes I took last night. Girls, girls! You have so much to say and you say it soooo quickly! Highlights of the plans to come include a brief book signing at Waterstone's in Guildford on Thursday 10 July at 10.30am. Bearing in mind that they only actually have one copy of Pink Champagne and Apple Juice and they are refusing to buy in copies of either Thorn in the Flesh or Tainted Tree, I can see it's going to be a very short visit. Luckily they have copies of other Goldenford books, so we can at least try to hang around and beg people to buy them for a while before they chuck us out. My new theory is that actually bookshops secretly hate both books and authors, and are way too posh to be seen to be hobnobbing with the likes of us inky-fingered and suspect writers. It's like putting Cruella de Ville in charge of the nursery - she wouldn't really want to catch sight of the children.

Tonight, I'll be doing the cleaning so I don't have to do it tomorrow, as 21 June is an Official Writers' Day Off to celebrate my 44th birthday. Anyone who dares to write anything tomorrow will have to pay the forfeit of actually buying one of my hard-to-get books. Hey, think of it as a challenge ...

So, have a good weekend and, if you're not having one for any reason, you have my heartfelt sympathy. I know how that feels.

Today's nice things (especially for Jen):

1. The poodle
2. Feeling better, ye gods!
3. Massages
4. Piano vans
5. Getting the Goldenford minutes under control - of sorts
6. My 44th birthday tomorrow
7. Being able to laugh at Waterstone's.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website
Goldenford Publishers