Thorn in The Flesh

Book News:

My bisexual literary thriller Thorn in The Flesh has been republished by Untreed Reads this week. There's currently a 30% discount if you buy direct with the publisher, so definitely worth a look. You can also find it at Amazon UK and Amazon US, with a variety of reviews from its previous incarnation.

It was longlisted in the Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger Awards in 2006 and the blurb is:

Kate Harris, a lecturer in her late thirties, is attacked in her home and left for dead. This terrible assault and the anonymous hate letters she starts to receive bring to light the past she'd prefer to leave behind, a past which includes the son she bore in her teenage years and whom she chose to give away.

What happens to Kate also affects the people she counts as friends and colleagues now. She has been in love with her best friend, Nicky, for a long time but Nicky is happily married with two young children, and Kate is determined never to upset the lives of those she cares for.

However, when she makes the momentous decision to contact the father of her long-forgotten son, and then to trace her son as well, Kate inadvertently sets in motion a series of frightening events she seems to have no control over. Can she protect herself and those she loves from the menacing enemy who stalks them all?

At the same time, I've taken the opportunity to update my general website with all the latest book news, so you can see what's being published in March and in the months to come too. There's something for every taste, I think.

Meanwhile, biblical short story Dancing with Lions is on special offer at All Romance Ebooks at the moment, so the ideal time to pop that one in your shopping basket. And I'm very happy to say that there are only three days to go before fantasy novel Hallsfoot's Battle, the second in the Gathandria series, is published on 20 March, so I'm very much looking forward to that.


Life News:

Earlier in the week, I've been battling bravely with the onset of a cold, but I appear - unusually for me - to have kicked it into touch at the moment, so I jolly well hope it stays there.

K and I have also been busy in the garden, as we've potted up our new and overwintered dahlias for storage in the summerhouse until the frosts are gone. Plus we've pruned the cornus hedge and potted up a new magnolia - which is basically a big stick really, but promises greatness in the years ahead. I hope. And, taking my courage into both hands, I've repotted the orchid so I hope it's going to be a lot happier now its roots aren't seriously squashed, poor thing.

This week's cake is the old faithful of Coffee and Walnut Cake - I don't think it's quite as good as the one I baked in March, but hey nobody's complaining, phew. At least it got rid of the walnuts I had left over. Trouble is, I bought a new packet just in case, so I am now probably stuck in a coffee-and-walnut loop until time itself ends. Hmm, still no complaints being heard, however.

Finally, over at The Angry Anglican, I'm blogging about the brand-new pope and the Argentinian revenge ...

Happy St Patrick's Day!


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

Popes, Prayer and paint

Life News:

A hell of a lot of painting has gone on this week - we've painted the bathroom door and skirting board, the hall cupboard, the spare room door & cupboard, some of the hall skirting boards and two sets of the three wooden frames that are a feature of our hallway. It all lightens it up nicely, which is hugely pleasing - if we'd known it would look so good, we've have done it much earlier, but it certainly should make it more desirable at the very least. And it's a lesson to us for our next home - paint everything light colours and watch the space increase!

Not only that but I've tidied the living room and spare rooms so they look much bigger - or the spare room would if we hadn't today moved everything around in order to paint, but it will do when it's back in its right place again! I've also recycled six bags of books last week and have created another nine bags of books today to take to the recycling point this week. We do have a lot of books - K did an estimate a while back and made it 1200, but it's 15 bags less now! We've also chucked away a load of old videos and tapes that we never watch/listen to - Lord only knows why we were keeping them. Laziness probably.

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon behind the Student Care stand at the University Open Day - not as hectic as the last time which was truly horrible, but I wasn't feeling that well really, so I kept smiling inanely and hoping that people believed whatever it was I was saying. Most seemed to.

Oh, and Marian and I played an outrageously bad game of golf on Friday - we were so bad we became utterly hysterical at one point and couldn't stop laughing. Thank goodness no-one was behind us. Marian managed to get both her tee shots on the 6th hole into the pond, which is at least consistent, and I managed to hit not one, not two, but three trees on the 8th, two of them with the same shot. Lordy, but I'm good, um not. Thankfully, Marian and her husband came round for dinner on Friday night (pre-painting extravaganza) so we were able to drown our sorrows in good measure.

Finally, rumour has it that some elderly Catholic gent has come over to the UK for the weekend, Gawd bless 'im. I hope he enjoys his brief stay, though I do think the least we could do is give him a car he could actually get in and out of successfully. He is 83, after all, and Jaguar's don't really allow for much leeway ... Mind you, K reminded me that he must have been greatly chuffed indeed during his private audience with the Queen and Prince Philip - to be at last the youngest person in the room must have fulfilled a lifetime's ambition for him, hurrah!

Book News:

I've finished the edits for The Prayer Seeker, so I now feel happier with that. Now all I have to do (ho hum) is find someone who might want it. Suggest no-one holds their breath though! And I'm pleased to say that Tommy's Blind Date is now available at All Romance Ebooks and, not to be outdone, The Delaneys and Me popped briefly back into the Amazon Charts at No 78 though not for long.

This week's meditation is:

Meditation 429
If you’re in a desert
where ravens bring you food
and God provides the water

sneak away quickly
as your odds for happiness
probably just got shorter.


The Sunday haiku is:

A sparkle of birds
wheels and dances in the sky.
Sunlight on water.

Anne Brooke