Month-long Amber Quill Anniversary and a Half-Price Sale!

Many congratulations to Amber Quill Press who are 12 years old this month! As a special treat and to say thank you to all our readers, all Amber Kisses, Novellas and Novels are HALF-PRICE until 3 October! So hurry along to take advantage of the 50% discount on ALL my books.

Not only that, but all month long, Amber Quill Press will be offering a wide variety of special discounts on all their gay, erotic and general fiction - and even more discounts will be available if you're signed up for the Amber Quill newsletter! So, if you're not already signed up to keep updated on all the latest quality fiction offers, then pop along to the Amber Quill website where you will find the sign-up box at the bottom of each page, or in the sidebar on the right.

Happy shopping and even happier reading!

Anne Brooke Books
Gay Reads UK
The Gathandrian Fantasy Trilogy

Books, flowers and the Olympic Blog

Book News:

It's the start of Ebook Fortnight at Vulpes Libris Reviews, where you can find my post confessing how ebooks saved my life, amongst other fascinating articles. Happy (e-) reading.

Gay comic romance Angels and Airheads received an A rating at Brief Encounter Reviews, and over at Goodreads, The Delaneys and Me gained a 4 star review, and Entertaining the Delaneys a 5-star one. Thank you to Kazza for those comments. And, talking of the Delaneys, I've just given the final edits to Amber Allure for The Delaneys At Home, which is due out on Sunday 3 June. Not long to go now!

Meanwhile, there's a sale of all my books over at Books on Board - so hurry over and don't miss out ...

And we GLBTQ UK 2012 Conference writers are not letting the Olympics go unnoticed. We've started a daily Carrying The Torch Olympic blog, and my first post there is all about the joyous cream teas and toilets of Exeter. Perfection indeed!



Recent meditation poems are:




Meditation 658
Power comes
when it will
and leaves
when it must:

its promises
thrill,
though it’s nothing
but dust.




Meditation 659
In these days
prophets are few
and far between

their wisdom
cooling in the air
while the leaves are green

and if we seek them
their shapes are only shadows,
sight unseen.


Life News:

Returning briefly to the importance of supporting the GLBTQ community, Go All Out seems to be a good place to be, so I've added it to my favourites. The focus there is on building a world where we can all live freely and be accepted for who we are - and there's nothing fairer than that. Come and join me - I make good cake! Well, sometimes, eh ...

The last couple of days have been wonderfully garden-friendly. Our strawberries are developing nicely, the choisya is out, the sunflower seeds are starting to sprout, and the remaining two rhododendrons are coming into flower and are both going to be purple. Bliss indeed. On the minus side however, I discovered yesterday that our internal food bin was providing a home from home for a very determined ant community, so I dumped it all into the outside food bin, and it's being recycled tomorrow. Whilst driving out the interlopers, the food bin closed itself very nicely on my finger and I somehow managed to cut myself. Which is pretty impressive, seeing as it's plastic. Luckily I worked the injured digit free, as otherwise the ants would have been in clover, ho hum.

Today, I have planted out the flowers we've grown from seed - so the beds are now full of our jubilee (red, white and blue) petunias, plus verbena, antirrhinums, sweet peas and cuphea ignea. I looked quite charming in my floppy hat and carrying my trusty trowel. It felt like being in an episode of Midsomer Murders before the body is discovered ...

Later on, I'm getting my hair cut, so I'll be able to see out, and then tonight, K's boss is taking us both out for dinner as it's K's 10 year work anniversary. Well done indeed! And what a star boss he has.

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

Blog Tour Day 9: of love, romance and angels

Happy Valentine's Day to you all. Today on my blog tour for The Heart's Greater Silence, I'm at Joyfully Jay's site spilling the beans on my own real-life romance and a very special marriage proposal (or two!). Plus don't forget the free giveaways if you leave a comment on the post.

As a Valentine treat, there's even a 25% discount on the book directly from Riptide for TODAY only - so hurry across and don't miss out! As an incentive, there's a lovely 5-star review at Goodreads today as well, hurrah.

Other good writing news is that my gay romantic short story Angels and Airheads is being republished by Musa Publishing in March, and you can see the cover art on that page. I love it.

In addition, don't forget that Untreed Reads are holding a Valentine sale this month, and you can get a copy of my literary lesbian romance A Woman Like The Sea at a 30% discount, so a bargain to be had indeed. Happy shopping.

Anyway, back in the non-book world for a moment, I'm having a very lovely Valentine's Day with my equally lovely husband - except for the fact that I'm actually not very well. I've developed a rather nasty cold today, groan, so I fear I'll not get much sleep (and for totally the wrong reasons, ho hum ...) tonight as I'll be too busy snorting and coughing like an old horse on the sofa (though why there should be an old horse on our sofa is a mystery) whilst swigging Lemsips and Lucozades in my usual fashion. However, the good thing is that the really lovely red roses K sent me today do at least match my nose. Ah well, the champagne will have to be on ice for the weekend ...

Anne Brooke
The Gathandrian Trilogy
Gay Reads UK
Biblical Fiction UK

Tea, Telegraphs and teatowels

Book News:

Untreed Reads is having a massive sale throughout October, so this month is an ideal time to snap up a bargain, or several. As part of that, my literary lesbian short story, A Woman like the Sea, is on sale for 30% discount, as is lesbian paranormal story, The Girl in the Painting, which is also selling at a 30% discount, both direct from the publisher. Hope you enjoy the reads!

The Sunday haiku is:

The quiet grass gleams.
My garden is a haiku,
brief and full of dreams.


Life News:

The great news is that my lovely husband has sorted out the looming disaster of our new dishwasher not fitting into its allocated space by means of swopping it with our slightly smaller washing machine. Pure genius, don't you know. The result is I am now madly in love with the dishwasher and can't begin to imagine how I've survived living here a whole month without one. Ah the joys of technology.

On the same day we were also expecting a delivery of a long ladder so K can get up and look at the roof. We were told it would be delivered by 8pm but actually it arrived at 9pm when I'd given up and was slobbing around in my dressing gown. The delivery man was much amused, as I'm sure the neighbours were when I was prancing round the drive trying to open the garage in my night attire. (Query: why exactly is there a garage in my night attire??...) Really, my dears, I am seriously lowering the tone here in downtown Elstead ...

Speaking of Elstead, we love it. The people are very welcoming and there's a great village-y feel. We also feel spiritually at home as the village Spar shop has three ENORMOUS piles of The Telegraph newspaper and only one small pile of The Mail, whereas in our brief stay in Woking it was always the other way round and we could never get a Telegraph (without which no Saturday is truly complete) for love nor money, no matter how early we ventured out, sigh.

And this weekend has truly been a weekend of delights. The weather has been glorious (ha!) and I do believe the UK is finally experiencing its summer, hurrah. We harvested the first of our vegetable crop and had Swiss chard with our Friday night pizza and garlic bread. Honestly, we're just so proud, never having grown anything we can actually eat before. Or not outside anyway. K also bought a melon at the shops and so weekend breakfasts have involved lolling around in our night wear (really, why bother getting dressed at all?...), eating melon and watching the garden grow. Bliss.

Yesterday, we also invited some of the neighbours and our more local friends round for tea and cake in the afternoon, which was lovely - though it did rather turn into Pimm's and cake due to the soaring temperatures. Nobody complained, however, and we had a great time. Thank you, everyone, for coming.

This morning, we finally - after holiday and my bout of illness - managed to get back to church, which was all very enjoyable, though we still haven't met the actual vicar. The same stand-in man we first met a month ago was there again today, and actually remembered our names and where we live - so give that man a medal. Either that or he couldn't get over the trauma of making our acquaintance last time, hey ho. Poor chap - perhaps he thinks I'm stalking him and will never come back again.

I have also finally, after many months of threatening it, bought a William & Kate Royal Wedding teatowel. I feel fulfilled and am looking forward to using it and giving my glasses (the only things that don't go in the dishwasher) that sheen of royal glamour they so evidently need. I must practise my special wave.

Finally, I must say that Dr Who goes from bad to worse, I fear. Last night's series finale was hammy in the extreme and borderline dull. How I wish they'd ditch the rampant emotionalism and bring back the adventure and sense of excitement. Less kissing (yuk! The Doctor is soooo not meant to be married - it just doesn't work!) and more Daleks - that's what we need.

Anne Brooke
The Thoughtful Corner

Hallsfoot, horses and home

Life News:

We're in our new home at last, and it's absolutely wonderful! We seriously love it. The move went very smoothly and because we've blitzed it over the last couple of days, we're now fully unpacked - though some of the bookshelves/book cases and wardrobes might need sorting out at some point. It's nice to have themed rooms and try to suit the books to the theme - though the same can't be said of the wardrobes of course! It feels like we're really starting to settle in. The horses in the field at the bottom of the garden are an added bonus, especially with the foals (ah, sweet!), we have bought gardening equipment and K has already planted out - with autumn veg - one of the three raised beds in the vegetable plot. All very rural, m'dears. Next gardening job - attempting to work out how to make the fountain functional. Don't get too excited - it's not Versailles (though to us it probably is)! The fountain's small, but hey it's there and we're going to get it working. One day. STOP PRESS! K has got the fountain working already, so now we have a mini Versailles, sort of - what a hero!

Interesting things about moving to a house from a flat. We have an upstairs where you go to bed - heck, that's strange. We have our own wheely-bin and recycling bins - which feels very grown-up as we've always shared these before. There is more than one bathroom (hurrah!) which saves the morning panic as we both try to get ready at the same time. And - wait for it!! - I am at last a Woman with an Electric Garage Door which (possibly sadly) has been my dream for so many years I can't even begin to tell you. Fan-bloody-tastic!! I could play with it for ages, but K advises against it as I'll wear the batteries down. But, honestly, it's better than the telly.

Already, we have eaten out at the local pub, The Woolpack, which was very good indeed with very friendly people, and bought our papers from the local Spar - which is much larger and with a wider variety of goods than you might expect in a village, and is open every day except Sunday from 7am to 9pm (Sundays it closes at 7pm) - gosh, that's better than shops in town really. Today we have dropped in at St James' Church for Parish Communion which I really liked, and enjoyed a BBQ with our very good friends, L & J, who happen to live 2 doors down (hurrah!), so have met a raft of other new neighbours which was lovely. We feel we've arrived now - we may well lower the tone but, hey, we're here!

While I'm on, I must also seriously sing the praises of L, who left a big box of "Welcome to Your New Home" presents AND a box full of quiche, salad, strawberries, cream & champagne, and coffee in a flask for our supper when we moved in - all of which were hugely appreciated. Honestly, L is the most generous woman I know, and it actually made me cry. She is definitely my Heroine of The Year. Big time. Thank you, L.

Book News:

Stop Press! I'm delighted to say that Bluewood Publishing have agreed to publish the second fantasy novel in my Gathandrian Trilogy, Hallsfoot's Battle, so a huge thank you to Paulette and David for accepting it. I'm really thrilled and what a very lovely week it's proving to be indeed.

Meanwhile, not to be outdone, the first in the series, The Gifting, has just been purchased as an ebook by the Singapore National Library, so that's a great surprise.

At the same time, gay thriller A Dangerous Man gained a five star review at Goodreads (many thanks, Nithu) and the ebook version will be on sale for September only at £2.10 in the UK and $2.99 in the US - so now's your chance to snap up a serious bargain.

Speaking of bargains, ALL my books at Amber Allure Press are on sale at a 25% discount throughout September as well - so there's yet more good reading shopping to be done! Buy early, buy often ...

And, in terms of other reviews, gay erotic short story For One Night Only gained an interesting review at Goodreads, so thank you to Book Robot Reviews for that. Don't forget you can win a copy of For One Night Only or The Gifting by signing up to my newsletter - you still have until 23 September to enter! Don't miss out!

This week's meditation poem is:




Meditation 566
They task us
to guard the gate,
a way out
and a way in:

a concept
entirely dependent
on what you think of
as home.


The Sunday haiku is:

One small grey squirrel
dancing on the neighbour's tree,
gazing right at me.


Anne Brooke
The Thoughtful Corner