Max Factor, murder and men

Book News:

A sudden flurry of activity for A Dangerous Man this week, which has been very pleasing. It briefly turned up at No 62 in the Amazon US Kindle charts and at No 54 in the Amazon UK Kindle charts, so many thanks for buying. And it also achieved a 5-star review at Goodreads (thank you, Dlee) and some lovely comments at Reviews by Amos Lassen (many thanks, Amos).

Meditation poems this week so far are:

Meditation 509

An army that never

goes to war

is one that wastes

its labours

but when all is said

and much is done

it surely gives peace

to the neighbours.

Meditation 510
When kidnapping great men
and workers

it’s key to remember
the blacksmiths

due to the value
of horses and iron

and more to the point
they’re not shirkers.




Meditation 511
When God seems always cross
you have no hope
of winning

so you may as well throw caution
to the winds
and keep on sinning.


Life News:

It's been quite a good week and a restful one which has been nice. Much to my joy they're restarted reflexology sessions at work so I spent a lovely lunch hour on Wednesday having my feet rubbed by the new reflexologist, Hilary. Bliss. I've booked again for next week and sod the expense, eh.

I also popped into the bible study last night (I missed last week as I didn't feel so good) - and so had all the drama and peculiarity of the ten plagues of Egypt. Marvellous. Just the sort of topic you need for Lent - and we did indeed have a great deal of fun with that one.

Other than that, it's been a week for TV, both good and bad. My, but I will miss the legal drama, Silk, whose last episode of the first season aired on Tuesday. I've loved it. Thankfully they're doing a second series but I will have to wait till 2012 to catch up with them all, sigh. And, also thankfully, Midsomer Murders was slightly better this week (well, nothing could be worse than last week, really ...) but I still don't like the way the relationships are being played within the team now. It's most unsettling and I do hope they start being more pleasant to each other soon - this kind of frustration and outright dislike is not what we watch Midsomer for!...

Meanwhile, I worry deeply for young teenager, India, in the increasingly bizarre and somehow grippingly shallow The Model Agency.  India: you so nearly escaped from the evil bookers' clutches in an earlier episode - so don't let yourself be enticed back into their strange and secretive fold! Run, my gal, run for the hills ...

And is it just me, or is the woman in the Max Factor Makeover advert so much more alluring in her "before" shot than in the "after" one?? Before the wicked Max Factor people get their hands on her, she looks very pretty and a nice normal person I would probably chat to. After they've ruined (ruined, darlings, utterly ruined!) her hair and trowelled her with warpaint, she just looks like every other 20s blonde on the street and the personality is gone. Shocking! I'm all for the value of makeup (Lord knows I need it) but not when it covers up a character completely - there's a lesson for us all in there somewhere ...

Anne Brooke

Leaving things till tomorrow ...

Life News:

Everyone, stop doing what you're doing at once and relax ... This weekend has contained the wonderfully-named International Procrastination Day, which highlights the existential wisdom of not acting instantly and putting things off till tomorrow. Ah, there's joy in inaction, you know, and the creator of this auspicious event even says we can put off celebrating the day itself, so if you didn't know it was happening, you've not missed out ...

You'll also be pleased to hear (and surely celebrating the pleasures of the last paragraph in itself) that I've finally got round to using the first of my Christmas stamps, thus ensuring the joys of the season can even last until spring, hurrah.

Thursday night, K and I had a great time seeing Guys & Dolls at Haslemere Hall, as Ruth from work was in it. It's ages since I've seen the film and I don't ever think I've seen it on stage before and it was fan-bloody-tastic. I am still humming the tunes, so well done, Ruth, and the Salvation Army hat looked worryingly good on you ... Other good news is that (double hurrahs and put out the bunting) I don't have to have the bowel cancer screening - the doctor spoke to the expert who says that apparently having an uncle who died from the disease and a mother who's survived it is not reason enough to put me on the checking list just yet. However the medical advice is that I should be screened at 55 years instead of the compulsory 60 years, so there's another thing I can put off until tomorrow, and round about 8 years of tomorrows at that.

Marian and I had a wonderful time on the golf course during one of the first glorious spring days of the season on Friday - and I even beat her for the first time in a long time too. Though, to be fair, it was rather that she lost the game with her unfortunate putting rather than me actually winning it with my amazing play - I wish, eh. Still, it was great not to have to wear my woolly hat and I think I might even have taken off my scarf at one point, well gosh.

Yesterday, K and I had free tickets for the Ideal Home Show, which I was very much looking forward to, and K less so, I think. In the end it was quite fun and certainly an eye-opener, but also very busy & exhausting and I'm not sure I'll be rushing to go again. But the cappuccino was nice. Because of the huge busyness of Saturday, today is turning out to be a total chill-out day, which is lovely. Mind you, what with the clocks going forward yesterday night, I am missing my hour, and will no doubt be trying to catch up with it all summer, hey ho.

Book News:

At Vulpes Libris, I've reviewed Serena by Ron Rash - which is a novelistic take on Macbeth, but rather diluted, I feel.

Not much else this week really. I'm slowly getting to the end of The Executioner's Cane, and I've also started a new erotic short story I'm calling For One Night Only. Still, no rush on either, I don't think - as I've learned this weekend, there's always tomorrow, eh.

The Sunday haiku is:

This first spring sunlight
leads me to the lake: mirror
of heat and comfort.


Anne Brooke

The British are here ...

Book News:


Be afraid, be very afraid!... British Fortnight at Brief Encounters is now in full and glorious swing, where you can discover all about my own royal wedding experience and where to get the best cream tea EVER - along with a whole host of other authors & goodies so do pop along and join in the party. Anyone for a cucumber sandwich?...

At the same time, you can find a review of Entertaining the Delaneys, and don't forget that both The Delaneys and Me and Entertaining the Delaneys are being offered as one of the British Fortnight prizes, along with many others, so it's definitely an offer not to be missed.

Also this week, I've been additionally lucky in being interviewed at the Book Wenches site, so you can read all about my current and future plans there.

Reviews this week have included an unexpected review of Maloney's Law at the Niciasus Book Blog and a 5-star review of Brady's Choice, also at Niciasus (thanks for both these, Nicci), and a 4-star review of The Delaneys and Me at Goodreads (thank you, Casey).

Recent meditation poems are:




Meditation 506
There’s not much truth,
but a great deal of silver
and gold:

a combination of factors
that never bodes well,
I’m told.




Meditation 507
If in doubt or under threat
create a tax to fleece ’em.

The enemy must be appeased
and as for friends – police ’em.




Meditation 508
The past has its own echoes
that enrich the mind

like a memory of God
or the scent of jasmine,
fragrant and kind.


Life News:

What can I say? Still we struggle on in the ongoing battle with the pesky middle neighbours and their really irritating solicitors. Our desperate attempts to make some kind of contact with the bloke buying the middle flat last week via the estate agents met with friendliness on the part of the estate agents and absolutely no action. Surprise, surprise. So first thing this morning, I ring up the middle flat estate agents again and they're all very friendly and promise to ring back as soon as possible - and so far (3pm) nothing. Hey ho. I don't expect anything either - but hey at least the woman I spoke to actually seemed to grasp the concept that if we sign their transfer document which has the incorrect address for the new middle neighbour on, then yes that does mean we can't sell our own flat to our buyer as we can't get the new middle neighbour to agree to the leasehold transfer as we don't know where he lives now, and the sale of our flat is therefore put into jeopardy. Deep deep sigh.

In the middle of all that it appears that our own solicitor has a Cunning Plan but has only this afternoon seen fit to reveal it to us. Bloody hell (sorry ...) but if she'd simply had the sense to talk to us two weeks ago, then we wouldn't have had to run around like the proverbial attempting to explain to the very deaf ears of the horrid middle neighbour solicitors why we'd love to sign their wretched transfer (we hate the current middle neighbours! We want them out, as indeed do most of the other neighbours too!) and why we can't (it means we can't then sell our flat, you ridiculous people, as you won't tell us where the new middle neighbour actually lives ...) Nor would I have had to - twice - attempt to contact the new middle neighbour's estate agents for this vital legal information, and nor would K and I have had even half of the amount of angst we've had to go through for the last two weeks. Ruddy solicitors ... (sorry).

Anyway, it is a Class One plan and may actually get us round the obstacles the middle neighbours and their solicitors are putting in our way, and with no legal prejudice to us and our sale - which is of course my only concern. I don't care two hoots about them and would like nothing more than to take their transfer document and shove it where the sun don't shine, my dears. Now there's a happy smiley thought that is cheering me mightily, ha!

But, hey, I'm not worried - it's Lent! And hopefully soon (please God) we'll have a lovely happy house in Woking with a garden all of our very own, and we will never ever have to think about shared leaseholds again - what bliss! There's always hope, eh.

Turning to the simpler joys (or possibly not) of TV, I must say I thought last night's episode of the new Midsomer Murders was very choppy to say the least. K did point out that there were indeed, as the recent media row has pointed out, no black people anywhere, not even in the city disco scene, though we did keep our eyes peeled just in case ... The main problem though was what the heck have they done with Sergeant Jones??!!?? Last time we saw him, he was the nice, bumbling, pleasant copper we all know and love, but yesterday he was a rude, angry, punch-the-witness-and-hold-him-down-till-he-confesses yob. What??!!?? Did I miss something? Is Jones so distraught that the original Barnaby (not to mention the nice police lady - where is she?) has gone that he has had a total personality transplant?? The Case of the Missing Sergeant: it's a plot worthy of Midsomer indeed ... Whatever next?

Anne Brooke

The British are coming!...

Book News:

Next week sees the start of UK Fortnight at Brief Encounters Reviews, which will include spotlights on lots of good authors and your chance to win prizes! Enter now to avoid disappointment ... My own special day will be Tuesday 22 March so do pop in to Brief Encounters Reviews on that and indeed any other day. Satisfaction guaranteed.

At the same time, I'm happy to say that Entertaining the Delaneys is now available as a Kindle book both at  Amazon US and Amazon UK and should liven up your Sunday afternoon no end - so buy early buy often. As they say.

During the week, A Dangerous Man received an interesting 4-star review at Goodreads - many thanks for that, Rod. And you can find out what's coming up at Vulpes Libris this week, which includes exciting new authors, Macbeth and the Bay of Pigs, so never let it be said we don't work hard to revolutionise your reading lists indeed.

The latest meditation poems are:




Meditation 504
Even if you give away
everything you have
and the best of your heart

God cannot be bought
by tricks, deceit
or a liar’s art.




Meditation 505
If you must die
make sure there are men
and chariots enough
to mourn you;

the last thing you desire
is the enemies
of your land
to scorn you.


And the Sunday haiku is:

Waiting by the sink
the pink cupcake umbrella
expects a girl, soon.


Life News:

In a last-ditch and, may I say, really rather generous attempt to sort out the pesky middle neighbours (and their increasingly snippety solicitors - how rude can they get!...), we have tried to make contact with the new middle flat buyer directly via his estate agent to ascertain his address, confirm the ownership of the internal stairs, and a couple of other issues our own buyer has asked us for (and which those wretched solicitors won't answer either). The estate agents are proving very amenable, but so far no response from the middle flat buyer or his solicitors. We will wait and see - but K can foresee a time where we simply have no option but to refuse to sign the transfer agreement for the middle neighbours and they no doubt will refuse to sign the same agreement for us. It may yet be that nobody will be able to sell their respective flats, a situation we don't particularly want to happen in terms of our plans (though we don't care two hoots about them, really) but we may have to live with. Ah well. As I say, we will see, but we are in all honesty doing the best we can under very difficult legal circumstances. Sigh.

To cheer us up, K and I spent a really lovely day yesterday wandering around Nymans Garden and nearby Wakehurst Place (Kew). And for the first time it felt really springlike, which was wonderful. The rhododendrons and camellias were beautiful.

Finally, I must say what a gripping, well-acted and truly classy drama last night's Christopher and His Kind was on TV. Matt Smith really owned that role and, for the first time, I began to see what people see in him. Great stuff - more like that, please. TV producers, take note.

Anne Brooke

Collections and contracts

Book News:

I've very happy to say that Untreed Reads has produced my first short story collection which you can buy at the Sony Bookstore at a very reasonable price. And what a marvellous book title it is too, tee hee.

Meanwhile, one of the stories in the collection, A Woman like The Sea, was briefly at No 15 in the Amazon UK Kindle charts this week, but has dropped its placing since then. And The Delaneys and Me was at No 68 in the same charts, again briefly.

Other book news this week relates to Vulpes Libris, where you can find (a) a fabulous article about growing up in a bookish family which seems to have seriously keyed in to people's experiences; and (b) my review of Maeve Binchy's The Return Journey - in honour of St Patrick's Day.


Life News:

The middle neighbours are again being difficult, or rather their solicitors are, deep deep sigh. They've sent us the contract to sign our agreement to transfer the middle flat to the new buyer as we're all part of a shared freehold but they've (a) failed to provide us with his current address, simply stating that he already lives in the flat he wants to buy (which he doesn't as he doesn't legally own it); and (b) stating that the internal stairs are not ours but theirs. Which is untrue according to the lease - they own the external stairs, not the internal ones. To be fair, I'm assuming that Point B is simply a typing error but we'd like it cleared up before we sign anything as our own buyer is entitled to those stairs! In addition, if we sign the dang agreement, yet we don't actually know where the new middle neighbour lives now, that messes us up for our own flat transfer as we can't get anyone to sign the shared freehold contract to let our buyer in if we don't know where the new neighbour  is - and who's to say that he might not take months to actually move in? We've never even met the guy ...

Anyway (sorry it's confusing, but the law is alas never simple), the middle neighbours' solicitors are now getting very snippety and demanding that we sign "urgently", as well as contacting our own solicitor (who has nothing to do with their case) asking her to hurry us up. The laughable thing is that we are more than happy to sign anything (anything!!) that will get the ruddy awkward neighbours out of the middle flat and out of our lives, but we'd darned if we're doing it when it puts us in a very tricky legal position. Some people have no sense, my dears. All they have to do is answer our questions ...

With all this going on, and still no exchange date on the house we are so very desperate now to move to, it's a relief that the new anti-depressants appear to be working. I had a lovely chat with the nice doctor this week, and she tells me that I'll be on these for nine months. Then I'll come off them. If I have a relapse then I'll go back on them for 3-5 years, then they'll try to come off them again. If that doesn't work, then I'm on them for life. Seems a reasonable rule of thumb to me, and nice to have an aim, and I'll see how I get on. But I do definitely feel more like myself, and more hopeful. Gosh. Whilst there, the doctor and I were also chatting about family medical history - which in my case is crammed full with diabetes (I'm regularly tested for that) and bowel cancer. Ah, the trick is which of these will get me first! She suggested that it would be a good idea to get an early screening for the bowel cancer possibility via GUTS who are of course local to here - which makes perfect sense to me even though, rest assured, I am symptom-free, so we're arranging for that. Lord knows what exactly they'll do to me but I suspect I won't be able to sit down for a week, remembering what other members of the family have had to go through - ah the fun and games of it all indeed.

Today, I've had a lovely relaxing morning having tea and chocolate biscuits with Jane H (hello, Jane - great to see you!) and we've put the world to rights again, hurrah, and now - well now I'm about to go for a well-deserved nap. How I do love a busy day.

Anne Brooke

Prostitution, pimps and pornography

Book News:

Much to my delight, Brady's Choice gained an "Excellent" review at Well Read Reviews, and Entertaining the Delaneys received a 5-star review at Literary Nymphs Reviews, so many thanks to both reviewers for their comments.

My review at Vulpes Libris was on Jonathan Kemp's London Triptych, which must be the most unsexy erotic novel I've ever come across. Probably more pornographic than erotic, to be honest, and I certainly didn't take to it. Still (and strangely), many have, so I am obviously a lone voice of dissent in the reviewing wilderness. Again!

My latest meditation is:




Meditation 503
When the work is done
the party starts

so he captures their strength
and then their hearts.


And the Sunday haiku is

Small bright narcissi
dance in the shade of the house
where my neighbour lived.


Life News:

I've had a good haircut this week and played a bad game of golf, so the universe is balanced once more, hurrah. The haircut must have been more radical than I'd thought as I popped in to the local Quaker service again today and they didn't recognise me. Though, on second thoughts, they don't often recognise me, bless them, so I must try to make more of an impression. Perhaps I'm simply too quiet?? No, don't laugh ...

Yesterday, K and I had a lovely day out at The Vyne, near Basingstoke. The gardens and woods were very relaxing though there's not much out yet in terms of flowers. It should be wonderful in two or three weeks or so however. We'd forgotten, in our tour of the house, how keen the National Trust volunteers are in the early part of their season to talk to you and tell you everything they've just learnt. I did have a desperate urge to rugby tackle one sweet old gent just to make him be quiet for a second, but managed to stifle the urge. That said, the volunteer in the Stone Gallery was great and I learnt a lot of interesting stuff about the Kent school that was evacuated to The Vyne during the war. Some fascinating stories there.

And last night, we attended the Guildford Choral Society concert at the Cathedral and cheered on Robin, Gavin, Beryl and Liz (yeah, all!) in their singing endeavours. I enjoyed the Rutter piece in the second half, but thought the first half might have been a tad too relaxing. It was great to catch up at the bar after the show too - it's the first time the Cathedral has left the bar open after the interval's done and I'm sure it's a tradition in the making. One hopes.

Anne Brooke

Read an Ebook Week!

Book News:


Welcome to Read an Ebook Week! I hope that those of you who read ebooks are having a great time and those of you who haven't taken the plunge yet might get the urge to have a go, especially in view of the range of discounts offered during the week by a wide variety of publishers.

In terms of my own books on offer this week, here's what there is:

1. 20% discount on all my work at Rainbow Ebooks - until this Saturday
2. 25% discount on The Hit List - direct from the publisher
3. 20% discount on all my ebooks at Dreamspinner Press
4. 20% discount on my haiku collection, Sunday Haiku - direct from the publisher
5. If you buy A Woman like The Sea, then my other books at Untreed Reads are at a 40% discount

And what could be nicer than all that? Enjoy!

Other book news is that Creative Accountancy for Beginners was briefly at No 43 in the Amazon UK Kindle charts, and The Delaneys and Me came in at No 90 in the Amazon UK Kindle Gay charts, so that certainly put a smile on my face.

In addition, Entertaining the Delaneys is now available from All Romance Ebooks, and I'm also happy to announce that I'll be taking part in the British Author Fortnight at Brief Encounter Reviews - my slot is 22 March so I'm looking forward to that.

Meanwhile, I'm quietly pleased to say that I've reached my 500th meditation poem. Doesn't mean a lot to anyone else, I know, but I feel pretty happy about it. Maybe I'll reach No 1000 one day - there's plenty of bible left to read, that's for sure! Here are the most recent poems:




Meditation 499
To make a fresh start
sometimes all you need

is a trusted road
and an open heart.




Meditation 500
God is best discovered
in the search
for something else

when we become aware
of the shimmer
at the edge of vision,

the thought
we can’t quite capture,
the friend we’ve forgotten

to meet:
that borderline land
where dreams still stand.




Meditation 501
Words when spoken aloud
create their own
unknowable life:

they break down
ancient temples,
destroy the history

we thought we knew,
change men’s lives,
reshape what is to come.




Meditation 502
After activity
the time comes
for celebration and rest,

the rhythm
of life’s seasons
being only the best.


Life News:

Well, we've had Pancake Day on Tuesday (mmm, pancakes - always good with ice cream and treacle, mmm ...), so Lent has begun in full. Forty days of trying to ease down on the worrying - I'm doing okay so far, but hey it's only Day Two. But I'm not worrying about it (ha!) so that's all right. My mantra, or rather two of my mantras, so far are: it might just work out well if I leave it alone; and God's more worried about this than I am, so let him do his job ... Not catchy, I know, but I'm letting them settle. The anti-depressants are good so far too, and are no doubt helping my Lenten focus. I feel surprisingly calm, even measured. That's not a feeling I've had for a while - it's very pleasant change. It may be psychosomatic as I've not been on them for more than a week, but I'm not complaining.

I even quite enjoyed staffing the Student Care table at last night's Postgraduate Open Event with one of my colleagues from Student Advice. It was great to catch up and we had some good conversations with visitors. At one stage, I even sounded fairly knowledgeable, which surprised me most of all. I doubt that will last long as really I don't know a bean.

And television is weaving its strange and mystical spell upon me. I was severely disappointed with the utter melodrama and laughable plot of the last episode of South Riding on Sunday. What were they all thinking? I giggled all the way through it (is it the pills?). As Andrea at work said, how can a cliff fall down onto a beach taking horse and rider with it and not one person notices that the cliff is missing. What??! I blame the lack of electricity they appear to have oop North - as everything was done in the utmost gloom. Somebody switch a light on and we can all head for the door ...

Mind you, I am still gripped with the huge amount of Awful People (capitals deliberate) who work at The Model Agency. They are all utterly horrid, my dears, honestly. It comes to something when the sanest, nicest and most sensible people in a TV programme are the teenage models themselves. It's the old people at the agency I despair of. What is the world coming to?

Anne Brooke

Of farmers and kings

Book News:

I now have a new webpage for The Art of the Delaneys which is due out on 15 May 2011, and you can also read an extract. I've tried to put more about Liam's working life in this one, though obviously those Delaney Twins also loom large (as it were). More plot and less sex, eh - whatever next ...

In terms of recent reviews, I'm pleased to say that The Bones of Summer gained a 5-star review at Goodreads (thanks, Deb), and The Delaneys and Me received a 4-star review there (thank you, Lucy). Still at Goodreads, How to Eat Fruit had an interesting review (thanks, Jarrah) and I was grateful for that.

Meanwhile, I was thrilled that Brady's Choice was included in the February Recommended Reads list at Jessewave Reviews, and in addition Creative Accountancy for Beginners was briefly at No 80 in the Amazon UK Short Story charts, gosh indeedy.

However, the very exciting news of the week was that Vulpes Libris was mentioned on the BBC website for our recent Archers' interview, so well done, Moira, for that. Double gosh.

The latest meditations are:




Meditation 497
After bitter secrets
blood spills

which can never
be wiped clean

for all the water
in Judah’s hills

and all the good
you’ve seen.




Meditation 498
When the noteworthy fact
about a man
is that he’s dead

it’s probably time
to read about
someone else instead.


And the Sunday haiku is:

Whenever I'm sad,
cupcakes and cappuccinos
make everything glad.


Life News:

Marian and I went to see The King's Speech at Godalming Borough Hall, which is a charming little occasional cinema which always has an interval halfway through the film (while they change the reel). Bliss really - all cinemas should do that. And what a truly fantastic film. I loved it. Geoffrey Rush and Colin Firth were especially amazing, and it also brought back fond memories of having my own speech therapist when I was a lass (couldn't say a hard "k" sound for the life of me, you know, and of course having the slight family stammer didn't help ...) - how I loved that woman. It was also interesting to see that King George VI being forced to use his right hand instead of his left in writing etc brought on his stammer - which is exactly what happened to my middle brother at school, and his remained the worst stammer of all of us really, at least for a very long time. I also enjoyed seeing that George marked his speeches with notes of when to pause and difficult words he needed to take time over - which is just what I do too. Though actually when I'm reading out any passages from my books in public (a rare event but it happens), I change the words I can't say to those I can - author's privilege, don't you know. Ha! Anyway, it's a great film and, if you haven't seen it already, I can heartily recommend it.

Yesterday, K and I spent a pleasant morning and lunchtime at Wisley, which you can really never have enough of, and found a big container where they were offering free pots. Free pots - what heaven! We took loads - hope we weren't supposed to be limited to just one ...

Today has been a day for relaxing and doing nothing very much - though we did pop into church this morning just to show willing. We were bamboozled by some of the hymns but we did our best, especially when we (yikes!) had to tackle a dreaded Graham Kendrick classic, Lord preserve us. Way too modern for our tastes and he never seems to quite get the words (such as they are) to fit the music. As you can tell, we're not fans, ah well ...

Anne Brooke

The Importance of Fruit and the welcoming touch

Book News:

It is a matter for general astonishment on all sides that during February when it was offered as a free story, How to Eat Fruit was actually downloaded 4,800 times. Ye gods and little fishes, that's more than a 1,000 times a week! I know at least a couple of those who took the punt didn't enjoy it, but I hope some of the others did. Now, just imagine how big a smile I'd have if it hadn't been free! But in any case it's lovely to think of 4,800 readers, or potentially so - therefore a BIG thank you to all who clicked on that button! Well gosh.

A Woman Like The Sea now has its earlier review up at Queer Magazine Online, so thank you to Victor and Anders for that. In addition, if during March you buy A Woman Like The Sea, than you can get any other of my Untreed Reads books with a 40% discount - so there's another good offer to whet your reading appetite. Keeping with Untreed Reads, I was pleased to see that The Girl in the Painting was No 3 on their international bestseller list for February, gosh again.

Reviews this week so far have been as follows:

The Delaneys and Me gained a 4.5 star review at MichelenJeff Reviews.
At the same review site, Entertaining the Delaneys gained a 5 star review.
And Brady's Choice received a 5+ star review, so that was thrilling, I can tell you. Gosh indeed! And thank you to Jeff for reviewing all those so kindly.

Not to be outdone, Sunday Haiku was briefly at No 68 in the Amazon UK Kindle chart, and I even managed to reach the 110,000 word marker in The Executioner's Cane, huzzahs galore and put out the bunting. Heck, I might even finish the trilogy one day - who knows.

This week I've reviewed Ron Butlin's Vivaldi and the Number 3 for Vulpes Libris, which is a musically surreal short story collection that it's wisest not to consume all at once. And recent meditations are:




Meditation 494
The shadow from the sun
retraces the silent step

for a paste of figs
and bitter tears

so one man’s grief
exceeds the worth

of the truth carved out
through all the years.






Meditation 495
Do not trust
the messengers of Babylonia,
do not let them in:

they’ll admire
everything you own then take it
when they leave again.

So do not trust
the messengers of Babylonia,
my friend:

they come
with gifts and smiles but they’ll only hurt you
in the end.






Meditation 496
To be remembered for water
is how to begin

so still the tongue
and let the brightness in.


Life News:

A difficult week, health-wise, but also positive really. Without the HRT, I've been all over the place so I finally bit the proverbial damn bullet and went to the doctor this week about my mood (low, if you're asking). I did the mercifully short (as I didn't have my reading glasses) test she gave me and we discovered I'm 9/21 for anxiety and 8/21 for depression. Which apparently makes me moderately, but not severely, depressed. So it's not all bad news and gloom really! Lord knows it could be worse ... Anyway, the upshot is I'm now on my first medically-prescribed anti-depressant (ah, welcome to mid-forties womanhood indeed ..) which is called Cipramil. Yes, of course I looked up the list of side effects on the NHS site but it was so long I thought I'd stop reading before I jumped out of the nearest window. Ha! Anyway, I'm now on Day 2 of the new Happy Pills and am feeling surprisingly perky. Which must be psychosomatic as they're not supposed to kick in for at least 2 weeks. I can't take the St John's Wort with these, alas, so they're on their own, the pesky little devils. We will see, eh ...

On a happier note, I have decided, along with the lovely Kirsty at Vulpes Libris, to give up worrying for Lent. I was toying with giving up chocolate, but hell I could do without the pressure right now, so an attempted lack of worrying seems like a better idea. I've also enjoyed finishing off the story of Joseph and his brothers at bible study this week. Now there's a disfunctional family if ever I saw one. Too much favouritism is never anything but a dangerous game, my dears ...

I also spent a lovely lunchtime at Wisley yesterday, though I'm afraid there were no cupcakes and the cappuccino just isn't as good as at The Savill Garden, but nonetheless the camellias were out, alongside some gloriously scented daphne sprigs and irises, amongst others. It was all very relaxing which was just what I needed really. And I've popped in to see my former neighbour in Woking today, so that was good to catch up.

I'm hoping all this positive input will help me through the no doubt agonising final episode of the increasingly grim South Riding on TV - I am still traumatised by last Sunday so who knows what I'll be like after the weekend. Someone get me some happy TV to watch, soon!

Finally, I am beyond thrilled to announce that it's now official: UK students have voted our University as the most welcoming in Britain, and my boss gets to have a few words in the article too, hurrah! Good for Student Care is what I say - we all put a heck of a lot of work into Welcome Week arrangements and changes (which takes up a good portion of our year and takes me a month to recover from afterwards!) and it's lovely to think that the students do get something out of our efforts. Well done to them and us, and here's to this year's Welcome Week also - the champagne's on me ...

Anne Brooke

Women, cupcakes and cappuccinos

Book News:

A Woman like The Sea gained a very kind review at GLFiction Reviews this week (many thanks, Victor & Alan), and that same review has also found its way to the San Francisco Examiner, so that was lovely too.

Not to be outdone, Brady's Choice received a very thoughtful 5-star review at Goodreads (thank you, Nicci), and A Dangerous Man gained a 4-star review at Goodreads (many thanks, Andy!). I was also pleased that, very briefly, The Hit List found itself at No 50 in the Amazon UK Kindle charts, well gosh.

And I also received my annual influx of cash from the ALCS (Authors' Licensing & Collecting Society) who give much-needed support to poor authors, so that was very nice, thank you. And, if you are an author who hasn't joined them yet, it's definitely worth it.

And news hot off the press is that the third in my Delaneys' series, The Art of The Delaneys, will be published by Amber Allure Press on 15 May, hurrah! Many thanks, Trace ...

Meanwhile, at Vulpes Libris, you can find my review of Chris Bohjalian's magnificent crime novel, The Double Bind, which is one of the best and most startling novels I've read in a long, long time. Go treat yourself to it!

Today's meditation is:




Meditation 493
The silent grass
and the rooftops,
bleak against a clear sky,

wait for the east wind
to blast them
with its dark unforgiving
purity.


And the Sunday haiku is:

On my downbeat walk
they stop me with dark glimmer:
purple crocuses.


Life News:

Much to my delight, our flat now has the magical note "Sold STC" on its website entry. Phew. Let's hope that keeps there then. And I was also sneakily delighted that the lovely next-door neighbour had a chat with me about the pesky middle neighbours over the weekend and it transpires that they don't much like them either and were really sorry and shocked about what happened last year. Which made me feel a lot better, I must say, and it's nice to know that it's not just us overreacting either. Ha!

Anyway, K and I had a really fantastic day yesterday visiting The Savill Garden. It's astonishingly beautiful even in February, and we were frankly amazed at how much the rhododendrons had come out, giving fabulous splashes of unexpected colour around almost every corner. I also had a deeply moving experience in the cafe where we indulged ourselves in cupcakes (free with a voucher because we visited before!) and cappuccino. I suddenly realised exactly how happy the cupcake was making me feel - which is quite rare as normally I don't realise when I've been happy until after it's over. Is this my nirvana moment? If so, then if my ashes are scattered across the restaurant at Savill when I'm dead and gone, I'll be a contented woman indeed.

Finally, a very happy wedding day to Laura Ives at work who got married yesterday - and I hope the sun shone internally if not in reality, thanks to our pesky English weather. Many congratulations indeed!

Anne Brooke

The nameless blogger and other literary matters

Book News:

What a week, eh. I think we've all come through it slightly dusty and wide-eyed but relatively unbowed, so well done us! In case you're wondering if I've finally slipped over the edge into madness (ah, a long long time ago,  my dears ...), on Monday I was mentioned though not by name (until I outed myself in the comments section, that is!) in this article by author Chris Cleave in The Guardian who was a little upset about a review I wrote about one of his books for Vulpes Libris. Yes, I am indeed the cold-hearted and spidery blogger who dare not show her face. Well, if you had a nose like mine, would you?... Joking apart though, I have to say it's a dang good article and (if I may be so bold), if he'd used even half that passion, poetry and precision, not to mention ease of expression, throughout the novel itself, all might have been rather better.

Anyway, the very lovely Book Foxes (thank you, all) were inspired to come up with a response to the Guardian article which, we hope, sets out our aims for our review site in terms of fair, honest and very committed reviewing. Enough said. And actually, when all's said and done, it's the books that count, so I hope Chris Cleave and I can give each other a virtual handshake and a wry smile (because everything passes ...), and then we can all move on.

As for my own far less significant book world, it's been quite a busy week too so far, so here's what's been going on since Monday:

1. The Delaneys and Me came in, briefly, at No 91 in the Amazon UK Kindle charts so someone must have bought a copy - thank you.

2. Entertaining the Delaneys gained two 4-star reviews at Goodreads, one here and one here. It also gained a 3-star review at Goodreads with some lovely comments, so thank you to all three readers for sharing their thoughts on the story.

3. A Woman Like the Sea gained another 5-star review at Amazon so thank you, Victor, for that - I really appreciate it.

4. Finally, in this section, Brady's Choice gained a B+ review at Brief Encounters, and a 5-star review at Jessewave Reviews - a big thank you to both reviewers for that.

On a slightly different tack, I'm sneaking in a quick reminder that all my Untreed Reads books are at discount prices in February and one of them is free! That includes A Woman like The Sea so, bearing in mind the reviews it's gained recently, it might well be worth a punt ...

And, astonishingly, I'm struggling back into writing my meditation poems again. Feel a bit shaky about it as I'm not really very sure about God at the moment and there's nothing like prayer remotely on the horizon at all right now, but for what it's worth here they are:




Meditation 491
There’s a cleansing note
about sackcloth and grief

but letting them go
must be a relief.




Meditation 492
In all the long bible
there’s nothing that moves me so much
as King Hezekiah’s simple taking of the letter
containing his enemy’s
bitter and bloodthirsty threat,

laying it out in front
of the throne of God
and praying in despair
and a kind of trust:
see my agony, help me.


Life News:

I slipped into the bible study group this week and tried to keep relatively quiet (ho ho). I was rather jazzed up about it but in the end it was okay. Nothing too demanding, and actually the history behind the story of Joseph and his brothers is interesting. I had no idea it was made up of three different literary approaches cobbled together later by an editor which explains the little anomalies such as Joseph's status which changes throughout, and the different ways of referring to God, and what that means. Fascinating. I do always find that the more I see the very human mistakes and oddities in the bible, the more I actually believe in what it's trying to convey. It's only when you think a book is the unalterable word of God (whatever that may mean!) that it becomes so much less likely. There speaks the inveterate reviewer, eh ... Give me the mistakes and I'll ferret out the truth for myself.

Meanwhile I've been having fun with TV. I did rather enjoy South Riding on Sunday night, but I could have done with more jokes. I'm told by friends who've read the book (I haven't - ah, the shame of it) that it gets grimmer so I'm preparing myself with boxes of tissues and a whippet. Hey, I can be rude about the north - my mother's a Geordie ... though God knows what the whippet will do. I am also strangely gripped and guffawing in amazed laughter at the false crocodile tears produced by The Model Agency. Lordy! I was more than relieved that the rather sweet India managed to escape from the profit-crazed hands of her band of agents in order to live a normal life at school. Isn't there some kind of charity to free these poor gals? There should be questions in Parliament, I feel - particularly about the very odd father who included the opportunity to make more money for the family as a reason for encouraging his daughter to join the slave - ahem - I mean model trade. Run, my dear, run! I foresee several nail-biting evenings ahead in front of the TV over the next few weeks ...

Anyway, today, I have had two removal firms round to give a quote for getting us to our next home - please God let us have an exchange date soon! - they were both very lovely and seemed happy to cope with our oddities, so we'll have to wait and see what figures they come up with. They both include the option to have everything packed for you, which we are so definitely taking up - having always moved ourselves with great trauma and angst in the past. I'm really not going through that again. Ever.

This afternoon, I've had the last session of my physiotherapy for the frozen shoulder and all looks good, hurrah. I'm managing to remember not to carry heavy things, eg shopping or golf clubs, so I think that's definitely helping. And if I forget, I certainly know soon enough! Tonight, K and I are off to Woking to indulge ourselves in the joys of the National Theatre tour of Hamlet, so I am preparing myself for an evening of misplaced love and family angst. Just like a normal night out in Essex really, hey ho.

Anne Brooke

Entertaining the Delaneys and other delights

Book News:

Entertaining the Delaneys is published today at Amber Allure Press at a first week discount. This is the sequel to erotic bestseller, The Delaneys and Me, so now's your chance to catch up on the various naughty but nice goings-on of Liam, and those tricky twins. Enjoy!

Speaking of which, The Delaneys and Me has gained a 4-star review at Goodreads (thanks, Nene). So I like to think that in some way I'm keeping the British tradition of Carry On type humour alive ... Also this week, The Girl in the Painting received a 4-star review at Amazon US, so thank you to Darlene for that one.

And I'm happy to say that Brady's Choice is now available for the first time at Amazon UK Kindle, and, in terms of ratings, The Hit List reached No 35 in the Amazon UK charts, while Sunday Haiku came in at No 10 in the Amazon UK poetry charts, well gosh.

Meanwhile, the haiku for today is:

My garden of dreams
is sunlight-soft and scented:
lavender and hope.


Life News:

I'm gradually getting rid of my pesky cold and catarrh thing, but slowly slowly. Dammit. Alongside, or perhaps as a result (I'm not really sure), I'm having a bit of a depression moment or two, again. Double dammit, eh. What I really want to do is scream a lot and hit someone very hard, but sadly being a middle-aged woman in UK society doesn't really allow for that kind of behaviour outlet - which is a shame as it's exactly the kind of outlet we middle-aged UK women need. At our time of lives, you know. Sigh. K thinks I should get a punch-bag, and it's certainly a tempting option. Maybe in the new house?...

However, the good news is that our mortgage application has been approved in reality (hurrah!), and the survey for the house was pretty damn good really, and certainly a hell of a lot better than the survey for the flat when we bought it in 1993. I'm really hoping things move along pretty damn swiftly from now on, though I know there are land searches and all sorts of legal stuff to go through first. And the pesky middle neighbours need to sign the lease for the man who's bought our flat etc etc as it's a shared freehold. As they're so damn horrible and really rather selfish, then I doubt they'll be hurrying to do that then, eh. More sighing. Though, on the plus side, we also have to sign to agree the buyer for their flat in turn, and really, my dears, I'm not hurrying on that one either. Maybe we'll even "go on holiday and be unable to do it for a while", as they said to us when we got to exchange date with them last year, the losers. Ha! K and I can foresee a time when all four of us will be eyeball-to-eyeball in an independent solicitor's office handing over the documentation in one concerted and closely-watched move. Because you absolutely can't trust them an inch.

So, as you can see, I am indeed as full of the milk of human kindness and Christian charity as I ever am. Ho ho, as if. And, sadly, today's sermon about loving our enemies and being nice to the neighbours got rather short shrift from me, as well as a knowing snort. Well, I've never pretended to be a good person, at any level, so what can one expect? I might well start to be nice when I'm in the next house but, as St Augustine is reputed to have said: not yet, Lord, not yet. Being a dried up, bitchy, embittered old prune is the new nice, after all.

Finally, I'm sorry to say that my invitation to the Royal Wedding appears, unaccountably, to have gone missing in the post. As a result, I may well delay buying my hat, just in case they've forgotten me (how can that be?!) ...

Anne Brooke

Sickness and sold signs

Life News:

A tricky week in terms of being sick, groan. I've had a cold plus my usual catarrh difficulties since Sunday evening so wasn't able to go in to work yesterday at all. The thing I really hate about being ill like this is the not being able to sleep part of it, so was pleased last night that I did actually manage to get some decent sleep for the first time since Saturday and in the bedroom too, hurrah! (I usually stick to the living room in times of difficulty as it's warmer ...). The other good thing is the number of property programmes on daytime TV - what bliss.

Am planning to go into work tomorrow for a staff event that we're doing so my usual working week is a bit confused anyway. Lord know what day I'll think it actually is tomorrow! Due to being ill, I've also had to cancel the specialist appointment I had at Kingston Hospital today (ah, the irony of it all ...) but it appears that my specialist is now moving to St George's so I am desperately trying to catch up with her, but no luck yet.

However, I'm delighted to say that our flat now has a "Sold" sign on the street, so K keeps admiring it when he leaves for work. It feels great to have it there, I must say. Not only that but the house we're in the process of buying in Mayford has a Sold STC notice on its web entry so that's very pleasing too. I'm only hoping and praying the potential move goes relatively smoothly from now on ...

And is it just me, but is "Outcasts", the new SF serial on TV, really just a rehash of "Heroes", "The Deep" and "Lost"? BIG yawn. It's all too stupidly mystical and pretentious for words really, and I did have such high hopes at the start, as I'm usually a fan of Hermione Norris - what on earth is her agent thinking?!? They really need to stop the pretentiousness and actually give us some plot and decent characterisation. As K says, it's a planetary outpost where the security team appears to be run by Benny from Crossroads (bless ....) and some children's TV presenter. It's also very odd, bearing in mind they are supposed to be the only humans on an empty planet, how often they receive visitors they've never come across before. At least one or two every episode roll up. K thinks that over the hill there's actually a vast city the size of Las Vegas if only they realised it. Sigh. However, it does make you realise how sharp and well-written/plotted the episodes of any of the Star Trek series actually are - at least they understood about the need for action and character back then.

Book News:

I'm happy to say that the lovely Graham Sclater was kind enough to give another on-air review of A Dangerous Man on Live Wire Talk Radio last night, so many thanks for that, Graham. I am definitely envious of the daffodils in your study though ...

And Pink Champagne and Apple Juice briefly found itself at No 77 in the Amazon UK Kindle charts, so that was a surprise for us all, I can tell you.

Anne Brooke

Snowdrops and silence

Book News:

I now have a new webpage for upcoming literary short story, Dido's Tale, which is due to be published by Bluewood Publishing later this year. You can also read an extract to whet your appetite. Enjoy!

In terms of reviews, How to Eat Fruit gained a 4-star review at Goodreads - many thanks, Dlee. And Brady's Choice gained a lovely review at Amos Lassen Reviews, so many thanks for that, Amos.

This week, you can also find The Bones of Summer is being offered at a 20% discount at Rainbow eBooks, so an ideal opportunity to buy. 

You can also find my review of The New Uncanny: Tales of Unease at Vulpes Libris, which is a short story collection guaranteed to add a frisson or two of literary horror to your day. What could be nicer?

The Sunday haiku is:

One green woodpecker,

ant-attracted, waits on grass

dancing with snowdrops.

Life News:

Astonishingly, we have agreed a very reasonable offer on the flat, hurrah a zillion times and put out the bunting! Mr Makeover Man (who will no doubt make our little corner of Surrey look like a mini-Versailles once he's had his way ...) put in an offer, and after a little to-ing and fro-ing we were more than happy to accept. If it all goes through, it'll certainly take a chunk off our mortgage repayments for the Mayford house (assuming that goes through okay also ...). Phew then. So we are now neck-deep or thereabouts in mortgage applications, life insurance, mortgage protection schemes, removal quotes and a hundred and one things to do if you're moving. Yes, I know it's early days but I like to get ahead. Ever hopeful, eh.

Yesterday, K and I had a very relaxing day (which was very much deserved, I must say) admiring the snowdrops at Polesdon Lacey and enjoying a very pleasant lunch as well, and today I have spent an hour in silence at the Quakers again. Well, almost in silence, as my impending cold (arrgghh!!!) meant rather more snivelling than I'd hoped to have. Still the woman sitting in front of me was very courteous about my snuffles and snortings so has no doubt already performed her kind deed of the week. And I have so many kind deeds to catch up with on my own account, alas ...

A glimmer of hope somewhere ...

Life News:

There's a glimmer of hope on the house horizon, thank the Lord. The Mayford vendors have accepted our revised, revised offer, so we're on the road to exchange, hurrah. I hope. I'm really hoping this time that we survive the exchange date with some measure of success, bearing in mind the outright disaster of the one we lived through last year (b****y middle neighbours, eh). It would just be soooooo good to get out of this place which is seriously bringing me down now. I simply need to escape.

Meanwhile our strange potential buyer of the flat is still behaving oddly. He's now been to see us three times, once with his parents, once with a builder and, most recently, yesterday with an interior designer. Apart from being hugely frustrating, we're now thinking of charging him rent if he comes a fourth time. Or perhaps he actually does think he lives here now? He's certainly in the place more often than we are. And still no hint of an offer ... Sigh. I really feel I've lost any hope on that one, to be honest. You know what they say with buyers: the longer they are in a place, the less likely it is they'll bite. People make their minds up in thirty seconds. The rest is just filling, ho hum.

Anyway, we have a potential house, hurrah, and a lifetime of poverty to look forward to so it may not be all bad! Plus yesterday was K's birthday so we celebrated with cake, chocolate and champagne. As you do. And there's cake left over too - gosh, however did that happen?...

Today, I was supposed to be going to the Sceptre Reviewers Lunch on behalf of Vulpes Libris, but I found out yesterday that the event was taking a speed-dating format which utterly horrified me, so I have given it a very very wide berth. Lord preserve us! Parties of any kind are bad enough as it is without having to meet lots of self-important (sorry, but we are rather self-important as a breed!...) authors in quick succession without any kind of body armour to defend against the experience. And if anyone's going to be self-important around here, it's going to be me. I'm a genius at it. Besides, two of the authors lined up have both been given negative reviews by me, which you can see here and here, and I didn't want there to be blood on the carpet, my dears.

Tonight, K and I are out spending money we probably can't afford at the theatre seeing The Reluctant Debutante. Here's hoping there are a few laughs and it's better than last week's play, which shouldn't be too difficult then.

Book News:

I've sent the final galley proofs for Entertaining the Delaneys back to Amber Allure Press, and that's due out on 20 February, so not long now. In the meantime you can find bestselling short story The Girl in the Painting at Amazon UK for the first time, and How to Eat Fruit is now also keeping it company, hurrah. The Bones of Summer has also been briefly at No 29 in the Amazon UK charts this week, which was nice.

There have also been several nice reviews this week (see how self-important I am - gosh, I must be an author, ho ho!...):

Maloney's Law gained a 4-star review at Goodreads (thank you, Dlee)
Painting from Life received a 5-star review at Goodreads (thank you, Ann)
How to Eat Fruit gained a 5-star review at Goodreads (thank you, Sarah).

In addition:

A Woman like the Sea was given a 4.75 star review at Book Wenches (many thanks, Bobby)

and

Brady's Choice gained a 4-star review at Three Dollar Bill Reviews (many thanks, Kassa).

Both of the above were the first "official" reviews for each of these new stories, which I wasn't honestly sure that anyone would like, so that's given me hope too. So perhaps the year might be improving after all? Who can tell ...

Anne Brooke

Parties, interviews and houses

Book News:

Yesterday was an all-day party time as all us Untreed Reads authors celebrated our publisher's one-year anniversary at Coffee Time Romance - and there's still time to join in the fun so please do pop along and say hello. You'll be more than welcome! In terms of my own books, you can pick up a FREE copy of literary romance, How to Eat Fruit, plus discover exactly who is The Girl in the Painting, and have a riotous time in space with Creative Accountancy for Beginners. Not only that but you can enjoy the bittersweet historical romance of Dancing with Lions, and get dangerously close to Nature in The Secret Thoughts of Leaves, and, finally, get in touch with your sensuous side with literary lesbian romance, A Woman like the Sea. And, apart from the FREE copy of How to Eat Fruit, all the others have a 25% discount attached, so that's definitely something to celebrate. Enjoy!

Other nice news is that somehow I managed not one, not two, not even three, but a grand total of four entries in the Amazon UK Kindle charts yesterday, well gosh: Tommy's Blind Date was at No 23; Give and Take at No 22; The Hit List at No 21; and Martin and The Wolf at No 20. So it was lovely to have them all in the Kindle charts for a while, and even lovelier that they were huddling so close together, obviously for warmth ... And coming in on the outside was Pink Champagne and Apple Juice at No 36 (now down to No 88) and A Dangerous Man at No 88 in the US Kindle charts. So a very big thank you to whoever it is who's buying - I'm very grateful.

Meanwhile, Brady's Choice is now available for the first time at Amazon US Kindle, whilst A Woman like the Sea is now available both at Amazon UK Kindle (for the grand total of 79p so a real bargain to be had there) and at Amazon US Kindle.

I've also been interviewed at the 1 Place for Romance blog - so thank you, Valerie & Jay, for arranging that, and I hope you enjoy the read.

And I have some very thrilling news about a hugely talented writing friend of mine, Sarah Ann Watts - Sarah's first stand-alone title, Heart of The Kingdom, is published today and I already have my copy which I can't wait to read, so hurry along and buy this story, and many congratulations, Sarah.

The Sunday haiku is:

Hyacinth petals
soften this vanilla air:
promises of spring.


Life News:

House news is moving along, thank the Lord, though still way too slow for me. We've decided not to worry about selling the flat and simply to concentrate on getting out to somewhere new as soon as we can. With that in mind, we made an offer on a house we liked in Bisley, though that's been rejected. But, at the same time, another house we really like in Mayford may be coming down in price very soon, according to the agent (though as they're all lying toads really, who can tell, eh?...), so we've made an offer on that instead. No response on that one as yet, so I assume they'll deign to ring us up next week to give us an update. If that's a no-go zone, then there's actually yet another house on the outskirts of Guildford that's just come on as well so we may well go and view that and see if we prefer it if nothing else useful happens by Wednesday.

Whilst all that is going on, we did have a second viewing of our flat on Friday - where they appear to have moved everything they could think of to move, including the fridge and washing machine, in order to find out our guilty secrets (which I do think is a bit much for people who haven't put in any kind of offer yet, but there you go ...), but I assume they somehow missed where we've buried the bodies, as there's been no sign of the police as yet. Hey ho.

Nice things that have happened include our trip to Wisley today to see the exotic butterflies in the Glasshouse - this is definitely well worth doing so if you're in the area before the end of February then do go along if you can. I'm sure there's a wider variety of butterflies this year than before too, which is grand. There's also been a recurrent visit of a very fat green woodpecker in the garden and the sudden appearance of snowdrops, both of which have cheered me somewhat.

Mind you, I needed cheering as the new Alan Ayckbourn play at the Guildford Theatre on Thursday was a huge disappointment. Long-winded and dull, The Life of Riley is definitely not one I'd recommend, though the unfortunate actors tackle a very thin script with great courage, I think. Sigh. Perhaps the Great Man really does need to take a break?

This morning, after a good week to ten days when frankly the concept of God has been way too much for me, I did manage to get to church. Which was okay, as long as I didn't think about it too much. The hymns were nice. At the moment anything involving more than the occasional and desperate prayer is out of bounds really, and bible reading has fallen by the wayside (ha!), hence the lack of meditation poems, in case anyone had missed them. I'm not sure I'll be able to get back to them next week either, so the exercise bike (where I do my bible reading and start off the poems, oddly enough) has never had such an easy life. We'll see how it goes, or rather how it doesn't.

Last night, we did have a lovely time having dinner at Marian's though, which was grand. It was great to catch up properly, and she certainly makes a top class custard, which always does it for me. There's something about custard which somehow makes everything worthwhile.

Anne Brooke

A Woman like the Sea

Book News:

I'm happy to announce that my literary lesbian romance story, A Woman like the Sea, is published today and available at Untreed Reads (at a 25% discount), and at All Romance Ebooks, amongst other outlets. I'm also pleased to say that you can find all my Untreed Read books at discount prices at 1 Place for Romance bookshop - enjoy!

Other book news is that The Girl in the Painting was the 3rd highest bestseller at Untreed Reads during January, so that was a boost at the end of what has been a rather difficult month. Many thanks to those of you who've bought that one. And, in a brief (very brief) blaze of late glory, Pink Champagne and Apple Juice found itself at No 83 in the Amazon UK Kindle charts, well gosh.

Meanwhile, at Vulpes Libris, we have not been slack; on Monday, Moira was in conversation with Tim Bentinck who plays David Archer in The Archers, and today, you can take a closer look at my nasty and nice sides (ha!) in my review of Philippa Gregory's The Other Queen. Suffice it to say I was not greatly impressed with that one ...

Life News:

Life's still not that good, really, to be honest. Am feeling rather debilitated, to say the least, by last week's meltdown, but am busy taking a regular supply of happy pills in all shapes and sizes in order to attempt to keep things on some kind of even keel. Double ha, eh. If you shake me, I'll rattle.

Mind you, K and I were rather amused (after being really quite angry) with yesterday's estate agent who booked us in for three viewings of properties today when we'd only asked for one. We weren't interested in the other two, but the wretched man booked us for them without being asked. When he rang back to tell us, K sacked him on the spot and said we wouldn't bother viewing the one we actually wanted to see unless someone else from the agency escorted us round, and then put the phone down. That'll show 'em, eh. Sure enough five minutes later, another agent from the same firm rang up, apologised profusely and said he'd be showing us round said house, instead of the pushy agent. Fair enough, though I did rather worry that when we turned up this afternoon, he might actually have signed the contract for us and we'd be moving in tomorrow. It did give me some considerable pleasure that we didn't like the house anyway. Triple ha!

In any case, we have actually seen a house we like very much in Bisley though, which is hopeful, especially as we can afford it without having to sell this place, so that gives me much hope that I'll be able to leave the pesky flat and Godalming before I do indeed run mad. That said, we have a second viewing here tomorrow, so I think we'd like to see if that results in someone making an offer for our flat before we make any final decisions. Though I don't want to miss out on anything good ...

I'm also very excited by the advent of this England & Wales crime statistics site, where you can have great fun finding out where all the crime is, and where the dubious and not-so-dubious parts of your town are. All very jolly, and an excellent tool for house-hunting. I'm pleased to report there is absolutely no crime in our street so this flat is even more desirable as a purchase for someone indeed.

Other cheery news which put a more Schadenfreude-shaped smile on my face today was that earlier in the week the downstairs neighbours accidentally smoked out the nasty middle neighbours when they put their fire on, as the chimney was faulty, and said middle neighbours had to turn up and spend several hours cleaning up. My, how I laughed. I apologise for the huge meanness of this paragraph, but that's how I feel about things right now. I have good reason, but sorry. I used to be so nice when I was younger too. Ah well.

Last night, K and I were glued to the television watching the last ever episode of Midsomer Murders with Tom and Joyce Barnaby in it. A good farewell to a great series, I thought, though I will miss Tom and Joyce and the body count they inspired, sob. However, I'm pleased to see that Neil Dudgeon will be taking over the police office role as cousin John Barnaby, so I look forward to more Midsomer madness in the future, hurrah.

Finally, a big hello to Jane H whom I met for coffee in Godalming today, or rather hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows, if I'm honest - but we had the semi-skimmed milk so it was the healthy option, ho ho. Lovely to catch up with all the news and, really, we must do it again soon.

Anne Brooke

Strippers and stars

I'm going easy on any non-writing life news at the moment as it's not very pleasant and I don't really want to rehash it. Sorry. Book news is better though, phew!

I'm pleased to say that A Dangerous Man gained a 5-star review at Michelenjeff Reviews, so a big thank you to Lisa for that. At the same time Two Christmases was lucky enough to get a 5-star review at Goodreads, courtesy of Edina Rose - for which thank you.

In the meantime, as part of the Birthday Celebrations at Untreed Reads, all my titles there are being offered at 25% discount from now and throughout February and, as an extra special treat because it was their first ever title and I was their first ever author, How to Eat Fruit is being offered for free - enjoy! And Happy Book & Publisher Birthday to us all. What are you waiting for indeed?...

Slowly coming online across ebook sellers is Brady's Choice, which can now be found at All Romance Ebooks - and it looks as if people are actually buying it there too, which is nice. Thank you.

Upcoming this week is my literary lesbian romance, A Woman like the Sea, which now has its own webpage where you can also read an extract. I'm very happy indeed that this one will be the first of the new Candlelight line for literary romance stories at Untreed Reads - so thank you for that, Jay. It's great to be another First for you.

I've also, in the midst of it all, been attempting to do some actual writing (well, gosh!) and have now broken the 100,000 word barrier of The Executioner's Cane, and broken the 2000 word barrier of the third in the Delaneys series, The Art of the Delaneys. Double gosh, eh. It's keeping my mind off other stuff nicely, that's for sure.

Out, briefly, in the wider world beyond my own head, I'm happy to see that Ereaders have at last reached the Booker Prize judges and that, at Amazon US, Ebooks are now outselling paperbacks - this certainly tallies with my royalty statements recently, where ebooks have taken off in a big way (hurrah, and thank you to those of you who buy them!) and are outselling my paperbacks by far.

Next week, you can see the delights in store for you at Vulpes Libris which includes an interview with Tim Bentinck who plays David Archer in The Archers, Chinese New Year and alternative realities, so never say we don't push the boat out for you, on all fronts.

Oh, and K and I saw an utterly fabulous gem of a play at The Mill Theatre in Guildford last night - Stripped, and the amazing Hannah Chalmers who plays all the roles with style and pizzazz, are definitely both forces to be reckoned with. If she and the play comes your way, don't miss it - it's only an hour long but it's pure genius.

The Sunday Haiku is, interestingly, being seen by readers so far as marvellously positive, whereas for me it's entirely negative, as the week's been so bad. Which just goes to show you never know what it is you're actually writing. Here it is:

Somehow the week stopped
and I was left floating free
in an empty room.


Anne Brooke