annebrooke

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Anne's Journal of 7 February 2010

Anne's website - with a foot in so many camps
The Prayer Seeker's Journal - where the search takes an unexpected direction

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Anne's Journal of 4 February 2010

Anne's website - celebrating the small successes
The Prayer Seeker's Journal - searching for the inner man, slowly

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Anne's Journal of 31 January 2010

Anne's website - stylish in the face of stardom, not ...
The Prayer Seeker's Journal - tackling matters of faith, slowly

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Anne's Journal of 27 January 2010

Anne's website - an acquired taste, really
The Prayer Seeker's Journal - taking a walk on the lighter side, possibly ...

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Anne's Journal of 24 January 2010

Anne's website - puzzling over identity
The Prayer Seeker's Blog - just when you thought God might be safe, he probably isn't ...

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Anne's Journal of 21 January 2010

Anne's website - where things are looking up

The Prayer Seeker's Blog

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Anne's Journal of 17 January 2010

Anne's website: a publishing bonanza

The Prayer Seeker's Blog

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Anne's Journal of 14 January 2010

Anne's website - the GLBT filmmaker of the Surrey hills ...

The Prayer Seeker's Blog

I'm very happy to announce that my erotic GLBT short story, Give and Take now has a cover and a brand new web page on my site. You can find it, plus a brief extract from the beginning, here. It's due out from Amber Allure Press on 21 March, so I'm looking forward to that.

I'm also happy to say that my second attempt to send back the signed contract for The Hit List to Amber Allure has worked, so thank you to the UK postal service for that - phew!

In other writing news, I've reached the 13,000 word marker in The Executioner's Cane, and as an utter contrast to everything really, the second chapter of The Prayer Seeker is now uploaded and can be found on The Prayer Seeker's Blog. I'm now half way through the third part, but I suspect it will pause for tonight.

Ooh, and much to my joy, earlier in the week I saw a glorious buzzard fly past my window, so that was a real coup. We can't count it though, as Lord H wasn't here to witness this astonishing sight and, as you know, we do of course speak with one voice. Here's hoping it loops round again at some point. It made up for the rather slippery trog down to Waitrose that we went through yesterday - heck, that packed ice is deadly, even in Wellington boots, and especially with shopping. Where's that ruddy thaw??...

This week's haiku:

Ice splinters my mind.
Snow daggers plunge in, spiked, raw,
petrify my skin.

Anne's website - the ultimate in give and take of course
The Prayer Seeker's Blog

Back to work this week but, due to the astonishing weather conditions, not for long. I managed to get everything up to date - or as near as darnit - on Monday and Tuesday, but then I woke up to a white and icy world on Wednesday, so worked from home. We'd assumed we wouldn't be able to get into the office that day - as the weather forecast was so horrendous - so took stuff with us to do. And what a lot of snow there is. I have to say though that it's been lovely having Lord H at home during the day for longer - we can have lunch together and all sorts of stuff. Just like the 1950s, you know. Not that I remember them of course - perish the thought! I fear though that the weekend weather looks to be no better than today or yesterday, so I shall have to brace myself for a possible train journey and general slog in on Monday. Assuming the University is fully open by then - we're working with essential staff only at the moment, as the campus and indeed most of Guildford is not pleasant. Whilst at home, I've finally got round to updating my job description - something I promised the boss I'd do by ... um ... December (whoops!) - and I think I now have something that more or less corresponds to what I do. But who can say? My brain goes blank when I have to think of such matters, sadly.

Other unexpected events have happened this week. I've started to write what I can only describe as a spiritual novel - about one man's journey to rediscover his more religious past. So yes, before anyone asks, that does make it personal. After a fashion. And I've found in my writing life that I can best express my own truths through the mouthpiece of a male character, so I make no apologies for that. It's simply the way it is. I'm calling it The Prayer Seeker. This time I've decided to blog it as I write, so you can find the first section (sensibly called The Beginning) here. Any comments or suggestions for improvement are very welcome. I'm rather feeling my way on this one.

Keeping to writing matters, I'm also rather pleased to see that my PLR (Public Lending Right) statement - which pays you for how many times your books are borrowed from libraries - tells me that 163 copies of Thorn in the Flesh were unaccountably borrowed between June 2008 and June 2009. Which gives me the grand total of £10, hurrah! Hey, I'm not knocking it - it's five times more than I earned the year before. I shall spend it wisely.

I've also finished the edits to The Gifting and have sent it back to my editor for her comments. I've added in what I hope will prove to be greater depth to Johan's character while I've been doing it, so all this agonising and long-drawn-out trawl to self-publication has been in that way at least useful.

Anyway, I hope everyone is keeping warm in this weather and not doing anything foolish. Stay well.

Anne's website - the snow queen of Surrey

Ah, the end of the holiday comes fast apace, alas - work is tomorrow (groan) and I can hardly believe it. Not sure where I put my work head and if it will ever really fit again, to be honest - oh how glorious retirement will be, I suspect ...

Anyway, hanging on to the last of the holiday hours for as long as I can, I'm thrilled to announce that Lord H and I have already spotted 55 new birds in 2010, hurrah. For those of you not in the birding world (wise folk!), this doesn't mean I've suddenly discovered a whole supply of birds we've never seen in our lives before- it's just that the birding count starts afresh with each new year. Sad, eh? But we're not as sad as some who number the birds spotted per county, so any bird can be new countless times depending on where you see it in the country. Ah it's a strange world indeed ...

But here is my list (skip to next para if you can't stand this sort of thing, but I personally find it strangely thrilling): barn owl (happy to spot this as we waited for ages as we only saw one owl late last year - and when it finally swooped over the field at dusk that we were standing in, it was a very haunting sight), blackbird, black headed gull, blue tit, bullfinch, Canada goose, chaffinch, coal tit (nice to see this as they're tricky), collared dove, common gull, coot, cormorant, crow, dunnock, fieldfare, gadwall, goldcrest (ditto as for coal tit, and they're the smallest UK bird - it fell off a branch as we passed so we couldn't fail to notice it), goldfinch, great spotted woodpecker, great tit, greylag goose, greenfinch, green woodpecker, house sparrow, jackdaw, kestrel, lapwing, long-tailed tit, magpie, mallard, meadow pipit, mistle thrush, moorhen, mute swan, nuthatch, pheasant (they were flinging themselves under the car wheels but we missed them, so I think they count), pied wagtail, pintail, pochard, redwing, reed bunting, ring-necked parakeet, robin, rock dove, rook, shelduck, shoveler, song thrush, starling, teal, tree creeper (ditto as per coal tit and goldcrest notes, but they're bigger, just), tufted duck, wigeon, wood pigeon (the most boring and common bird in the whole universe but it was the very first one spotted in 2010 so had some kind of excitement value for a very, very short space of time), wren (quite hard to spot usually and there were loads of them).

Ah, typing that last paragraph has been like an enema, you know. I feel a very peculiar sense of relief about it all - should I start the counselling sessions again?... Writing news for the start of the new year has been positive too. My gay erotic (with light - very light, so no need to panic unduly - bondage) story, Give and Take, has been accepted by Amber Allure Press for publication on 21 March, so that's something to look forward to. As well as something I couldn't possibly tell church or work of course. Lordy, surely my secret life is now possibly more all-encompassing than my so-called real one?? Anyway I have to think of cover ideas. Hmm, there's a nice challenge, eh.

I was also pleased to see that The Bones of Summer held the Number 60 slot in the Amazon UK gay romance charts for a while - Craig and Paul are ridiculously pleased about that, and Paul may even buy a new bottle of whisky - the Macallan of course - to celebrate. Well, it is the holiday season still. I was also very happy to get an email from one kind reader telling me how much they loved the novel - thank you, Judie. Much appreciated! And that makes you my first 2010 response, so an added pleasure indeed.

This week's haiku:

Ice crunches my boot.
Days flit by like winter birds:
snow goose, eider, smew.

Anne's website - starting the year with a flutter, ho ho

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Anne's Journal of 31 December 2009

Anne's website - hoping 2010 bring more gifts (ho ho) than 2009 has

Hope you've all had a fabulous Christmas - or as near to fabulous as possible! Lord H and I had a very relaxing day on the day itself - we paid our respects at church, ate guinea fowl and mince pies, quaffed a suitable amount of champagne, listened to the Queen (not as good as last year, I fear) and were puzzled by Doctor Who - a horrendously clunky and laughable start, but thankfully it got a bit better. Too much David T (thank goodness he's going!) and John Sims and not enough Catherine Tate is my opinion. Ah well.

Anyway, I'm thrilled to be able to present you with the cover for The Hit List which will be published in eBook version on 28 February 2010 with the paperback following about two or three weeks later by Amber Allure Press. Such a gripping cover - I really love it. The more I look at it, the more it grows on me, which can only be a good thing. You can see it here, as LJ no longer allows me to post pics for some reason, sigh ...

For the rest of the weekend, Lord H and I have been doing a mammoth birdwatching session. Yesterday we spent the day in the London Wetland Centre and upped our bird total by ... er ... one - the common gull, if you're interested. And, yes, we were hugely excited by that. Sad people that we are. Today we have been out to Worthing, Shoreham-by-Sea and Brighton Marina. Some wildly dramatic seas indeed - we walked along the Eastern wall between the marina and the sea and had to keep dodging the waves that crashed over our heads. Wonderful - such drama. But not enough to sweep us away entirely, which explains this blog. No definite birds, alas - though it's possible we spotted a Mediterranean gull and a shag (as it were). But, weather conditions being what they were, it was jolly hard to say.

This week's haiku:

A swan umbrella
is perfect rain equipment.
White feathers and style.

Anne's website - a veritable Christmas hit

Well, I must say it's great to finally be on holiday as the University doesn't open again till 4 January. Is it just me or has December lasted at least 3 months by now? At least the general slowness of time has meant I've been able to get on with writing stuff fairly well. I've now gone through all the minor edits for The Gifting and have only the more major items and a good read-through to tackle. Something to get my teeth into soon, I hope. Other fun writing news is that for a while The Bones of Summer was No 5 in the Amazon UK gay romance charts and I was so astonished that I nearly fell over my own jaw. Or would have done but really my head was way too huge anyway by that time. I'm also happy to say that I've received the final version of A Stranger's Touch from the publisher and I'm really happy with the way it is now. Good editors are utter gold dust, I can tell you.

Meanwhile, I've picked up my new glasses. Um, I don't really like them. Sadly. And it's been making me rather tearful today - though that may be to do with the fact of Christmas as well. I get very shaky at Christmas. I need to put the whole concept out of my head and just think of it as a nice holiday with Lord H and all manner of thing shall be well. As Julian of Norwich would put it. Gawd bless her. Anyway, the glasses are weird - they're variefocal, like my old ones, but the reading gap seems excessively small so I have to keep moving my head or the book to fit all the words on a normal sized page in. Plus the area at the right of my right lens is really rather hazy. Should it be like that?? Plus they're hopeless for the computer, as the distance is too far away for the reading area of the lens (and anyway it's not in the right position), and too near for the distance area to kick in. I'm wearing my old glasses to type this. I think I'll give the new ones a week at home to see if anything changes, plus a week at work and then book another optician's appointment to see if anything can be done. But the thought of spending even more money on them is making me very cross and upset, sigh. I asked Lord H earlier what he'd do if I couldn't see to read or write any more - and he very sweetly said he'd read to me and would take dictation, though he'd have to shut his eyes when it came to typing up my rude stuff. Could be interesting ... Especially as he doesn't touch-type. Ah well. Still, he remains, as always, this year's super-hero.

Anyway, enough moaning from me. I hope you all have a very happy Christmas, and I'll catch up with you soon. Though you might look a bit fuzzy, depending on my specs. Happy Christmas!

Anne's website - going for the impressionistic look ...

I'm really chuffed with the title of today's blog, I must say. And for a whole variety of reasons. First off, I'm happy to say that Two Christmases has gained another four-star rating at the Goodreads site - so thank you, Devon, for that.

I'm also equally happy to see that Salt and Gold is finally up at Amazon UK and a very reasonable price it is too. Ideal Christmas reading and, astonishingly, it can actually still be with you for Christmas if you purchase today! What could be nicer?...

And, finally on the writing front, I now have the edits back for The Gifting so I'm preparing to get my teeth into those as soon as I can. Funny how I can meander along fairly happily for ages when I'm writing, but edits have to be taken by the scruff of the neck and shaken till they give in as far as I'm concerned. Good to have something to focus on and worry away at over Christmas and New Year.

Meanwhile, goodness me but it's been jolly cold here in the shires. I went up to London after work yesterday to see Jane S-D for dinner & chat (there would have been more of us, but Jane M was snookered by a severe lack of trains from the south, and poor Anne F was ill ...), and had much fun with travel arrangements. Guildford and London seem to be the only places that didn't grind to a halt completely last night - so I was lucky to make it at all! Though I was rather started to hear, as I stood on Guildford station, that Reading was cut off from civilisation in terms of trains, and no buses or taxis were running either. Then later (much later ...), as I waited on the Northern Line platform at Waterloo, the rather charming platform announcer told us that the Northern line northbound trains would run as far as they could and then stop but he couldn't tell where that might be due to adverse weather conditions, and he therefore wished us good luck and God speed. How very courteous indeed. I certainly needed all the God speed I could muster as I slid my way across Trafalgar Square, which appeared to have turned into an ice rink. And I was wearing trainers, so goodness knows how the ladies in high heels were managing. At the end of the night, I came back via the Piccadilly Line - which was lucky as the Northern Line was apparently closed by then. And, strangely, there was once again no snow in Guildford. Perhaps we have become the eye of the storm?

As a final thought for today, Lord H and I have been much amused by a recent cartoon showing the Three Wise Men at the nativity scene. One of them is saying to the other: "Yes, I do happen to think that our journey is absolutely necessary ..." How very apt, on so many levels.

Anne's website: feeling gifted

Have been surprised and pleased this morning to see that Maloney's Law was floating around at Number 36 in the Amazon UK gay fiction charts. It's now dropped of course, but it was lovely while it lasted.

I'm also pleased to say that Two Christmases gained another five-star rating at the Goodreads site, which has been another boost. Much-needed as I do find this last run-up to Christmas rather depressing. Echoes of the year is nearly over and what the heck have I done with it?? are flying round my head, dammit. Ah well.

However, keeping on the writing front, I was thrilled to receive a lovely email from my independent editor, Sarah Abel, who is currently editing The Gifting for me ready for self-publication next year. She wrote: "I've read through your manuscript twice now and I just wanted to tell you that I think your story is Amazing! A real page-turner, I didn't want to put it down (the second time through as well!) and I want to know what happens next!! This is a grand tale, richly embroidered with tons of action. Plenty of material for the reader's imagination to work with."

Well, gosh, honestly those few kind words have been making me cry, I have to say. I know I do joke about it to anyone (very few!) who asks, both face to face and online, but that novel and the whole fantasy series I'm currently writing still that stem from it has given me some of my worst and best moments of the last couple of years. There have been moments of writing when I've really been enjoying the whole process of it, but on the other hand the unanimous rejections or complete blanking I've received from both the mainstream fantasy press and the small independent press in the UK and US has been absolutely killing. It's been that, really, which prompted me to give up my agent and to give up any hopes of attempting to get it published in paperback commercially (though there are 2 small epublishers who have as yet not rejected it). I simply couldn't take the knock-backs any more. Especially as I'd hoped all along that this novel might just be the one to bring me somewhere in the orbits of the mainstream press. Well, it hasn't been and that's been an excruciatingly hard lesson to take in. And, yes, I am bitter about it. Very bitter. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't. When I started writing fiction in 2000, I gave myself 10 years to try to make some kind of career out of it, and that hasn't happened. Or at least, not in the manner or to the extent I'd hoped for. A bitter pill to swallow indeed. And, in the end, it's been that which has set me back on the self-publication route again. Honestly, it's been as if I'm the only person in the universe who felt there was some glimmer of good writing and good story in The Gifting, and it's lovely that now someone else has bothered to write and tell me it's not crap after all. Thank you, Sarah. It's much appreciated.

Anyway, enough existential sobbing from this particular failing writer - other things in life are just as important as me and my career issues (no! surely not, we cry!). So I've finally had enough with the whole Ugandan anti-LGBT people nightmare and have joined Changing Attitude, a group that exists to support LBGT members of the Anglican church. They are also being proactive in condemning the new Ugandan bill - and it was interesting to see last week the Church Times (a better paper than one would ever expect) in one of their articles liken the Ugandan rhetoric used to support the new anti-homosexuality bill and condemn LGBT people as similar to the language Hitler used to condemn the Jews. They're right too. It's all very worrying. Just because one may not agree with someone's lifestyle or attitude is surely no excuse to sentence them to death or fling them in jail. It's bloody ridiculous. Sigh.

Still, on a less political and serious note, I'm utterly thrilled to see that the lovely Chris & Ola won Strictly Come Dancing. Fab-u-lous, as Craig R-H might say. Double huzzahs and hang out the bunting! I recorded it last night as we were out for dinner with friends (and had a fantastic time, thank you, Liz & John!), so will look forward to basking in the glory later. It will, I hope, ease the incredible pain of losing Terry Wogan on the radio, who broadcast his final breakfast programme on Friday, sob! I'll really, really miss his ease and wit in the mornings. I will, in the interests of fairness, give Chris Evans a try, but I don't think I'm going to like him at all - I never have before ... A lighter sigh.

However, the good news is that the very kind Elly from our poetry course sent me the sound of the closing/opening doors in Star Trek - after I'd said that when I hear them it never fails to make me smile. What a star, thank you, Elly! What could be nicer?

This week's haiku:

In the snowy wood
a deer carves a graceful way
through mist and bare trees.

Anne's website - let's face the music and dance ...

A flurry of terror and dread arrived with the flurry of snow this week. How I hate snow. Ye gods, it's what I moved to the south to avoid, isn't it? It was made rather worse yesterday as we had to walk into town in the snow and slush in order to partake of our office Christmas lunch - which was very nice indeed, but I could have done without the chilly journey. And that sense of doom and misery when one's foot starts to slip. And I was the only one wearing trainers too, dammit. Not only that but it was soooo cold when we started the cars in the morning - and foolishly I'd only worn my fingerless gloves so got a telling-off from Lord H - that I lost all sensation in my fingers when I came to finish the ice scraping and actually drive off. Which was fine once I'd worked out how to put on my seatbelt using my teeth and my elbow, but it did mean that every time I tried to put the radio up I just ended up punching the knob with my fist (as it were) and switching it off, as I couldn't make my fingers turn the dial. Double dammit.

Keeping to the subject (sort of) of work, I had a lovely surprise in my last ever session of the University Writers' Group when they presented me with an anthology of their work over the year dedicated to me. I was so touched that I felt quite tearful. It's a great booklet and I think they've all done amazingly well. Hindered and held back by me, that is. So thank you, gang, for that - really appreciated. You've been a wonderful group. Next year, I'm taking a well-earned break and they're sharing the chairing duties between them. I think the shake-up in the format for them all will be fabulous, but I'll still be in the background if they do need any help. Which, I suspect, they won't.

Other exciting writing news is that The Bones of Summer seems to have had a small boost from its recent Rainbow Fiction award placing and gained a rating on Amazon UK for a while. Which was very nice. At the same time, Maloney's Law had a brief flirtation with an Amazon rating, so I'm glad to see the first Paul Maloney book venturing out of its cave, albeit temporarily. And on the subject of Amazon, I complained to them once more this morning about the lack of stock of A Dangerous Man, which has been going on for two months now, and this time I queried whether they're not stocking it because it has gay characters in it, along the lines of the GLBT Amazon PR disaster earlier in the year. This time, I received a nice email back (which for once wasn't the standard response) saying it should be in stock shortly, so we wait and see, eh. I live in hope, but faint hope.

Ooh and I had my first reader response from the lovely Elly from my online poetry group saying she'd read Salt and Gold and had really enjoyed it - so that absolutely made my day. Thank you, Elly! It's lovely to have sold a copy and therefore have a 100% enjoyment response. What could be nicer? And I'm also greatly heartened by the growing number of good reviews and ratings for Two Christmases, both on the Goodreads and the Well Read Bookblog sites. That's been nice too.

Meanwhile I mustn't forget the glorious good news from my online writing friend, Vicki Tyley, whose wonderful novel, Thin Blood, was rated as being a Top 10 E-read recently. Well done, Vicki! It is indeed a great mystery/thriller and I can thoroughly recommend it to you all.

In non-writing news this week, I have - sad to say - finally collected my mouth guard from the dentist, an act that ages me indefinitely (am I really turning into my grandmother? God forbid ...), I fear. I have to wear it at night to stop me from grinding my teeth down to the point of non-existence. Well, I never said I was a relaxed person ... Dentist's classic comment: Anne, you have the strongest jaw I've ever had to treat - which is good news in one way as if you ever fall off a cliff you'll be able to hang onto the rope with your teeth and wait for the helicopter to arrive. Hmm, I'll try to remember that if I'm ever in that position. Anyway, I was hugely embarrassed when I got it home, opened it up and attempted for some considerable time to put the mould in my mouth. Nobody told me I should in fact be wearing the plastic thing that's on the mould - I nearly threw it away!! And at £85, that would be some throw, I can tell you. Lordy, I'm in the wrong job. Anyway, after much tears and grief, I finally resorted to the Internet thingy and realised I should be wearing the plastic, NOT the mould. Doh!! I am so definitely in the running for Idjit of the Year 2009. Sigh. And, yes, the plastic fits perfectly. Slinks away in shame ...

Oh and I only have 3 working days left until the holidays, hurrah, hurrah!

Anne's website - biting off more than she can safely chew, every damn time

Not much to report this weekend, I must say. I've spent the whole time indoors, attempting to get well. I think I feel marginally better today, so that's something, hurrah. I've spent a lot of the afternoons over the last three days asleep. Obviously the team awayday on Thursday was rather more traumatic than I'd anticipated, ah well - I blame it for everything, you know ...

However, the good news is that I've reached the 10,000 word marker in The Executioner's Cane and vaguely know where I might be heading in the scene I'm in. Vaguely.

I enjoyed Strictly Come Dancing yesterday - lovely to see Chris & Ola in the final, though I have to admit that actually for the first time I did vote for Ricky & Natalie. On the grounds that it would be supremely unfair if Ricky didn't make the final. I am indeed a Voting Tart.

Apart from that, there's been a hell of a lot of snorting and groaning, and a hell of a lot of Lemsips, Sudafed, Beecham's Flu Plus and my anti-allergy range of tablets have been taken. Shake me and I'd rattle.

Only six more days of work before the Christmas break, hey ho.

Here's this week's haiku:

The dull threat of snow
fills my throat with heaviness.
Winter in the skin.

Anne's website - down but not quite out ...

Sorry, it's very rare for me to post two blogs in one day, but I just have to pop in with the news that The Bones of Summer has just been awarded third prize in the Rainbow Mystery Fiction 2009 awards. Well, gosh! That's really made my day - and a big thank you to organiser, Elisa Rolle, and all the judges. Who can probably hear the sound of exciting screaming all the way from Surrey ...

Anne's website - extraordinarily happy today!

I'm really pleased to say that the new version of Pink Champagne and Apple Juice, with its totally lovely new cover (thanks, Nell!), is now available at Amazon UK.

You can also find it at Amazon US and - if you're so inclined - in Kindle version also.

What could be nicer? Enjoy! Even nicer though is that my LJ seems to be working, for the first time in weeks - hope it continues!

Anne's website - totally in the pink