Success! I've finished the final run-through of Maloney's Law and have sent it off to PD Publishing. I'm happy and I think they're happy, so that's a relief! It feels so damn wonderful to be at this stage, I have to say. It's come at the right time for me too - what with a holiday booked for the end of May, it's going to be lovely to have a break ...

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Sid, my agent, is having an office warming party in Dagenham. He has promoted it as a ‘Brave move into new territory’ and I go along with that, unwilling to accept what such a fall from Regent Street really means. When I finally negotiate the dual carriageways and find unit 112c in the industrial estate, I discover that I am the only guest except for an elderly woman who is half-drunk and somber and who turns out to be his mother. For some reason I had assumed she was dead. Like mine.

Sid is absurdly upbeat and I think he has had too much Red Bull. He hugs me then sits on the edge of a tatty leather sofa.

“Am I late?” I ask, looking round the empty office.

“People are drifting in and out,” he claims, chewing a cocktail sausage. “You’re the guest of honour, though.”

“That’s…frightening,” I say.

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Was rushing to get to work today, and I’m a little late, dammit, so will have to make up the time over lunch. Or possibly tonight. Depending. I have managed to post my stepfather’s birthday card and present though – but it’s not the present I sent off for, double dammit. I’ve had to improvise so, as and when the other one finally arrives, I’ll have to save that up for Father’s Day. I’m also not entirely convinced the package I’ve made up will get there – my present wrapping skills are pants, so most of the sellotape ends up in my hair and on my nose, and there’s an awful lot of swearing. Still, one can only hope, eh ...

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1973

I’ve teleported myself back to The Muscular Arms; this was a pub in Glasgow, not the nickname of uber-hunk. I was 18/19 and working in the super-coolest bar in the city; life was absolutely marvellous, and after my deflowering I was some kind of confident, as a woman. It’s a Pizza Hut now, but back then there was nothing like it. They’ve changed the name of the street and it’s now Nelson Mandela Place; my brain can’t retrieve the old name. A lot happened in my 1973; the main thing being the death of my father. I’d spent most of the time mooning around in the deep and meaningful words of The Jean Genie, Daniel and Happy Xmas War is Over

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Not so bad at work today, for a Monday anyway. There’s been a queue a mile long (at least) outside our window for the Students’ Union end-of-term parties and they’re all very loud and excited about it. Can’t say I blame them! Though by the end of the morning, they were mostly all sorted and peace – of a kind – has descended.

The rather worrying thing about this morning though has been the discovery of the Dean’s trousers and jacket placed carefully over his chair in the office ...

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I am still trying to sort out what the Writing Life is, and several changes have provided food for thought. First, inspired by a blog post on Sarah's Writing Journal, I now having a writing buddy, Clare, who blogs at Three Beautiful Things. We were "fixed up" by Sarah, - thanks Sarah - and the idea is that every week we send each other our writing-related goals for that week, and then we follow up with each other to see how the other did.

So: we're into our second week, and the first week was great. My first goal was to set myself a writing schedule, so I created up a new Google Calendar for my writing, and laid out a daily, two-hour block of time for writing......

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Hi there!

Well, I’m happy to say that I got many wonderful pictures while visiting Germany this season. I was able to get landscapes, and old castles, and hundreds of pictures of Laura! That should make it easier to illustrate the next book. Right now I’m completing the next story (book 2) and storyboarding at the same time—it’s how I prefer to work. I think I definitely have enough new material for my next two books which was my goal, so I’m glad for that. I also plan to do a little experimenting with the illustrations this time using a Wacom tablet as well as doing my pencil drawings. I’ve never used a Wacom tablet before so I’ll see how steep the learning curve is. I am very excited though. I thought I’d include a recent picture of Laura on my blog page at www.chrysalispress.com so you can see how much she’s grown! She just turned eight and still loves fairytales. I hope you enjoy! Take care and I’ll be in touch soon.

Sincerely,

Amber

The Curry's assistant decided the sooner he got rid of me the sooner he'd be downing Red Bull and Vodka at Zero's.

'I wish they'd never brought these out! There's no CD-Rom drawer, for a start!'

'Well, I didn't want one of those. I just wondered if it could be used as a word-processor...'

'You need one of these bigger ones. It doesn't have Word.'

'It says it's compatible, though, on that card. Could you turn it on so I can see the size of the print?'

He complied, his body half turnd away so he could work with one hand and talk to the girl at the check-out desk at the same time.


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Have had a lovely review from Irene for Thorn in the Flesh which she's kindly put on Amazon and which I reproduce below:

"Another winner from Anne Brooke. Thorn in the Flesh demonstrates once again Brooke's versatility and literary dexterity as she takes us through the complex, disturbed world of Kate Harris, traumatised by violence and haunted by the past. Don't expect a comfortable read, but do expect a gripping one. Thoroughly recommended."

Thanks, Irene - much appreciated!...

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