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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Summer is no friend to the author. Who doesn’t love the sun when it’s not aiding forest fires, causing continent-wide droughts, or slowly roasting the ozone layer? Problem is, when it’s hot outside and UVs are beaming through your window, it’s kind of hard to find excuses to stay indoors. It’s also hard to conjure up a dark and stormy night (and as we all know, the best stories always begin that way…)


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Double huzzahs! I have now finished the edit of The Bones of Summer and am making enquiries with The Literary Consultancy as to the the price of one of their worth-their-weight-in-gold critiques. Lordy, but I never leave the starting blocks without them. No matter how ruddy painful that process is - and believe me it's painful.

In the meantime, I have joined in with the Harper Collins-based showcasing website, Authonomy and uploaded the first 10,000 words or so of all my books, except the best forgotten Hit List , on site for people to run screaming to the hills from. Lordy, but my grasp of grammar is in a class of its own. As is my grasp of cliche. Obviously. Mind you, as the site is still in Beta stage, it's only open to guests at the moment, so the hordes of screaming people aren't as loud as they may yet become. My advice is buy your earplugs now. It will be interesting to see how long the great HC will allow a self- and small publisher slapper like myself to remain on board for sure - but you know me: any chance of a bit of book publicity and I'm there, waving my pom-poms around and shouting for the Quality Unknowns ...

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These have been very hard to capture; the gold embellishment glares back at the camera – I’ve tried it from all directions and this is the best I can get. I haven’t got a scanner. The art is just wonderful but there is no explanation as to how they’ve created them or who for that matter; I assume that Klimt is dead and these seem to be collages of his collages – some kind of insightful collaboration.

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Okay, I've now been publicly named and shamed by Mockduck for not posting anything, and runaway granny has unlinked me (oh, the rejection :( ) - so, despite my blogger's block here goes . . . I think i have to come up with 6 random facts about me. Um,

1.

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I can see the attraction of landing on those flat shingly beaches. The towers themselves , though, are not at all attractive; they're squat and cement-coloured, like fish-and-chip-shop steak puddings. Mostly they're derelict and this one seemed deserted, plonked down on a bit of derelict caravan site near the ugly sea wall.

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Have managed to edit another couple of chapters of The Bones of Summer today and am now on Chapter 21, p201. It's the start of the end phase, if you see what I mean, so I'll leave it till tomorrow now.

I've also played golf with Marian - Lordy, but we were rubbish. Goodness alone knows what the hell I was doing on the 8th hole, but Marian had to crawl into a bush twice in order to rescue my ball. And I was at that point still on the damn tee. Bloody hell eh!!! Believe me, 5 off the tee is not my best moment ever ...

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