Pink Champagne and Apple Juice

[Anne Brooke]

Well, it's here! The frothiest and sassiest website of the year, and certainly the one with the hottest actor links, is now here and open for business: http://www.pinkchampagneandapplejuice.com
Come on in and have a look round! All are welcome, and the site is very good indeed (huge thanks to Sue & Frank at http://www.teafriendsandchocolate.com/sue/) – it has a cocktail area, a film area (with links to those rather good-looking actors, as mentioned above!), a review area – where you can also put your own reviews of the book up if you'd like – a characters section and a blog/chat forum etc etc. You can also read about how the site was set up and the reasons behind it. If you're interested, there are downloads (eg signature links) which you can use if you’d like to and which could bring you some essential extra pennies – much like the Amazon affiliate/associate scheme some of you subscribe to.

You can also – if you’ve not read the book – download the first two chapters for free, as a taster. And the eBook is on sale if that makes you want to read on – as well as the paperback via Amazon of course. Whatever you decide, enjoy! And remember that Uncle John's (Jolene to his friends) Den welcomes all comers. Especially those in stockings. Either gender, naturally!

A pink letter day (plus champagne!) indeed. And in true Uncle John style, I have spent this morning in the skilled hands of Emma (careful, it's not what you think!...) having my Clarins facial. Ah, what bliss. And I have stocked up on my Moisture Quenching Hydracream, so will be the Ultimate Woman for a while yet. We hope. Though I have to say that I rather blotted my copybook when I nipped into Boots for a soapdish (Lord H has broken his, goodness knows how) and was jumped on by several scary women wanting to sell me their Number 7 miracle cream (or some such name) in order to give me firm, uplifted, young skin. When I told the first one (in less than dulcet tones, I have to admit) that actually I preferred my droopy, age-ridden, past-its-best skin as it was, she was distinctly Not Amused. So I left quickly before I could be caught by the Beauty Police. Managed to get the soapdish though.

This afternoon, I have typed up more to The Gifting so am now at 116,000 words. I'm pleased I'm on the homeward stretch with it, I have to say. Writing these fantasy novels is a mammoth task. I'm usually just such an 80,000-words-and-it's-over kind of girl. Usually. Yeah, I know: part-timer.

I have also spent some time (over half an hour on the phone ...) battling it out with the ruddy Nationwide in an attempt to sort out my standing orders. To no avail. The upshot is that no-one in the f*****g Guildford branch will answer the phone, the Sheffield call centre has no email or fax facility (yeah, yeah, pull the other one, losers) and the mysterious people that actually do the banking centrally are too busy to answer me and they also have no fax or email, even from numbers internal to the Nationwide. Neither do they keep a record of any letters sent to them, so are unable to tell whether they are even dealing with my letter of 3 weeks ago, asking for several significant changes, or not. I eventually swore wildly at them (fill in your own blanks, please ...), put the phone down and burst into tears. I then rang Lord H at work and burst into tears again. I am just so b****y f*****g angry with them - after all, it's my effing money and they should effing tell me what they're doing with it. If only I'd had my bank statement this morning when I was actually in ruddy Guildford, I could have gone in and faced a real person. But now, I'll have to go in again tomorrow to thrash it out with them, as I'm damned if I'm going to go back today - I'm not paying for the ruddy car park again. Nationwide: bunch of tossers. Incompetent tossers too. Sod the TV advertising, and join Lloyd's instead is what I say - think I might just do that too after this fiasco.

Anyway, tonight, Lord H and I are due to go out to the theatre - to see "Hay Fever" in Woking, but I'll see how I feel about it. Not sure I'm up to an evening out at the moment.

Still, nice to have the Pink Champagne bottle open - cheers, m'dears!

Today's nice things:

1. The Pink Champagne website launch
2. Getting more done to The Gifting
3. Shouting at the incompetent tossers that call themselves the Nationwide - ha!

Anne Brooke
http://www.annebrooke.com
http://www.pinkchampagneandapplejuice.com
http://www.goldenford.co.uk