Books for a unseasonable September....

We are having some rather lovely weather at the moment - most un-September like. It's apparently been the driest September since about 1910, and one of the warmest.

As I am typing this, it's gone 6pm and I am in my kitchen, which is bathed in sunlight, and all the windows are open letting in a nice breeze.

It won't last ......

Okay, so onto reading.  This hasn't been a stellar month for books read.... only 17 and 5 of those were re-reads.  That doesn't count the Love's Landscapes books that I am still working my way through

My favourite this month was Kaje Harper's third Hidden Wolves book, Unjustified Claims.  I am picky abut my shifters but really like the set up of these books, and enjoy the authors writing.  I re-read the first two before the new one as a refresher, but really, I've read them that many times it really wasn't necessary :)

I also read a whole series - starting with Pale as a Ghost, by Stephen Osborne, which is about a paranormal investigator, whose boyfriend is a ghost, his best friend a 200 year old witch and his dog a zombie.... they were a lot of fun, though the last book nearly gave me heart failure at one point. 

I am obviously in a paranormal mood as I also enjoyed reading Rhys Fords Fish and Ghost series this month

As for the others, the Sean Michael books were formulaic fluff which is something I sometimes need.  biggest disappointment was Sue Brown's The Last Wolf, which just didn't work for me.

There might have been some comfort reading after the trauma last week, when all I wanted to do was hide in Falls Chance Ranch.

So list in full ...

1. Brush & Whip – Sean Michael
2. Fish and Ghosts – Rhys Ford
3. The Last Wolf – Sue Brown
4. Pack & Mate – Sean Michael
5. Duck, Duck Ghost – Rhys Ford
6. Spiretown – Lia Black
7. Pale as a Ghost – Stephen Osborne
8. Animal Instinct – Stephen Osborne
9. The Scarlet Tide – Stephen Osborne
10. Dead End – Stephen Osborne
11. Unacceptable Risk – Kaje Harper (r)
12. Unexpected Demands – Kaje Harper (r)
13. Unjustified Claims – Kaje Harper
14. A Case of Possession – K.J. Charles
15. How to Train your Dom in Five Easy Lessons – Josephine Myles
16. Falls Chance Ranch – Rolf & Ranger (r)
17. Three Traders – Rolf & Ranger (r)

There was also about 5 books read for research and some writing done......... of which there will be more of shortly......

Sometimes things happen in life for no bloody good reason at all........

This might get a bit bleak..... read on at your own risk

Death ........ we all know it happens to every living thing, sometimes it's a blessing, sometimes it's just what is expected, sometimes it's a huge, completely unfair bastard that rips a hole in your life for no reason you can fathom whatsoever.

It's the last of these that has hit me hard over the last 48 hours.

I work in a department of mixed ages - from 18 to 67 - and a smaller team of six, of which I am the oldest at 41.  I've been there for six years and I'm good friends with the team - two of who have been there longer than me.

One of them didn't turn up for work yesterday.  We phoned and texted, but no answer.  We called his emergency contacts but couldn't get anyone there either.  My team leader went to his house but couldn't get a response at the door.  We phoned the hospitals, and eventually we phoned the police.  They broke into the house and found that he'd passed away sometime over the weekend.  We have no further information.

He was 35.

He was lively, in fairly good health, he even went to the gym about 3 times a week - hell he went last week to body attack on Thursday night.

He hadn't looked well for a few days, and we'd tried to get him to see a doctor - but he was highly resistant to this ... and as he was a competent adult you can't force him to go if he doesn't want to.

Today we had to tell the rest of the team.  Tomorrow my team leader and I are going in to work early to clear out his desk and box up his personal possessions.

For six years he's been the guy that sits in the desk behind me, who looks over my shoulder when he walks past, who teases me about spending too much time on the internet, who asks what I am buying him when I do my supermarket shop online at lunch time, who eats oranges most afternoons so that the smell when he peels them wafts across the pod.  No longer will I hear him when he first gets to work and he's wearing his bike over trousers that crinkle when he walks.  No longer will someone move the collection of stuffed animals my team leader and I have on our desks when we are are away - so we come back to find them doing rude things to each other - or climbing up the plants.......

Last week I interviewed for the position of team leader whilst my current team leader is on maternity leave.  Two others interviewed as well, and he told me that if I didn't get it he was going to stage a one man rebellion because I was already part of "our" team, and he didn't want someone else coming in to it.  We were laughing about me being in charge.  I got the job, but it wasn't announced till yesterday, so he never knew.

No one really understands why this happened.  There was nothing obvious to say he was that sick.

And now he's gone.  For the last 6 years I spent 35 hours a week working along side him - that's an awful lot of time.  There is a hole in my life where a friend should be.

I can't help wondering what if I'd pushed harder to get him to see a doctor - what if I'd done more, what if we all had.  But how far can you interfere in the life of someone who is a work colleague, even if they are also a friend?

It's too early to say what the impact of this will be for anyone who worked with him.  Our office is in shock and grieving.  We have to give ourselves time to come to this and time to remember him.  I know the good memories will survive, but for now I am just left with questions.

35 is no age at all.  He had so much life left to live. I shall miss him.

Publication day...... la deuxieme partie....

Inside Le Cafe Procope, Paris (modern day)

Even though I am not a proper published author.... today is my second publication day of the year :)

I've posted before about taking on a second prompt, which had been sadly orphaned by it's original adopter, for the Don't Read in the Closet even run by the M/M Romance group on Goodreads.

A couple of days ago I was told that today was the day, and so this morning I woke with a massive attack of nerves.

This story, Taking a Risk on Love, is set in Paris in 1750 and involves a young man of good birth, Christophe, who makes a wager with his tutor, Yves, that if he can be on time for his lessons for a week then Yves will have accompany him to a masquerade.  Christophe has Yves stitched up from the start, and it's all part of a bigger plan to get closer to his tutor, something Yves is not adverse too.

For me, 18th century Paris is something I knew very little of (well except for the Revolution) and I had a fun time researching various locations - including the Valliot's townhouse, the location for the masquerade and the cafe procope - which is the oldest coffee house in Paris and is still in operation today - though now a rather high class restaurant.

Though Yves and Christophe's story ends with them settling in Italy, in a place I have been to, I've only ever once been to Paris - and that was an overnight stay on my way home from a holiday in the south of France.  Thanks to this story I now have a long list of places I want to visit if I ever do get to go and stay there.

I enjoyed writing this one, I hope that I've managed to make it at least remotely historically accurate, and more importantly I really hope that people enjoy reading it.