Ratty seems to have flown off in his purple ironing board and Lily's distracted, knitting peggy squares for a friend who has produced a litter of lilac Peterbalds and needs all the woollens she can lays paws on. Isgar and Dasychord are itching to make something happen. Their hedgehoglet friend, Apostrophe, does whatever they do, in miniature

So, what is happening?

There's a fresh batch of Slightly Peculiar Love Stories excerpts ready for perusal, by Claire Beynon, Latika Vasil, Brenda Sue Cowley and Linda Niccol.

I've spent time following helpful hints about SEO (search engine optimisation) and am having a few changes put in place this week. Let's see if the collection of slightly odd phrases inserted in the website's pages and meant to sound/look natural will draw throngs to Rosa Mira Books.

I've had a couple of wonderful offers of help recently from publishing students. I'll tell you more about those when they are taken up. I'm saying, Yes, please!

Dorothee has been cooking up a treat which is almost ready to be served – a tantalising side dish to The Glass Harmonica. Speaking of which, have you listen to this entertaining piece of William' Zeitler's, written and performed expressly for the recent transit of Venus?

The English pages of Amigas have been designed; the Spanish ones won't be far behind, and the cover will soon be ready for display.

I have a couple of exceptional manuscripts in the pipeline.

All is well. Slow but well.

Waving a hanky

I'm always interested to hear what Rosa Mira authors are up to and I was delighted to see that one of the Slightly Peculiar Love Story authors, Linda Niccol, is raising funds to make a film of her short story 'The Handkerchief' — which is a delicate and peculiar love story, one that I considered for the collection; I was spoiled for choice when it came to Linda's work.

Anyway, Linda's project is posted with PledgeMe, billed 'New Zealand's first crowd-funding platform' so anyone who wishes can go and make a pledge, large or small, towards the making of that film. Check it out here.

Don't forget that a dedicated ereader is not required for reading Rosa Mira's books; if you download a PDF, it reads beautifully on the computer screen.

RMB authors, let me know what you're up to.

Love and Linda Niccol

I've met Linda only through her two compelling collections of short stories, Geometry of Desire, and The Temperature of Water, but she looks, well, fun. Intriguing.

She won the 2006 Kaos Films British Short Screenplay Competition with 'The Handkerchief', and co-wrote New Zealand’s 2007 box office smash 'Second-Hand Wedding' — among other creditable work you'll read about on her site.

Love, New York style

At least once she replied to my email from New York where she snapped this slightly peculiar sculpture, and where the NZ Film commission had sent her to sell her film script and a novella.

Linda has a story in the newly released Tales for Canterbury, from which all proceeds go to help those in need since the Christchurch earthquakes.

I'm ending Slightly Peculiar Love Stories with her moving and gutsy story of love changed utterly.

And, guess what, the manuscript is being formatted. That means there's still a good chance it'll be online by the end of the week which is also the end of June. Send it thoughts of ease and glitch-free processing, okay?