And the winner of a copy of Scentsual is silverpixies! So send me an email at victoria @ victoriablisse. co.uk (no spaces) and will email you back with your copy of Scentsual!

And my favourite scent today is the cheesecake that I cooked in my slowcooker earlier. Mmmmm, yum. I’ll share the recipe with you tomorrow once I’ve taken some photos and eaten it all. Well, okay, I might let my husband and daughter have a little slice each if they’re lucky. ;)

If any of you are on twitter or facebook I am sure you’ve seen lots of posts about #amazonfail. I know I have. (Look me up on Twitter or Facebook, I’m VictoriaBlisse on both) and I want to add my voice to all those feeling bad about this new ‘adult policy’.

Amazon sent round official emails saying that the removing of ranks from ‘adult’ topic books was happening to stop them showing up in searches to protect the casual browser. The problem is this has not been implimented right and it seems a lot of Gay, Bi and Lesbian books especially have been hit that shouldn’t have and other titles are still ranked with adult content. It seems to be censorship and very biased censorship at that.

However, Amazon are denying this now and claim that it was a ‘glitch’ and they’re working hard to fix it. This sounds very much like they’ve realised what a mistake they’ve made and are now trying to cover their arses.

A good friend of mine, Alessia Brio suggests that Amazon have a ’safe search’ option like google so that the customer can decide what they want to find in their searches. That seems like a very good idea to me as I can understand not everyone wants to be confronted with adult content, I’m not offended by that at all.

So as a backlash to #amazonfail Phaze have, for a limited time, a special sale code to use to get 25% off all books both eBook and Print.

When you come to check out simply use the code PHAZEWIN to get 25% off ALL purchases. A fantastic bargain so make sure you take advantage of it today!

You could pop Scentsual in your basket, my latest release and a copy of my print anthology Curvaceous and you would get 25% of each of them! You can’t say fairer than that, can you. Bravo Phaze!

As you all know, I’m a Christian, so today, the most solemn in the Christian Calendar I’m going to do a little reminiscing. It’s a bit different to the usual Blisse Blog fair but I hope you enjoy it all the same.

Way back when I was in college I used to go to a holy week retreat at a Catholic youth place called Dehon House. It was an amazing experience and I am glad I got to go for several years. One Image that sticks with me is of my very first year at the Easter retreat and on Easter Sunday I was in the Veneration of the Cross group.

This was all very new to me, being a baptist and having never really experienced the Catholic way of doing things before. However, what came together in the end was so touching, I still remember it clear as day now.

They had a big, wooden cross. Old wood, paint splattered, worn, a bit splintery in places and used during the passion play. (reinactment of everything that happens up to Jesus death) and once this had been used, we borrowed it.

We laid it down outside on the grass, it was a beautiful, warm spring day and when it came to veneration we got everyone to hammer a nail into the cross. to symbolise our part in the crucifixion.

I tell you, the sound of 2 or 3 people hammering nails into wood in the silence of a warm, spring day was haunting. And doing it myself was almost painful.

Then, when everyone had hammered a nail into it, we picked up the cross between the group of 6 of us and carried it to the chapel.

This thing was a good 6 foot tall and very heavy. I can still feel the wood biting into my hands and shoulder as we carried it. As we moved along in a procession we sung:

“This is the wood of the cross,
on which our redeemer hung,
come, come let us adore,
come, come let us adore the Saviour of the world.”

And we gathered in silence around the cross in the chapel, waiting for the next part of the service.

I still remember it clear as day and it is the image that is echoing around my brain today.