It’s the fourth of July – Happy Independence Day, if you’re celebrating today. Happy summer too, and here’s hoping we get one. Here in Switzerland, we’ve had bursts of heat followed by violent storms followed by days of drizzle… and so on. However, in a summer where it’s difficult to travel, I’m very glad to live in such a picturesque part of the world. The problem is that here in my flat, just a few minutes’ walk from Lake Constance, it’s less idyllic than down by the lake.

Living in the middle of three separate building projects has its downside. In a word, DUST. During the week, I take the Quentin Crisp approach (he maintained dust became no worse after the first four years), then have a bit of a clean up for the weekend. Usually. And almost as bad as the dust is the NOISE. Bang bang drone drone RUMBLE from dawn to dusk. Project 1 (the street renovation and main dust producer) is scheduled to finish in August. Project 2 (newbuild and main noise producer) is scheduled to finish this century. Project 3 (erection of storage unit) produces (in comparison) little noise and so far little dust, so they’re my favourites by quite a long way.

All we can do is grin and bear it (who am I kidding, we moan about it non-stop). But this week, I had three lovely pieces of book news to distract me:

1. The paperback version of Baby Dear, which at the moment is re-released on kindle only, is almost ready – I’m hoping it’ll be out next month sometime. Tax and/or custom restrictions mean it’s impossible to have physical proof copies sent from Amazon to Switzerland, which in turn means my Amazon proofs have to go the long way via my family in the UK. (Thanks here to my brother for the proof-checking skills he didn’t know he had until The Runaway came out.) 🙂

2. A few weeks ago I was invited to record a podcast with the ladies at Book Lover’s Companion in Vienna – we didn’t record in Vienna, unfortunately, though by leaning over to my right I could see Austria from my chair here at home while we were doing the interview. And one day I’ll go back to Vienna; it’s such a lovely city. The podcast is out tomorrow, 5th July, and you can listen to it HERE. And you can listen to a two-minute taster on my Facebook Author Page HERE.

3. Last but definitely not least, Daria’s Daughter is going to be an audiobook – Hobeck Books sent me a short extract from the recording yesterday. It’s being narrated by Lianne Walker, a Scottish audiobook narrator/producer, and it’s going to be fabulous.

Next week – I can hardly believe it, but next week is the ‘Z’ books on the blog. The end of the alphabet and the end of my long-running series. I’ll miss it.

For now, though, it’s Sunday, the builders aren’t here and we can hear the birds sing. I’ll leave you with some lovely peaceful summer in Switzerland photos.