Out now: Problems at the Lakeside Hotel #books #newrelease

Posted on May 22, 2023 by lindahuber

Book three in the Escape to Switzerland series is out – tap HERE to see the entire series in your local Amazon Store! To celebrate, Problems… is just 99p etc worldwide this week, and the other two are 99p/c in the UK and US too.

It’s not all going smoothly at the Lakeside Hotel…

When you can’t put a price on love…

Stacy’s new life in Switzerland seems idyllic – a beautiful home amidst fabulous scenery, the man of her dreams and an interesting job. But then comes trouble…
Last winter’s snow means an overfull lake, Rico is moody and distant, and the daily problems attached to running a hotel range from head lice to irate guests and lost rodents. Meanwhile, new receptionist Alex is battling with family problems as he tries to do the right thing for everyone. He loves Lakeside, but coming here may be a step too far. Family relationships are strained as never before, and the price of love could lose him his beloved new job.

The lake is still rising and tempers are frayed, but it isn’t until Rico goes missing that Stacy realises she could lose everything she holds dear. Will the Lakeside Hotel survive the summer?

Next week, I’ll be blogging about the year the lake really did rise. It was the summer of ’99, and you couldn’t buy a welly boot for love nor money here in N.E. Switzerland…

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Cover Love – with Helen Pryke… #books #amreading

Posted on May 14, 2023 by lindahuber

I read once that the main purpose of a book cover is to attract the reader’s attention. Obviously, it should have something to do with the subject of the book too – you wouldn’t put an image of a vegetable garden on a book called How to Crochet, but the cover needn’t tell the story of the book, just be appropriate in some way. It set me thinking – what makes us pick up a book in a bookshop? Sometimes it’s the author name, but it could also be the image. Or the title, or strapline, or maybe a combination of all of these. I thought it might be fun to find out what different people think. Over the next few months I’ll be asking different people in the book world to choose two books, one simply with a cover they like, the other one of their own book covers.

This week’s victim is Helen Pryke, who writes psychological suspense novels, women’s fiction and (under her pen name Julia E Clements) children’s books. Over to Helen:

I love the monochrome simplicity of this cover, the stars and swirls adding to its promise of magic inside, while the red adds a dash of danger and mysticism. Even though the characters are white silhouettes, you can easily tell the era in which the story is set.

The tagline on the back reads “The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it… It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.” This, together with the cover, tells you everything you need to know, and is intriguing enough to make you want to read it.

I’ve decided to include my debut novel, Walls of Silence. It’s been through several cover changes, but this is my favourite. A couple of years ago I bought Affinity Photo, and while trying it out, thought I’d have another go at making a new cover for this book. Using various blend modes, somehow I created this cracked wall showing through a woman’s transparent face.

The book is about a woman who has been abused from childhood, and this cover sums up her life – the cracks beneath the surface, her struggle to survive, and eventually becoming stronger, despite everything that happens to her.

Thank you, Helen – I think your Walls of Silence image is very striking. I would certainly pick it up to have a closer look!

You can find out more about Helen and her books on her Amazon Author Page, where you’ll also find purchase links for the books (all of which I’ve read and can thoroughly recommend).

Next time, we’re having women’s fiction writer Amanda James with two of her favourite cover images.

I’ll leave you with the back cover of The Night Circus.

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Springtime in Switzerland… (almost) #SilentSunday #travel

Posted on May 7, 2023 by lindahuber

A few photos from last week:

Wild garlic in the woods by my flat.
After a rainy week, the beaver’s pond has stretched…
…and Lake Constance has risen over 30 (!) cm.

Next week, we have another Cover Love post, this time with writer Helen Pryke. See you then!

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Problems… at the Lakeside Hotel #books #comingsoon

Posted on April 23, 2023 by lindahuber

Four weeks to go until Problems at the Lakeside Hotel is published, the third in my feel-good fiction series and the last this spring. (Next time, we have Christmas at Lakeside…) In this book it’s May, though, and Stacy and Rico are facing a different kind of challenge. They’re together at last and it’s all good with the hotel, but the beautiful summer weather is about to turn everything sour.

Thanks as always here to James at Go On Write for the gorgeous cover image. These covers are all so beautifully “Swiss” – they’re a little bit different and perfect for the books.

Here’s the blurb:

When you can’t put a price on love…

Stacy’s new life in Switzerland seems idyllic – a beautiful home amidst fabulous scenery, the man of her dreams and an interesting job. But then comes trouble…

Last winter’s snow means an overfull lake, Rico is moody and distant, and the daily problems attached to running a hotel range from head lice to irate guests and lost rodents. Meanwhile, new receptionist Alex is battling with family problems as he tries to do the right thing for everyone. He loves Lakeside, but coming here may be a step too far. Family relationships are strained as never before, and the price of love could lose him his beloved new job.

The lake is still rising and tempers are frayed, but it isn’t until Rico goes missing that Stacy realises she could lose everything she holds dear. Will the Lakeside Hotel survive the summer?

In this book, I’ve used a lot of personal experience – in 1999, we really did have an overfull lake; not to put too fine a point on it, we had a flood. Board walkways over water was the norm in towns and villages along the lake, and you couldn’t get a wellie boot for love nor money. So I was able to sympathise with the Lakeside gang as they struggled with pumps and sodden footwear.

And of course, there’s some travel in this book too as the characters go off on excursions south of the Alps and to Zurich and Lucerne. Read all about it in four weeks’ time…

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Cover Love – with Rebecca Collins… #books #amreading

Posted on April 16, 2023 by lindahuber

I read recently that the main purpose of a book cover is to attract the reader’s attention. Obviously, it should have something to do with the subject of the book too – you wouldn’t put an image of a vegetable garden on a book called How to Crochet, but the cover needn’t tell the story of the book, just be appropriate in some way. It set me thinking – what makes us pick up a book in a bookshop? Sometimes it’s the author name, but it could also be the image. Or the title, or strapline, or maybe a combination of all of these. I thought it might be fun to find out what different people think.

My first victim in this blog series is Rebecca Collins, publishing director at Hobeck Books, and she’s here today with two covers. One is simply a book she’d pick up in a bookshop, the other is one of her own, and in this case, it’s a book she has edited. Over to Rebecca:

My eyes will immediately be drawn towards any book that has a cat on the cover, especially a cat that looks like the Hobeck Cat. I first saw this book on Twitter during a Sunday morning doomscrolling session. In addition, having spent a couple of years living just north of Tokyo in the mid-1990s, the Japanese feel of this cover sparked my interest. In Japanese culture, the calico cat is regarded as lucky (and we have one here – not that she’s lived up to her reputation yet). So with those two things, it wasn’t long before I was pressing ‘buy it now’ on Amazon. They say don’t judge a book by its cover. They don’t know what they are talking about.

A bit like with my children, when it comes to the books we have published at Hobeck, it would be inappropriate for me to express favouritism. However, if I were to pick a Hobeck cover that I would be attracted to as a reader, it would be this one. This is the second book in a series by one our authors, S. E. Shepherd. I love this cover because it is an artwork in itself. I can guarantee that nobody else has this image on their book. There is a trend for graphic covers in the crime fiction market but this one stands out for its warmth and sense of nostalgia. It ignites for me memories of my childhood and the books I read under the covers using a torch for light.

Thank you, Rebecca! I love cats too, though I’m allergic to them so can’t get too close for too long. And I must say, I think the Hobeck cat (below) is prettier than the one on the book!
For the next Cover Love post, sometime in May, writer Helen Pryke will be here with two of her favourite covers, and it’s covers again next week too when I’ll be sharing the cover and blurb of the third book in the Lakeside Hotel series, Problems at the Lakeside Hotel.


I’ll leave you with a pic of the Hobeck cat with The Cat and the City ❤

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This and that… #books #Switzerland

Posted on April 2, 2023 by lindahuber

Nearly a week on from publication of Return to the Lakeside Hotel, and life is settling down again in N.E. Switzerland. Huge thanks here to everyone who has tweeted, shared, commented on posts, or bought, borrowed and read books. I’m really pleased to see the ‘Switzerland’ books going out in the world as full length fiction. The series continues with Problems at the Lakeside Hotel, which will be out in the second half of May, most probably the 22nd. By this time (hopefully), spring will be here, temperatures will be rising and so will Lake Constance, because it’s around the end of May that the snow melt comes down from the mountains to fill our lovely lake. We didn’t get much snow melt last year, and we could use it now. It’s the snow melt and the rising lake that makes for the biggest problem in Problems at the Lakeside Hotel, but Stacy and Rico have various mini-problems to cope with too, running round in circles after new receptionists, warring guests and lost rodents… I’ll be sharing the cover image in a couple of weeks.

I actually wanted to release Problems… nearer the start of the month, but Amazon promotion schedules dictate otherwise and I do want to start the new book’s life with all three at a nice bargain price. If any other indie/hybrid author is interested, I’ve followed the release strategy/pricing advice (tailored to my own budget) David Gaughran gives in his Starting from Scratch course. So far, so good.

In other book news, Stolen Sister is on a UK Kindle Monthly Deal, just 99p all April. This book, along with Daria’s Daughter, is the least ‘crime-ish’ of my crime fiction books – in fact, no crime at all is committed in Daria’s Daughter. There is a crime in Stolen Sister, but it happened for the best of reasons and Erin, the girl on the cover there, had a normal, happy childhood. Her sister Vicky grew up equally unaware that she’d once had a sister; Erin had been lost for twenty-two years before Vicky learned of her existence and started to search. But how do you find someone when there’s no official record of her, and when she has no idea she’s missing?
This book – like Daria’s Daughter – is set in Glasgow, where I grew up.

The blog will be on holiday for Easter next week, and the week after, Rebecca Collins, publishing director at Hobeck Books will be here with two of her favourite book covers. One of them involves – in a way – a cat. 🙂

I’ll leave you with another Switzerland pic. This is one of the tourist boats approaching Arbon harbour. Stacy and Emily take a trip on on one of these in Saving the Lakeside Hotel, but it doesn’t turn out quite how they expected…

…their boat was waiting, a big white passenger ferry that could have been on a tourist poster. In fact, it probably was on a tourist poster somewhere.

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Return to the Lakeside Hotel – out now! #newbook

Posted on March 27, 2023 by lindahuber

And like last time, my book went out with no problem at all – the gremlins really do seem to be gone. Next time, we can try for a more traditional approach to publication again… 🙂

To celebrate, both books are available on kindle at just 99p for a few days – tap HERE to see the series page on Amazon.

Huge thanks to everyone who’s helped with these books – I really appreciate every one of you. And big thanks to the readers, too – I hope you enjoy being back in Switzerland with Stacy and the gang at the Lakeside Hotel!

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Two days (approximately) to go… #newbook

Posted on March 25, 2023 by lindahuber

It’s back to crossed fingers here in N.E. Switzerland – if everything goes according to plan, Return to the Lakeside Hotel will be available at the beginning of the week, and both books will be on offer at 99p for a couple of days. I’ll put out a short blog post with details as soon as the book is up on Amazon.

In this one, Stacy returns to Switzerland to help set up the new version of the Lakeside Hotel – but her new job turns out to be trickier than she’d imagined. Rico, meanwhile, is trying to work out what he wants in life. Then there’s Kim, a stay-at-home mum who’s aching to return to her job, but it’s not as easy as finding a childminder and setting out.

Three people, three sets of problems, and a hotel in search of its identity. You can find out what happens to them all next week! (I hope)

Meanwhile, Saving the Lakeside Hotel is still doing well. Did you know you can often see our large and lovely Lake Constance on the BBC weather map? This is a pic from last summer – at the moment we can only dream of hot air.

Another location pic, Rorschach harbour this time. Stacy and Rico come here for lunch near the beginning of Return to the Lakeside Hotel. He only has eyes for her, but she has other things on her mind that day…

Cross your fingers for my book at the start of the week – if all goes well this time too, maybe I’ll be able to believe that the blip of two books ago really was just a blip. Here’s hoping 🤞

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Cover Love #books #amreading #coverlove

Posted on March 12, 2023 by lindahuber

I read recently that the main purpose of a book cover is to attract the reader’s attention. Obviously, it should have something to do with the subject of the book too – you wouldn’t put an image of a vegetable garden on a book called How to Crochet, but the cover needn’t tell the story of the book, just be appropriate in some way. It set me thinking – what makes us pick up a book in a bookshop? Sometimes it’s the author name, but it could also be the image. Or the title, or strapline, or maybe a combination of all of these. I thought it might be fun to find out what different people think.

I’ll start this Cover Love series today, choosing two covers I like, one by another writer and one of my own, saying why I like the images, then over the year we’ll have other people on the blog doing the same.

It was definitely the image that first attracted me to this book. I love that kind of old-fashioned, flowery pattern – I once had a jacket that was very like this cover. Then the title, Mrs Narwhal’s Diary – that seemed to suggest a lady living in an old house, maybe a while back; it conjured up a picture of a genteel, grandmotherly kind of person I might visit on Sunday afternoons. A slice of comfort from the past… I scrutinised the book every time I saw it on social media for a while, then eventually I bought it. It’s a lovely book, published by Louise Walters Books, and the cover designer is Jennie Rawlings. (And I saw when I was getting the image that it’s 99p on Amazon kindle at the moment – a bargain!)

This one’s mine. Choosing a cover when you’re self-publishing a book is different; for a start, you know what the story is, but you still have to put yourself inside the prospective reader’s head. I chose this image for Stolen Sister when I was republishing after rights were returned to me. A young woman, gazing openly at the reader – that seemed an intriguing contrast to the title and strapline. Stolen children are usually younger, so a reader might think that whatever happened to this girl had been going on for a while. Someone must have known she was missing, even if she didn’t… That was my thinking when I decided on this cover, made by the wonderful The Cover Collection. It was a premade cover, and apart from adding the title etc we didn’t change a thing.

We’ll have another Cover Love post in a few weeks. I thought it would be fun to ask publishers, cover designers, anyone in the book business to contribute too, as well as writers. First up will be Rebecca Collins, publishing director at Hobeck Books and editor of The Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook. She’ll be here with her choices just after Easter.

Book news: Saving the Lakeside Hotel is still doing well, but I have to confess I failed to get it up on the blog sidebar yesterday. Technology is not my thing… 🙄 I’ll put Son 2 on the job for next time.
I’ll leave you with a photo of Glasgow, the main setting in Stolen Sister.

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A week in the writing life… #amwriting #coverreveal

Posted on March 5, 2023 by lindahuber

Saving the Lakeside Hotel is two weeks old tomorrow, and I’m beginning to recover from the unexpected suddenness of having my first full length feel-good book catapulted into the world. I was very happy to have lovely review posts last week by Lizanne Lloyd and Helen Pryke, which you can read HERE and HERE – and getting an Amazon best seller flag was a highlight too. Best of all, though, were some lovely comments I’ve had from readers. It’s scary, starting something completely new like this, and to know that people are receiving the book well is uplifting.

This week, I’ve been busy preparing book 2 in the series for publication at the end of this month – huge thanks here to my sons for help with the files and with my computer.

One of the most anticipated parts of preparing a book is when you see the cover image for the first time. There’s always the doubt in your head – will the title fit the space? Will there be enough room under the image for the strapline? Will it look good beside my other books? As usual, James at Go On Write had no problems with my wordy requests – and there’s the result on the left.

In this book, as the title suggests, Stacy returns to Switzerland, and finds herself in the middle of a building site – but more about that another time.

People have asked me how it feels to be having a break from writing psychological suspense fiction after all those years. In a way, though, the psychological suspense writing was me having a break from writing feel-good fiction, as that was where I started out. A few weeks ago I was on the Women Writers, Women’s Books website talking about it, and how I came to write in the two genres. It all started in the Brownie Guides…

For the past several months I’ve been mulling over another blog series here, now that the Classic Comfort posts have come to an end. Unfortunately, I didn’t have an idea to bless myself with until the middle of last week when inspiration arrived in N.E. Switzerland. Like the other blog series, I’ll be inviting different writers to take part. We’ll have the first post next week (by me), then posts by other writers throughout the year.

I’ll leave you with a summer photo of the real lakeside here in Switzerland – a pretty chilly lakeside it’s been this past week, but I guess spring will arrive at some point…

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