The cherry on the cake
It’s been a good week in France, which is where we are now for the summer. The dogs love their days here as a) they have our company for most of each day, being rarely alone and b) days are much more leisurely spent than when we’re in the UK and largely revolve around them. Why not, they deserve to be the center of our attention. I’m lucky that my writing can be done wherever my laptop is, whether it’s tucked away in a quiet corner of France, or hiding from the hustle that our UK home seems to become ever more bustled by, each time we return. It’s frenetic living in the south east of England but that’s a whole other blog topic. As most of my writing aims to raise awareness of puppy farming, it’s handy having my survivors, my muses as constant companions, pottering about or in Susie-Belle’s case, snoozing beside me.
So the week’s been a good one on many fronts. France here is beautiful this time of year, the days are warm, not scorching, the landscape is lush, not yet parched from the heat still to come, and the cherries are ripening nicely; we love the fleeting cherry season and have been known to gorge on a cherry glut in particularly good years. As a complete aside, I have a curiosity about names and reckon Cerise, cherry, is going to be a perfect name one day, for the right dog when she comes into my life.
But, beyond the simple pleasures and day dreaming, the week’s been pleasing as the cover for my new book was made public for the first time. Saving One More, the sequel to Saving Susie-Belle will be released early September and seeing the cover brings months of suppressed excitement bubbling to the surface. Publishing a book can seem a long winded process at times, and for someone not blessed with much natural patience it’s a bit of a trial. At least this time I’ve found a coping mechanism that helps pass the months of waiting for the book to appear – immersing myself in writing the next one. And while I’m not doing that, the cherry on the week’s cake has been confirmation that I’m now blogging for Huffington Post UK and this week saw the publication of the first of several pieces I plan to write for them. I certainly can never write, or talk too much about puppy farming until it ends. It can get mighty depressing some days, but I count many blessings each morning and hope my ramblings and occasionally highly opinionated pieces are going some way to bringing the end closer.