There is always so much to do after a tour - emails to say thank you to the bookstores, publicists, journalists and of course publishers who worked so hard to make your tour successful. Most enjoyable, is starting to receive emails from readers who have had the chance to read Sepulchre in the time it has taken me to get back to the UK and unpack my suitcase.

And oh dear me! My suitcase! In every corner, tiny cards, scribbled names and numbers on scraps of paper. I had to buy a new bag half way home as the old one couldn't stand the pace ...

So this is my first post for a couple of weeks. For all of you who have been following the blog - and even responding to it - thank you for your patience.

For most authors there is a period of trying to get back into the step of your regular, day-to-day life. All the post and work that has accumulated while you've been away. Nothing ever goes away! So, the days since returning home, have been filled with the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction (of which I'm Co-Founder/Honorary Director) shortlist announcement and the London Bookfair. Held in the west of London, it's a great way to catch up with your foreign publishers - this time, I met for the first time my Slovenia and Brazilian publishers, as well as old friends such as my editor from Germany.

This is the nature of publishing nowadays, a mixture of long, private weeks, months, where you are writing and see nobody much except your family. Then, bright and intense bursts of very public activity - talking, interviewing, hearing about how Sepulchre will be published in other countries in the next 18 months.

Also, of course, planning future trips. Bulgaria, next, to take part in an inaugural writing festival set up by the academic and bestselling American novelist, Elizabeth Kostova.

But, for now, a few days of peace and quiet in the Sepulchre ...

A bientôt