Among the books I am packing for my trip to Edinburgh this week is Shadow Behind the Sun by a Kosovan Albanian woman, Remzija Sherifi. It charts her and her family’s life as they flee violence in the war in Kosovo in the late 1990s and settle into a new life in Glasgow.

I have a huge interest in Kosovo and Albania, but other than a few highly recommendable Ismael Kadare novels (fascinating and imaginative fiction influenced by Albanian culture, history and legends), I’ve read very little from that part of the world so I am looking forward to getting stuck into it.

I was actually given it by my publisher, and feel it’s probably a good thing to check out a writer I suppose I have that tenuous connection with. Indeed, it’s another writer from the same publisher – Sandstone Press in Dingwall – that led to my recent announcement of my forthcoming book.

Back in January of this year, I’d written a blog entry praising the excellent Between Weathers by Ron McMillan, and as you can see I received comments on it from both the author himself and the publisher. Sandstone picked up on the mullet idea on my website, asked me to make a formal submission about it, and (to cut a long story short) there then followed a few months of writing, editing and discussions.

Of course, you’re probably interested in what the title is and what the cover is like, but I’ll save those for later posts.

It’s just a good thing I enjoyed Between Weathers so much…