I am writing for the first time in four weeks. Just reading that sentence makes my stomach crease with panic and yet taking the first month of the summer holidays off - something unprecedented since writing full-time; and unknown when I worked as a journalist  - has been a creative thing to do. With builders knocking my house apart, I fled to the most southernly tip of Britain - the Lizard peninsula - keen to escape everything: social media; the relentless organisation of life as a parent of two young children; the unfounded anxiety that no one would buy my current book; the very busy-ness that stuffs my head around publication and can threaten to overwhelm.

Although The Farm at the Edge of the World is set on the north Cornwall coast, I wasn't particular about which part of the Cornish coast we visited. I was interested in extremity. A spot at the edge of Britain where the sea stretched in front of me and I could envisage utter, perfect isolation - though, this being Cornwall in the first week of the summer holidays and me holidaying with my husband and two children, that was rather a tough call. Most of all I craved somewhere where phones wouldn't work and where my children wouldn't mention the iPad we'd decided not to take. A place in which to detox technologically, and to wind down until my main consideration was when to plunge into the icy sea for a swim and whether I could bear to do so when the skies were molten and my skin was pimpled with goose bumps. A place where my eleven and eight-year-olds would race to be the first in the sea; and bound ahead of us along the cliff path like the springer spaniels they fell in love with. A spot where the first view in the morning would be the sea; and the air would be thick with the smell of sea salt and lush, dew-soaked grass.

We found all this camping at Coverack, watching the sun set over the limpid water beyond the harbour; and as we plunged into the coldest sea I have ever swum in: the churning waves that swallowed up my youngest and spat him out again at Kynance cove.

I found this sense of serenity, too on a trip to Penzance - truly the edge of the world - where I floated in the art deco salt-water Lido and watched the clouds scud across a royal blue sky, conscious that my mind was being emptied of all preoccupations and worries and refilled with new snippets of ideas for stories; and that all I need do, in this safe, contained place which fired my creativity, was to let the water buoy me up, keep me afloat.

It's a truism that such moments of intense relaxation are the stuff that holidays are made of. Each year I experience them and each year I vow to hold onto them. Inevitably, I fail. But this year, I'm going to cling on to the emotions felt on those Cornish cliffs and in the sea and evoked, I hope, by my Cornish novel. That sense that many of the things I worry about are mere clutter: superfluous compared to my priorities. And, as I begin plotting my next novel, I'm going to use these memories and these images to try to replicate those rare moments of calmness; moments that let me drift to the edge of my imaginative world.

The Farm at the Edge of the World, my novel about love, loss and forgiveness played out on the desolate north Cornish coast, is published today. I'm not having a hardback launch but I will be doing this event with two fellow Hachette authors on the Hodder roof terrace on July 19 and would love to see some friendly faces there:

I've also been busy publicising the novel, with an audible interview here and a series of blog pieces, many collated on my previous blog page; the others to be listed here when published.

The novel is also out as an audiobook, expertly narrated by Claire Corbett. I find it difficult listening to my words being read by someone else - a common writerly problem I think - but from this little clip, I know she'll do it justice. If you click here you'll get a flavour. Hope you enjoy! 

The Farm at the Edge of the World will be published in less three weeks - and as in the run-up to finals, or the birth of a baby, I've found myself immersed in a sudden frenzy of activity.  

I've attempted a mini book-tour, whisking to the very western tip of Cornwall and the fortuitously named Edge of the World bookshop, in Penzance, as well as Waterstone's Truro and St Ives bookseller to try to drum up support:

I've helped create a Pinterest page of photos that helped inspired the novel - see it here - and, having been picked as the Hodder, Quercus and Headline women's fiction website's choice of the month, have blogged on the books on my bedside table, here and my perfect weekend - in Cornwall, of course - here.

I've also written about the inspiration behind the novel for the Prime Writers website, here:

My great grandfather, Matthew Jelbert, who farmed just outside St Austell. Part of the inspiration for the book.

Childhood holidays in north Cornwall - and the emotional significance of a certain place - sparked the initial idea. Here my sister and I are walking on Tregirls Beach, aged 11 and 9, 1984.

And I've been interviewed for audible.com and written about the archetypal tricky second novel for fellow Hodder author Katie Marsh, here.

With a Hodder rooftop reading planned, I'm not holding a party until the paperback's released in January - not least because I'm determined to finish the first draft of my third novel by June 30, my publication day. It won't be a day of languid self-congratulation: one child has a piano exam and athletics tournament; another swimming; while my evening will be spent preparing for a school leavers' breakfast and attending a secondary school meeting.

But amid the busy-ness of everyday life, I'll make time to sit and stroke a finished copy, relieved that my archetypal tricky second novel has emerged as a beautifully-jacketed, tangible, thing. The book I once agonised over, and doubted I could ever wrest into a tightly-structured story, is being read, and - finger's crossed, so far - enjoyed. And that's reason enough for a celebration, however quiet a kind.

My new novel, The Farm at the Edge of the World, will be published next month (June 30) and to celebrate Hodder have organised a goodreads giveaway. Simply sign up to win one of twenty copies: http://fal.cn/2x7i 

Here's the story behind the novel which focuses on love, loss, regret and atonement - all played out on a stretch of the north Cornish coast : http://bit.ly/1Tjgvo1

And here's what some early readers have already said: 

A beautifully evocative story of love, loss and forgiveness. You can taste, feel, see and hear Cornwall on every page as the characters pull you into their lives. Loved it. (Liz Fenwick)

Absolutely loved it. Very rare I sit and devour 220 pages in one afternoon. (Nina Pottell)

An evocative and page-turning story of love and heartbreak, written in beautiful and poignant prose that captivated me from first word to final page (Katie Marsh)

A wonderful book about love and loss through the eyes of three generations of Cornish women. Lovable, flawed, and so very human, each character had me rooting for them right until the very end. But it was the setting on the north Cornwall coast that makes me love this book: the weather, the seasons, the landscape, the house are all written so vividly that I could step into that place and instantly know my way around. (Claire Fuller)

Sarah Vaughan not only writes beautifully but her stories and characters have a way of climbing into your heart and staying there long after you've turned the last page . . . Highly recommended! (Fleur Smithwick)