Dave Goodman
Daynote - Thu 18th Jul 2024
A blurb from Sunyi Dean
Last day of work for the week today, then I’m off to Harrogate (very) early tomorrow morning. I am so psyched. Got mostly packed last night too, so I’m ahead of the game.
I also got some Very Good News yesterday which I can’t talk about yet. But wow, it absolutely made my day, week and probably month too. More soon.
ON DECK: A cracking 1,117 words this morning on Ridealong. As I predicted, I’m speeding up a bit now that I’ve got started properly. Also a couple of calls yesterday, one admin, one creative/editorial, which is where I learned the aforementioned Very Good News. I also agreed a direction of travel for what I’m doing after I finish Ridealong, which is putting together an outline and sample for a future project. I’m actually really excited about it, because brainstorming on the call gave me some amazing ideas. This is one of the really amazing benefits of developing working relationships with critique partners, agents and editors - having smart, creative people to bounce ideas off. Ultimately they’re my books still, but they are unquestionably better at the end of the process now that I’m working with amazing teams of people.
LISTENING: More Bicep. Also started listening to Shell Game, a new podcast from one of the hosts of the (now sadly ending) Longform podcast. In this season, he’s investigating AI voice agents and how weird stuff is getting as they become widely available. Fantastic SF idea fodder but also deeply unsettling.
WATCHING: More SAS ROGUE HEROES last night. Still wildly OTT, but starting to dig into some of the earlier tragedies of the first few years of the unit. Pretty good show.
READING: Still reading THERE IS NO ANTIMEMETICS DIVISION. It’s become… quite abstract? Absolutely fantastic though.
UP NEXT: Tomorrow morning at my usual writing time I’ll be halfway to York. I love writing on trains. Something about a wee seat and a table and snacks and the scenery rushing past outside just puts me right in the zone. So I’ll see if I can get a good couple of hours before I transfer to Harrogate.
And then the whole weekend is going to be Harrogate. I have no real idea what to expect, so I’m just diving in and seeing what happens. Once again, if you read the blog/follow me on social media and you see me there, please say hello!