Daynote - Fri 1 May 2026

A bit of a late daynote today, as I woke up in a different city, namely York, after travelling down yesterday for the launch of my friend Alessandra Ranelli's debut MURDER AT THE HOTEL ORIENT. The event was put together by the phenomenal Criminally Good Books in York, who interviewed Alessandra alongside Kristen Perrin, author of the Castle Knoll Files cosy crime novels.

It was a brilliant evening and a great launch event, topped off with ice cream for the entire audience, for Christine Ranelli Ice Cream Day, which was a really beautiful way to end things.

This morning we reconvened at the bookshop to sign some copies and I got to meet some readers and even see my books being sold, which was very, very cool. Meeting readers has become one of my favourite things about being a published author - it reminds me why I do it. Then we had an impromptu shoot outside the bookshop.

It was Alessandra's idea for her to hold so many copies of my book, just FYI - she wanted to match the number of her book in the window behind her. That's the other amazing thing about being a writer - the incredible friends you make along the way.

If you're visiting York, please do visit Criminally Good Books - they are an incredibly passionate bunch of crime and thriller readers who do so much for the genre and us authors and they are tremendous fun to work with.

ON DECK: I managed to get an earlier train than planned and also got a proper table this time, so the current plan is to edit all the way home, and perhaps get to the end of Part 1 of Project VAULT. I reckon that's doable, even though I have some fiddly line edits to do in order to merge a scene that's currently two POVs into a single POV. But this is the perfect kind of writing for sitting on a train - tightening up the lines, polishing up the prose.

LISTENING: Speaking of Alessandra Ranelli (it's release week, she's my friend, I'm going to talk about her a lot) her episode of the Page One Podcast came out this morning and it's brilliant. If you want to experience a concentrated blast of what her launch event last night was like, this episode is an excellent listen/watch.

WATCHING: I've been out and about the last two nights so TV and film has been thin on the ground, but before I left the other night my Youtube algorithm did serve me this beautiful little short film.

I've been searching for videos about Rome a lot (because we're going for a family wedding in October and I've never been to Italy before) and, even though this video is basically branded content for a wine company, it's also just a lovely introduction to the city and made me very excited to go.

READING: Not a huge amount of reading on this trip, but a few pages of CHILDREN OF STRIFE by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Bookshop, Waterstones, Amazon) on the train. And I picked up a paperback of SLEEPER BEACH by Nick Harkaway from Criminally Good Books while I was there.

LINK: A bonus podcast link for you today, which I listened to as I wandered through York in the sunshine yesterday. The Bloody Scotland Podcast continues to delight, and this week's episode featuring JD Kirk and Imani Thompson is no exception. JD Kirk's interview especially is fascinating to me, because as a writer who's considered fast and prolific, I am nowhere near his level of output. Astonishing work ethic.

UP NEXT: I'll be back in Scotland fairly soon (we've just passed Berwick Upon Tweed) then enjoying the long Bank Holiday weekend. There will be some editing, but also some gardening I think, since the sun seems like it might stick around for another couple of days. And then next week, full steam ahead into the first of four weeks of furious editing, podcast recordings and the four week runup to the launch of SOLITARY AGENTS! Hard to believe it's approaching so fast.

Onward!