Daynote - Fri 13 Feb

I had a brilliant day in London yesterday! I woke up at my brother's place, then got down to Charing Cross Road with time to grab a coffee before I headed to Goldsboro Books, which also serves as the offices for DHH Literary Agency. I had a lovely chat with David for his podcast Confessions Of A Book Collector, which is a fantastic listen for anyone interested in writers, books and, indeed, book collecting. My episode will be out later this year.

After that I headed to the offices of Headline Publishing to meet my editor Toby Jones for lunch, which was a really nice catchup on all things bookish and a chance to talk about the year ahead. He also got to give me a couple of bits of good news in person, which is always lovely.

I finished up my day in London by meeting fellow DHH author Richard Swan for a drink and a gossip in one of my favourite London pubs, The Olde Cheshire Cheese on Fleet Street. Then I got very damp getting back to Kings Cross for my train north, but thankfully got two seats to myself which came in handy when the train was delayed by an hour. Ah well. I did get 1,300 words written on the train and a contract reviewed. So the time was used well. And I was home by ten, after making a very tight 3 minute connection.

ON DECK: I'm off into Edinburgh this morning for the first of two guest lectures at the Napier University Creative Writing MA. This is my third year of doing these lectures and I love doing it. It's very heartening to meet these cohorts of upcoming writers who have made a really amazing commitment to their writing. Today, I'm talking about writing short fiction, and next week I'll be talking about the importance of building and maintaining a writing community.

Once that's done, I'll be heading home (via Waterstones to get my copy of PAGANS signed by the author James Alistair Henry, hopefully) and trying to get a bit of word count on the way/once I get home.

LISTENING: I woke up this morning to discover that my episode of the Writer's Routine podcast had gone live!

I've been listening to this podcast for absolutely ages and I find the variations in how people get the writing done endlessly fascinating, so I'm hopeful that other folks will get something out of my episode. I certainly very much enjoyed chatting to Dan.

WATCHING: I was walking about and on trains for much of yesterday, but did watch a couple of Youtube videos. My algorithm has figured out I'm interested in 'digital detox' stuff and (as the top comment on the video below says) my toxic trait is watching these videos... on my phone. But this is a good one.

Aside: I really like Becca Farsace's tech reviews. Less about the tech specs, more about the experience of using technology.

READING: Still reading RAT RACE by Callum McSorley (Bookshop, Amazon), although I didn't get a whole lot read on my trip south. Mostly because of the phone distraction mentioned in the video above. Sigh.

LINK: I found this piece about the economics of podcasting (and the benefits of sufficient income to think and experiment) from Joel Morris absolutely fascinating. As ever and in every creative field, everything is less than you think it is.

UP NEXT: I'm currently haunting a coffee shop near the Napier campus while I wait for m'friend and colleague Nick Binge (who is the kind soul that's invited me to do this the last three years). I will try and get a few words in once this is posted, then off I go. And, thankfully, a quiet weekend lies ahead, with no planned travel anywhere. Phew.

Onward!