Daynote - Fri 16 Jan

A much later daynote than usual today, but for a very good reason. Today is my first proper working day as a writer. I went part time with my day job at the start of this year, so technically the first day I could do a working day of writing was Friday last week. However, I was unwell on that day and didn't get much done, or stick to any kind of routine, so today is very much the first actual day of the new Friday routine.

I have a longer blog post brewing on how I intend to use these Friday working days and how they'll fit into the broader pattern of my writing life, but it will suffice to say that it's been a pretty great morning.

Before we get to the work through, I was really delighted yesterday to see not one but two appearances go live on the fantastic Spybrary website.

The first was my episode of the Spybrary podcast, interviewed by Bryan Boling, who did a fantastic job of digging into the inspirations and ideas behind A Reluctant Spy.

And the second, which I didn't know about before it went live, was my inclusion on Tim Shipman's list of spy thrillers to look forward to in 2026. I'm really honoured to be included, and to be on the radar of a real connoisseur of the genre like Tim.

ON DECK: An excellent 2,051 words this morning, in one longish session. One of the very, very exciting things about going part-time is that I'll have the opportunity to keep going a bit longer in my morning writing session on a Friday, untroubled by the need to log in for Zoom calls. I'd intended to do two 90 minute sessions with a walk in the middle, but I was enjoying the session so much I ended up doing one longer session of about two and a half hours. I'm heading out for that walk now, hence the stock photo at the top.

TOOLS AND PROCESS: I'm hoping I can use the afternoons of these new Writing Fridays for all kinds of other stuff - outlining, newsletters, marketing work, edits, experiments with other forms of writing, you name it. I don't want to freight absolutely everything onto this one day a week, but the possibilities are very exciting.

Right now, I'm in a state of flux, still figuring out what the Friday will typically look like and whether I want to keep my schedule and structure fairly loose and flexible. We'll see how it goes.

LISTENING: The second half of the Le Carré Cast's Best of 2025 is up and it's also great. Definitely worth a listen if you're a Le Carré fan, as is the whole podcast if you're not already subscribed.

WATCHING: More of THE TRAITORS last night, of course. The Faithful are somewhat flailing around in the dark, I feel.

READING: A tiny bit of EXCESSION last night before sleep, but not much as I stayed up much too late, excited about today.

LINK: An excellent post from author D.V. Bishop on the inherent delayed gratification of the writing and publishing game. And hoo boy let me tell you is it sometimes severely delayed.

UP NEXT: A nice walk, then lunch, then this afternoon I suspect I will do a bit of outlining for next week. I've hit my minimum quota for the week, but the quarter-novel mark of 25k is within sight, so I may be tempted back to the keyboard to hit that. We'll see.

Onward!