Daynote - Fri 24 Apr 2026
A sunny Friday in town.
I'm having a peripatetic day today, hopping on a train into Edinburgh to do some gentle editing in coffee shops, meet a couple of pals I've not seen in a long time for a late lunch, then my regular gaming group tonight.
ON DECK: I'm still timelining at the moment (using Aeon Timeline), which is essentially data entry, but it's also really important not to skip it, even as I'm champing at the bit to get started on my edit. When I'm down in a chapter, editing at the line level, it's really hard to think about the whole timeline and make sure everything lines up and makes sense. But if I do it in Aeon at a high level, I can make big meta-decisions and then have the timeline as a reference while I'm editing, so I don't need to ask myself 'is it Tuesday or Wednesday right now?' as I write. It makes a huge difference.
LISTENING: Greatly enjoyed this episode of the Page One Podcast with novelist and TV producer Charlotte Robinson - I'm fascinated with multi-threaded creative careers and how people make them work, so this episode didn't disappoint.
WATCHING: Last night we went to see THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh.
It was a great show, with very strikingly minimal staging. Ralf Little was great as Alec Leamas, though I was slightly disquieted to discover that the man on stage playing a famously burnt-out, end of career spy was only 18 months my senior! It's only on until tomorrow, but if you get a chance to catch it in Edinburgh or elsewhere, I really recommend it.
READING: A bit more of CHILDREN OF STRIFE by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Bookshop, Waterstones, Amazon) last night. It's a big book, but one of those big books that doesn't feel like a big book, if that makes sense. Epic in scale, but pacy in scene. Which is a good combination.
LINK: This excellent Bluesky thread from Seanan McGuire is specifically about how to be a Hugos nominee, but it's a very good primer for dealing with the emotional highs and lows of publishing in general.
UP NEXT: Editing editing editing. Hopefully I'll get this timeline mostly done today and possibly Monday, then I'll be full steam ahead into the linear edit on Project VAULT! Very exciting, because this is when we make a mediocre pile of words into a functioning novel.
Onward!