Daynote - Fri 26 Jun

We had the most spectacular summer heat storm last night. Thankfully not with high winds, but I woke about 3am convinced there was an emergency services vehicle outside our house because the lightning was strobing so regularly and constantly it looked like a police car or an ambulance. The massive crashes of thunder soon cured me of that idea.

I've never seen lightning and thunder (constant, rolling, extremely bright) in the UK before. It was wild.

BUT - it did break the heat. So I slept incredibly well afterwards and feel so much better than I did in the first half of the week.

Yesterday I also submitted a Secret Thing, which I'm quietly excited about. If it goes somewhere, it could be a bit of a game-changer, but I will try not to think about it too much. I've gotten pretty good at that over the last few years.

ON DECK: It's a Writing Friday and a drafting day today, although it's also 1pm and I really need to get down to it (got up late, went for a quite humid run, did a bunch of admin I've been putting off) and get a good couple of hours in at least. I'm working on Project DRIFT and I'm running out of outlined chapters, so I may need to break off and do a bit of planning later on.

LISTENING: Really loved this interview on the Page One Podcast with m'friend and colleague Benedict Anning, whose debut novel ATOMIC COFFIN (Bookshop, Waterstones, Amazon) came out yesterday. I particularly enjoyed Ben's perspective on the critique I gave him on the book that preceded this, which I admit was probably blunter than it could have been. But I also remember that when he took it in the spirit it was meant in and started working on this book, I thought 'yeah, this guy's going to make it, he's got both the writing chops and the resilience he'll need'. And here we are!

WATCHING: More of WIDOW'S BAY last night, with a big tone/setting shift in the second episode we watched that was pretty great. I'm really enjoying this show and I love how it's unapologetically both quite unsettling horror and also very well observed comedy at the same time. Who says cross-genre projects can't work?

READING: A tiny bit of DECEPTION by Alan Parks (Bookshop, Waterstones, Amazon) last night before hitting the hay. I suspect I'll finish it today or tomorrow, it is certainly building towards a fairly high dramatic pitch in the last fifty pages or so.

LINK: A really lovely review of SOLITARY AGENTS from Jeff Popple at Murder, Mayhem and Long Dogs to start my Friday - Jeff gave me one of the very kind early reviews of A RELUCTANT SPY that really boosted the morale in those first few months after the hardback came out, so I'm delighted he's enjoyed the second even more. Lovely pullquote:

There is a Mick Herron feel to Solitary Agents, with an inter-service rivalry exercise becoming a matter of national security. The execution, however, is all Goodman, and once again he demonstrates the ability to bring fresh ideas to the genre.

UP NEXT: Off into tonight for the aforementioned Benedict Anning's book launch! Really looking forward to catching up with more of my writing pals before a week off from events.

Then, next week, I am apparently getting edits and I'm going to be at Waterstones Kirkcaldy. Here's a promo image:

If you're in Fife or Fife-adjacent areas, please do come along! You can get in touch with the shop to book yourself a FREE place.