Daynote - Fri 30 May

I got out for my first walk this week, which was very welcome, but I also forgot to take a photo, so instead here's a representation of what I did with my writing time this morning, after handing in PROJECT SCARLET yesterday.

ON DECK: It's always a bit odd, the day or two after finishing a book. I'm not done done with the book. It'll boomerang back to me a minimum of three more times, possibly four, for various stages of editing and production. But the big main effort of actually writing the book is completed.

So today was a bit of a creative reset. I haven't settled on a new project yet. There's a whole range of things to consider, like my schedule for the rest of the year, the best time to pitch a new project within existing contracts, whether things going out on submission sell or not, plus a million other things inside and outside my control. So I took today just to have a dig through my notes and project files and see where I was with the skeleton outlines and outlining I've already done.

The next step, over the next couple of weeks, will be taking that jumble of stuff and turning it into some pitch packages. Some of these are just for me, to help me organise my thoughts on a project. And others are directly intended for an editor, eventually. But I have a short interregnum while various people are away/working on other things/otherwise unavailable in which to just have a really good think about the next thing.

Helpfully, this creative reset time has a hard end date, because I'm going to Capital Crime, then on our first holiday abroad for a couple of years. And when I get back, I should have some work to do and choices to make.

I'm glad that there is a hard end date, because a big part of why I wrote so little, relatively speaking, last year was that I let this kind of creative noodling about drag on for months, in between edits and general directionless farting about. I'm determined to avoid that this year.

LISTENING: Loved this episode of the Bloody Scotland podcast with Robert Crais and Natalie Jayne Clark. I was at the Pitch Perfect session in 2023 when Natalie pitched her book THE MALT WHISKY MURDERS and I remember thinking at the time it was a hell of a pitch. Chuffed to see she got a deal.

WATCHING: More RACE AROUND THE WORLD last night. What a show. It makes me want to jump on a plane immediately.

READING: I'm reading THE HIROSHIMA MEN by Iain MacGregor, who I'm speaking to with Night Owl Books in July. Only a few chapters in but it's the kind of narrative history I really enjoy, even if the subject matter makes for hard reading.

LINK: I'm an extremely fervent Scrivener user (if you want me to talk at you for a minimum of 15 minutes, Scrivener is a good subject for that) and I've been using it since version 1, so I'm probably in the 'power user' category to a degree. Enough that I've been interviewed on their official podcast.

Kirk McElhearn, who hosts that podcast, has started doing 1:1 Scrivener coaching, which I helped him road-test and have now endorsed. Even as someone who uses the software for hundreds of hours a year, he showed me some really amazing advanced features and I got a lot out of it. If you've been thinking about trying Scrivener or want to really level up your skills, give his coaching sessions a look.

UP NEXT: The weekend! Off into town for a haircut and to see if I can hunt down any early paperback copies of A RELUCTANT SPY (which comes out next Thursday) to sign in Edinburgh's bookshops. Then a nice lunch on Sunday and very possibly some garden work if the weather holds.

And next week, Thinking About New Things. Plus, of course, Cymera Festival starts on Friday.