Daynote - Mon 11 Aug
And we're back.
Hello again! I had a very nice week off from writing, blogging and everything else. I got a couple of concerned messages from friends and readers when I posted that I was taking a short break directly after writing a blog post about getting lots of questions - the two things were unrelated and I'm fine. But I'm lucky enough to have family and friends who know me well enough to say 'oi, you're getting grumpy, get some sleep and have a rest'. So I did. And I'm feeling much better.
I did get over to Portobello on Saturday and do a bit of bookshop browsing, including signing a couple of copies at Portobello Books and checking out the local outpost of Till's Bookshop. I used to live right next door to the original Till's by the Meadows in central Edinburgh, so I loved seeing their cafe/bookshop combo in Portobello. Then I had a lovely coffee on the promenade with a friend of mine and spotted another friend out for his weekend run (Edinburgh is a bit of a village, you're always bumping into people).
I got out for a walk this morning in a light drizzle and got very wet feet swishing through the long grass in the woods, but I'll take the relative cool and breeze where I can find it given the heatwave that is apparently on the way.
ON DECK: On Friday I had a wonderful call with my editor Toby, to talk about SOLITARY AGENTS, which he's been reading over the past few weeks. Thankfully he really enjoyed it and there's no heavy structural rewrites required (which is a huge relief, since I have been a bit more ambitious with the structure and complexity of the book than A RELUCTANT SPY). Today I started working on those edits, although it was nearly all prep, resulting in a mere 29 words added in aggregate.
TOOLS AND PROCESS: The reason that I got 29 words today was that I was following my usual approach to receiving a bunch of edits. So today was essentially me reading my editor's notes in detail, then writing up a task list that I'll work through and putting some placeholders into my draft Scrivener file.
This is the point (regrettably, desperately) when I need to gradually transition into working in a (hisssssss) Word file instead of my beloved Scrivener project, but first Toby has asked for a few new small chapters to clarify and deepen some things. So for those new elements, I'll draft them in Scrivener, then manually transfer them to the working Word draft. Then, from that point onward, I'll grudgingly work out of Word as we manage line edits and copy edits until we get to the PDF proof stage.
LISTENING: I very much enjoyed this episode of the excellent Starship Alexandria podcast talking about Ray Bradbury's GOLDEN APPLES OF THE SUN - I have an ancient paperback copy of this collection that I love a great deal, and this episode was an excellent overview of it.
WATCHING: On my week off we finally watched SINNERS, and I slightly regretted not catching it in the cinema. A really superb film.
READING: I'm still reading BERLIN WOLVES by James Conway (not yet available, I'm reading to blurb) and it's really picking up the pace now.
KIT: If you saw me at Harrogate, you may have seen the wooden 'DECLASSIFIED' stamp that I have been using (I've also posted a few shots of it on Instagram). I realised the wooden stamp plus ink pad is a bit of a faff for a festival setting (or a day when I'm trailing around bookshops) so I recently bought another stamp from the excellent people at Get Stamped, who do self-inking stamps that are self-contained and can be easily popped in a pocket or bag without getting ink everywhere. Highly recommended.
LINK: Absolutely loved this video from video blogger Kakibot about 20 bookshops in Edinburgh. A lot of firm favourites of my own as well as a couple I'd not heard of. If you're visiting the city this is a great guide to some of our amazing independent bookshops. Hat-tip to Rhiannon Grist for the link.
UP NEXT: Now that the task list is written, tomorrow I'll be starting on the new chapters, which I suspect will take me 2-3 days. Then towards the end of the week I'll be jumping into Word to start the more painstaking line edits.
Onward!