Daynote - Mon 2 Feb

I had an amazing weekend at Stockport Noir and in/around Manchester, which meant I got home fairly late yesterday, so a bit of a lie-in this morning. The above photo was taken in the green room with crime writing legends (and brilliant co-panellists) Ruth Ware, Sam Holland and Abigail Dean. They were all so welcoming and friendly and our panel went really well.

It was a really busy event (apparently well over double the numbers of last year) and it was brilliant meeting so many enthusiastic readers. I hear they're extending it to two days next year, which is fantastic news.

I am, however, very tired.

ON DECK: A decent 1,157 words this morning, although it was actually only 990 words in aggregate, because I did some edits on the way back from Manchester to prep a few chapters for my critique partner. Such is the way when you're drafting and doing a bit of editing at the same.

TOOLS AND PROCESS: I did do a load of drafting on trains this weekend, which was great - it's always reassuring to confirm you can still get a few words down when you're on the move. But, wow, train tray tables are at precisely the wrong height for my arms, so my arms were absolutely aching on Friday night when I got to Manchester. Annoyingly, it feels fine in the moment, but a few hours later it's excruciating. One thing you have to learn over a long-term writing career is good ergonomics, because writing by its nature takes a long time and involves a lot of repetition. And it's pretty easy to cause damage if you don't make sure everything aligned right.

LISTENING: Loved this episode of the Spybrary Podcast with Tim Shipman interviewing David McCloskey about his latest novel, THE PERSIAN. Can't wait to read it, though sad to here Artemis Proctor won't make an appearance.

WATCHING: I re-watched VALERIAN: CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS over the weekend (my brother has a truly gigantic TV and I was curious what it'd look like on so large a screen). It looked fantastic, though it definitely confirmed my impression that it had the look, feel and vibe of THE FIFTH ELEMENT, but none of that film's character and zing. It's a strange movie.

READING: I didn't read a thing on my trip, because I didn't take any books for once. My back thanked me, but a couple of times I did with I'd brought PAGANS by James Alistair Henry (Bookshop, Amazon). I'll get back to it this week.

LINK: An excellent post from author Marie Vibbert on how to do social media without getting sucked into algorithms and doomscrolling. I was familiar with one of the tools she mentions (Buffer) but not the other. Time to do some investigation.

UP NEXT: Unpack, get some sleep, get back to my routines a bit and prep for speaking at Napier University next Friday. And somewhere in there, hopefully square away another 5-7k of Project VAULT.

Onward!