Daynote - Mon 3 Nov

Hello! I'm back, after a busy-but-restful week off. Busy because I did a couple of book things, restful because I also got a lot of sleep, saw family, played a lot of ARC Raiders and Battlefield 6 and read a heap of books. Holidays are good.

However, they also end, so this morning I was back out in the woods, getting a bit damp from the rain, scritching dogs behind the ear and generally reacquainting myself with the routine.

ON DECK: No new words this morning because, while I was off, my page proofs for SOLITARY AGENTS arrived. They're due back fairly soon, so I'm going to work my way through 400+ typeset pages in PDF over the next few days. I'm using my Supernote for the initial proofing, then marking up the PDF on my Mac, so it's quite nice - like actually reading the book. And it's been long enough that I've got a little bit of distance from it now, which is helping me read it semi-objectively. Only two issues spotted so far in the first seventy pages or so, which is a decent batting average, I think.

This evening I'm off into Edinburgh to talk to the Edinburgh Writer's Club, which I'm really looking forward to. And I'm also preparing (see below) for my event on Saturday 15th November with Vaseem Khan and Kim Sherwood, talking all things Bondian.

LISTENING: This morning I'm listening back to the latest episode of The Incident Room podcast, which is a Bloody Scotland 2025 takeover, featuring me, Tariq Ashkanani and Marco Rinaldi! This was so much fun to record.

WATCHING: We watched a lot of stuff while I was on my break, but a standout was THE WOMAN IN BLACK on Halloween, which I'd never actually seen before, but was mentally comparing to the stage show I saw twenty plus years ago in Aberdeen. It was excellent, retaining some of the most effective jump scares from the stage version.

READING: Over my break I finished off QUANTUM OF MENACE and started on A SPY LIKE ME by Kim Sherwood, so it's been a Bond-heavy couple of weeks. Two very different books, both set in the Bond universe, but with distinctly different styles and objectives. I'm enjoying them both immensely.

LINK: Really enjoyed this interview with author CL Taylor on the Honest Editor. This newsletter is honestly one of my favourites due to the breadth and depth of topics it has covered in quite a short time since it was started.

UP NEXT: More page proofs, event prep, reading and, eventually, back to the drafting. But the end of the year is suddenly in sight, which is a bit bizarre to consider.

Onward!