Daynote - Mon 30 Jun

Although it looks like stock photography, the above is actually a shot of a typical day on my holiday last week, in the Stockholm Archipelago. It was fantastic. I read a lot of books and had some excellent breakfasts and feel like I barely scratched the surface of Stockholm as a city.

But all good things must come to an end, so that other good things can start. I'm back and diving into another book.

ON DECK: Outlining this morning on PROJECT DRIFT. There's a reasonable chance I will get edits back this week or next on PROJECT SCARLET, so I'm pushing DRIFT forward as quickly as I can to make some serious progress on it. A cheeky 442 words down on the outline.

It's also the last day of the month, so I've put the finishing touches on my newsletter for June. It's a long one, despite me being on holiday for the second half of the month, because, well, a lot happened in the first half. Subscribe here (or use the handy subscribe button on every page of this website) to get it in your inbox at 10am.

LISTENING: An amusing side effect of being in Sweden is that all of the podcasts I downloaded while I was there have had Swedish ads inserted into them at the point of downloading. Whenever people talk about how smart ad-tech is I tend to think of how broad a brush these systems paint with, because I don't speak Swedish, despite being there for ten days.

Anyway - loved this episode with fellow DHH client James Goodhand over at the excellent Real Writing Process podcast.

WATCHING: We're watching the last few episodes of THE HANDMAID'S TALE and it is, I think, going to stick the landing? A tough thing to do in These Times. But we'll see. Two more episodes to go.

READING: I'm reading THE POWER OF THE DOG by Don Winslow at the moment, and really enjoying it. Long, winding chapters with multiple overlapping chapters and shifts in POV. Incredibly voicey writing. Evocative sense of time and place. It's pretty great. And also a reminder of why it's a very good thing to read outside of your usual wheelhouse now and again.

LINK: Loved this piece by The Honest Editor on dealing with rejection as a writer. Seriously, just sign up, every piece Phoebe Morgan has put out has been fascinating (and in-depth too). Recommended.

UP NEXT: More outlining this week, then I'm hosting Iain MacGregor at Night Owl Books on Wednesday night. Can't wait for that!

Onward!