Daynote - Thu 2 Jul

Very, very blustery today, round my neck of the woods. I wore a jacket! In July!

But also very pleasant to be out, with sunshine and the blustery breeze. Kite surfers at the beach and the woods full of susurrations. Very changeable weather, but bracing to be out in.

ON DECK: A very fun scene finished this morning and 1,082 words in the bank. Sometimes you just know a scene is working well as you're writing and it flies out, and this was one of those. In my experience, when you read it back it's rarely as good as you hoped or as bad as you feared, but I do think this scene is going to be a banger, especially after edits.

LISTENING: I really enjoyed this interview with Chris McDonald over at Read and Buried. Chris is one of the founders of Stockport Noir and a lovely bloke, and this is a great discussion.

WATCHING: We finished off WIDOW'S BAY last night. I kinda found the ending a trifle unsatisfying, overall, but it's an obvious setup for a second season and the last two episodes themselves were fantastic.

READING: More of THE FIFTEENTH MAN by William Cook (Bookshop, Waterstones, Amazon) last night, following the protagonist deeper both into his own past and the dustier corners of 1990 Berlin. Great stuff.

LINK: In case you missed it yesterday, my second novel SOLITARY AGENTS has been longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize! Still buzzing to be honest.

UP NEXT: A morning of drafting tomorrow and I'm going to try quite hard to hit 50k on DRIFT (which will be a fairly big lift), then I'm off to Waterstones Kirkcaldy for my evening event!

Make sure and book your FREE place if you're coming along. I look forward to seeing you there.

Onward!