Daynote - Thu 23 Jul

Lovely walk today, the weather is warm but with a breeze, which is the best combination. Mixed emotions this morning though, as I was due to head to Harrogate, but can no longer make it. The FOMO is strong and I hope everyone who can make it has the best time. But I'll see you next year! Or in September, if you're heading to Stirling for Bloody Scotland.

It's also the penultimate day of the Waterstones Pre-Order Summer Sale - grab your copy of the (excellently re-covered) SOLITARY AGENTS paperback for 25% off with code SUMMER26.

ON DECK: A not-too-bad 600 words this morning on DRIFT. I'm doing the thing where I'm making slow progress because I'm anticipating having to put the project down for a few weeks to do edits on something else, but that's a bit silly, so next week I'm going to try and make the absolute most out of my writing time and outline a fair bit ahead so I can pick up some steam. But any progress is good, so I'll keep plodding forward. My rough objective is to get to 60k words before I have to put it down, so we'll see if I manage it.

LISTENING: Loved this interview on the Read and Buried Podcast with Remi Kone, who I did a panel with at Capital Crime last year. Remi is also a TV producer in her day job and it's been fascinating to watch her journey into the publishing world.

WATCHING: We finished the first episode of Season 3 of HOUSE OF THE DRAGON last night. Pretty good, an excellent naval battle and lots of fighting. I do, however, look a bit askance at the scriptwriters for wholesale lifting a line from Elizabeth I's speech to the troops at Tilbury - it was extremely jarring, especially because Elizabeth delivered that line wearing armour before a potentially reign-ending battle (that never actually happened), while Rhaenyra Targaryen delivered it while locked in a room by her son. Very odd choice.

READING: Coasting to the end of THE BUFFALO HUNTER HUNTER by Stephen Graham Jones (Bookshop, Waterstones, Amazon), which I suspect I'll finish on my lunchbreak today. Exceptional stuff.

LINK: In case you missed it yesterday, I've got an article up on the Express website about my eight favourite spy writers! Take a look if you're looking for some inspo, I tried to come up with a good mix of genre stalwarts and newer writers.

UP NEXT: A nice clear day for writing tomorrow, so I'm hoping to make some serious progress on DRIFT. And the weekend will be for gardening, visiting family and getting caught up on the reading stack. If you're going to Harrogate, have a good one. Onward!