Daynote - Thu 24 Jul

Say hello to River - he's the Border Terrier I'm looking after this week. I've been around dogs before, of course, but this is my first time dogsitting. So far it's going well, once I learned to keep cupboard doors closed and items away from surface edges. We had a lovely walk this morning - it's very humid in Edinburgh at the moment, but also sunny. Very pleasant indeed.

ON DECK: Now I'm settled in at the house-sit, I had a good session this morning, a little over pace at 1,150 words on PROJECT DRIFT. Taking a dog for a walk is a very different proposition than just shambling out myself (River likes to investigate everything, as well as say hello to every other dog) so I'm still working out timings.

TOOLS AND PROCESS: I enjoyed this reel from Nadine Matheson yesterday, talking about how she uses her Remarkable tablet for copyedits. I use a Supernote Manta, but I'm in the process of doubling my usage of it as I make it my main idea and story development repository (blog post coming at some point about why I'm moving away from Obsidian and typed development work and back towards writing by hand).

When it comes to editing, though, I work very similarly to Nadine, marking my draft manuscript up on screen, then using that as the basis of my editing. The Supernote has a bunch of features that make this especially efficient, which I think I'll also write a blog post about, now that I've used it to edit two different novels.

LISTENING: I've just discovered the new 'In My Good Books' podcast and the most recent episode is with author Daniel Aubrey, who I met at Harrogate. Really fascinating to hear more detail about his journey, especially since he's one of only three people (so far) to get shortlisted for both the McDermid Debut Award and the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize. The others are Suzy Apsley for CROW MOON, and myself for A RELUCTANT SPY.

WATCHING: I watched a MISSION IMPOSSIBLE last night, while farting about with Canva. Can't actually remember which one it was. The one with the AI. It was very explosive.

READING: No reading last night, too busy figuring out how to look after a dog.

KIT: Random one, since I'm not a dog owner, but those K9 Julius harnesses are popular for a reason. Easy to put on and take off, hard for the dog to wriggle out of. Recommended. Unfortunately I turned my back for thirty seconds this morning and River managed to chew the buckle off his.

LINK: I greatly enjoyed this piece about John Le Carré in The Atlantic, retracing his steps on the island of Corfu.

UP NEXT: More dog-walking, more typing, family visits in town. Then it'll be Friday and the weekend. And for the first time in three weeks I don't have at least two events on my roster for the weekend. Looking forward to a quiet one with the dog, and maybe some words, we'll see.

Onward!