Daynote - Thu 28 May 2026

The sun is back this morning and it was very pretty indeed in the woods. And my calendar informed me that there is just ONE WEEK TO GO until my next book is out!

It's wild to me how different the release of this book has felt to me, compared to the first book. I sort of know what to expect, when things will happen and what I need to do. It's no less exciting, overall. In some ways, it's more exciting, because I'm proving to myself that I can do this more than once. But it also feels like absolutely no time at all since the first book came out, and now we're just a week out from the second one! Wild. As I walked through the woods this morning, I was reflecting on all of that, while also trying to think through everything that needs to happen in the next seven days. It's going to be a lot.

Please do pre-order (first week sales matter more than just about anything, on several vectors), from a local independent bookshop if you can, and if you're in or near Edinburgh, I'd love to see you at the launch event next week!

ON DECK: One thing there was not a lot of was new words this morning, but that's okay because I'm still consolidation-editing on Project DRIFT, reading through the work so far, fixing inconsistencies, trimming the prose a bit and re-familiarising myself with the overall story. So, 14 words this morning, in aggregate, across three chapters. The chapters in this book are way longer than you may be used to from my spy thrillers (like 2-3x longer on average) so that's more than it sounds like. But a good morning overall.

LISTENING: This is an absolutely fascinating interview on the Read and Buried Podcast with Ben Giles, who's written a book called THE SPECIALIST about his work as a biohazard and crime scene cleaner. Grim in parts but sounds like an incredible book.

WATCHING: A bit more of THE BOYS last night. Goodness, this last season is a lot. I feel like this show has to end this season, lest it collapse under the weight of its own parody. But it's (very squelchy) fun. I wonder what the hell kind of roles Antony Starr is going to do after this, though - Homelander is quite a singular role.

READING: More of THE LAST CONTRACT OF ISAKO by Fonda Lee (Bookshop, Waterstones, Amazon) last night. Fair to say the stakes have just been raised.

LINK: Since I've been thinking about a book releasing soon (mine, see above) as well as watching a bunch of friends releasing their own books, I found this post about all the things you can talk about in the run-up to release from Pine State Publicity to be really useful food for thought. Hat-tip to Erin Hardee for the link.

UP NEXT: I've got a podcast recording with Narrative Damage tomorrow, which I'm greatly looking forward to, then we'll be into release week! Eep! In the background, I'll be continuing with this consolidation edit, but I'll probably go pretty easy on myself in that department, since there's a book to launch.

Onward!