Daynote - Tue 10 Mar 2026
All the fun of the Fair!
Still off my feet, which is getting pretty annoying. So more stock photography. I don't have a table that nice (IKEA all the way) but I do write a daily journal, though my current one has a yellow cover. Not sure why I feel the need to explain my stock photography choices, but here we are.
It's the first day of London Book Fair today and I'm delighted to see the news about my good friend Nick Binge (writing under a new penname of Nick Brucker) selling his Vatican-set heist thriller WHITE SMOKE). I was privileged to read this book as part of our critique group and it absolutely deserves the hype.
The full story isn't up on the Bookseller website yet, but I'll edit this post when it is. (Edit, link added above and to the image). Nick has a full three days of meetings around London Book Fair and I can't wait to see what else comes out of those.
ON DECK: A reasonable 1,021 words this morning and a fairly fast-moving pair of action scenes in progress. Feeling good. Still eyeing my rapidly-decreasing elbow room to actually deliver the rest of the plot. But it'll be fine. Just keep typing, David.
LISTENING: Sean Watkin's 'The Incident Room' podcast is in its second season now and the second episode is a belter, with Louise Welsh - an absolutely fascinating interview with a powerhouse of Scottish writing. Sean and I were on the McDermid Debut Prize shortlist together and have become friends and it's amazing to see him doing so many things. He's also a terrific interviewer - festival programmers take note!
WATCHING: More of SMALL PROPHETS last night - it's such a singular show it's kind of hard to describe, but I'm really, really enjoying it.
READING: A tiny bit more of THE INFINITE STATE by Richard Swan (Bookshop.org, Waterstones, Amazon) yesterday, though I'm making slow progress thanks to crappy sleep. But when I am reading it, it's bloody great.
LINK: I enjoyed this interview with Mick Herron about his writing over at El Mundo. Always great to get this kind of insight into the really big names in your genre.
UP NEXT: Continuing to hobble about the house, continuing to write words. Same as the last three weeks, to be honest. But, I'll be watching the excitement of LBF from afar, sort of wishing I was there and sort of glad I'm not.
Onward!