Still slightly under the weather, though improving rapidly, so no walk this morning. Hopefully tomorrow, because it's aggravating missing beautiful mornings. But I did manage to get out for a short run last night and felt okay. Chomping multivitamins like nobody's business.
ON DECK: I stared at my draft this morning and just couldn't make my brain work, so I did what I do in such circumstances and switch to something I feel like I can do, which in this case was finishing off a newsletter draft for my paid subscribers, a review of all the apps and tools I use to do my job as a writer. I got 1,320 words on that (taking it up to 3k words). That will go out to subscribers on Saturday.
TOOLS AND PROCESS: A recommendation plucked from said newsletter is an app I just started using, called Moody - it's a neat little app that puts a tiny teleprompter right under your camera on Macs. Very, very handy for doing little pre-recorded 'Hello, I'm Dave, the author of...' type videos.
LISTENING: Loved this episode of Always Take Notes with the literary agent Madeleine Milburn - it's always fascinating to hear how extremely successful people got their start and the points where it could have all fallen apart. Always Takes Notes is, I think, one of the best researched and most thoughtful interview podcasts I listen to. Can't recommend it enough.
WATCHING: We were both feeling a bit rubbish last night and not up for anything with an actual plot, but my YouTube algorithm recently served up this delightful channel, The Scandinavian Fika:
Mostly silent videos (there's captions if you want to understand what's actually happening) featuring bakers in various Scandinavian bakeries making delicious looking food. Weirdly compelling and relaxing. It's like Primitive Technology but for cardamom buns.
READING: A tiny bit of JOE COUNTRY by Mick Herron (Bookshop, Waterstones, Amazon) but I conked out pretty early.
LINK: An excellent piece from The Itch Of Writing on eleven unapologetic ways you can ask to be paid. Some brilliantly assertive-but-not-aggressive language here - I've made note of several.
UP NEXT: Hopefully back to the DRIFT draft tomorrow and Thursday, then I'm at Bloody Scotland from Thursday night right through to Sunday. Can't wait! If you're coming along, my event is on Saturday at 1.15pm at Made In Stirling, along with Paul Warner and CJ Merritt. Please do come along and say hello.
Onward!