Daynote - Tue 22 Jul

And we're back!

I got back from Harrogate on Sunday evening, fairly late thanks to a lot of train delays, damp from cloudbursts in York and absolutely exhausted. It was an incredible weekend. The above shot was taken on the Friday morning, when I was still absolutely buzzing from Thursday's award win. The t-shirt I'm wearing was from a promo I helped with for Alessandra Ranelli's MURDER AT THE HOTEL ORIENT, which went very well.

As you can tell from my attire, this was before the torrential rain on the Saturday. But spirits remained high, I saw lots of good panels, I managed to take a couple of breaks, didn't get anywhere near enough sleep, squeezed in signings at Imagined Things in Harrogate and Criminally Good Books in York and I brought home a literal beer cask which is now sitting on the shelf behind me. What a weekend!

I've got loads of photos and had lots of amazing conversations with readers, writers, editors and agents over the course of the weekend, which I'll write about in a longer blog post. But it was an incredible experience and now I'm coming back down to earth in a pretty big way.

ON DECK: Back to the routine after recovering yesterday, and I got a cheeky 1,005 words on PROJECT DRIFT as well as tidying up some post-event admin. Not too bad.

LISTENING: Lots of podcast listening this weekend. Two particular highlights were MK Hardy's episode on the brilliant Unfortunately... podcast and Caro Clarke appearing on Balancing The Books.

WATCHING: We watched BLACK BAG last night, Steven Soderbergh's stylish spy thriller, and it was excellent. One of those films that does a lot with tiny moments of body language and looks. And one of those spy films with very little in the way of pyrotechnics that nevertheless managed to be laden with tension throughout.

READING: I read a bit more of the spy thriller I'm reading for a blurb at the moment and it continues to be fantastic.

LINK: I really enjoyed this piece from The Honest Editor on writing a synopsis (a.k.a. the writer's nemesis). Very useful stuff.

UP NEXT: Last week's good news was the starting gun for a few things that have been simmering in the background, so keep an eye out in the not-too-distant future for an announcement. But in the meantime there's words to be written and admin to be done and a day job to get back to, so off I go.

Onward!