Daynote - Tue 5 May 2026
New shoots and warmer days.
Good morning! A very, very green start to the day in the woods, lots of wild garlic and bluebells coming up. A very nice walk in the woods and a fresh breeze at the beach. It's been generally a bit warmer, which is lovely. Plus I finally got the back hedge trimmed and a bit of editing done yesterday too, on the bank holiday.
ON DECK: An aggregate new 60 words today (added over a thousand yesterday, writing a new scene) and another four or five scenes edited and in the bag. It's looking like the complicated timeline squishing/scene blending I needed to do might actually work out okay? I've kind of done that thing where I've unconsciously laid the groundwork, I think, so mostly it's small tweaks and changes that then fit fairly well into the existing structure. We'll see, though, the real challenges lie in the next dozen or so chapters.
LISTENING: Loved this episode of What Went Wrong covering The Empire Strikes Back, my favourite of the original Star Wars trilogy. The dynamics of the 'New Hollywood' era (which is, I guess, now Old Hollywood, by several generations) absolutely fascinate me, and this show continually demonstrates how it's an absolute miracle that anything gets made at all, never mind that it's good.
WATCHING: More episodes of RESIDENT ALIEN last night and it's really pulling out the stops for the final season. One more to go. I'll be sad to finish it.
READING: More of CHILDREN OF STRIFE by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Bookshop, Waterstones, Amazon) and as I finally start to fully understand the layered chronology, I am agog. Inspiring stuff.
LINK: Solaris Books, who are publishing my debut science fiction novel, posted a great roundup of some of the titles they have coming next year on Instagram, including mine! Delighted to be in such an amazing lineup of books for 2027.
UP NEXT: This week is going to be steady progress, as much as I can manage. Hopefully I'll catch PROJECT HAIL MARY at the cinema as well, since it looks like it's on its way out and I've been told by several friends it's worth catching on the big screen. Other than that, though, it's a quiet week for events, for once.
Onward!