Daynote - Tue 7 Apr 2026

Back to work today after a stormy Easter weekend. Got a bit of outlining done on the Friday and a bit of writing done on the Monday, but most of the weekend was spent with family and doing some low-effort reorganising in the house. So, perfect long weekend, really. And it's sunny today.

Up late today, so no walk, but I'm off to dog-sit again later this week, so I'll be getting a lot of walking in over the next week or so.

ON DECK: A solid 1,353 words this morning on VAULT, which is feeling pretty good. I'm at 95k, so this book is definitely going over the word budget in the first draft. But I also managed to outline the whole of the rest of the book, right to the end. With that outline came the usual worry that the idea I've come up with is a bit crap, but I find nearly every idea feels a bit crap when you reduce it to bullet points and POV switches. So, on we go.

I'm definitely in the end run for this book, and the dog-sitting trip is coming at a good time, since I'll do some writing in the evenings and over the weekend. I think I may just finish this thing in the next seven days. Which is always a wild moment.

LISTENING: I listened to a lot of podcasts over the weekend as I ambled about in Edinburgh, but I really enjoyed this interview on the In My Good Books Podcast with Jon Doyle, talking about the experience of publishing as a working class writer, masculinity and identity. Some cracking book recommendations too.

WATCHING: We started watching the latest season of RACE ACROSS THE WORLD over the weekend and it remains, for my money, one of the best things on television. Superbly made, absolutely fascinating travel telly and really inspiring. Of course it's reality TV, so there's an element of artifice and storytelling at play, but boy is it a good story.

READING: Still reading NO WAY OUT by Max Connor (aka Neil Lancaster, Bookshop, Waterstones, Amazon), though I suspect I'll finish it this week. About to hit the midway point.

LINK: I absolutely loved this video from The Overview Effekt comparing the orbits of Apollo 8 (the first lunar circumnavigation mission), Atremis 1 (uncrewed) and Artemis 2 (crewed and in progress right now!). Amazing visualisation.

UP NEXT: Time to pack for my dog-sitting trip tonight, then I shall be preoccupied with leads, poo bags and finishing a novel.

Onward!