No walk this morning, which is a shame because it's a beautiful October morning, crisp and blue-skied. But I was up late packing and cleaning, and will be again tonight. Oh well. Also, my actual travel luggage is nowhere near as aesthetic as this stock photo suggests, it's just a load of black ballistic nylon.
ON DECK: Zero words again today, but a tiny bit of fiddling with the outline. Things progressed a little with Project SUNSHINE yesterday (people asking to see things) so I tidied that up and set it off to a few people, to see what they say. Always love that frisson of possibility.
It's also the first day of the Frankfurt Book Fair today - good luck to all the agents, editors, translators and scouts heading there, including my agent Harry. One of these days I'd like to go to one of the big book fairs just for the experience, though it is profoundly not aimed at authors generally speaking (someone once described it to me as a bit like a cow taking a trip to Smithfield market). A few go every year, either because they're very high profile and they're doing a talk or panel, or because they're newbies who pay the (not inconsiderable) cost for a lanyard and then walk around looking a bit stunned.
But I still want to go. I'm just endlessly curious about how the industry actually works and the big book fairs are such a key component.
LISTENING: I enjoyed this interview with VE Schwab over on SFFAddicts, talking about concluding a trilogy after a long wait. She's had quite the career.
WATCHING: A bit of BAKE OFF last night. Not sure I like the 'audience choice' idea - it was a bit thematically all over the place. But another good episode.
READING: A tiny smidgen of LONDON STATION by David McCloskey (Bookshop, Waterstones, Amazon). Don't think I'm going to finish it before going on hols. But I do have train journeys tomorrow, so maybe...
LINK: Not a huge fan of the new half and quarter-star ratings on Goodreads. Mathematically since it starts at 0.25 and stops at 5 it will, by definition, drag every single author's average rating down. I don't think Goodreads overall ratings matter that much outside of some Very Online genres, but it doesn't really help things. Another reason I stopped reading my reader reviews with the last book and don't intend to resume.
UP NEXT: More packing! A brief trip into Edinburgh tomorrow to pick up my kilt, plus a bit of last-minute travel stuff. Then I'm off! Can't wait.
Daynotes will, obviously, be light/non-existent while I'm out, but I will be posting my Vector newsletters, possibly slightly delayed. And I think I'll get one more Sitrep out, since I'll be sitting at the airport waiting for a connection. Normal service will resume in the last week of October, but it'll be patchy until then.
Onward!