Solitary Agents - release week roundup

Hello!

As of today, it's been one full week since SOLITARY AGENTS was released, and it's been a busy week. I'm glad it's been a busy week, because the natural inclination when a new book comes out is to just go and refresh a bunch of websites in search of sales figures (or terrible secondary metrics that might imply there's sales happening somewhere) and things I shouldn't be looking at, like reviews.

This is a quick look at what I got up to in the first week of release, as well as a reminder to my newsletter subscribers that the book is out and they can pick it up now! So before we go any further - please consider buying SOLITARY AGENTS. Here's a handy button for my Links page, with lots of possible ways to pick up the book:

Okay! Let's talk about the last week!

Launch day

I started release day by getting up early to head to Stirling, as I was invited to the Bloody Scotland programme launch. I was really excited to go, both to find out what was on the programme, see a bunch of writer friends and meet the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize shortlisters.

Before that, though, I met up with Susie Green of the In My Good Books podcast and we had a great time chatting about the past year.

It's always fun to do an in-person podcast recording, and this was no exception. The episode went live at the beginning of this week, and you can listen here.

After that I wandered about a bit, chatted to the Debut Prize shortlisters (which was really great and it turns out they've already started a WhatsApp group, which would have been my main piece of advice for surviving the next few months of excitement) and then got called up for some photos:

After that Catriona Reynolds, the Lord Provost, Denise Mina the guest programmer and Bob McDevitt the festival director each took to the stage to talk about the programme, the town of Stirling and all the amazing things that will be happening in September. It sounds like it's going to be an absolute banger of a festival. My panel is on Saturday the 19th at 1315hrs and is with Kim Sherwood, Paul Warner and CJ Merritt, chaired by Paul Burke.

Once that event finished, I headed back home on the train to get myself together for my own launch, that evening:

It was a brilliant event, with a really good turnout of folks. One of the amazing things of being part of the bookish community in Edinburgh is that I've made a lot of friends who will come out for events, but there were also a fair number of people there I'd never met before - readers who enjoyed the first book and wanted to grab a signed copy of the second. So that was extremely validating.

After the event we went to the pub and I butterflied around and chatted with loads of different people, then drove home, tired but happy.

Cymera Festival

The following morning, I got up and got myself ready for my first day at Cymera Festival, Scotland's science fiction, fantasy and horror writing festival, which included a live play of Call of Cthulu roleplaying game (in front of an audience!) and the big Cymera quiz. Unfortunately the RPG session was cross-scheduled with a bunch of panels I wanted to go to, but the next day I went to a bunch, including EJ Swift and Lorraine Wilson talking about apocalypses, Sunyi Dean and Lyndsey Croal talking about ghosts, Nick Binge and Caitlin Rozakis talking about workplace horror and more horror writing with Benedict Anning, Rhiannon Grist and India-Rose Bower.

Then, of course there was the big event of both the weekend and for me personally, the 'Out Of This World' panel with Adrian Tchaikovsky, Fonda Lee and Claire North, all incredible SFF authors and lovely people.

Despite being pretty nervous, I had a fantastic time and we talked for an hour in front of a sold-out crowd. It was the absolute peak experience of the weekend, and Adrian, Fonda and Claire were very gracious, kind and friendly. A brilliant moment in an exceptional week.

Afterwards I went to see my friend Erin interviewing Stephen Graham Jones, which was fantastic. I forgot to take any photos though.

The last day of Cymera was a lot quieter, with an amazing workshop on 'Writing Wounds' with Dr Jenni Coutts (better known in the SFF world as an amazing writer and illustrator, but also a practicing GP), plus a great panel with Frances White and Megan Bontrager on narratives built around trapped characters.

I headed home after being one of the last to leave right at the end of the weekend, sharing a chai and a chat with newly Arthur C. Clarke-listed friend of mine Lorraine Wilson and crashed out, absolutely exhausted.

Over the course of those four or five days, several podcast episodes also released. Most of these I'd recorded some time ago, but they all came out in a rush. So if you want to hear 4-5 hours of me nattering about writing, I've got you.

• Murder Junction Episode 186 - David Goodman - June 2026
• The Le Carré Cast - Spy fiction as travelogue - June 2026
• In My Good Books - Episode 104 - June 2026
• The Conversation Coffee Break - David Goodman - June 2026
• Page One Extra - Writing spy thrillers with David Goodman - June 2026
• Quick Book Reviews - Interview with David Goodman - June 2026

And we're done

The rest of the seven days since launch has largely been recovering, doing a bit of editing and trying not to check online reviews or stock numbers or any of the other proxies I have access to for how well the book is doing.

One absolutely lovely thing was getting a review in the Sunday Times, which is available online now, but will also be in this weekend's edition. To say I'm stoked that this book went down well with the same reviewer who enjoyed the first book is a severe understatement.

So that's it - a week in the life of a new book! If you've not picked up a copy yet, please think about doing so - release week sales make a huge difference in all kinds of ways. Head over to my Links page to pick one up:

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you at the end of this marvellous month for the usual roundup.