It may be the shortest month of the year, every year, but I will still somehow surprised by how rapidly the end of February showed up. Feels like there should be an extra week in here, somewhere? Still, the Tuesday of the year is now completed.
Which means, of course, it's time for a short-month edition of The Decrypt, my monthly newsletter on all things writing, publishing, craft and media. Though it may have been a few days less than other months, it was no less busy. Settle in, crack a drink open and let's get down to it.
February was short, but that also meant the breathing space between things felt a lot tighter. I started the first day of the month in Manchester, waking up at my brother's flat after an excellent day at Stockport Noir for the last day of January. I was on a panel with Ruth Ware, Abigail Dean and Sam Holland, wonderfully chaired by Kelly Peck, one of the co-owners of Serenity Books.
It was a fantastic day with over 300 readers in attendance and a host of interesting panels. I had a brilliant time and got to hang out with my brother in Manchester on the Sunday, as well as a few other writing friends on the Friday night. All-in-all an excellent weekend.
The following week I headed along to the Luna Press Publishing annual party in Edinburgh. Luna, run by the formidable Francesca Barbini, is an amazing force in the SFFH indie scene in the UK and an award-winning press. I'm only published with them in a short story anthology, but it's amazing to be involved in any capacity and to hang out with all of the amazing writers they have under their banner. A delight of a night.
The following week I headed down to London for a day of meetings, recordings and book signings. I try to organise some kind of trip two or three times a year to London, since so much of publishing is centred there, and when I do I try also to get as much on the calendar as possible. I started by recording an episode of David Headley's excellent podcast Confessions of a Book Collector at the offices of DHH Literary.
David is a very busy man, running both Goldsboro Books and DHH Literary (I'm represented by Harry Illingworth, one of DHH's agents), as well as founding the Capital Crime book festival. So it was a real joy to get an hour or so with him to drink coffee, talk about books and swap industry gossip.
After that I had a very nice lunch with my editor at Headline Books, Toby Jones, then met SFF author Richard Swan (who was also in town meeting his publishers) for more chat in my favourite London pub, the Olde Cheshire Cheese. After that we haunted a nearby Waterstones to sign some books and then I headed off to get my train back north.
The following two Fridays in a row I made my third return to Napier University here in Edinburgh, guest-lecturing to the Creative Writing MA students alongside my friend and critique partner Nick Binge. I always really enjoy this opportunity to speak to new writers and this year was no exception. Although I really must learn to allow far more time for questions, because let me tell you, they had questions.
After the second Napier visit, Nick and I headed down to Leith to meet our friends Marco Rinaldi and Tariq Ashkanani, for the first ever actual-play recording of their new podcast 'Narrative Damage'.
Nick, Marco and I are in a regular RPG group together, with Tariq occasionally guest-starring, but recording in a studio was a very different vibe indeed and a whole lot of fun. It was also extra-strange for me, since the studio was in the same office space that I first worked when I moved back to Edinburgh from London, sixteen years ago.
In fact, the room we recorded in was the same place that I found out, age 29, that I was about to be made redundant from that job. It made me wonder what that younger man would think if he saw me sitting in that same room, fifteen-odd years later, several jobs and a budding writing career later. Mostly, I felt like I wanted to reach back, pat myself on the shoulder and say 'don't worry, pal, it's going to work out'. Because it really has.
I rounded out this short month with a final podcast recording, again with Nick, though this time with his podcast-producing friend and co-host, Hugo:
It was great fun to record and to talk about one of my favourite books, EXCESSION by Iain M. Banks.
See what I mean? Not much time to draw breath in there.
This month has been almost entirely focused on getting word count down on Project VAULT, which is an unannounced but very exciting project that I'm greatly enjoying working on. As of the end of the month I made some excellent progress on it, with a smidge above 26,000 words written for the month, across about 29 hours of writing time. That second metric is a bit fuzzy because, once again, I was on trains a lot and didn't keep precise track.
That's got me to just over 60,000 words on the book as of this morning, which feels like excellent progress from January, well over 50,000 words over the last two months together. Given the amount of travel, events and other stressy stuff I've had on, I'm very pleased indeed.
Yesterday was also, finally, the first time I managed to get a full writing day at home. And, reader, it was incredible. I didn't get absolutely everything done that I'd planned, but I got a huge amount finished or significantly progressed and I felt good doing it, which is just about all I could ask for. The main benefit of having full writing days to work with is going to be the ability to draw clearer dividing lines between writing, publishing and the rest of my life, since the additional workload that comes with being a published author has a way of seeping into every spare (and some not so spare) moments.
I don't anticipate every full writing day being as busy as this first one (I, uh, finished just after 8pm), but it was an excellent level-setting exercise that I'm very pleased with.
This week marked 100 days until SOLITARY AGENTS, the sequel to A RELUCTANT SPY, comes out! Ahhhhhh! And it's also available on NetGalley!
I get asked a lot by readers about the 'best' way to buy my books to maximise the benefit to the author, which is a very kind thing to ask. My usual answer is that it's kind of a wash when it comes to things like royalty rates and actual money in my pocket, so you should buy the format you prefer, but if there is one thing that makes an enormous difference, it's pre-ordering a book, especially in hardback and especially from an independent retailer.
That's because pre-order hardback sales count towards first week sales, which are important for things like the Sunday Times bestseller list. And independent bookshop sales can send strong signals that may result in future reprints and more attention given to a book. So, if you enjoyed A RELUCTANT SPY and you're interested in SOLITARY AGENTS, a pre-order would be very much appreciated.
I also think this book can be read and enjoyed even if you haven't read the first one, so don't let that stop you!
We've also confirmed the launch event for SOLITARY AGENTS. I'll be speaking with Nick Binge at Waterstones West End on release day, June 4th 2026, at 7pm. Grab your ticket here.
The rest of March is shaping up to be another busy month. On Tuesday 3rd of March I'll be giving a talk at the John Gray Centre in Haddington, East Lothian, from 1pm. Afterwards I'll be signing books at Kesley's Bookshop on Market Street. If you're in the area, please do come along and say hello.
The following week I'm chairing crime and spy thriller author Neil Lancaster for his Edinburgh event celebrating the launch of his latest DS Max Craigie crime thriller, THE DARK HEART. It's at 7pm, at Waterstones West End.
There's also a couple of podcast recordings on the books, although no confirmed dates yet for release. As you may have realised, in the 2-3 month leadup to a new book release, things get a bit hectic.
Reading
I am clearing the decks of a fair number of proofs this month, but I had a whale of a time doing so:
- Pagans by James Alistair Henry - I was lucky enough to meet the author of this book on his whistlestop tour of various bookshops, after the book was picked as Waterstones Book Of The Month and it was great to meet him and get the book signed. I'm making slow progress with it, mainly because of proof deadlines, but enjoying every second I do get with it (Bookshop, Waterstones, Amazon).
- The Dark Heart by Neil Lancaster - This is my first of Neil's books (since I'm interviewing him in a few days) and I really enjoyed it. While I'm sure I missed some in-jokes based on the previous six books in the series, it is a brilliant crime/espionage hybrid novel with a furious pace and fantastic characters. I can't wait to ask Neil all about it (Bookshop, Waterstones, Amazon).
- 59 Minutes by Holly Seddon - I've heard Holly talk about this book on several podcasts and thought I'd give it a go - a real time thriller following three characters in the 59 minutes before a nuclear attack hits Britain. As a child of the Cold War and Eighties nuclear paranoia, it certainly raised the hairs on the back of my neck (Bookshop, Waterstones, Amazon).
- The Infinite State by Richard Swan - This is Richard's first venture into SF in traditional publishing (he's got a self-published space opera series too) and it's great - a really interesting and atmospheric exploration of the limits of totalitarianism and control, in SPAAAAAAACE. I'm not far in, but loving it. (Bookshop, Waterstones, Amazon).
- Octagon by CJ Merritt - Another book I'm not far into (it's been a month of starting books, but not finishing many!) but what I've read so far has certainly grabbed me - a disgraced former SIS agent hunting down some kind of death cult trying to bring about nuclear armageddon? Hell yeah, sign me up. (Bookshop, Waterstones, Amazon).
Watching
A pleasantly varied month of screentime:
- We finished the new season of THE NIGHT MANAGER, which I enjoyed, though it felt like a fairly big tonal departure from the first season (though borrowing lots of elements from the original book, layered into an entirely new plot). Everyone involved did great work though and it was gorgeous to look at. I'm really intrigued about what Season 3 might look like.
- We watched A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS in its entirety this month and loved it. I knew the lead actor, Peter Claffey, from his excellent turn in the BBC series WRECK, but he was on another level in this show. I've never read the novellas that this series is based on, but I loved the ground-level view of the Game of Thrones universe. And the tournament scene in the penultimate episode was fantastically well done.
- We also watched a fair bit of DOWN CEMETERY ROAD this month, though we haven't quite finished it. It's a lot of fun and Emma Thompson is superb in it. You can definitely see the dialogue and intrigue Mick Herron later developed in the Slough House books, but this time wrapped in a pretty great police (well, private detective) procedural.
- We've also been watching and enjoying WONDLA, an animated and surprisingly cute post-apocalyptic adventure series set on a devastated Earth colonised by various other species. It's got excellent cliffhangers and a beautiful visual style.
- Finally, we watched AMADEUS, an excellent reinterpretation of the stage play first put on celluloid in 1984. Paul Bettany was excellent as the scheming Salieri, and Will Sharpe made a convincingly troubled Mozart.
Playing
Climb, climb, climb, fall...
- I've played basically nothing but CAIRN this month, the new and extremely compelling rock-climbing game with a surprisingly affecting narrative. It's got a very intuitive control scheme that relies on visual cues, sounds and stick movements rather than the more usual on-screen indicators and stamina gauges, which makes it very immersive. And it's an absolutely stunning game to look at. Kind of stressful when you plummet thirty metres down a rock face or run out of water or chalk on a particularly tricky overhang, but I can't stop playing it. Highly recommended.
- An excellent post from author Marie Vibbert on how to do social media without getting sucked into algorithms and doomscrolling.
- The Locus Recommended Reading List for 2025 has a lot of absolute bangers on it this year, including a bunch of my friends.
- A great piece from Madeleine Brettingham on making a living as a writer.
- Loved Craig Mod's Year Seven post on how he runs his membership programme (which funds his books, long-distance walking and a lot of other amazing creative work).
- A fascinating piece by Veronica Roth on how it feels to look back on her breakout book, DIVERGENT, fifteen years on.
- I've been enjoying Julian Simpson's ongoing career retrospective posts about becoming a screenwriter and director and the third part is an absolute hoot.
- I enjoyed this interview with multi-million seller TM Logan on the Page One Podcast - quite the journey from Fleet Street to where he is now.
- Finally, this excellent interview with Sydney Amanuel about actual-play RPG podcasts is a brilliant kickoff to the new podcast/Youtube channel Narrative Damage (disclosure, I'm in a later episode as a player).
Crikey. It never fails that when I write down everything that's happened in a month, it looks like a lot. It always feels manageable in the moment, but I get retrospectively exhausted when I finish this each month.
I'm not generally a fan of February. It feels like the Tuesday of the year, if you know what I mean. The weather is often a bit crap too. But it can also feel like the month when things really kick off, everyone shakes off the torpor of January and, occasionally, it starts getting a bit warmer.
As I noted last month, it's also the month of the year here in the Northern Hemisphere when the sun begins to noticeably come back. I now finish each working day with daylight outside my window and that, alone, has done absolute wonders for my mood. I'm a bit tired, fighting an annoying injury that's knocked me off my workout schedule and I've said yes to too many things, but I've also seen a lot of friends, written a lot of words and had a lot of fun this month.
The first quarter of the year is approaching its end. I have no idea how this year is going so fast and I kind of wish it would slow down just a touch. Not least because I have deadlines. I hope you survived the shortest month with sense of humour intact and your eyes on the brightening sky.
In the meantime, as ever, keep reading, keep writing and keep moving.
If you have a question, suggestion or something else you'd like me to talk about, please get in touch over on Bluesky or Instagram, or send me a message on my contact form.