Daynote - Mon 9th Sep 2024 - A Signing in Brighton
I was quite, quite unprepared for what it would look like when I saw all of the Goldsboro Crime Collective special editions in one place. It was an incredible honour to be selected as the launch title for this brand-new subscription book box, and an even greater honour to be invited to Brighton to sign them all.
I'm on the train back to Edinburgh now after, quite honestly, one of the best days of my life. The team at Goldsboro were wonderful, chatting away to me as I signed copy after copy. It was a three or four person job, with copies being lined up, prepped, signed by me, then swept away to join the massive stack in the main warehouse. Of course, I got a pic standing next to it.
It went really quickly and I was back in London before 2pm, so I managed to fit in a couple of hours of writing at the British Library. Despite living in London for six years, I've never actually been, but it felt like a very fitting end to a very bookish day. It's an inspiring, wonderful place filled with people working away and drinking tea and thinking about books and research and ideas. One of those places that makes you feel a little better about the world.
I'm halfway to York as we speak and, touch wood, seem to have managed to dodge a whole lot of significant rail disruption. But tune in tomorrow to see if I get home before midnight.
ON DECK: This morning's usual writing time was filled with breakfast with my brother and his partner, then an early train to Brighton. So now that I'm on the train back to Edinburgh I'm going to try and nail some words. I've got a very exciting article opportunity I'm drafting, as well as more work on the PROJECT SCARLET sample, which is coming along nicely and approaching the 10k mark.
LISTENING: Today I've been jamming most of the afternoon to Bicep, specifically Aura and Poly Pineapple. Oh, and I finished the Audible version of SMILEY'S PEOPLE, which was excellent.
WATCHING: Fancied something quite explode-y last night, so watched about half of MILE 22 with my brother, a very fast-paced action thriller from a few years ago. It was a total bomb at the cinema I seem to recall (Mark Wahlberg plays an intensely OTT character in it) but it's a very serviceable sequence of exploding things that doesn't quite deserve it's terrible Rotten Tomatoes score. It also features Iko Uwais doing the excellent on-screen martial arts that brought him to attention in the (superb) THE RAID and THE RAID 2.
READING: Not a word read on this trip. Might manage some of NINTH LIFE on the way back though.
UP NEXT: Release week continues! Tomorrow I'm heading into Edinburgh for an in-person recording with the Page One Podcast, one of my absolute favourites. I'm really, really looking forward to it. Then there's release day itself on the 12th and Bloody Scotland from Friday onwards. This week is just getting started and it's already been better than I could have ever imagined. Here we go!