Daynote - Wed 22 Jan

It got cold again overnight, which is perhaps the outlying tendrils of Storm Eowyn, which is apparently headed our way. So my morning walk was a beautiful, frosty, steaming breath on the air excursion.

Lots of deer in the woods and a pair of hare lolloping slowly across the fields. Plus lots of head pats with various dogs. It's nice, living in a small village and saying hello to the same people each morning, especially when you work from home and see most people through a Zoom window.

Yesterday, I wrote a long blog post (also sent out as newsletter), answering a question from a reader, namely 'how do you make yourself write?' I love answering questions like this, so if you have any yourself, hit my contact page, or tag me on social media.

ON DECK: Slowed down a little this morning, as I had to micro-outline a couple of scenes, then I went back and did a bit of editing to fit in a continuity change I needed to make. That ended up at 1,151 words, which is a solid count.

I'm also looking forward to a podcast interview later today with crime author Nadine Matheson for her brilliant podcast 'The Conversation'. Can't wait.

TOOLS AND PROCESS: I thought this was a fantastic post from Phil Gyford about the challenges of finding an effective todo manager when don't quite fit the mould of hyperactive, collaboration-heavy super-urgent 10x productivity. Like Phil I'm a big Things user, but I also do longer term planning in Notion. And like Phil, I'm never quite satisfied by the tools I use.

LISTENING: I really enjoyed this CrimeTimeFM interview with Kim Sherwood, literary novelist and contributor to the Bond canon with the novel A SPY LIKE ME. I'm fascinated by how work in established canons like this actually works and this interview didn't disappoint.

WATCHING: We continued with THE RIG on Amazon last night and watched a couple of episodes. It's still weird to me seeing Stevie from SCHITT'S CREEK in a different and more serious role (for certain values of 'serious', this show has a bananas setup), but she's owning it.

READING: More MK Hardy Boat Book. More spooky goings on.

LINK: I enjoyed this article by Adriana Kantcheva about her first time at the Milford SF Writing Conference. I'd love to go to this myself one day.

UP NEXT: I've made some decisions about how I'll edit PROJECT SCARLET that are cause for a bit of mild re-planning, mainly aiming to finish my first draft a little bit quicker to give myself time for a first pass edit before I work with my critique group. That means slightly higher daily word counts, but so far, with the progress I've made, still doable. Thank goodness for Pacemaker.

On we go!