Daynote - Wed 29 Jan

I had a lovely time yesterday at Annabel Campbell's launch event, a panel on 'The Joy of Epic' with fellow authors Justin Lee Anderson and L.R. Lam (that's El on the right blurrily giving the peace sign, Justin in the middle and Annabel on the left).

It was a joyous evening with the audience packed with many members of GSWFC and ESFF and it was a really good panel. I unfortunately had to dash for a train back home afterwards, so I didn't get to partake of any book cake, but it looked like the West Coasters had a fine time of it.

I also took the opportunity to sign a copy of my own book at Waterstones Argyle Street, which I swear is never going to get old.

I bumped into Tom Hindle (who's most recent book DEATH IN THE ARCTIC just came out) who was there to sign copies of his book before his own Glasgow event. AND I bumped into fellow ESFF authors Lyndsey Croal (who took the pic above) and Katalina Watt, who were working out of the cafe. One of those lovely moments when you realise how broad and deep your writing community is.

ON DECK: There must have been something in the air at the Glasgow event, because this morning I had an exceptionally focused writing session and got a corking 2,228 words across two scenes.

I normally only break the 2k mark when I have a good three hours to play with, but I was writing from the POV of a character I really like writing (they weren't a POV character in a previous novel, but they are now, and it is a joy to be inside their head) and it just came flowing out. Days like that are just wonderful and it's the memory of how it feels to write like this that keeps me going when I'm slogging through edits or something that feels a lot harder.

TOOLS AND PROCESS: Here's a tip for anyone who had Microsoft Copilot foisted on them recently in Word. I have absolutely no need or desire for this tool and I found it absolutely enraging that it was enabled without my consent and, for the first week or so, with no way to remove the UI elements, at least on a Mac.

They have now added the ability to fully disable and remove it, but it won't show up for you if you previously disabled 'Connected Experiences', which was the previous fix many recommended a month or two back.

To get the crucial checkbox, go to Word > Preferences > Privacy > Manage Connected Experiences and check the bottom box. Then restart Word. You should now have an 'Enable Copilot' checkbox, which you can uncheck, then turn off Connected Experiences again.

I think this will also remove the Copilot button from the Ribbon, but I'd already done that before disabling Copilot at the app level. If you need to remove it, hit Word > Preferences > Ribbon and Toolbar and then remove the whole Assistance tab.

There! No LLM slop generator in your primary (or secondary in my case) working tool. You're welcome.

LISTENING: I really enjoyed this episode of SFFAddicts with Richard Swan, particularly the lengthy discussion of grapeshot versus roundshot. Really looking forward to picking up GRAVE EMPIRE when it comes out next week.

WATCHING: I didn't watch anything last night, because I was in Glasgow! But I quite liked this 10 hour long chill composition of the Interstellar soundtrack. Shame about the AI glop imagery, but the sounds are excellent.

READING: More of THE CURE on my various train journeys yesterday, and it continues to be terrific.

LINK: Pleased to see that Bookshop.org are now doing eBooks, although it is heavily hampered by being US-only and being browser or app-only for any eBook that's DRM-protected, which is most of them. I'm hopeful that they'll figure out a way to offer files that can be sideloaded onto Kindles, Kobos and Nooks, but I won't hold my breath. I'd love to buy eBooks from Bookshop.org, but it'll be a cold day in hell before I read them on an app.

UP NEXT: One event down, two to go. This evening I'm off into Edinburgh for David McCloskey's event with Toppings for his book THE SEVENTH FLOOR, which I'm really looking forward to. Then I've got Tom Hindle's event on Thursday.

I'm hopeful with some careful balancing of morning routine and evening event shenanigans I can keep up my writing progress this week. Today's word count makes me think I can, but we'll see how we go. Definitely feels like I'm firing mostly on all cylinders though - it's going well.

Onward!