The Decrypt - January 2025

Welcome back to The Decrypt, my monthly newsletter on all things writing, publishing, craft and media.

It's been an incredibly busy first month of the year - launching into a new novel draft, going to a ton of events, recording podcasts and more. Let's dive in.

The first couple of weeks of January were pretty quiet for me actually doing stuff, although several podcasts (and a radio show!) I recorded in December or even earlier came out, but I more than made up for it in the second half of the month, with three events on three sequential evenings and a podcast recording.

The first podcast of the year was the Unfortunately... podcast with Courtney Floyd and Mona West, which was a fascinating discussion of the many dead-ends and diversions on the way to where I am now. It's a great concept for a podcast and I had a wonderful time.

Next up, I appeared on the 'Write Now with Scrivener' podcast, combining my two great loves - talking about writing and talking about software. That came out the day after my US hardback launch, so it was very well timed.

And a couple of days after that, I appeared on the radio for the very first time, albeit in Connecticut in the US, on the 'Hoot and Holler' drivetime show with Ed McKeon. That was a really fun interview, bookended by two pieces of music I particularly love. You can listen to it here.

In the middle of the month, I recorded the first podcast of the year with fellow author Nadine Matheson, who hosts a brilliant series called The Conversation. Highly recommended listening if you're a crime and thriller author and/or reader, she's got a great backlog of previous guests. My episode should be up later in the spring.

Then, this past week, I accidentally booked three events on sequential nights. But it was great fun!

I started out heading through to Glasgow for the launch of my friend Annabel Campbell's debut THE OUTCAST MAGE. It was a brilliant evening involving a really great panel with Justin Lee Anderson and L.R. Lam.

On Wednesday, I went to a Toppings event with David McCloskey, fellow spy novelist and the author of three of my recent favourites - DAMASCUS STATION, MOSCOW X and his new one, THE SEVENTH FLOOR. We've spoken by email a couple of times since my own book was announced, so it was a genuine pleasure to meet him and get my copies signed. He's an absolute gent.

And the third and final event, last night, was with Tom Hindle, who shares an agent with me and who's latest novel DEATH IN THE ARCTIC just came out. I was lucky enough to get an early proof, which I got signed. Then we headed out for a long chat about writing and publishing and some truly excellent pizza. Always brilliant to catch up with fellow authors.

Phew! I'll try to avoid booking events back-to-back like that, because I'm pretty tired after three nights on the trot, but February is going to have its fair share too.

I did do a little bit of drafting last year, putting together the first fifth of PROJECT SCARLET. But it was a very, very heavy editing year overall, combined with the disruption and excitement of my debut coming out, my TV option and all of the events and various other shenanigans that proved extremely distracting.

When it's been a year plus since you've sat down and really got some words down, you can get a bit apprehensive about getting into a really solid novel draft. And that's definitely how I felt last year, writing the first 22k words or so. I got it done, but it wasn't flowing in the way that I enjoy so much. And, of course, sometimes it will slow down even later in the draft (usually for me at the 70-80% point, when I start to get worried about pulling off the ending).

But this month I really got into things in a big way, ending the month with about 32,000 words written, which is a really solid middle chunk of the book. I also had opportunities to reflect on the changes to my writing routine and life that are getting me back into the swing of things in 2025, firstly when a reader asked me how I make myself write, and second in an (extensive) update to my last writing routine post, which I'll be posting in early February, two years after my last update.

This has been a great first month and a much-needed restoration of self-confidence, after my end-of-year totals gave me a bit of a shock. As a published author with multiple projects planned and in progress, last year was not great - it felt at the time like I was doing a lot, but in retrospect much of it was distracted wheel-spinning. So to be 31 days into the year with nearly half of my 2024 word count already logged feels fantastic.

Obviously it's not all about word count. Focused writing time and finished books are the real metrics for me. But I'm still breathing a small sigh of relief that a) having a plan and b) consistently working to the plan and c) actually prioritising the writing of books all still work for achieving those goals.

January was a quieter month on the news front, but there was some pretty cool stuff. Probably the biggest thing that happened was my first Kindle Daily Deal in the US, where A RELUCTANT SPY was available for 24 hours at a mere 99 cents.

Obviously, people love a deal, so we got quite a few sales at that knockdown price, but Kindle Daily Deals aren't a guarantee of success, since many titles are selected each day. However, as I posted online about it and watched my Amazon Salesrank climb slowly, then quickly as the US woke up, it got very exciting. And finally, mid-afternoon UK time, I hit number 1 in the 'Political Thrillers and Suspense' category, briefly earning the coveted orange 'Bestseller' tag.

I also hit number 4 in Espionage Thrillers and Legal Thrillers at one point. I'd expected to drop off the rankings very rapidly when the deal ended, but actually I hung around in the top 10 for a day or so, then the top 30 for another three or four days. As of this writing I'm in the mid fifties, so I've dropped off that crucial first screen of results in the category, but it does demonstrate the value of these deals for visibility. As I've said before, the number one challenge for debut authors is simple obscurity, which is why writing reviews, sharing books you enjoy and talking to other readers is such a huge help, especially to debut authors.

Hopefully we'll secure other deals in the future for this book, so keep your eyes peeled!

Coming up in February, I've got some teaching and speaking, including going back to Napier University to speak with the students at the Creative Writing MA again. I did two workshops on this course last year and I've been invited back to do them again, which is really exciting.

In between those two sessions, I'll also be speaking to the students at Arcadia Abroad at Edinburgh University, which is a study abroad program for Arcadia University in Pennsylvania. I'm really looking forward to that one.

In January I was also listed on the Scottish Book Trust Live Literature catalogue, which is a key tool for educators, librarians, book festivals and other people who are looking for authors to attend, speak and teach at their events and workshops. It's really exciting to be listed on there.

I'm also already looking forward to a couple of events in March. The 1st of March will be the annual party for Luna Press, which I've been to for the last few years as a broader member of the Luna community here in Scotland. This will be my first time going as an actual, real-deal Luna author, after appearing in the Nova Scotia 2 anthology last year.

And on Thursday 27th March, I'll be heading to Nick Binge's book launch for his new book DISSOLUTION, which, because he's a fan of massively escalating, is turning into a full scale event, with a raffle, book-themed collaborative art and more. And as a lovely bonus (and thematically appropriate for the book), all proceeds will be going to Alzheimer's Scotland. Get your tickets booked folks, this one is going to be brilliant.

Reading

It's been a slow month on the reading front! I decided after a heavy year of beta reading last year that I wasn't going to take on as many this year, but certain people/crit partners of mine get a pass on that front, among them MK Hardy, whose debut THE NEEDFIRE comes out in July.

• 'Boat Book' by MK Hardy - That's not it's actual name, which is TBC, but it's what they've been calling it the whole time they've been drafting it. I got this just before the end of last year and picked it up finally in mid-January, then raced through it. It's a really fun and deeply spooky sapphic mystery set aboard a turn-of-the-century transatlantic ocean liner and I had a blast with it. The main character, Avis Lovelock, is fantastic. Look out for this one and it's eventual real title.
• The Cure by Eve Smith - I got a proof of this book via my agent Harry and I was delighted to get it, because it sounded right up my street - a dystopian speculative thriller centred around de-aging biotech. I'm about a third of the way through it and so far it's great - a gritty, grimy, all-too-plausible future world filled with real, flawed people trying to stop a megalomaniac 'Super' whose rejuvenation treatments have made him deeply unstable. Great stuff.

Watching

Spies, Scots and underground shenanigans:

• We finished BLACK DOVES over the Christmas break (watching the last episode in the first few days of January, so it counts) and it's great. Sometimes, when Netflix let writers and directors fully off the leash, you get really interesting, layered TV that's also a ton of fun, like this show. Highly recommended.
• We also watched THE RIG, which was daft as a brush but one of those shows where everyone involved really committed to the bit, to good effect. Plus it was really nice, as a Scot, to see a show predominantly set in Scotland, full of Scots, all of whom were using their own accents, but which wasn't a bleak cop show or worthy social drama. Instead there was glowing stuff underwater, massive sets (mostly built and filmed here in Leith) and drama aplenty. Recommended.
• We also finished SILO, although I swore out loud when it ended with another 'nothing has really been explained in this whole season' cliffhanger. A lot of sound and fury and changes, but ultimately things were kind of back to the same point as the start of the season, certainly in terms of the amount of knowledge viewers had. I'm toying with the idea of just reading the books, purely to get some plot delivery.

Playing

• I do enjoy tactical military games, so I've been playing a fair bit of ARMA: REFORGER over the last month (although my reading load has been very heavy, so I've spent a lot of lunchbreaks and evenings reading as well). It's one of those simulation games where you get the experience of jogging for ten minutes to get anywhere near the action, then immediately die (grimly realistic in that sense), so it doesn't really lend itself to quick lunchtime play sessions. But I'm going to stick with it and try and find servers with a lower ping so I die a bit less. Those forty-something reflexes (or lack thereof) are starting to make themselves felt.

• A great interview with Lorraine Wilson at Runalong the Shelves.
• Co-signing this post from John Scalzi on the evergreen question of 'what's the best way to buy your work?'
• Loved this mini-series from The Rest is Classified podcast about a North Korean digital bank heist.
• A terrific video from Matt Gemmell about how he uses e-ink notebooks (specifically the Supernote) to plan his books.
• The Smithsonian Open Access collection - an incredible resource of free-to-use imagery from thousands of historical sources.
• A great interview with writer Rob Parker from Crimetime FM.
• Fellow DHH author Tom Hindle on The Conversation with Nadine Matheson.
• Adriana Kantcheva did a great post about her first experience of the famous Milford SF conference. I'd love to do this one day.
• Emma Newman echoing my own thoughts on how to rebuild your own online presence, independent of Big Tech.

Somehow, January seemed to last both about six minutes and six months. I definitely packed a lot (writing, events, podcasts and a busy time at the day job) into those 31 days. And everyone I speak to feels that same weird telescoping of time effect, when every day lasts forever but the month and year zip past at a breakneck pace.

In the wider world, there's also a LOT going on, which has been... well, pretty distracting to be quite honest. At times like these, when the refresh key on my various internet-connected devices gets a little worn from over-use and I feel my inability to affect global events overwhelming me, I frequently need to remind myself that I have circles of direct control, then things I can influence, then things (i.e. most of the planet) that is wholly outwith my control. And I need to focus on the things I can manage directly.

I'll be writing more about this in my upcoming writing routine post, but I have also been walking and exercising regularly (I know, I know, the biggest January cliche ever), sleeping more consistently and trying as hard as I can to stick to my drafting plans. And it's gone pretty well. Certainly, the sleep has made it easier to face the fresh insanities bursting from my phone and laptop screen with each passing day.

I hope your first twelfth of this quarter-century year went well, and that you're doing okay. If you're a writer, hopefully you've got a good plan for the year and you made a decent start on those plans. If you're a reader, hopefully that TBR is looking good and you're finding solace in a good book.

And if you're not okay, or the words wouldn't come, or you're very tired, reading this newsletter late in the evening, thanks for reading, but please get some sleep. Everything is easier to handle when you get some sleep.

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 write about, please get in touch over on Bluesky or Instagram, or send me a message on my contact form.