What I'm up to - November 2024

Two and a half months on from release, I'm getting back into the writing, editing and promo groove. This month had podcasts, events, a brief trip to London and a whole lot of typing.

Onward!

Journal

Life, community and events

I started the month with a second call with the Electric Sheep reading group. The last time I spoke to them it was before the book came out, so it was lovely to have the opportunity to talk about everything that's happened since, as well as the new short stories I've published this year. Electric Sheep are a really friendly group who ask fascinating questions and I love chatting to them. If you are a published SF writer (long or short) I heartily recommend getting in touch with them.

I was also scheduled to attend my first in-person book club the following week, but couldn't make it due to a foot injury that severely limited my mobility this month. It really sucked, but I'm recovered now and it is wonderful to be back to my daily walking routine, which plays as big a part in keeping me sane and healthy as writing does.

Last week I was down in London for my day job, but also managed to squeeze in an event with my friend and fellow writer Lorraine Wilson, who was launching her superb 'mosspunk' post-apocalyptic novel WE ARE ALL GHOSTS IN THE FOREST (I came up with 'mosspunk' and I'm pretty proud of that coinage). Lorraine was in conversation with Claire North at Waterstones Islington, another writer I hugely admire and whose NOTES FROM THE BURNING AGE was one of my favourite novels I read last year.

The following day, after getting off a sleeper train from London, I met up with Nick Binge and Gareth Brown and headed through to Waterstones Braehead for the first of two Christmas Shopping Events they're holding this year.

It was a really fun event and I got to meet a bunch of other authors, including crime novelist Callum McSorley (who was on the same table as me), crime novelist and Bloody Scotland co-founder Craig Robertson and woodworker-turned-memorist Callum Robinson. I had a lot of mince pies and had a great time chatting to readers and signing books.

Workbench

Writing, editing and craft

This month has been a kind of back-and-forth month on the writing front, alternating between PROJECT SHARD (my big SF novel) and PROJECT SCARLET (a potential sequel to A RELUCTANT SPY). Early in the month I was working on a list of agent edits for SHARD when I had a couple of calls with my editor about the sample for SCARLET that I sent over in late October. We chatted a bit about expanding some elements of the sample, then I spent a couple of weeks reworking it.

It's interesting working on a relatively short sample, which needs to convincingly sell the whole idea of a book while only being a portion of it. But then, that's true of the first few chapters of a finished book - I try to make a promise in those chapters that the rest of the book will keep.

Once that was done, I got back onto editing SHARD, which has been slow going. Although my edit list approach worked for defining what I needed to get done, I found I was struggling to actually get in there and do it. For whatever reason, the scope and variety of the changes slowed me right down. I picked off a few of them, but then decided to try a front-to-back 'snowplough' edit, which is what I call it when I just plough my way from the start to the end of a book, editing each chapter as I go.

This is kind of my standard response to any situation where I don't really know how to tackle a book - just start at the start and work through it systematically. Theoretically doing a more targeted edit might save me a bit of time and effort, but when I don't do this kind of systematic edit, I always have a nagging feeling that I've changed something in one place but not another, or otherwise broken the book in a way I can't readily see. So it's often just quicker and mentally easier to just read the whole thing again and do a linear edit.

I'm in the middle of this edit now and waiting on decisions about what's going to happen with SCARLET. My objective is to get SHARD done and back to my agent this side of Christmas, then hopefully I'll have a nice clear two or three months of working on a full draft of SCARLET.

Newsfeed

What's out, what's new and where I'll be soon

I was delighted to appear on Episode 99 of the Read and Buried Podcast this month, which was great fun. I met the host Frankie at Harrogate this past summer and she very kindly agreed to have me on. It was a great conversation and a pleasure to talk about the book and my publishing journey with her.

I had two new articles published elsewhere in November too - the first was about the Power of the Outsider at the SHOTS crime and thriller ezine. SHOTS is a really great and long-running site with a huge archive of reviews, features and interviews. I was very happy to write this for them.

I was also invited to write a post for the Grab This Book blog, part of the ongoing DECADES series that Gordon is running, where he asks writers to recommend five books from consecutive decades for his library. This was another really fun exercise, particularly in highlighting a mix of SF and spy thrillers.

I was also really chuffed at the end of the month to see that I got a brief mention in Broadcast (one of the UK's main trade magazines for TV and film) in a long article celebrating the success of THE DAY OF THE JACKAL and interviewing the chief exec and MD of Carnival Films. My book was mentioned as one of the options that Carnival have on their slate. The nature of options is that there's long periods of relative silence as development gets going, so it was very cool to get this little nod.

On December 4th, I'll be attending a celebration event for the anthology I'm in, NOVA SCOTIA 2. The official launch was around the WorldCon in Glasgow in August, but several writers in the anthology are in or near Edinburgh, so the editors Neil and Andrew have very kindly organised an East Coast get together. If you'd like to hear some amazing writers read their work and get your copy signed, come along! I'll also happily sign copies of A RELUCTANT SPY if you bring one.

Finally - I'm a shortlisted finalist for the Crime Fiction Lover Awards 2024, in the Best Debut Novel category! If you read and enjoyed A RELUCTANT SPY, I'd love to have your vote. The poll is open until Wednesday 4th December.

Playlist

What I've been reading, watching and listening to

Reading

I've been alternating two books this month, of very different sorts:

• The Peacock and the Sparrow by I.S. Berry - I technically started this in October, so it's making its second appearance in the newsletter, but I'm quite a slow reader these days. This is appearing in a LOT of end-of-year best-of lists and deservedly so. The prose and sense of place is absolutely fantastic.
• The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan - I know Richard because we have the same agent and we had some good chats at WorldCon in August, and I've had his books on my shelf for a while but hadn't started them yet. He's also fearsomely productive, with a new trilogy set in the Sovan Empire starting next year, so I figured I should probably get a move on and read the first trilogy. It is excellent. Something about a fantasy world's legal code being a primary plot element makes for really, really interesting plotting and worldbuilding.

Watching

Spies and spice and courtly intrigue:

• Our main jam this month has been DAY OF THE JACKAL, which is produced by Carnival Films, the same production company that optioned my book. It's a really gorgeous-looking, globe-trotting production with two very strong core performances and it's made me very excited for what a TV production of A RELUCTANT SPY might look like.
• We've also been watching DUNE PROPHECY which is a pretty well-done courtly intrigue drama that happens to use the props, costumes, sets and vibes from Villeneuve's DUNE films. As a minor aside, I'm always slightly sceptical of huge, sclerotic space empires where something is allegedly set ten thousand years in the past but the culture, clothing, societal structure and language is identical. Ten thousand years in our past was the end of the Ice Age and hunter-gatherer bands. Maybe in our far future the pace of change will slow but I have trouble believing it will essentially stop.
• Also really enjoying WOLF HALL: THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT which is the 'find out' portion of the 'fuck around' Thomas Cromwell story. Mark Rylance continues to be the still, observant heart of a swirling dance of murderous politics and the whole cast continue to make biting remarks delivered in feathered hats incredibly compelling television. Recommended.

Clickthrough

This month's internet finds

• Loved the CrimeTime FM Christmas debate podcast - some great picks.
• A great interview from Always Take Notes with Frederick Forsyth.
• My friend Lorraine Wilson meticulously breaks down the many reasons why an author-agent relationship can end, and how to deal with it.
• I wish I'd read this wonderful and indispensable post on self-promotion for authors on the PubTips subreddit about a year a go.
• Fellow Headline author Dom Nolan in a fascinating interview on Crimetime FM.
• An incredibly useful and detailed post from book blogger Beth Reads Crime on attending the Iceland Noir book festival. It's definitely on my bucket list after reading this post.
• A great profile of Martha Wells, author of the Murderbot series among others.
• This Bluesky thread from Kameron Hurley about managing her attention and focus really, really resonated with me.
• And finally, in case you missed it, here's my 2024 Awards Eligibility post.

I cannot quite believe that my debut year is nearly over and we're a mere 24 days away from Christmas. Somehow, the linear progression of time always surprises me.

It's true, though, that things feel like they speed up towards the end of the year. I think it's a combination of shorter days that feel like they narrow the available window to do things, plus having a lot of things to do. We've still got the same twenty-four hours as we do in the middle of the summer, but the cadence feels faster. And there's end-of-year lists, roundups, parties and more rapidly filling up the days and weekends.

I'm heading into what will be a busy month for me - one novel project to put to bed before the end of the year, another that needs to be drafted pretty sharply and a busy schedule of events with family and friends. Thankfully, there's not much on the slate promo or event-wise on the author side, which is good because I'm frankly knackered. I will be planning my time off next year a lot better, let me tell you.

I hope you have a good final month of 2024 planned and that you'll also get a bit of time to yourselves, in your pajamas or a favourite hoodie, to watch some old favourite movies, play some board games or curl up with a good book. I certainly intend to. And if you won't get a chance because of work, family obligations or a set of copyedits with a two week turnaround, I hope you'll find a tiny sliver of time here and there to take a breath and have a hot drink. Courage, and I'll see you next at the end of the year.

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, Instagram or Threads, or send me a message on my contact form.