David Goodman's Blog, page 5

Daynote - Thu 18 Sep

Man, I am having a bit of a slow week on the writing front. I forgot we had an early appointment this morning and I slept straight through my alarm. On the plus side, the lurking post-festival lurgy I was worried I was coming down with (not Covid, thankfully, per a test last night) seems to have fled in the face of some First Defence and an early night.

ON DECK: I had about 30 minutes spare this morning, so I didn't make any progress on DRIFT, but I did start writing some book club questions for...

Daynote - Wed 17 Sep

Drizzling with rain this morning, so I took the opportunity for more sleep. I'm just about caught up mentally and physically with everything, after an incredibly busy weekend.

ON DECK: Zero words again this morning - one of those days when I opened the draft, looked at my watch and the scene that was waiting to be written and flat noped out. So I did some crit reading instead. Sometimes reading the (amazing) words of my critique partners is a good displacement activity for when I'm not quite get...

Daynote - Tue 16 Sep

Well, yesterday was a day and a half!

I got into town and met my friend Tariq (and winner of the McIlvanney Prize) outside the BBC, then we were taken up to the green room where we met the singer/songwriter Lou Mclean and then Len Pennie, host of The Arts Mix, poet and also, it turns out, incredibly lovely person.

Me, Len Pennie and Tariq Ashkanani in the BBC Radio Scotland studio

The interview went very well and both Tariq and I managed to get through it without stumbling too much. I did keep forg...

Daynote - Mon 15 Sep

With excellent foresight, I took today off work to recover from Bloody Scotland, so I'm moving a little slowly this morning. And I'm doubly glad I took it off, because it was an extremely emotional weekend and it's going to be a busy afternoon (see below, I'm going to be on the radio!) in Edinburgh.

The above shot was from about this time yesterday morning, when myself and Tariq watched our mutual friend Marco Rinaldi win the 2025 Pitch Perfect competition at Bloody Scotland. It was a perfect en...

A Reluctant Spy wins the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize

So... yesterday was kind of wild.

I had a fantastic first day at Bloody Scotland, including the Debut Prize panel with my fellow shortlisters at the Stirling Central Library. Here we are right afterwards at the signing table.

From left to right, Foday Mannah, Natalie Jayne Clark, me, Claire Wilson and Richard Strachan

I'm so glad I got the chance to meet all of these amazing writers and be nominated alongside them. It was an absolute honour and our panel together was loads of fun.

Then we all heade...

One year as a published author

Today, Friday 12th September, marks exactly one calendar year since my debut novel, A RELUCTANT SPY, came out in the UK.

It's also the first day of Bloody Scotland 2025, so I'm currently on my way to Stirling for an incredible weekend of books, panels, ceremonies and, possibly, some karaoke.

The last one of these updates that I wrote was after I'd been published for six months (before that I wrote a one-month update and a two-month update). I'd expected, when I wrote that six month update, to be...

Daynote - Fri 12 Sep

It's Bloody Scotland weekend! Hooray! We're up and packing the car to head off to Stirling for the Bloody Scotland festival. I'm appearing on two panels this weekend - the Debut Panel at 3.30pm today (sold out) and the Spies West, Eyes East panel tomorrow at 1pm, with Kim Sherwood, DB John and chaired by Vaseem Khan. That's still got one or two tickets left I think.

ON DECK: No writing today, but I have written a long newsletter about what it's like to have been published for a full year (since...

Daynote - Thu 11 Sep

Off into town today. It's sunny, though the forecast is for wind and rain later. But I'm in the office for the day, so only a bit of writing on the train. Perhaps more later.

I got a really lovely message from a reader yesterday, saying that they'd been inspired by the writing I do on the blog about writing and publishing and the whole messy business of putting words on paper and they'd successfully had a piece published in a magazine for the first time as a result.

It's really, really great to h...

Asteroid Handling selected for Think Weirder anthology

I'm delighted to announce that my SF novelette 'Best Practices for Safe Asteroid Handling', previously published in Analog Magazine in September 2024, has been selected for the first edition of a brand new SF anthology - THINK WEIRDER: THE YEAR'S BEST SCIENCE FICTION IDEAS.

THINK WEIRDER is coming out in October 2025 and it's got an incredible collection of authors already announced, some of whom I've been published alongside before in Clarkesworld, including Isabel J. Kim, Ray Naylor, Rich Lars...

Daynote - Wed 10 Sep

Back on it this morning and feeling very good, with a nice walk into the bargain. Poppy the Labrador lolloped over to say hello, which was lovely. It is that slightly annoying part of the year where it's chilly enough for a jacket when I leave the house but I'm boiling halfway through my walk. But the mercury is dropping fast, so fairly soon I'll be zipping my jacket all the way up and maybe even considering a hat.

ON DECK: A very solid 1,600 words (exactly! I had 1,599 words when I finished so ...