David Goodman's Blog, page 6

Daynote - Tue 9 Sep

Hooray, got out for a walk again this morning, after a substantial break. And wow you can tell the difference. Cool air, leaves just beginning to turn. It's very definitely September. I was greeted by these two deer grazing gently in a field, which was lovely to see.

Random bit of social media admin - I finally deleted my moribund Twitter account, since I'm not going back and when I occasionally logged in to check my DMs I'd find I'd been tagged by people days or weeks ago. To avoid confusion, I'...

Daynote - Mon 8 Sep

Welp, I intended to start the week right with a walk this morning, but things got away from me (not least the outline for the next few chapters) and I didn't make it out in time. Tomorrow! For sure!

Yesterday my episode of the In My Good Books podcast dropped, as part of five interviews with the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize shortlist.

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Thank you so much to Susie for the great interview. ...

Daynote - Fri 29 Aug

I'm still a little knackered after the push to the finish on the SOLITARY AGENTS edit and a few other concurrent things, so I had a bit of a lie-in this morning, then some gentle pitch-writing.

I was very pleased to see that the last day of the Audible 2-for-1 sale did really well for A RELUCTANT SPY - the high water marks that I spotted were #83 in the overall Bestsellers chart and #28 for the Mystery, Crime and Thriller category.

It may have gone higher, but I didn't manage to spot it. In any c...

Daynote - Thu 28 Aug

It's a funny thing, 'finishing' a novel. Because you actually finish it multiple times. You finish the first draft, then you finish the structural edits, then the line edits, then the copyedit, then the proofs. And by that point you are very, very over it. But I 'finished' another step on that road yesterday.

ON DECK: I was feeling quite antsy last night, being so close to the end of the current edit draft, so I sat down and finished it off after work. It went really well and I ticked off the las...

Daynote - Wed 27 Aug

When I pulled up my CMS (which is the excellent Ghost) this morning to write today's note, I noticed that this will be post #400. Which is quite a large number, especially because when I started doing these near-daily posts, I'd just migrated about 150 posts over from my old website.

I get asked a lot about how I do these and my answer is always the same - habit and templates. Turns out it's also an absolutely invaluable personal record (looking back at my daynotes is how I assemble my monthly n...

Daynote - Tue 26 Aug

Back to the routine this morning, after a long and very fun day in Glasgow. It was fantastic to meet so many booksellers and my only regret was not wearing shorts, because it was very hot:

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I skipped my walk today because I got over 22,000 steps yesterday, according to my watch, so I was pretty tired when I got home. I'm definitely hoping to do another trip pretty soon and add some indie bookstor...

Daynote - Mon 25 Aug

It's a day off for me today from the day job (an English bank holiday, even though I'm in Scotland), so after a very relaxing weekend spent not writing, I'm going through to Glasgow on an early train to try and sign books in as many bookshops as possible. I did manage to get an express train with very good wifi, but it's also supposed to be quite warm today in Glasgow, so we'll see how I do traipsing around the city.

ON DECK: No word count yet as I left home too early to do my usual morning routi...

Daynote - Fri 22 Aug

I'm running out of visual metaphors for cutting words. But today was a good chopping session, so here's an axe. No walk this morning as I've got a day off, so it was a late-starting and slow-moving writing session. Then we're off out for breakfast.

As of this morning, it's just three weeks until Bloody Scotland. I am extremely excited. I went for the first time in 2023 and I was a 'Crime in the Spotlight' reader last year, where I got to sign books alongside Frank Gardner. And this year, I'll be ...

Daynote - Thu 21 Aug

A good editing session this morning, then an early start with the day job since I need to finish early today, so no walk for me. It continues to be lovely and cool though.

Very chuffed to see the updated paperback cover starting to appear online, with the McDermid Debut Award winner roundel added:

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I don't actually know if there are physical copies shipping with the roundel added yet, or if this i...

Daynote - Wed 20 Aug

Hello hello, another Wednesday arrives and we're 2/3rds of the way through the month of August. It continues to be cool and autumnal here in Scotland, which is frankly lovely. It's supposed to be a bit warmer over the weekend, but not too hot. Perfect.

ON DECK: A very decent -364 words and 30ish pages worked through. I'm making very good progress and approaching the halfway point of the book, which is a good place to be, with the deadline I have. The latter half of the book is fairly fast-moving,...