David Goodman's Blog, page 8

Headline acquires my second novel SOLITARY AGENTS

Let me tell you folks, I am having quite a week.

Earlier today, the Bookseller published the announcement that my second novel, SOLITARY AGENTS, has been acquired by Toby Jones at Headline Books, who published A RELUCTANT SPY with me last year.

Here's the pitch:

SOLITARY AGENTS follows Jamie Tulloch and Sam Li, two people who never intended to be spies. Jamie, a former exec at a tech company, found himself caught up in a mission and discovered a taste for the secret world while Sam, a burnt-out cor...

Daynote - Tue 22 Jul

And we're back!

I got back from Harrogate on Sunday evening, fairly late thanks to a lot of train delays, damp from cloudbursts in York and absolutely exhausted. It was an incredible weekend. The above shot was taken on the Friday morning, when I was still absolutely buzzing from Thursday's award win. The t-shirt I'm wearing was from a promo I helped with for Alessandra Ranelli's MURDER AT THE HOTEL ORIENT, which went very well.

As you can tell from my attire, this was before the torrential rain...

A Reluctant Spy wins the McDermid Debut Award

Well.

I now know what it feels like to have a full-body adrenaline spike and then try to deliver a speech. It felt like tempting fate to write a speech at all, but I'm very, very glad I did, because it was about the only thing that got me through the two or three minutes after Val McDermid said my name on stage.

I arrived yesterday in Harrogate and had a wonderful time properly meeting the other shortlisters for the McDermid Debut Award - we had some press and signings and things to do before the...

Daynote - Thu 17 Jul

I'm on the road today, off to Harrogate via York. That's the bridge over the river Tweed at Berwick Upon Tweed, so I've just crossed the border into England.

I'm going to the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate for the second time, but a day earlier than last year. Tonight, I'll be at the Crime Writing Awards, where I'm one of six writers shortlisted for the second year of the McDermid Debut Award. I'm both really excited and really nervous.

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Daynote - Tue 15 Jul

No walk this morning, got up too late and it's been raining off and on, but I made reasonable progress on the new book. The above is a reasonable weather summary - patches of blue and sun, occasional torrential showers. That's July in Scotland for you.

ON DECK: I nearly wrote this morning off. Slept through my alarm again, raining outside, feeling a bit tired and overwhelmed with everything I need to do before I go to Harrogate on Thursday. But I've learned over the years that even 10 minutes is ...

Daynote - Mon 14 Jul

Well, that was a hot and busy weekend. I headed into town on Saturday for a bunch of things - a pre-Harrogate haircut, lunch with a friend, then wandering about bookshops to sign copies. I found several copies at Waterstones Cameron Toll and Waterstones Gyle, both of whom told me that it had been selling well. It was particularly cool to sign at the Gyle - I grew up in West Edinburgh, so revisiting a place I haunted as a youth and finding my own book available was pretty amazing.

View t...

Daynote - Fri 11 Jul

A lovely, warm and still morning today. Very hot in the direct sun, but dappled and pleasant under the trees. I nearly didn't get out for my walk (was quite tempted to keep writing) but I'm very glad I went out.

ON DECK: A decent 694 words this morning. I'm slightly behind the pace but I suspect I'll not be fully on the pace next week either with the Harrogate festival coming up and a bunch of travel. So I might extend my rough timeline out by a month or so and ease off the deadline a little. Th...

Daynote - Thu 10 Jul

Well, this morning wasn't a benchmark day, in the least. Slept through my alarm and woke up very fuzzy-headed indeed. Usually the cats would wake me up, but with the very light nights in Scotland (it currently gets light about 4am) they've taken to trying to get me to feed them as soon as there's light in the sky, so when I wedge the door shut to get another couple of hours sleep they can't function as furry alarm clocks.

These days happen. I use them to take care of a bit of admin.

Last night I ...

Daynote - Wed 9 Jul

We're back to shorts weather here in Scotland (that is, the average temperature is above 15°C) and it's very nice indeed. This morning was what I like to call a 'benchmark' writing day - where I do all the things on my morning todo list, pretty much when I'm supposed to do them, hit my targets in both time and word count and get out for a walk to boot. Benchmark days are the days when the work really gets pushed forward and it feels pretty good.

ON DECK: 1,434 words today, precisely 1,000 words m...

Daynote - Tue 17 Jun

A somewhat unusual image at the top of today's daynote, because we're on our first holiday away for a couple of years (turns out launching a book uses up a lot of holiday time?) and we've come to Sweden, specifically to the 30,000 plus islands of the Stockholm Archipelago.

We're in a very nice hotel that was a bit cheaper than it normally is as it's being extensively refurbished, but so far the evidence of that is very polite and quiet hammers tapping occasionally in the distance. So it's a bit ...