How does it feel?
Shadows & Ink 2026-01-19
Yeah, I know I know. I said I’d do these regularly and then didn’t. This time is different, I swear. (It won’t be, will it?)
I hope you had a jolly festive period – or that it passed with minimal incident if it’s not your favourite time of the year.
#Music
I’m sure I’ve marked this date before, but it’s Blue Monday today, the third Monday in January which is thought to be the most depressing day of the year – I’d contend that the second one is much bleaker. Do you agree?
Anyway, here’s New Order doing the song of that name, the biggest-selling 12” single ever (insert myth about it costing them more to print each sleeve than they made):
I’ve got the live album this from on vinyl and it’s sensational.
#Work update
So, what have I been up to?
First, Marshall 9 came out on Hogmanay and seems to be doing pretty darn well. Very pleased by the response and the review average so far. And people seem to mention Sam Winter a lot in the reviews, which is a blessed relief.
I’ve been finalising the first book in the series, No Cure For Regret, which is now in copy editing. It’s a punchy 86,000 words, which feels like a good length. Way shorter than a Marshall monster, but this has multiple POVs and is pretty cinematic, not least because I rewrote it as a screenplay first. Anyway, it’s out on the 31st May, so not too long to wait, I hope...
And I’ve picked up the second book in the series, No Time To Grieve, which I’m aiming for release on the 31st August, but like everything that’s subject to change – there’s another Marshall to drop in the gap between them and it feels like a lot of books in a short space of time. But, JD Kirk’s next book is out on the 31st July and I notice a plunge in page reads whenever he has something out, so best to avoid a clash... As it stands right now, I went through the screenplay last week to add in all the grace notes I’d inserted in book 1, mainly around the characterisation of DS Hugo Lennox, her sidekick, plus a few bits and bobs to make the conversion process that little bit easier. It was worth doing as I picked up on a couple of clunky bits that needed ironing out. So my plan for this week is to hopefully get a large part of the conversion draft done -- the screenplay was 53,000 words which is quite long, but I’m expecting to get to mid-60s with this, then a revision to get it over 80k again.
I sort of approached these with a feeling of dread, but I feel like they’ve more than earned their corn, especially how well book 1 is doing on preorder.
So, I should be finished this in a couple of weeks, then onto the first new writing in a long time. Marshall 8 was the last truly new idea-to-execution thing; last year was all about sorting out old things, which I well and truly have, but it’ll be nice to pick up a pitch document again and expand it out into an outline for Rob to battle his way through. Then I’ll return to rework Winter’s third, which I think I’ll take in a very different direction from the original. Then back to Marshall, though I’ve got a couple of screenplays I want to finish first.
#Grey Dog Books
A lot of time has been spent on getting Grey Dog Books off the ground as a publisher of books by other people. Neil Broadfoot’s first three books have done very well in the first year and it’s really pleasing that he’s going to deliver me another one, so I’ve got to get the editorial process nailed down for that. And I’m realising I really need a PA to manage some of this stuff, I swear...
I’ll give a bigger update next week on my plans for that and what I’ve been busy – watch this space.
Have a cracking week and let me know if you’ve read anything particularly good over the Xmas break.
Cheers,
Ed