Inside Ed’s Head

Status Report 2023-09-18

No music this week – way too busy! And I don’t want to post the song that’s been stuck in my head all weekend.

#Last Week

Main task – I worked away on Fenchurch 10, getting over 12k done. Not bad, but nowhere near my usual standard. I’m enjoying it but need to crack the whip. On myself.

After a nightmare journey up from the Borders via Reston through torrential rain, which saw me aquaplane just as I took the exit on the motorway(!), I did my event at Bloody Scotland on Friday night, my first there for five years. Chaired by Michael J Malone, Catriona Ward, Jenny Lund Madsen and I had a pretty interesting (and funny) discussion around authors as protagonists, as in my book Lost Cause from last year. I’ve done a few events this summer and it’s reminded me how much I enjoy doing them. A huge thank you to the people who attended and helped swell the crowd for the event, not easy on a Friday evening when you’ve got Val McDermid and Abir Mukherjee in a competing slot down the road! Nuff props to Cat Ward for doing that event the day after flying in from LA after a 10-day book tour of the States.

Congrats to Callum McSorley, who won this year’s McIlvanney Prize – he joined a few of us for a walk around Stirling castle and getting lost in a graveyard. Weird how there’s a new generation of young writers coming along – I remember when we were the young ones!

If you’ve never been, Bloody Scotland is a really good festival and I always encourage fans of crime fiction to head along to hear discussions from some of British crime fictions biggest authors, as well as some up and comers. I say British, because while it’s Scotland’s biggest festival, it’s also one of the top three crime in the UK. The big focus is on readers listening to (and meeting!) the authors – I attended a few panels over the weekend and it always gives a refreshing insight into how other people’s brains work, and we had some inspiring chats in the bar afterwards.

#This Week

Okay, I really need to get this book done. I’ll be changing back to the tried and trusted method of just doing a sketch pass to get through to the end, then I’ll edit it. It’s going to swallow up this weekend, I can just feel it, but my head will be much happier when I get this off my plate. I had a couple of sticky bits where I needed to add some new stuff earlier, which fleshes the story out in some better ways, but working from a synopsis as opposed to a detailed outline hasn’t improved anything and I’ll go back to that for the next novel! If I don’t finish it this time next week, I will kick myself in the arse.

Okay, a short one this week, but I need to get my head in gear! Have a good one!

Cheers,

Ed