If you were here, looking at my desk, glancing at my monitors, assessing my whiteboard notes, you’d be forgiven for thinking that we’re back in 2012. The Light Heart of Stone was published that year, but bits of it are all around my office.

Last year I had the good fortune to come across Midnight Voss, an editor who specialises in genre fiction. She reviewed The Light Heart of Stone and The Rush of Stone (the second book in the series) and set me to work. New chapters, character revisions, plot adjustments.

The work has pushed me to refresh and extend my writing skills.

I wonder whether you’ve been going through something similar: a renewal or a change in your professional life? Let me know on Instagram or Facebook.

Book Recommendation

It’s been years since I read a spy novel. I think the most recent was a John le Carré and I remember being vaguely confused by the twists and turns. Not my thing at all. But Slow Horses is a delight. The seedy characters are contemporary, but are all suffering from cold war hangovers.

Read this for pleasure, but if you’re interested in writing as a craft, you can read this for Herron’s skills. He does a beautiful job anchoring the characters physically. He uses slabs of exposition without a leaden hand. He has multiple points of view and short scenes but you don’t get lost or irritated.

Slow Horses is Book 1 in the Slough House series.

Podcast

Patrick Bonello and I are deep in Season 2 of OK Smart-ass. 

The podcast continues to be a really terrific way to keep up with tech news.

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