Merch, socialising, sourdough and progress

33. Thursday 12 February 2026

This morning, I finished reading version 3 of Crime Writing for Beginners. I am significantly happier with the book as a whole than I expected to be.

                Also exciting is that I gave the first three chapters to my friend and writing buddy, Narissa, to read and we met up this morning and had a chat about my story so far. I am so, so glad I asked her to read it. It is definitely the right time to have feedback and I can’t fully convey how much I enjoyed being able to talk about the story and my characters. I know she’s going to be biased and I know she has heard updates on this book since it was a germ of an idea, but I am still happy to accept all her positives and enthusiasm. Fortunately, she did also tell me some things she was confused or unsure about and which she thought were unnecessary. All very useful, constructive criticism. Also interesting that she picked up on more inadvertent clues than I expected. I say “inadvertent” because I now realise that writing the story three times has really got me to know my characters and my story so I’ve been able to write relevant information without having to plant most of it. Unlike the first version of this book, I also knew exactly what happened to the victim and the ending.

                No one ever read my second, third or fourth novels. I now completely understand how that is why they were never brought to life in the way the last two have been. The first one, as I’ve talked about before, kind of doesn’t count, though a friend of mine did read it and give feedback.

                Something Narissa and I got giddy talking about was (as if) merch! Within the first three chapters, there is reference to a tote bag that Marie, the instructor, has made for everyone. I describe the tote bag. Narissa drew a picture of what she imagined it to be like (we reckon it should be the front cover!), which wasn’t quite what I imagined it to be like. That was fun. And then she suggested pin badges with some of the characters’ quotes. With this book, more than any others, I have tried to give each character their own vocabulary and expressions. So far, my favourite merch badges would say “This is ludicrous” (Eric) and “Just put them” (Marie). It was a highly entertaining conversation!

In other news, I’m back in London, I’ve seen my mum (she’s kind of ok) and managed to catch up with five friends. I have made two more sourdough loaves (which was excessive but I got excited by how perfect the ambient temperature in the flat is for the starter, so I made two loaves with it and had to give away two halves, ie half of each loaf) and I’ve walked for miles, which has been great. I’ve now realised that I’m kind of on holiday as I’ve finished reading my book and need to take a break from it. But that said, now the book reads better than I expected and I’ve appreciated some really positive feedback, I’m looking forward to getting back to Scotland and getting on with editing … no more rewrites!

Walking towards Canary Wharf this morning. I took this photo because it really struck me how different the scenery is around London compared to Scottish Borders (I know, I know, that's not exactly surprising, but I appreciate both for, also unsurprisingly, very different reasons).