INTRO

April in Scotland: sun, snow, hail, freezing winds, and general confusion. And that was just Sunday morning. Dawn creeps earlier and earlier, trying to see how early it can get away with starting the day.

This month, I have been writing non-stop. I took myself on a little writing retreat^* in March, which was productive and invigorating. Three days of walking along the side of an estuary, stopping to read or write whenever I felt like it, followed by retreating to a series of local breweries and pubs for a shockingly cheap drink and a lengthy writing session, enabled me to get quite a lot done. I’d like to do that more often, but the reality is that I simply can’t afford it. Even in cheaper towns, a few days away from home is expensive.

But, I was productive. It was worthwhile. And when your office looks like this, even the hard parts of writing are fun:

The high point of this little adventure came on my last evening. I was sat on a wall next to the estuary, eating dinner, when a sort of splashing and screaming noise came from the water behind me. I turned around to see a pair of otters engaged in a slap fight. It only lasted a few moments, and then the two of them stormed off in opposite directions, making an indignant “peep peep peep” noise. I’ve never heard animals sound quite so put out before.

Otters! They’re good!

^*_{Three nights in a cheap hotel in a different town.}

WHAT AM I WRITING?

When I started drafting this newsletter on Thursday, I was going to be pleased about passing the 25,000 word mark on Project RS. Since then, I've charged past 33,000 (I think. It's hand written, and my estimation of words/page is pretty approximate).

I usually hand write my first drafts. I'm not saying you should do the same, just that this is how I like to work, and it works well for me. Writing on paper helps me to be less precious about things: I can't go back and fiddle with every line, I just have to push forward with the draft.

The other main reason is in the edit: the act of typing up my handwritten draft pushes the whole thing through my brain a second time, so by the time the words make it into the computer, they've already had a pretty solid first edit, and my brain has fully engaged with them twice. It's like sifting the draft through a second, finer sieve to find the good bits.

In other news, I received notes on Project V from my first reader. I have not read them yet and do not know how critical they are. I'm not allowed to dive into that until I complete a first draft of Project RS! It's going to be a busy few months here.

WHAT AM I READING?

I've been reading A Lot of children's books lately, which has been lovely. While I was away, I encountered a big stack of Diana Wynne Jones books in a second-hand bookshop, priced at 75p each. (We don't get prices like that in second hand bookshops in Edinburgh).

Revisiting Diana Wynne Jones as an adult has shown me that yes, she really was one of the best ever to do it. There’s a clarity to her writing that never falters: complex fantasy vocabulary is introduced in ways that define terms and make pronunciation clear, always in elegant, diegetic ways. She wrote to be clear and supportive to a young audience, and never, ever talked down to them. We can all only dream of being so outrageously good at this as her.

WHAT AM I LISTENING TO?

I've been listening to Robyn's new album, Sexistential. It's a slight, joyful little thing that just sounds like she's having fun. And she deserves to have fun. Good for her.

Is it her best work? No. But that's hard when her best work is Body Talk, a strong contender for best album ever.

Have you listened to Body Talk recently? Here, have a listen to “U Should Know Better”, the song in which Robyn confesses to a string of international crimes while Snoop Dogg goes “yeah man she did it and she'd do it again”. Good stuff.

FRIENDS MAKING THINGS

The always-excellent L.D. Lapinski just released the third and final volume of their Artezans trilogy!

I’ve been reading a lot of middle grade fiction recently as part of my research process. This has been a mixed experience: there’s a lot of good stuff out there, and a lot of truly terrible work too. I had a run of reading several disappointing books in a row, and then I picked up the first Artezans, and the entire process felt worthwhile again. These are outstanding - sharp, sincere, fun, and specific. The Artezans books are, I think, the best current MG books I’ve encountered in a very long time.

If you’re looking for middle grade magic with a vibrantly alive Highland setting, a casually queer cast of characters, tight plotting, and clean, bright writing, you can’t do better than these. And now all three are out, there’s no better time to read all of them.

OUTRO

A short one this month, because I am exhausted. I hope you’re all less tired than I am.

One more thing: I'll be at Thought Bubble in November this year! Behind a table! It'll be my first time ever tabling at a convention, so… please be nice to me?

• Ollie, Edinburgh, April 2026

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