This week at the loch - 27/06/2025

It has been quite the week here! The smallest child was at safari park camp last weekend which was exciting for him and stressful for me. You’d think by kid 3 I’d be used to the separation anxiety when they first start staying away overnight and the like, but no. I’m not. It’s still just as hard as it was the first time.

The BFS online event day for World Fantasy Convention was a lot of fun with some really interesting panels. I especially enjoyed getting to chat with my panel on all things fantasy worlds and meeting Suniti Namjoshi, who was very lovely, and is one of the WFC Guests of Honour.

This week, I received proofs of Daughters of Nicnevin to go over and check for errors. There will be a few, there always are. I have no idea how typos manage to survive several rounds of editing to make it the proofs stage but they are tenacious. This is always one of those exciting milestone moments for me, when the book starts to feel real. It becomes separate from me and begins to belong to other people too. It’s a magical moment. And for the first time, there’s a ‘praise for’ page inside with nice things people have said about my writing, which is incredibly humbling.

I also saw this shared on social media on Wednesday, by The Highland Bookshop in Fort William, which is one of my favourite places to visit.

To see my book not only face out, but with a shelf-talker, is just a dream come true. I’m so glad that people are reading it and enjoying it, even though it’s a pretty niche myth, even within Scotland.

This week also saw my middle kid leave primary school, which is a big step. Since their nursery was attached to their primary school, it’s been eight and a half years in the same place. so finishing up was emotional for everyone.

Today sees the first day of the school summer holidays, which means my productivity will take a hit for the next 7 weeks. But it also brings me ever closer to my planned start time for the new book. My head is so full with it just now, I can’t wait.

What I’m working on - Today I finished the developmental edit which has taken up most of my working hours this week. The book is amazing! Next up is the reconciliation phase of another edit I did recently. That’s when an author sends it back after making changes and I do another read-through to make sure the changes haven’t introduced any errors. That will pretty much take me up to holiday time. If I can, I’ll try to sneak in some writing to finish up the two short stories I was working on, get them into their final shape so that I can put the finishing touches on the collection and get another project off my desk.

What I’m reading - I’m currently beta reading an early draft of a novel by one of my friends. It’s the sequel to one I read a few months ago, which just got them an agent. Adventurous SF with a sapphic love story woven through it.

What I’m watching - Still on Charmed but starting to lose interest in it. Although, I’ve just watched the end of season 3, which had enough of a cliff-hanger to pull me forward for one more season, Not sure it’ll last beyond that though. It has moments of really good writing, but I think they’re too spread out to keep me invested.

What I’m listening to - The latest episode of the BFS Podcast, Long Story Short with A.K. Faulkner, who is always entertaining: BFS Podcast: Long Story Short – The British Fantasy Society

Something Interesting - The British Fantasy Awards shortlists were announced this week and there are some incredible titles on there: British Fantasy Awards 2025: Shortlist Announced! – The British Fantasy Society. Any you’ve read and loved?

Coming Up - I’m doing some work around building my online presence and author brand and all that kind of thing - which is fairly torturous as I’m a massive introvert. But it’s part of the job, so I want to at least try and do it well. Which is why I’ve hired a coach to help me get things in order. If you’re reading this and you have five minutes to fill in a survey, I’d really appreciate your thoughts to help us figure out where I am and where I can go from here. Branding Shona Kinsella, the author