Catch-up
It’s been a busy few weeks. Work has been full-on and fitting writing around it has been challenging. I’ve left the structural edit of The Clockmaker Conspiracy alone for now while I am now in the swing of writing out the draft of a follow-up to The Canongate Containment. I’m effectively doing NaNoWriMo in October rather than doing so during November. The novel writing month of November has never suited me and I’ve previously wrote a draft in October and same again this year. It’s going fine. Despite having a plan, my characters are going off at tangents and doing their own thing, eventually coming back round to where I had imagined them to be.
I found a Robin outside this morning. It appears pretty ill. It’s not been attacked by a cat as far as I can tell. It’s breathing is laboured and is staying still. I’ve brought it in the house and put out some birdseed and water. If the poor wee soul is going to pass on, better in my house than outside where a cat is likely to grab it.
I attended a Cyber Security conference in Glasgow which by all accounts has been one of the best in recent years. I stayed to the end as did most folk. You tend to get folk drifting off after lunchtime, but the program held the attention of most delegates to the end. Good to catch up with people and hear some really interesting talks.
I presented at an E-Crime conference. I was the keynote speaker, so very excited and nervous for that. This was all remote. I had to pre-record my session which was entitled Dark Academia: Shining a light on cyberattacks. I talked about the challenges we face in education with keeping our systems secure from compromise. I had talked for AKJ Associates in previous years so it was nice to be asked back. I did a live session for them in London in March 2020 entitled Cybercrime in the Movies where I talk about what cybercrime is like in reality and how it is portrayed in the movies. A lot of fun. I’m scheduled to give an updated version of this talk during awareness week in November at The University of Edinburgh.
That time in London was weird. Just as the pandemic was starting and shortly before lockdown. In the evening I had walked down to the local supermarket to buy a bottle of wine and the shelves were empty of toilet roll and pasta. When I got the train back up to Edinburgh (it was a Wednesday lunchtime) walking from Waverley station to my office, the town was strangely quiet. I remarked to my manager and he agreed. He suggested I pack up my stuff and head home and no need to come back in. Lockdown was imminent. I travelled light anyway and did not have anything personal in the office. I went in with a backpack with my laptop and cup and left in the evening with the same stuff. I operated a clean desk policy. So that’s what I did. It was another sixteen months before I was back in the office for a day. Now I’m in office one day a week unless I have something in particular I need to do. World of work has changed forever. I like working from home and will no doubt blog more on this later.
Other than that I’m giving talks on cyber every week as part of my role, and have also accepted several invites to talk around the University which is great. I’m still debating whether to query The Canongate Containment or publish it now. I still don’t have a cover I’m happy with. I’m halfway through the six books that make up the Dune series by Frank Herbert. I’ve found it a challenging read, but enjoying it.
I started writing this early morning and then started work. Now it’s lunchtime I can report that the Robin made a full recovery and I watched them fly out my window and off into the trees. It’s been a good day.
The Fiction Factory 