The smell of satsumas

And news of brilliant debut novels, plus a Creative Hour this Sunday.

Paying subscribers can hear me read this aloud here or on any podcast app.

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Satsumas make me feel joyful. They give me a pleasant, Christmassy high, even in the least festive context. I just peeled one and ate it, segment by segment, while standing in my cold kitchen eyeing yesterday’s scrambled-egg pan. Even that lifted my spirits. Now I’m at my desk typing, and I can smell the oil of the rind on my skin, and it’s like a small, free gift of happiness.

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I find it hard at the moment to sit at my laptop and do anything other than work on my manuscript – which is a problem, because I have other urgent things to do that also involve the laptop, such as copywriting; my tax return; and ordering Christmas gifts. Part of this compulsion to get on with the book comes from wonderful excitement about it, but a lot of it is just plain old deadline anxiety: I can’t leave it alone until it’s done.

I’ve been tracking my progress with a spreadsheet, which I guess wouldn’t be for everyone, but it definitely calms me down. It’s colour-coded, and as it stands today, three of the chapters have turned green, but the other seven are yellow. Green means ready, although they’re not really ready – that’s just a device to cheer myself up. Still, they’re readier than the yellow ones. Now and then, I look at a picture I saved of the spreadsheet a month ago: only two chapters were green, and three were purple (not good). So it’s moving in the right direction.

The goal at this stage of the book is not to make it longer, but to make it better, and a lot of what I’m doing is having stern words with myself about things that I like but need to delete anyway. Sometimes I worry that I’m going to delete so many not-good-enough bits, it’s going to turn into a leaflet.

Anyway, I’m sending other writers all love and solidarity, from my desk to yours. Let me know how your current thing is going:

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I’m on the Debut Fiction judging panel for the Nero Book Awards this year. The category winner won’t be revealed until January, but the shortlist was announced a couple of weeks ago, and here it is in alphabetical order:

• The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa by Stephen Buoro

• The New Life by Tom Crewe

• Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth

• Close to Home by Michael Magee

It’s hard to talk about the shortlist without revealing personal favourites, but they’re all so good. There are overlapping themes in there: desire, shame and prejudice run through Buoro, Crewe and Howarth’s books – then Close to Home, Sunburn and Andy Africa all have young protagonists who are trying to balance family attachment with an urgent need to cast off. I suppose all four books are about feeling different, isolated, and trapped. I don’t know if that says something about where we are in 2023 as readers and writers, or if these are just the eternal themes that bother humans.

Anyway, everyone likes getting books for Christmas, so do have a look at the shortlists across all categories and see if there’s something in there for someone you love (possibly you).

I’ve added the debut shortlist to my In Writing bookshop too, along with some other favourite recent reads. If you’re in the UK and order books here, ten percent of your cash will go to independent booksellers, and ten percent to keeping In Writing going (thank you).

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I’m hosting an In Writing Creative Hour this Sunday 10th December at 5pm UK time (timezone converter here, so you can figure out what time to show up if you’re not in the UK). If you’re a paying subscriber, you’ll get the Google Meet link in your inbox several hours beforehand.

I’ll probably spend the hour trying to edge some rows on the spreadsheet closer to green; maybe I’ll bring a satsuma for morale. Hope to see you there.

Good luck with your writing this week!