A fortnight since my last update, and it’s been heads down all the way. Two major deadlines, two smaller ones and a unexpected bonus job have kept me incredibly busy — but given that it’s the culmination of three months of work, I can’t really complain. It’ll certainly be nice to get paid.

The last couple of weeks have taught me something about discipline, and I’ve been trying to stick to office hours (more or less) so that I don’t end up screwing myself over. This has been difficult: not least because writing longform pieces has always troubled me. All that empty space!

Now, though, I’ve realised that I was always coming at it from a newspaper angle before: writing so lean that you are always stretching out to fill wordcount. Now, I write long and then trim the fat off — a much more satisfying and productive way to do it. Four thousand words for a magazine sounds like a lot, but when you’ve got a lot more material than you really need, and a lot more to say, it suddenly feels like it barely scratches the surface. That’s why people spill out into books, I suppose.

In between, there has been much fun: welcoming our friends from Norway (that’s not a euphemism), watching the “gender illusionists” of AsiaSF, drinking, building out @IfYouOnly, sunshine, fog, playing a bit of pool, and much more.

Anyway, the fruits of both Project Moke and Project Olana are unlikely to surface before November, but it’s gratifying to have got it out of the way. And once Olana is finally filed, we are going to head off for a couple of weeks of trains, which should be exciting. I’ll still be working, but on the move.