I spent Monday down in Brighton visiting my friend Vicky, who I haven’t actually seen face to face for a ludicrous amount of time. Astoundingly, we have known each other for 26 years, since I was a reporter on MacUser magazine, and she was an editorial assistant on Macworld, our biggest rival. We used to bump into each other at press things, then in Camden, back before it became a hellscape of tourist nonsense.
She moved down to Brighton after I did back in 1998 – she eventually introduced me to Alice, a homeless girl who became my flatmate at exactly the right time to pull me out of some major doldrums. As is occasionally my way, we had lost touch after I moved into London – but now with the time and space to not feel like my entire life is about work, I’m gradually getting back in touch with people. And it was great fun, although my feet hurt afterwards (you walk a lot in Brighton!)
Tuesday was, of course, the Apple event. There wasn’t anything there which made me want to rush out and buy a new watch or phone – I’m happy with what I’ve got, and I suspect that the next time I buy a phone it will be something more repairable like the Fairphone 5 rather than another iPhone. I’m somewhat done with glued together devices which end up being shredded when all that’s wrong with them is a broken port.
One Wednesday I had a session with my coach, which sounds a lot more la-de-dah than it actually is. Since leaving Bauer, I have had a few sessions with her to look at the kind of work that I want to do in the future, starting with working on what my values are. I’m past the point where I’m going to hold my nose and commit myself to a permanent relationship with a company that doesn’t share my values. We also took a long look at what I’m actually good at and how that relates to what I enjoy.
All this is stuff that you just don’t get much time to think about when you’re in a full-time job, so it’s been good to have the time to do it. Fundamentally, I’m good at leading teams through difficult times, whether that’s a change of strategy, structure, management or just a changing market. I’m good at getting people pointed in the right direction, and understanding the emotional needs they have – if you understand what people’s emotional needs are, it’s a lot easy to get them performing as part of a team.
We often discuss processes and structures and all the “scientific” bit of leadership, but we often forget that people are driven as much by their emotions as their rationality. The best performing teams are in a safe, secure place: without a feeling of safety, people cramp up and underperform. And that’s an emotional thing.
Thursday was my mum’s birthday. Mum passed away a few years ago, but she would have been 92, which sounds all kinds of weird. I know I’ll never stop missing her, no matter how old I get.
Yesterday I was back in London at a workshop about horror writing with Hardeep Pandai and David Steans, which was fascinating. One thing which came out is the relationship between horror and comedy. I think the archetype of this is Iain Banks’ magnificent first novel, The Wasp Factory. It’s a colossally horrific book (The Irish Times memorably described it as “a work of unparalleled depravity”) but also filled with black humour, and in some ways the humour acts to draw the reader in. There’s part of everyone that loves Frank Cauldhame because he’s just funny and the things he does are as much baroque comedy as horror.
I’ve always thought that The Wasp Factory is a massively underrated book. While people still talk about Brett Easton Ellis’ American Psycho, Banks’ book is overshadowed by his later science fiction work and some of his more literary novels. In some ways, I don’t think Iain wrote a more perfect book, and if I ever write something that’s even a tenth as affecting, I’ll be a very lucky human.
Things I have been reading
I’m slowly trudging my way through Neal Asher’s War Bodies, having given up on it after about 20 pages. If I were sensible, I would just drop it, but I hate not finishing books – it’s a bad habit to get into – and I’m determined to get to the end. It’s not that it’s bad, or at least not as bad as I thought after 20 pages. But it’s pretty clear that Neal has run out of road with the “Polity universe” it’s set it. Of course, when you have a universe that readers love, it’s all too tempting to go back into it for both creative (there’s always something else to explore) and commercial (publishers will want you to do it) reasons. But sometimes things run their course, and I think the Polity is done.
I would really love Neal to go back and write something more around the universe of Cowl, though. I think that’s his best book, with one of the best ideas around time travel I have ever read.
Things I have been writing
I wrote a piece of micro-fiction about a man who turns himself into a crab, which is about as bizarre as it sounds. I also started some notes about a story which involves Greek mythology, werewolves, and some interesting mystery elements. What’s fascinating is that I don’t know yet how its genre might play out: the background I’ve started writing could easily flex to being a weird crime novel or a straightforward horror. More work required before I actually start writing (which is always what I’m tempted to do!)
I also wrote something about how the recently released properties feature in Obsidian could end up a game changer for how it can be used. I’ve got a much longer post about the plugins I use for Obsidian to make it a good environment for writing, which just needs an intro writing before it’s ready to be published. Maybe this week.
