The to-do list

One of the basic principles of behaviour change is the pledge mechanic. If you get someone to commit to something out loud, they’re much more likely to go on and do that thing. People are very happy to lie to themselves and to back out of things, but we hate being seen as hypocrites.

I actually think the pledge is now over-utilised: we had a few years where every. single. ‘behaviour change’ campaign drove a ‘pledge!’ CTA, and that watered it down to the point of meaninglessness. Pledge overload? Maybe it was just the sheepishness with which everyone removed the black squares and rainbow flags from their profiles? If countries and politicians can pull out of treaties why can’t I go back on my word to stop impulse buying on Amazon?! Whatever the reason/s, public hypocrisy is now much more acceptable.

However, pledges to smaller groups of known people are still effective, if only because we know that they’ll be around in our lives to judge us if we fail.

I’m hoping that being transparent about my 2026 schemes and ambitions will act as a means of holding myself accountable. It is also a very long-form excuse for taking so long between newsletters.

Anthologies and books

• Anthology done and delivered! I sent back the copy-edits this week. (Things I, rather shamefully, got wrong: Pazuzu’s wings and the plot of Jane Eyre.) This project will be announced soon.

• Anthology out on submission (dead)

• A non-fiction anthology* in the pipeline.

• Non-fiction book pitch with my agent (back with me for rewrites)

Sharing an idea with one’s agent isn’t exactly scaling Everest, but it does involve exposing one’s hopes and dreams to a polite Canadian man who says ‘not quite there yet’ and then gently encourages one to start again. But getting this over the line is one of my main objectives for the year, and having his (annoyingly insightful) feedback is a great start.

*The internet says this would be called an ‘anthology of essays’ which goes to show that anthology (of stories) is the normative assumption. ‘Anthology’, continues the internet, comes from the roots for ‘collection of flowers’. Which absolutely says fiction or poetry to me. Maybe a non-fiction anthology should be a ‘lapidarium’, for a collection of polished stones?

Speaking of books… Anne’s book, Stay for a Spell (US / UK), has been getting rave reviews - probably because it is really good. Also, have you seen the special edition?! If you’re interested in special editions and bonus content and upcoming events (and Die Hard?…): try her newsletter.

Articles

• Book review published. (Spoilers: Kate Golden’s Half City is great.)

• Book review delivered.

• More book reviews pitched.

• ParSec columns scheduled.

• Food piece pitched. (rejected)

• Food piece delivered; awaiting publication.

• Food piece pitched. (ghosted)

• Food piece pitched.

Food writing is still new to me, but I think my pitches are improving, and so, hopefully, will my success rate. I’m trying to ration (pun?) my food pitches, as they’re still new to me, and the articles take more work to polish. Compared to, say, book reviews. I have twenty years of practice of those. Terrifying.

PIVOT

Serious things

• University lecture (communications strategy) delivered. I now conclude with an exercise where we invent conspiracy theories on the fly. It puts theory into practice and embeds critical awareness skills. Or it trains the next generation of Q. Either way, I hope the students remember me fondly.

• Conference talk (community cohesion) accepted; coming this summer.

• Report published. I’ve spent the last year as one of the Independent Commissioners on Inclusion and Belonging in a Multi-Ethnic Newham, and our final report was released in March. This was a great project to be a part of, and the conclusions are suitably ambitious. I may write more about this later. No pledges/promises.

• TEDx film coming this spring. I’m not sure when. I’m at the mercy of BIG TED. As I told my mom, ‘if it is good, I’ll send you a link. If not, I’ll never mention it again.’

END PIVOT 
BACK TO GOOFY STUFF

BBQ

• Judging in May.

• Competing at Beefstock in August.

• Competing at Smoke on the Waters in September.

• Finishing paperwork and admin for Kindling, including commissioning three two more articles for new issues. (One’s in.)

If time permits, I’ll probably judge a few more - or Paul and I will just tag along and hang out with our buddies. Kindling-wise, I’d like to have the new issues ready for the summer competitions.

Shelfies

• Keep it up.

Shelfies ticks along nicely. We now have a list of books, a list of contributors, and actual instructions for people interested in submitting their own shelfies. Eighteen months in, it is such an electic mix, but we’re also starting to see some books (hi, Piranesi!) appear on a few different favourite bookshelves.

what I’m reading (offline)

I have been objectively terrible at reading challenges for the past few years, but I’ve somewhat stumbled on two.

The first, I’ve mentioned before, is library-related. We are instilling Good Library Behaviour in the young goblin, and go every week. The Goblin gets some books and I get some books.

It turns out that our local library has a phenomenal collection of the Very Short Introductions series, and I check out a new one every week. Think of as the Very Short Renaissance Project. The Goblin chooses for me, which adds a certain element of dramatic tension. So far, topics have included: Pain, Home, Spartans, Superstition, Evil, The Suburbs, Citizenship, Decadence and Clausewitz. Which is sure a mix.

A couple have been genuinely great. (Clausewitz was fantastic.) But all of them have one or two sticky ideas in there.

The second is a Kindle house-cleaning. I have owned a Kindle since 2008. I still have my Gen 1 Kindle around because it is adorable and reminds me of that innocent time when Amazon was a slightly less obvious existential threat. That’s eighteen years of review reading, slush reading, manuscripts and awards submissions. Also reading challenges, late night ‘shopping’ trips to Project Gutenberg, chonky research documents, and test versions of my own books. Oh, and a lot of comics, as Comixology (RIP) was devoured by the Amazon machine at some point.

Anyway, early in January I spotted that I had 1870 ‘read’ items and 1916 ‘unread’ ones. I know! That stresses me out too! I will not get through all two thousand unread books this year, but I can get over the tipping point, so that R > TBR.

This has already lead to a lot of very strange reading - an 1895 Kosher cookbook? A Dragonlance module?! Ain’t She Sweet by Susan Elizabeth Phillips?! I honestly don’t know what goes through my head sometimes; this is white water rafting trip through two decades of fleeting obsessions.

Between these two challenges, my impulse shopping has declined a bit, which is undoubtedly rocking the bottom-line for the industry.

what I’m cooking

I’m pickling!

Last year saw me dabble in some strange culinary behaviours, and I think this probably rounds it off nicely. The URGE TO PICKLE is strong.

First, we now get a box o’ veggies every week that’s separate from our normal grocery order because it is fresher, cheaper and less plastic-wrapped. It is a LOT of veg, and I’m slightly twitchy about wastage. This has inspired a lot of stocks and soups, some of which are tasty and all of which smell terrible. Pickling is the next attempt.

Second, Paul and I have been working all year on perfecting a new dish for Perdido Street Bacon’s competitive BBQ repertoire. My suspicion is that something pickled might just be the secret ingredient it requires.

Third, it turns out, you can pickle, like, anything. I’m sure this won’t end badly at all.

Buster slinks by, reeking of vinegar.