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Newsletter Archive
January 7, 2023
Happy New Year!
Hello there, Reader.
It's a new year, and presumably by now you're already sick of the 'Best of 2022' roundups. I know I am, and so I won't be inflicting one on you. I watched some great TV and movies, heard some great music, and read some great books. How about you?
Seriously though, word of mouth is a great way to help out an author. Think about the favourite book you read last year, or a beloved one you keep coming back to time and again. Now think about how you heard of it in the first place. I think every book I love has come from a recommendation by a friend or family member, with exceptions I can count on the fingers of one hand. I first heard about (and then fell in love with) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy because a school teacher mentioned it one day, and the idea intrigued me so much that I made a beeline for the library to check it out. Thanks Mrs Wong!
So while another 'here's what I loved in 2022' list might bore you, take a moment to tell a friend about a book you loved last year. Lend them your copy, or buy one and send it to them. A personal recommendation carries so much more weight than a good review, or being stuck on a handful of year-end blog posts.
My own recommendation is at the end of this newsletter - I hope you enjoy it! But if you've not read the Hitchhiker's Guide series... I heartily endorse those too!
Space News
Nasas Perseverance Rover Deposits First Sample on Mars Surface
One of the primary objectives for the Perseverance rover on Mars is to prepare samples for a future return to Earth. I've written before about how we can do a lot more science in a well-stocked lab here than we can ever hope to with a robot on Mars (although what we can do there is remarkable) so this is a vital step in understanding whether life ever existed there. Recently the first of those samples was placed, ready to be collected by a future mission. And while I don't think that the capsule needed to look like a lightsaber, I love that it does.
Perseverance's first sample capsule, lying on the surface of Mars.
The attention to detail that was required is absolutely stunning - the engineers had to check that the tube hadn't rolled under the wheels of the rover, in case they ran it over. And there's some lovely gifs in the linked article showing them testing the sample drop here on Earth.
Source: NASA Mars Exploration Program
Other Books To Check Out
I've gathered a few great books from independent authors like me, I hope you'll check them out.
And let me know if you have any books to recommend! I'm particularly interested in indie authors, but anything you've read and loved would be awesome.
Beast Be Gone
Free
Terry Pratchett meets Ghostbusters in an RPG world
Beast Be Gone is a comedic fantasy fiction that follows Eric, a pest control agent in a fantasy world plagued by adventurers who are putting him out of a job.
A Fading Star
Free
Will humanity unite to save a dying Earth?
Earth is dying. Ravaged by disease, hunger, climate change and world wars. Can humanity unite to avoid extinction?
In 2153, cancer was cured. In 2189, AIDS. It seemed like humanity was headed for the stars.
Global population soared, surpassing 24 billion. Then came the floods, washing over Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Mumbai, Jakarta, Dhaka and New Orleans. Then a fourth world war, with 289 million casualties. Frequent droughts plague Los Angeles, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Melbourne, Mexico City, So Paulo, Stockholm, Vienna and Moscow. Now humanity teeters on the brink of extinction.
TBD
SFF Book Bonanza!
A selection of the finest speculative fiction, free for a limited time.
A Science Fiction and Fantasy giveaway, literally dozens of free books which means there's something here for everyone. It's neatly categorised too, so it's never been easier to find your idea read!
Pick up a couple today, and then drop the author a line, telling them what you think! Believe me, it really makes a writer's day when they get an email like that.
Strange News
The Sea-Witches of Grado, Italy
New Year traditions are some of the oldest in existence. It seems we've always wanted to mark the change of a year with some festival, celebration or ceremony. And the co-mingling of pagan traditions with religious ones can result in some rather unusual events.
The Feast of the Epiphany is a Christian celebration on January 6th, commemorating the day when the Magi visited Jesus, bringing gifts. Despite what the carols would have you believe, there may not have been three of them, and they weren't kings.
But the town of Grado marks the night before Epiphany with an invasion of witches from the sea.
These days it's little more than an excuse for some fun and games, but in the middle-ages the risks of piracy from the same waters was all too real. As with many of these traditions, the exact origins are lost to time, but the intermixing of ancient solstice celebrations, half-remembered dangers and religious dates have come together to form a unique event that can even teach children that their fears can be conquered.
Sea-witches row ashore from the Adriatic, Italy.
Source: Atlas Obscura
Miscellany
Is 'Auld Lang Syne' sung in America because of a fraternity?
How did a Scottish folk song become the staple of New Year's celebrations in the USA? It's possible it's a remarkable coincidence involving a fraternity fight song, a cigar manufacturer and a Canadian band.
Source: Atlas Obscura
The Wicked Bible
In Exodus 20:14, which includes a list of the Ten Commandments, the "not" got left out of "Thou shalt not commit adultery." The consequences proved swift and severe. The discovery of another error (God's Great Arse instead of God's Greatness) suggests it might have been sabotage by a rival printer.
Source: Ripley's Believe It or Not!
An undeciphered language you can write in
The ancient Minoans are believed to have written in a script we call 'Linear A'. Unlike its descendant Linear B, we don't know how it sounded or even what the samples we have mean. Partially this is because we have the equivalent of less than two sides of paper to work on. Nevertheless, the glyphs have been included in Unicode, so you can bash away on your keyboard and be sure that whatever you wrote will be just as hard to understand.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
And Finally
Here's that book recommendation I promised.
Most ideas fade away when we're done with them. Some we love enough to become Real. But what about the ones we love, and walk away from?
Tippy the triceratops was once a little girl's imaginary friend, a dinosaur detective who could help her make sense of the world. But when her father died, Tippy fell into the Stillreal, the underbelly of the Imagination, where discarded ideas go when they're too Real to disappear. Now, he passes time doing detective work for other unwanted ideas - until Tippy runs into the Teatime Man, a nightmare monster who can do the impossible: kill an idea permanently. Now Tippy must overcome his own trauma and solve the case, before there's nothing left but imaginary corpses.
Source: ares.watch