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July 8, 2023
Notes, rivers and bedsheets
Hello again, {$name|default:'reader'}. Or welcome, if you're new!
I've had some more feedback from the beta reading crew, and I've got some work to do on the edits. Luckily there's still nothing too complicated to handle, mostly some minor inconsistencies and a few tweaks to a handful of scenes. Once again the overall consensus is that it's a good book, and just needs a little massaging to make it even better. That work will begin in earnest this week.
Last weekend we went to a local bookshop, for the start of their summer sale. They have a gigantic warehouse stuffed with books, and for the sale they opened an annex filled with 50p 'specials'. I found something quite exciting, which you can read about on my blog.
Author's notes for the next edition, something very familiar to me - I did much the same while editing my dark Urban Fantasy book, The Fairies Want Me Dead:
Draft copy of the book with notes sticking out of the pages.
And yes, that is a 'properly' printed paperback - it can actually be cheaper to send it to one of the 'print on demand' places than to run your home printer. Not to mention the sensation of holding a real book in your hands is still unbeatable. It helps with the editing too - the font is different to what you wrote in, the layout changes, and it all makes it easier to spot mistakes. Plus you can experience the book more as a reader will, which can also help you find the improvements you need to make.
Space News
Nasa Perseverance Rover River Mars
Illustration of Jezero Crater, Perseverance rover's landing site, as it may have looked billions of years ago, when it was a lake. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
It's well established science by now that Mars once had free water flowing over the surface, but there is a lot we still don't know. How much water, and how fast did it flow? The Perseverance rover is still trundling away despite some recent setbacks and has been working to answer that question. Mosaic images have shown collections of coarser sediments and even some cobble stones. All of this suggests a high volume flow, able to carry larger rocks. That said, the science hasn't been entirely settled yet. While the formations and debris do suggest fast-moving rivers, the features are a lot larger than might be expected. While there isn't another, more plausible, explanation for what they see, it's going to take a lot more research and investigation to answer the question once and for all. And even then, there will be still more questions raised. Most pressingly, was there ever life there? And if so, what did it look like?
Source: skyatnightmagazine.com
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.
Free!
So often it's the forgotten who possess the power to change the world.
When an attempt is made on the life of Ashara, Keeper of Yurr, his young, hapless advisor Edvar must uncover and stop those behind it. With enemies in the capital city and the belligerent Tesh, Keeper of neighboring kingdom Karrabar stirring trouble in the Borderlands, can Edvar hold together Ashara's brittle reign?
The troubles ripple throughout Yurr, affecting an ancient race of people known as the Amast, who in their time of utmost need, turn to pariah Isy for salvation. Rejected by society, kith and kin, can Isy guide the Amast to safety during the greatest turmoil Yurr has known since the War of the Damned?
Free!
A Kat Drummond Short Story
If there's one thing I hate more than anything, it's the undead.
So, just my luck that I've got a ghost living rent-free inside my head...
When I was just a kid, my parents were sacrificed by a necromancer. I survived. Barely.
But, the ordeal left me hating two things - necromancers and the undead they bring into the world.
Fast forward years later and I've been possessed by a ghost! But, Treth of Concord isn't just any ordinary ghost. He's proud, chivalrous and a knight from another world.
Now, with his counsel and some cheap swords I bought on the internet, I hunt the undead of Hope City. For honour, for vengeance, and maybe just a hefty bounty.
Free!
Some people deserve to die. Marci Kovcs chooses who.
Budapest, AD2132. In a city this big, opportunities for promotion are rare unless you're willing to do anything, and Kovcs is. As an Adjudicant, he oversees state computer MARTHA's Employee liquidation program. The winners get a shot at eternal life. The rest end up as statistics.
MARTHA is infallible-so Marci believes. That's until colleague Alex discovers eighty-three murders concealed in her archives. The link? All had friends or relatives who vanished overnight. No mean feat in a sealed city.
But Alex and Marci aren't the only ones intent on learning the truth. And the deeper they delve, the closer they come to unravelling a conspiracy that threatens the lives of millions-starting with their own.
Readers Thrills Giveaway
From now until 22nd July you can get a variety of thrilling reads in almost any genre imaginable. And even better, they're totally free!
Strange News
A grisly love note embroidered in hair
It's fair to say that today we have (at least in the Western World) a fairly remote connection to death. While we all experience it eventually, the actual details are often kept at arm's length. This was not always the case, and some of the practices that were once common-place can seem morbid or gruesome to our modern eyes. I suspect that even in the 18th Century, this particular item might have raised some eyebrows. James Radclyffe was executed in 1716 for rebelling against the King of England during the Jacobite Rebellion the year before. After his execution by beheading, his heart was sent to an Augustinian convent, but the rest of his body - including his head, now sewn back on - went to his wife. Up to this point, it was all fairly standard practice. What was unusual was that Anna Maria Radclyffe embroidered a note in her husband's hair (and some of her own). And the fabric she used was the bedsheet from his prison cell in the Tower of London. A sheet which she herself may have shared with him, on a visit - and where their daughter might have been conceived. While taking locks of hair from a deceased loved one was quite common - and continued well into Victorian times, which had their own macabre-to-modern-eyes practices - using it to commemorate the execution of a traitor was unusual enough that the sheet has survived to this day.
Source: allthatsinteresting.com
Miscellany
Lego Mars Rover
I've already built the Apollo V and the LEM... but I really do want to get my hands on this lovely kit. It even includes the Ingenuity helicopter!
Source: lego.com
'I Made War of the Worlds'
A down on his luck podcaster decides to recreate the panic around the Orson Welles radio broadcast. Looks very interesting, and some nice little references in the trailer.
Source: youtube.com
Better than Gutenberg
Standard eBooks take out-of-copyright books (via The Gutenberg Project) and reformat them into beautiful eBooks. Their editorial process is very strict, and the end results are very high quality works of art - and completely free!
Source: standardebooks.org
And Finally
We've been enjoying the cooler weather since the last newsletter, it's nice to have the house below 25C, especially when you're trying to sleep at night. But the last few days have been unseasonably cool for July, and we've actually had to pop the heating back on once or twice! Still, it means I can work in the garden without overheating or burning to a crisp.
While I'm working, I've been listening to this album a great deal since it came out. It's a concept album (though not as self-indulgent as the 70s and 80s Prog-Rock heyday) which has a lot to say about internet culture. Well worth a listen, if you ask me.
Source: youtube.com