Archive
Newsletter Archive
September 30, 2023
Back to the editing grindstone.
Hello again, {$name|default:'reader'}. Or welcome, if you're new!
I'm still having fun writing my flash fiction - just a quick reminder that they're always going to be available on my website markhoodauthor.com including their audio format. I've added some music now too, and I'm thinking they sound pretty good. If you want to, you can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, it should be listed everywhere by now.
I'm also getting on with editing the next 'Fairies' book, now that the second 'Martians' book is out. I wrote it quite some time ago, so it's odd to come back to it after so long. There are long sections I don't clearly remember writing, which is a peculiar feeling. That said, it can actually be quite useful, as reading it with fresh eyes lets me be a lot more dispassionate about it. I can be honest with myself about what works (and what doesn't) in a way that can be difficult when the writing process is still fresh in the mind.
So far, I'm enjoying it! Which is good, I'd hate to be coming back to it and discovering it really wasn't as good as I'd hoped. That's not to say there's not still room for improvement though...
Space News
Testing NASA's Mars Ascent Vehicle Rocket
An illustration of the Mars Ascent Vehicle in flight
The Ingenuity rover has been collecting samples from Mars for some time now, and dropping some of them in useful places over the surface. The plan is that they will be collected up and returned to Earth.
It's all part of a joint ESA / NASA plan, and a key component is getting those samples up from the Martian surface. This will be the job of the MAV, Mars Ascent Vehicle.
Right now they're testing models of it in a wind tunnel. But this isn't your ordinary wind tunnel, suitable for checking the efficiency of new aircraft designs. This one has to go considerably faster. Mach 5 (5 times the speed of sound, or 3,800 miles per hour) to be exact. Pushing that much air that fast is quite the engineering challenge in itself, and they can only manage it inside a space that's about 2 feet long and 14 inches across.
But the wind tunnel has pedigree. It's been used for years to test all manner of iconic rockets, from the earliest Redstone, Jupiter-C, and Saturn boosters, as well as space shuttle and the new SLS (Space Launch System) designs.
Once the samples are in orbit, they'll be transferred to ESA's Earth Return Orbiter to come back here - and we should get our hands on them in 2030 or thereabouts.
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.
A boxed set of firsts!
The Association of Rhode Island Authors proudly presents their first boxed set! Each author has contributed one book of an ongoing series. From the sandy wastelands of far-off world filled with magic, machines, and men to war torn edge of space to aliens invading Earth. There's a little something for everyone. We hope you enjoy sit back and enjoy the ride.
https://storyoriginapp.com/swaps/c04a73c2-4908-11ee-8ecf-a3c3a7a2e04f
A blend of hard biomedical science fiction with multicultural fantasy.
Lem's a mace-wielding teen space-ninja in a universe of sentient insectoids, purple jungles, and insane electromagnetic fields. She solves most problems by hitting harder, and never plays by her enemy's rules - until Jared Diebol captures her.
Diebol's the rising leader of an army uniting the galaxy by force. He believes the violent energy being Njande has "contaminated" Lem and her friends from another dimension, infiltrating their EEG signals to conquer the matter-based universe. Diebol's army usually kills contaminated people - but Diebol vows to cure Lem. When Diebol kidnaps Lem's family, he forces her to choose between the matter beings she loves and the energy person she adores. If Lem rejects Diebol's cure, her family dies - but if Lem cuts out Njande's energy, she opens our universe to a much darker thermodynamic attack.
The fate of the Universe, or the ones she loves?
The latest in my 'A to Z of British Myths and Legends'
C is for Cait sth
There was a cat on the garden wall. It sat, a large black shape, and peered into the small bungalow. The white blaze on its chest seemed to glow in the moonlight.
"Who's cat is that?" the husband asked his wife.
She just shrugged.
"He'd better not bother our Lola," he grumbled, went out and chased it off.
The next night, it was back with two ginger toms, one on either side. All sat vigil on the wall, silent and motionless. When the husband chased them off, they were reluctant to go.
He tried to keep Lola indoors the next day, but she wailed and cried until he relented and unlocked the cat flap. When she came in that evening, there were five cats on the wall, watching her.
"Is she in heat, or something?" he wondered.
"We had her done as a kitten, remember?" his wife said. "Besides, they're not chasing her. It's like they've come to visit."
He chased off four of the cats, but the original, the big black one, refused to move from its spot on the wall. It was still there when he went to bed.
The next morning, he threw back the curtains and shouted in alarm. The black cat was still there, unmoving. But now cats covered every inch of the low garden wall. The grass of the neatly trimmed lawn was invisible beneath the carpet of cats that had gathered. The flowerbeds sprouted cats where the prize roses had been, and only a narrow path led from the front door to the feet of the big black cat that had started it all.
He flung the door open, expecting them to flee, but they all turned silently as one and fixed him with a look so penetrating he stopped in his tracks. He didn't see the big black cat stalking towards him until it sat at his feet and stared into his soul.
"The King of the Cats is dead."
Cats can't talk, he thought. This is a trick. A prank, some sort of joke. A brushing against his leg made him look down to see Lola rubbing her head against him.
"I have to go," she said. The mass of cats parted to let her through, and she stalked among them as their Queen. Just as she reached the end of the garden, she turned back. "Thank you," she said, blinked long and slow, and hopped over the gate.
Strange News
The Quest for the Golden Owl
It might sound like the title of a rejected Harry Potter book, but this is a true-life story even stranger than fiction.
The linked article gives a wonderfully exhaustive, truly incredible narrative of the story - but I will summarise it briefly here.
Thirty years ago, Rgis Hauser buried a bronze sculpture of an owl somewhere in France. He did not say where, but announced that whoever found it could swap it for an identical sculpture cast in gold, and festooned with jewels. He left eleven mysterious riddles and puzzles as the only clues to where it was buried, and probably expected it to be found relatively quickly.
By 2021, it still hadn't been located, and some of the thousands of 'chouetteurs' (as the hunters called themselves) were beginning to doubt that it had ever really existed. Michel Becker, the artist who had created the sculpture, went to dig it up to prove that the search was still possible, and found... a rusty hunk of metal, and not his bronze owl.
He's since replaced that with another replica, and the hunt continues. But the story is fascinating, and the hunters can't even agree on what they disagree over. It seems that the story of the Golden Owl will continue for many years to come. You can even get involved yourself, and a great place to start is the semi-official website:
Source: Atlas Obscura
Other Books To Check Out
Get Free Sci-Fi!
A remarkable collection of free Science Fiction books.
Get these books fast -- this giveaway ends October 1st!
Miscellany
'How to write a myth' - useful for my ongoing project!
Source: kindlepreneur.com
Could you stand on the surface of Jupiter? And other remarkable facts about the outer planets.
Source: daily.jstor.org
An art project in Colorado that lines up with the summer and winter solstices.
Source: Atlas Obscura
And Finally
Winter seems to have come early here. As I write this we're picking up the leaves and branches brought down by storm Agnes (no major damage, luckily, she's just left things untidy). Lola the cat is unimpressed, the brief hot spell let her live outside almost 24x7 so being forced to retreat indoors with wet fur is something she has strong opinions about.
We do sometimes get wonderful cloud inversions though - it's nice to be in sunshine when the valley below is thick in the clouds...
