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November 11, 2023
Rings and things.
Hello again, {$name|default:'reader'}. Or welcome, if you're new!
This week has been an intense experience. There's a conference every year for writers, called '20 Books Vegas' which brings together some of the biggest names in independent publishing for a few days of talks, socialising and mutual support. As the name suggests, it's held in Las Vegas, but luckily for me it's also streamed over the web. The time zone change from Vegas to the UK means a lot of the presentations and panels occur during the night for me, but I've spent every morning catching up with the most interesting ones that I've missed the day before. And all without the risk of losing my shirt at the blackjack table. So my brain is fizzing with ideas, I'm freshly motivated to work even harder, and I'm completely inspired. My main priority is getting word of my books out there, since I know there's an audience for them. You're here because you liked what I wrote, or you were curious about 'Amy's Story' and decided to stick around, so thank you for that. If you have enjoyed something I've written, please tell a friend. Word-of-mouth is the best way to recommend something, and it would really help me out. If you want to go the extra mile, you could buy one of my books as a gift for someone! A few people have done so already, and requested signed copies with personalisation - which is extremely flattering. The easiest way to do that is via my store shop.markhoodauthor.com Or just enjoy this newsletter!
Space News
A YouTube video exploring the impact of rings on our planet.
What if the Earth had rings?
Saturn is probably the most instantly identifiable planet due to the gorgeous ring system that surrounds it. We can see it through even a modest telescope, and our probes have brought back some amazing images over the years. But what do they look like from underneath? Joe Scott wondered what it might be like to live on Earth if it had a ring system - and he went the extra mile to find out. He commissioned an animator to create probably the most scientifically accurate renderings of a ring system that the Earth could have had, and then continued thinking about what effect it might have on our climate, our politics and even our religions. So it's not just about the pretty images (although they are stunning). I was fascinated by how dramatically different our planet might be if we had rings.
Source: youtube.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.
Buy it now
Cover of 'The Hammond Conjecture' - a couple stand brandishing guns back to back in silhouette against the Earth from space.
A darkly comic tale of sex, drugs and quantum mechanics.
Are you sure you know who you are? If your memories disappeared and were replaced with someone else's, would you still be you? And what if those memories were not just from another person - but of a different world? Regaining consciousness in an isolation ward of catatonic patients, glimpsing the outside world only through a television news bulletin, that is the dilemma facing Hugh Hammond.
Gradually Hugh's memories return - of his life as an MI6 officer a decade earlier. But in a world where Britain is a hidebound society locked in a lonely Cold War against fascist-dominated Europe.
Are his memories false: delusions, or implanted as part of a mind-control experiment? Or was the television news fake - and if so, why?
Hugh types out his recollections: an adventure which takes him from an opium den in Limehouse, via a hippie encampment in British-occupied North France, to a State Reception for the Deputy Fhrer in the Durbar Court in Whitehall, and a Le Carr-style climax in the divided city of Paris.
Meanwhile in the hospital Hugh struggles to understand his predicament - and to escape from it. But escape only leads him into greater danger...
Buy it now
Cover of 'Don't Fade Away' - a screaming woman in a red dress.
What's the only thing worse than being stuck haunting a share house? Being ignored by the first person to sense your presence in years...
Ever since her unfortunate demise, Elle's been forced to watch her living housemates come and go with nothing to fill her days except a crush on longstanding housemate, Dean, who literally doesn't know she exists. Talk about unrequited love.
Just as she despairs at being stuck halfway to the other side for the rest of her afterlife, the newest resident sparks hope for something more.
As far as mediums go, Ethan barely knows he is one. He just wants a place to knuckle down and finish his degree. But as soon as he moves in, he senses a presence. He tries to ignore it - but Elle is insistent...
The more Ethan uncovers about Elle, the more he suspects her death was no accident. Can he help her move on before she really does fade away?
Strange News
A WWII safety poster used the idea of gremlins to personify carelessness.
Before they were famous: Gremlins
Say the word 'gremlin' to anyone today, and chances are they'd think of the 80s black comedy, not getting them wet and not feeding them after midnight. But they do have an earlier origin.
The fae have long been seen as troublesome, mischievous if not downright hostile to humans. Imps and goblins were blamed for sour milk, failed crops, missing items and doors left open. So by the time the aircraft was invented, they were already firmly established as the culprits of things that went wrong. During WWI, military pilots began to blame these mythical creatures for everything that went wrong with their aircraft. Since the plane had existed for less than a decade, it was perhaps unsurprising that lots of things failed with alarming regularity, and it wasn't perhaps required to appeal to a supernatural explanation. The first use of the word 'gremlin' appears to have been an RAF pilot in 1923, who crashed into the sea. According to one report:
he claimed that a diminutive band of monsters had jumped out of a beer bottle, created mayhem in the cockpit, and tampered with the engine, causing him to crash.
Putting aside what a beer bottle was doing in the cockpit (and whether the mundane contents of it might have been responsible for the crash) a myth was born. By the late 1920s the word 'gremlin' was widely known and understood. Its etymology is unclear, one popular theory holding that it's a combination of Grimm (of Fairy Tale fame) and Fremlin's beer - which seems too perfect to be likely. That said, the beer was popular with RAF crews, and Roald Dahl was an RAF lieutentant, lived in the same area as the brewery, and wrote his first children's novel on the subject of Gremlins....
Source: Atlas Obscura
Other Books To Check Out
Thankful for Science Fiction
Get these books fast! This promotion ends December 1st!
Grab an amazing read!
Aliens, spaceships, nanotech, VR, steampunk, galactic empires, holograms and more.
Miscellany
An aerial view of the Shenzhou-17 crewed spaceship launch
Source: youtube.com
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - told in emoji
Source: joehale.info
The folklore surrounding bees in Shropshire, my home county.
Source: nearlyknowledgeablehistory.blogspot.com
And Finally
I'd like to hear from you - how are you enjoying this newsletter? Is there one part you particularly enjoy, and would like to see more of? Or am I including something you skip over each time? Do you want more of me, talking about my writing? Or perhaps you prefer more of the links to send you off towards more diverse things to read and watch. Who knows, maybe I've got it just right, and you wait eagerly each fortnight for my latest message to drop into your mailbox! I'm curious to know, and so just hit 'reply' and I'll be waiting to hear from you!