Hello there, {$name|default:'reader'}. I hope you're having a great week.

I've continued my little foray into YouTube guides, and am really enjoying them! You can now follow a step-by-step sequence to set up your own website and newsletter, something I know a lot of authors stumble with. I won't belabour the point, since I know a lot of my readers aren't authors, but for those who are, here you go. Let me know what you might want to see next.

Spring is officially here (although the brussel-sprout sized hailstones that pounded us on Wednesday might disagree) and the trees are budding, daffodils are already in bloom, and there are lambs all over the place. Living so high up, we do see a couple of weeks difference between spring arriving in the valley and it showing its face on the hilltop, but no matter how long it takes to make it here, it's always a welcome sight. And with Easter being so early this year, and the clocks changing in the UK tonight, we might actually feel like winter is behind us.

On to longer and brighter days!

Space News

Total Eclipse of the Sun

Every year on Earth there are at least two solar eclipses, and there can be as many as five. Most are partial, and only visible in remote areas, but sometimes they happen where people can easily see them...

And next month, the USA gets their second in seven years.

While an absolutely mesmerising sight, they are also an opportunity to do some real science. It gives us a change to examine the Sun's corona which is normally invisible to us here on Earth, for example.

And in May 1919 one gave us a chance to test Einstein's Theory of Relativity.

Bear in mind that this less than a year after the end of the Great War, a time when anything of German origin was still viewed with suspicion. And yet in the interests of science, two teams from the British Royal Astronomical Society set out to South America and Southern Africa to observe these eclipses and prove Einstein right.

By observing stars very close to the Sun while it was obscured, the teams were able to detect the apparant movement caused by the star's gravity, and confirm that it was in agreement with Einstein's theory, and not Newton's.

While obviously this alone wouldn't mend the wounds of war, and another world-encompassing conflict was only a few short decades away, this went a long way to encouraging the kind of international cooperation that massive scientific projects today still need.

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.

https://storyoriginapp.com/swaps/511ef3d6-e85b-11ee-8f34-db8d074a253a

12 Sci-Fi Authors Save the World A near-future hopepunk anthology

Free

We're a world beset by crises. Climate change, income inequality, racism, pandemics, an almost unmanageable tangle of issues. Sometimes it's hard to look ahead and see a hopeful future.

We asked sci-fi writers to send us stories about ways to fix what's wrong with the world. From the sixty-five stories we received, we chose the twelve most amazing (and hopefully prescient) tales.

Dive in and find out how we might mitigate climate change, make war obsolete, switch to alternative forms of energy, and restructure the very foundations of our society.

The future's not going to fix itself.

https://storyoriginapp.com/swaps/264105ba-df90-11ee-a372-2f40592956f5

UBL

Experience the electrifying thrill of survival in "The Race," the heart-pounding first instalment of Joan De La Haye's gripping series. Follow Joanna Perry, an unsuspecting victim thrust into a world where life hangs in the balance, as she embarks on an unimaginable journey.

When Joanna's life takes a terrifying turn, she finds herself drugged, violently abducted and forced into a deadly contest for the entertainment of the world's elite. With her own survival on the line, she must confront her limits in a twisted game orchestrated by the rich and depraved.

As the stakes reach unprecedented heights, Joanna must tap into her inner strength and navigate treacherous terrain where each step could be her last. Will she embrace her newfound ferocity and outsmart her merciless adversaries, or will she succumb to the darkness that surrounds her?

"The Race" delivers an adrenaline-fueled narrative that will leave readers breathless. With its breakneck pace and relentless action, this quick read is a perfect fit for fans of pulse-pounding tales like "The Hunger Games," "Gladiator," and "The Running Man." Brace yourself for a rollercoaster ride of danger, courage, and the fight for freedom.

Enter a world where survival is the ultimate triumph, where glory exacts a deadly cost, and the race for Joanna's life, glory, and gold brook no mercy. Get ready for an adventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page.

https://storyoriginapp.com/swaps/cc9aeb04-eb2c-11ee-9140-0f638fa37dbd

UBL

Investigator James Creed has finally settled into life in San Francisco with his found family, the Brotherhood of the Golden Cog. Though he misses his adult daughter, he has a criminal leader to track down-an outlaw who murders innocents, enslaves the downtrodden, and uses machines to alter the bodies and minds of his many victims.

Months ago, the leads dried up. Creed despairs of ever collaring his enemy, the infamous outlaw Maxwell Gregg, until he spots an illegal automaton on Christmas evening. It's exactly the sort of technology his nemesis deals in.

The clues keep coming. Mechanically enhanced women stalk the red-light district of the Barbary Coast, and a young rancher leads Creed to the site of a mass grave. Known members of the Evil Eye Syndicate are spotted during the day.

Creed gains an unexpected ally-the mysterious Dockside Poltergeist, a vigilante who stops kidnappings and murders along the Barbary Coast. Now, the two are intent on Creed's target. But, time is running out and there are dark forces also hunting the undead investigator-forces intent on putting him back in his grave.

Can Creed stop his nemesis before the outlaw catches up to him?

Strange News

Phantom Islands in the Canaries

Imagine looking out to sea, as you do every morning, and there's an island there that you've never seen before.

Allegedly, this happens from time to time in the Canary Islands, and has been doing so since at least the 16th Century.

The Island of San Borondn had long been legendary, assumed to be a lost island once visited by Saint Brendan (hence the name, the Spanish version of his own). The story goes that Brendan was sailing in search of the Promised Land, and he and his crew celebrated Easter on a small island in the middle of the Atlantic. When the island moved beneath them, they realised they had landed on the back of a whale, and hurriedly boarded their boats before it sank below the waves. Apparantly it returned every year for them to mark Easter!

So far so... legendary. But the island kept appearing, often enough to be marked on maps, even though no-one could actually claim to have visited it.

And then the photo at the top of this article caused quite a stir when it was taken in 1957... since it clearly shows an island where there shouldn't be one.

The most likely explanation is a 'fata morgana' mirage, a rare event when different densities of air refract an image from over the horizon. Usually it manifests as ships being visible when they're further away, or sometimes a remote island. But if there isn't an island there to have its image distorted...

Source: Atlas Obscura

Other Books To Check Out

Miscellany

A shadow confirmed that a nearby galaxy really does have a giant black hole at the centre.

Source: science.org

NASA may struggle to return samples from Mars

Source: space.com

The ghost who loved baking

Source: notebookofghosts.com

And Finally

The whole idea of 'shadows' being the theme of this newsletter came about accidentally. The stories about eclipses, mirages, black hole images all seemed to show up over the past week or so, and I just hope the universe isn't trying to tell me something.

Then this album crossed my path, and I realised I had to end the newsletter with it. For folks of a certain age, it might well be more haunting than it would be for the younger readers, but don't have nightmares.

Source: thebritishstereocollective.bandcamp.com