Hello there Reader! I hope you're having a great week.

Towards the end of 2019 I committed to writing 200 words every day. I now I have an unbroken streak that totals over a million words written.

What have I learned?

It didn't take long to realise I'd built a habit. In only a few weeks I had an itch every day to add to my streak, and this paid off big-time when the panjandrum hit. Even while everything was chaos, I had one thing that was under my control that I could turn to. Aiming low worked for me. I've done (and won) NaNoWriMo in the past, but I failed in November 2019. With a busy life I understand the draw of an intensive period of focus, but I found that when I fell behind I couldn't get motivated to catch up - or even continue. If I only had to write 200 words, I could do that in about 10 minutes (if the inspiration flowed) or longer when needed. The barrier to entry was so low, there as much less resistance when I was tired, or stressed, or busy. I never stopped at 200. Well, maybe once or twice. But more often than not, knowing I had to 'only' do a little meant that I gathered my own momentum. My average is just shy of 600 words per day. (This letter so far is 228 words). Keeping track helped. I have a counter on my website and post regular updates to my newsletter and writing groups. The encouragement of others (and the fear of breaking the streak in public) spurs me on when I feel like I don't want to do it. It keeps my work-in-progress fresh in my mind when I visit it every day. I don't forget who the characters are, or what they want, when I check in so often. Plot points are always bubbling away in the subconscious, and flow out in the next session. Is it for everyone? No. Some folks just don't get along with it, and that's fine. Others love it for shorter periods - setting themselves a goal to write every day for a week, or a month. However you write, however you motivate yourself, if it works for you then do it!

Special thanks to the The Bestseller Experiment, Mark Stay and Mark Desvaux who inspired the whole thing, plus all the Experimates who offered support, encouragement and incredulity when it mattered most.

Space News

This might be evidence of past microbial life on Mars

The original title of this article (NASA's Perseverance Rover Scientists Find Intriguing Mars Rock) really underplays the potential of this discovery.

The day of my last newsletter, the Perseverance Rover took its 22nd rock core sample on the northern edge of Neretva Vallis. This is an ancient river valley about 400 meters wide that was carved by water rushing into Jezero Crater long ago. By the way, I love that we've gone from 'was there ever water on Mars' to casually mentioning river valleys and erosion in my lifetime.

The rock in question was targeted because the SHERLOC sensor (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals, a remarkable example of coercing an acronym where one really shouldn't exist) suggested there were organic compounds in the area. While the use of the word 'organic' usually suggests life, in the strict chemical definition it just means 'carbon-containing', so while it was intriguing it was a long way from actual evidence of life.

That being said, this does seem to be promising, even if the article does sensibly temper our expectations:

Analysis by instruments aboard the rover indicates the rock possesses qualities that fit the definition of a possible indicator of ancient life. The rock exhibits chemical signatures and structures that could possibly have been formed by life billions of years ago when the area being explored by the rover contained running water. Other explanations for the observed features are being considered by the science team, and future research steps will be required to determine whether ancient life is a valid explanation.

In other words - it might be evidence of life, but we can't be sure. We've been down this road a few times now, and I don't expect a 100% declaration of ancient life to follow any time soon. But every time we find something like this, it makes Mars sound ever more habitable - and I do believe that one day we will be able to answer the question once and for all.

Source: nasa.gov

Other Books To Check Out

The Law of Consequences

This month I'd like to share an anthology of short stories with you. "The Law of Consequences" is a collection of remarkable fantasy stories. Some of them are written by friends of mine, and all of them explore the concept of your choices coming back to you in some form.

Every action has a consequence, some good, some less so, others of pure darkness...

Step into a fantastical world where every choice reverberates with magic, shaping destinies in wondrous and terrifying ways. Curated by W.A. Leggatt, SC Gowland and G.M. White, this anthology explores the profound impact of the choices we make. Featuring 20 stories by bestselling and award-winning authors:

Alex Weight Andrew Chapman Andrew Guile Emmanuella Dekonor G B Ralph G.M. White Gareth Lewis Jocelyn Sordoni Julian Barr JW Atkinson Karen Storey Kate Baker Kate Kenzie Mark Stay Morgan Delaney Richie Janukowicz SC Gowland Tommy Wills Trey Montague W.A. Leggatt

From surprises in hessian sacks, pubs run by stone golems, a curious packed lunch, questionable drink choices, to copper urns (best avoided), dogs in space, horrifying boarding schools, families torn apart by war, brooding strangers and suspicious jars of marmalade.

Discover drama, treachery, love and the unpredictable, and often astonishing outcomes of our actions. Each tale in 'The Law of Consequences' reveals the delicate balance between destiny and free will, light and shadow. Enter with an open mind...

The eBook: fae.watch The paperback: fae.watch

Strange News

The Mother of Palaeontology

It's not news to report on women being under-represented in the sciences, nor that historically their contributions to our knowledge went unsung. In many cases, men appropriated the discoveries for themselves, or at least were the beneficiaries of the praise and fame that accompanied the discussions. There are too many to list, but I suspect we've all now heard of Rosalind Franklin, whose work was vital to the discovery of the structure of DNA. And most are familiar with Jocelyn Bell Burnell, co-discoverer of pulsars who was ignored when the Nobel Prize was awarded for the discovery. Such a fate befell Mary Anning, a working class woman in Victorian England. She explored the cliffs at Lyme Regis, looking for recent landslides which exposed fossils she gathered up. The family business was collecting and selling such 'curios' to visitors and, later, scientists - a job she took to wonderfully. At the age of twelve she discovered the first ichthyosaur skeleton, and one of two nearly intact plesiosaur fossils she found is hanging in the Natural History Museum in London today. Her work provided evidence for evolution, mass extinctions, and it's hard to overstate how important she was. As a woman she was not allowed to join the Geological Society of London, and her finds were often used to further the careers of the scientists who bought them, and never mentioned her even in passing. Her friend once said "She says the world has used her ill ... these men of learning have sucked her brains, and made a great deal of publishing works, of which she furnished the contents, while she derived none of the advantages." Some men of the day were more gracious: geologist Henry De la Beche created artwork based on her fossils, and sold prints of it for her benefit. And while recognition came late, when she was diagnosed with cancer the Geological Society raised money from its members to help with her expenses. Two species were named after her during her lifetime. But since her death she has gone largely unknown outside geological circles - something that the 'Mary Anning Rocks' project wanted to address. They recently unveiled a fantastic statue of her in Lyme Regis. Oh, and she was struck by lightning as a toddler. If you want to know more about lesser known women's contributions to science, remind me one day to tell you about Hedy Lamarr, the actress who invented the technology behind mobile phones and WiFi...

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mary_Anning_statue_(cropped).jpg Image by Carbonmoon, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Source: Atlas Obscura

Other Books To Check Out

Miscellany

The Elephant Washing station in Royal Leamington Spa

Source: Atlas Obscura

"Witchcraft in the Middle of England" - an album by 'Cult of Wedge'

Source: cultofwedge.bandcamp.com

Why this musical road sound so awful.

Source: youtube.com

And Finally

I've missed my deadline. I had hoped to have my draft of the third Martians book done by now, and it is not.

But don't worry! It's still in progress, it's shaping up well, and I think I can still get it published by the end of the year... but I need to knuckle down and get on with it.

So stay safe, be kind to each other, and I'll be back in a couple of weeks!