Newsletter: Charts, And Spot The Drinky

Welcome to the autumn

Oct 12, 2024

Lost Solace Topped The Charts!

I was really proud to see Lost Solace at #2 in more than one Kobo scifi chart:

In fact, at that time, the Kobo top 12 scifi books in the UK included all five of my Lost Solace books! I held the top three places, ahead of Andy Weir. I must be doing something right.

Spot The Drinkwater

(Where’s the wally?)

I love it when people share all the companies which have nothing to do with me! Here’s another one:

I do love my garden, but stay out of other people’s. Plus I would never use artificial plastic turf. If you want nature, nurture nature, don’t fake it.

I was also sent this image of a shop in Pitlochry:

Yep, I do like a tipple, so you might find me in there. Karl Drinkmonger.

Ramshackle Collaborations

As you may know, I co-wrote Afua with the awesome Christoffer Petersen.

We also recently played a game together online: Aliens Versus Predator. He summarised it in this graphic:

Actually, I think it was five seconds before I accidentally fired a grenade and blew my leg off, after getting the weapon and melee keys mixed up. Cue keystone capers and many quotes from the film Aliens.

Which brings me on to a new fun thing we are trying. Chris and I are having a go at writing some stories off the cuff. Now, that’s a real challenge for me, as I normally plot every element and keep tight control of the narrative. I’m not a pantser in any way. But the idea is just to go with the flow, and see what we end up with, and whether there’s any value in it. You can follow along in the notes as we do updates (and comment!) but Chris will gather those together and post each 1,000 words when we have them, as a kind of bumper bundle.

Yes, there will be some typos and inconsistencies in the raw first draft! Basically Chris writes a bit, then I take over and write a bit, bouncing ideas off each other and reacting to the other’s invention. It’s an interesting method.

Edit (October 17, 2024) I had a chunk of text and a link here, about our short story. Well, we wrote it, and it was fun! If you followed along, I hope you enjoyed it. Now we’re figuring out just what to do with it, and removed it from Substack to explore different ideas.

Personal

This afternoon I am running a quiet vigil in my town centre, where we’ll all hold up placards and banners calling for an end to the escalating horrors in the Middle East. I recently made a speech that led to this blog post: “Wisdom From My Jewish Friends”. I try to find connection and positivity even in the darkest times.

Another thing that pleased me recently was reading about how one of our Green Party MPs gives away lots of her salary: “One of Herefordshire’s MPs is giving away a large chunk of her salary because it is ‘more than she needs’”. Whether in the US or the UK, you wouldn’t find the current red or blue parties doing anything so selfless.

May your days be bright and shining,

Karl