Newsletter: Berry Toothy Revelation
My playful titles are awful
My Next Book … (Drumroll)
I have a new-book revelation! The header image is a tease, but I never like to keep my fans in suspense for long, so here’s the full cover (from the paperback version):
Yes, it is a book I’ve co-written with another author! Which has been an exciting experience and led to something neither of us could have written alone, as well as being our first experiment in Amazofuturism.
Afua is in our final stages of editing, then we’ll probably do a joint Kickstarter before it gets released to the wider world. The book is a standalone tale but if you’ve read the Lost Solace books and Grubane, then it will have extra depths for you.
If you are a paid subscriber to my Substack (the button below should indicate your status!) then you’ll get a free e-book version anyway when it is released.
I look forward to releasing this, so everyone can learn to love their ophanti and Dooga, and know how to avoid the Kchak.
What A Week
My previous newsletter included a video of me. Does anyone want more videos? Also it contained some family history. Information about my dad, and how I miss him. There’s a different post about my mother and our battles with the HMRC and DWP here.
I hope you’re all okay. We should never take anything like health for granted. Dolly was taken to the vets again on Monday as an emergency – she’d gone hypoglycaemic, with a blood sugar level of only 2 when they tested her, which is close to being fatal. It’s not even clear why it dropped so much. By the next day it was back to being far too high at 25. The poor girl is going through the extremes.
Still, I got to collect her on my way home from work at the cinema where I’d shown Teen Beach Party to a private hire party of kids (who left a LOT of popcorn and mess on the floor), and Star Wars The Phantom Menace to some older kids (otherwise known as grown ups).
Only as I finished work did I see the message about Dolly having been taken to the vets. I was able to call in as I walked home. She was tethered to a drip in her steel cage, and hearing her first miaow, then the gradual evolution of a purr as I fussed her and told her she was okay, was the best thing of the day. We’ll be taking her in for checks every few days, and I’ll do some extra shifts to try and cover the surprise £300 vet’s bill!
With regards to health - I have broken a wisdom tooth, I think (and maybe the tooth next to it). My dental surgery has no NHS dentists at present, and it’s not clear if they will get any in the future. Oh joy. But I’d rather have Dolly back than get broken teeth fixed, so I am happy!
I’ve been out gardening today, as a way to destress. Some time ago we planted wild bilberry, gooseberry, and josterberry bushes, and an apple tree, in the centre of the lawn as a fruit area. The apple tree is surrounded by wild strawberries. Well, today I added redcurrant and whitecurrant bushes, as you can see in the image above. I like bringing more nature into my favourite place to sit.
Do you have a favourite place to read?
Thanks for reading,
Karl
Congratulations, Karl.