Newsletter: Books, Glorious Books!

(Cold jelly and custard!)

Feb 17, 2025

For the ultimate space opera fan, I’ve put together a bundle of all eleven Lost Solace ebooks. Treat yourself! Treat a friend! Treat a stranger!

For those who spit on new-fangled electronic texts (“If I cannae smell the paper, I willnae read the words” as we say in Scotland) then you can buy some of the paperbacks and hardbacks here. I’ll add more over time. If you get a few books at once then the postage cost becomes less noticeable. More money from each sale goes to me when books are bought on this site, and they ship worldwide.

I also have a few signed Lost Solace print copies on my shelf. You can have the signed Lost Solace and Chasing Solace paperbacks for £22 (UK postage free); the hardbacks for £30 (again, free UK postage). If you are outside the UK I can look at postage costs, but it is always cheaper to order my books from your local bookshop. Reply to this email if you are interested.

UESI is now available in more places (and paid subscribers should have received their complimentary copy).

The Kickstarter for exclusive luxury hardback editions only has five days left, and doesn’t look likely to fund unless a lot of backers appear from the woodwork! But there is still time. Note that I can ship print hardbacks as Kickstarter rewards to pretty much anywhere in the world, it’s just that there is an extra charge if the postage would be more than the cost to post to the UK, US and Europe. Just contact me if you want to get a quote.

While on the topic of Lost Solace stuff, you can order an Organic Chasing Solace embroidered baseball cap anywhere in the world. Four different colour options. Look cool, while staying warm!

Personal

Dolly is on my lap at the moment, curled up and toasty. It keeps me pretty warm as well.

I did a shift at the cinema yesterday, showing two films. The children’s party private hire was messy, but the kids were charming. They wanted to know my favourite colour, my age, and “Why does your boss get paid more than you when you are the only one working in the building right now?” Kids, eh. It’s also the case that every time I do a shift, some hardware challenge presents itself. Yesterday I started to show our pre-film slides (about upcoming films, buy popcorn etc) and the display was all in red, like a horror film. I worried something had gone wrong with the projector. I did various tests, and found the feature film was fine, it was just the slides in red. That helped me narrow it down to the desktop PC or a cable. Turned out it was a loose VGA cable in the end - one of the pins with the red colour data was seated, but the ones with blur and green (pins 2 and 3) had come loose. I reseated it and all was fine, just in time for the audience coming in. Just one cable out of about thirty in a snake-like tangle. :-) The cinema was full for that, and everyone seemed to enjoy the film.

It seems like lots of things in my house have broken recently. Heaters, washing machines, tablet gadgets, the roof. That’s despite me looking after things. So I wrote an article about Inbuilt Obsolescence. You might find it interesting.

Q&A Corner

Here’s a question one of my subscribers asked. I’ve edited it to remove most spoilers but keep the gist. However, if you haven’t read the Lost Solace books, you might want to skip this. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

“Do you have plans for a story about Opal and Clarissa’s sister that I seem to remember was mentioned in passing in book 4 (or was it 5? - I raced through the books so they merged into one long adventure...!) I seem to recall there was a sister that was younger than Opal, older than Clarissa. Of course it could have been deception by Aseides. I'd really like a Book 6, what happens next. I doubt it would be a Little House on the Prairie type scenario ;-)”

Ah yes. How much can we believe from Aseides? (Only I know, mwuhahaha ...) That could possibly tie in to future ideas. As to LS6: I am pretty sure it would blow fans away and surprise and delight them. I have a rough plot laid out for if I ever write it, and then vague ideas for LS 7 to end Opal’s story (7 books, seven depth levels of AI).

Thank you, D! I’m always open to questions about my stories, or writing in general. Maybe even personal ones if they ain’t too personal.

Resist oppression and prosper, my friends. May none of your space voyages end up on a Lost Ship.

Karl