Made in Space – another tiny step

When a vital component fails, the options are to reach for a spare or go get another one. If you happen to live next-door to a DIY store, those two options are interchangeable. If your nearest store is thousands of miles away, then you’d better be organised at keeping spares on hand. But imagine having no store in easy reach plus not really having the room to carry spares.

That’s how it is if you’re lucky enough to live on the International Space Station. The equivalent of sending for a new part involves a multi-million dollar launch, but you can’t keep two of everything because physical space is at a premium.

Take this a step further and on to the proposed manned mission to Mars. The DIY store is now completely out of reach and the problem of how much you can carry with you is way more of a problem than it ever was on those short hops to the ISS or the moon.

Not that the spare parts problem is the only one or even the main one in the path of space exploration but it’s an issue, and it happens to be one that’s being tackled right now on the ISS where they’re experimenting with zero-gravity 3D printing i.e. making their own spare parts which is the only solution in the long run. If it works, it’s one more step towards further exploration of the universe. And if it doesn’t work, well ... it’s still one more step towards that same goal.

Every giant leap that humankind has made over the centuries has just been the final move in a series of tiny steps.

Who earns money from my book?

I’ll be honest here, statistics are bleak. Chances are that no one, myself included, is going to earn much. However, I’m with Fantastic Books Publishing who work on a profit-sharing model so whether the book does well or badly, we will each earn the same. Added to this, they skim 10% of the book sale profits and give them to charity – a charity of my choice.

This gives me a problem.

I like the idea behind this charity donation. The world is too small a place these days for people to struggle on alone. We don’t live in our own bubble any more. People travel the globe, flying vast distances in very short times. Ocean currents and jet streams move more than people. Weather, pollution and disease are global considerations. The actions of one group can affect everyone. That’s good and bad. Good ideas can be implemented fast. Teamwork can bring quicker results and ever speedier progress. 

And any little thing that I can do to keep that balance firmly on the good side of the scales, I’m happy to do. That includes sharing my book profits with a charity.

But which charity? 

Horse of a Different Colour is a children’s adventure tale, so maybe a horsey charity is the right one. Or I could lean towards the book’s dedication and go for a charity that revolves around space travel. Or I could go in an entirely different direction and pick a charity that has nothing whatsoever to do with the book.

I don’t need to decide:-

• until the money rolls in <optimism mode>

• because it won’t sell <pessimism mode>

• until the money trickles in <realism mode>

But before then, I’m open to suggestions.

A turbulent time for landmarks big and small

Early December is a turbulent time. Looking back at the historical record it’s marked that a lot of wars and invasions have been initiated in December, giving whole swathes of people a miserable existence over the so-called festive season.

What’s that about? Is it just man’s innate inability to learn from past mistakes? But it can’t be that or the human race would not have progressed so far. Is it that we have a tendency to put idiots in positions of power? Could be, but why?

Governance is no easy task. Maybe it’s that governing whole countries is too arduous, energy-sapping and thankless for anyone with their wits about them to take on. Thus the shysters and the ignorant rush in to fill the gap. People with integrity sometimes cry that enough is enough and dive in to do their bit, but it seems the tide of ignorance and corruption runs too high. It simply overwhelms anyone who genuinely tries to stop it. Just look back over the dirty tricks campaigns that have been waged against people, and see how many are shown by history to have been absolutely right.

What I really wanted to find in the historical record was a woman in the creative arts doing something special at this time of year. I found Margaret Hughes. She was an actress who played Desdemona at the Vere Street theatre in December 1660. This makes her possibly the first professional actress to appear on stage in England. Quite a landmark.

[Some sources quote Ms Norris as being the woman who played this role. I don’t know if Margaret Hughes and Ms Norris are one and the same, it seems unlikely, but the Ms Norris quotes all seemed to emanate from a single source that was itself unevidenced, so on the grounds that repeating something a lot of times does not make it true, I’m sticking with Margaret Hughes]

One of my short stories has been recorded for audio release. That’s a huge December landmark for me, even though it won’t make a ripple on the world in general. The bit at the end is going say - and please forgive the uncertainty here; I haven’t heard it yet - something like this: 

The 93-E Contradiction written by Melodie Trudeaux, read by Penelope McDonald. Post production by Simon Woolcott. Executive producer Dan Grubb. A Red Room production for Fantastic Books Audio.

Last word to Alan Wakeman who sums up life so concisely in his wonderful Hamun & Giben: 

“Truly life is a wonderful mystery,” said Hamun as he contemplated the early morning sun. “Aren’t you sometimes overcome with admiration for it?”

“I can’t think about that today,” said Giben. “I’ve got stomach-ache.”

Accidental spoilers and I take on the properties of a spaceship

Publication date creeps closer. I'm going to be soft-launched for Christmas (being launched makes me a bit like a spaceship which is pretty cool). 

The thing is that I've had to change the blurb. 

Some indrawn breath from my new publisher, Fantastic Books Publishing. Apparently I'd put a spoiler or two in there. Anyway, I've amended it and I await my launch.

A Sunday blog: things to do on a glum day

Glum (adjective): sullenly or silently gloomy; dejected [Dictionary.com]

Treasure hunting is a difficult activity to carry out glumly (adverb). You need the presence of a small person to get the most out of an impromptu treasure hunt, I think, but from the home-crafted version around the house to sophisticated manoeuvres involving vehicles and map-reading, there is the distraction of putting clues together and the frisson of finding treasure.

If that’s too energetic, have a long hot deep bath in something odd. Not just any old odd thing. This is one of those activities where it’s not good to improvise too far. Put cornflakes in the bath and you’ll regret it, as well as block the drains. 

Try this one - mix together:

• a smallish amount of baby shampoo (say 100 mls)
• 4 drops essential oil of lavender
• 4 drops essential oil of tea tree
• a good dollop of honey (couple of spoonsful)
• one egg white – this will really make the bubbles last

When the bath is close to ready, pour this mix under a fast-running tap (the cold one, you don’t want to end up bathing in scrambled egg)

Climb in and soak. The glumness (noun) will lift.

Forgotten pioneer, victim or killer?

It was around this time of year in in 1928 that Bessie Hyde probably became the first woman to run the Grand Canyon rapids. She and her husband took on the challenge as their honeymoon trip in a home-made boat, but after restocking and returning to the water on 18th November they were never seen again – alive or dead – although their boat eventually turned up undamaged. 

Their disappearance gave rise to the usual conspiracy theories. Had Bessie's husband murdered her? Had she killed him? Had they been attacked and robbed? There was no credible evidence behind any of the speculation. Many years later a woman claimed to be Bessie, saying she’d murdered her husband all those years ago, but that story was debunked.

Based on the scant evidence that was uncovered - their boat undamaged and still upright; their families' fruitless search - chances are they made it through the most dangerous run but met with an accident. Underwater rocks in a shallow but fast moving stretch might have unshipped them both. Was one of them thrown overboard and did the other fall in attempting a rescue? As their bodies were not found quickly, they would have been crushed in the turbulent water, scattered and disposed of by wild animals.

Coming up for air

As a weekend of reading proofs draws to a close, I feel the need to come up for air. A swift flight would do it, soaring above the trees, feeling the roller-coaster of the tail end of storm Abigail (a-big-gale great name for a storm). However, I’m not an eagle, not even a humble sparrow and I don’t have a microlight at my disposal. So instead, I’m going to look for something else to mark the day.

15 November 1738 saw the birth of William Herschel who was a big name in astronomy, having pioneered techniques such as astronomical spectrophotometry and who discovered Uranus, which was called Herschel for a while. His sister Caroline was an astronomer too. She discovered a number of comets including Herschel-Rigollet which retains her name.

Days that go down in history

Lewis Carroll’s diary entry for 13 November 1862 includes the line: ‘Began writing the fairy-tale of Alice. I hope to finish it by Christmas.’ That seemed a reasonably auspicious anniversary on which to write my first blog post, given that I hope to see my book on sale before Christmas.



Not that my first blog post will disturb anyone’s historical perspective, but I found another rather neat anniversary. November 13th in 1907 was the day of the first ever helicopter flight by a man called Paul Cornu.



But then today became a dreadful anniversary all of its own. Terrible attacks in Paris on people out in theatres, restaurants... bombs, gunfire. Many dead, many injured, and still going on as I write. The world caught in a mad cycle of revenge and killing.



And even if today’s events hadn’t left my Carroll and Cornu anniversaries out on a limb, today became tomorrow as it always will, and my well-timed blog post has missed its mark.



I can only be thankful that that’s the sum total of my own personal woes. This is a time for counting blessings and thinking of others. And as it happens, November 14th is also the anniversary of an aviation first. On this day in 1910 a guy called Eugene Burton Ely made the first successful take off of a plane from the deck of a ship.



And so, as my new publisher would say, and as I am learning to say, Onwards, Commanders!