Mid-April 2023 - the arrival of a shiny new idea

Hi Everyone,

A new shiny book idea has popped into my head. As soon as I finished my edits on the third book in the Encoded Orbits trilogy, Subject 34 (I’ll be sending it off to the editor shortly) this new idea showed up. It’s sort of a time travel novel and inspired by an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer I saw decades ago and by The Paradox Hotel (a book I finished recently and enjoyed greatly).

I don’t even have a working title yet, but it’s going to deal with the consequences of trying to stop time combined with some silly things.

So far, I have an outline and some character sketches. I’ve been enjoying the shiny stage of this project (especially considering how I struggled with Subject 34). I can’t wait to start working on a first draft.

I’ve also been thinking about how this shiny new idea came out of seemingly nowhere and then realizing what had inspired it after the fact reminds me how creativity is such an interesting beast (oh, and for the creators out there—write your ideas down!).

Looking back in my notebook, I stumbled upon this quote (from another book worth reading if you are interested in the creative process):

The act of creation is an attempt to enter a mysterious realm. A longing to transcend. What we create allows us to share glimpses of an inner landscape, one that is beyond our understanding. Art is our portal to the unseen world.

• Rick Rubin from The Creative Act: A Way of Being

Here’s the notebook page for the curious (complete with another blackout poem):

I don’t think the quote is meant to be taken literally, yet it describes my shiny new idea perfectly.

Inputs

Here’s a shot of one shelf of my to-be-read pile (complete with a happy humpback)—it might be getting a little out of control (as there is more than one shelf) But, in my defence, I love having so many options of what book to pick up next.

What’s in your to-be-read pile? Have you read anything good lately?

I just finished Dark One: Forgotten by Brandon Sanderson and Dan Wells which only exists in audio form. It’s a fictional true crime podcast where a seemingly, ordinary murder takes a really interesting turn. I really enjoyed it (but it didn’t get any books out of my to-be-read pile).

Cheers,

Jeannette

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My Books:

Hope is the Thing With Feathers - direct or from the shops

Encoded Orbits

• Fractured Orbits - direct or from the shops

• The Alien Algorithm - direct or from the shops

Settler Chronicles

• Lunar Escape - here or here

• Day 115 on an Alien World - direct or from the shops

• Far Side of the Moon - direct or from the shops

• Abandoned Ships, Hijacked Minds - direct or from the shops

• The Alien Artifact - direct or from the shops

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And if you aren’t already a subscriber, what’s stopping you (especially if you have read this far)?