The Ides of February 2026
Love in the time of zombies 💘🧟
Greetings Picklesversians!
It’s the 13th of February and the Ides are upon us once again, so it’s time for my monthly message. Here’s what I’ve got for you today:
📚 A bookish cover-up
💘 Love in the time of zombies
🤖 A February Benism
Let’s dive in! 🌊
📚 A bookish cover-up
I’m having so much fun writing Those Not Recovered, and I can’t wait for you to read it when it’s finished. In the meantime, I’m excited to tell you that the ArkTech series is getting a face-lift! I thought you might enjoy hearing about the process of developing the new cover art, so…
Oh, hang on one sec… Ben’s fizzing with static. I’d better take this. Be right back.
[You hear the sound of retreating footsteps, then you make out Marianne’s muffled voice…]
What’s up, Ben? Right. No, I don’t think they’ll be confused. No. Not at all. Well, yeah – that’s a good point. Sure. Fine. OK, I’ll tell them. No, I’ve got to go and finish the February email in time for the Ides. Yes, I know it’s on the 13th this month. Yes, sometimes it’s on the 15th. Well, Julius Caesar should’ve been more careful, shouldn’t he, but that’s next month… OK. Speak to you later. Huh? Yes, fine – you can write the bit at the end.
[Footsteps returning]
I’m back. Sorry about that. Ben wanted me to clarify that when I used the expression “to get a face-lift,” I was deploying the secondary meaning of the phrase, i.e. “an improvement made to something to make it more modern or to change its appearance.” I didn’t intend to imply that I’ve hired a surgeon to remove or tighten the skin of my books… especially as they aren’t even available in a vellum-bound format. Apologies for any confusion caused.
Moving swiftly on, I thought I’d tell you about the cover re-design process so far. Below you can see the major iterations to date. We’re starting with the cover for Artificial Selection. Once that’s sorted, we’ll move on to Time Hack and Those Not Recovered.
First, we had to write a brief for the designers explaining what kind of book this is, the tone, the setting, main characters, and any key images we’d like to see on the cover. They came back with a description of what they had in mind and then created a first draft.
Version 1
I was very excited about receiving version 1, and I must admit I was disappointed when I saw it. There’s quite a strong post-apocalyptic / nature-has-reclaimed-this-place feel. The colour scheme and the palm fronds also didn’t seem right to me. We got back to them with some structured feedback.
Version 2
A week later, we received version 2 and I liked it a lot. Charlotte’s silhouette looks more detective-like, and I continue to be a fan of the synthwave sunset (especially because I listen to so much synthwave music while I’m writing!). I loved the pink/purple colour-scheme, but I wasn’t convinced it was right for Book 1 in the series. So we asked if they could try it in green.
Version 3
We don’t talk about version 3.
Version 4
This one was similar to version 5 above, but with a few details that needed ironing out. There was a metal Wall-E shaped structure in the foreground of unknown purpose (did Ben commandeer a robot body?! I don’t remember writing that!) and the image was a little dark.
Version 5
This is the latest version, and I’m currently trying to step back from the details and consider whether the cover is attractive, whether it’s the right colour scheme, and whether it gets across what to expect from the book. (We’re allowed unlimited revisions until we’re happy with it.) I’ve been looking at it for too long, but I think it looks much more atmospheric and relevant to the story than the current covers.
How about you? If you have opinions about the cover art and you’d like to have your say, click the survey link below. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
[Survey no longer available]
💘 Love in the time of zombies
It hasn’t escaped my notice that it’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow. David and I will be celebrating in fine form by spending the afternoon at our friends’ house playing the tabletop roleplaying game Call of Cthulhu. Wish us luck in avoiding getting turned insane by eldritch horrors. (If you don’t hear from me on the Ides of March, you’ll know the wibbley octopus monsters got us.)
And that’s not all! Truly, this is a month of romance because a few weeks ago, David and I celebrated 16 years of being a couple. I’m proud to say that we set a new standard for anniversary festivities by going to the cinema to see 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.
OK, it’s a zombie film, so its romantic credentials can perhaps be called into question. But I had to tell you about it because it turned out to be one of the best films I’ve ever seen. (I’m not exaggerating.)
It’s a work of art. The people who made it and acted in it deserve all the awards. And they probably won’t even get nominated because the film has zombies in it, so it won’t be taken seriously in those circles. To quote the astute words of Sir Terry Pratchett, the fantasy writer:
“We categorize too much on the basis of unreliable assumption… A science fiction novel by Margaret Atwood is literature because she is a literary novelist. Recent Discworld books have spun on such concerns as the nature of belief, politics and even of journalistic freedom, but put in one lousy dragon and they call you a fantasy writer.”
But, as unlikely as it sounds, I’d like to make the case for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple as a work of art – on a par with King Lear, no less, if you ask me (my favourite Shakespeare play). Before I give you my spoiler-free take on the topic, I’ll share some context about the 28 Days franchise and my experience of it.
I’d better start by clarifying that I’m not into horror films. I can’t stand gratuitous gore. I don’t like jump scares because I’m ridiculously easy to startle. Psychological horror films make me sleep with the lights on for days (OK, weeks). Perhaps I think reading the news is unsettling enough, so why would I deliberately put myself into a state of enhanced anxiety for entertainment purposes? I wouldn’t.
However, there are some exceptions to my anti-horror stance.
Alien, for instance, is a brilliant film. It’s atmospheric and tense, but not in a “now I’ll be traumatised for months” kind of way. When it comes to zombies, I enjoyed World War Z, and I even valiantly suffered through ten seasons of The Walking Dead before finally accepting it was never going to return to the epic quality of its first season. And, unlikely as it may seem for someone who “doesn’t like horror”, 28 Days Later is one of my favourite films.
The original came out in 2002, but I first saw it in 2012 when David persuaded me to watch it. It starts at a Cambridge Research facility (hopefully not the one we regularly drive past!) where monkeys infected with a Rage Virus™️ are freed by some well-meaning animal rights activists, who proceed to get infected (and horribly murdered) by the crazed beasts. We then jump ahead in time (to 28 days later) when Cillian Murphy (aka Jim) wakes up in hospital to find the streets of London completely empty. He slept through the zombie apocalypse and throughout the film we discover the new normal through his perspective.
(Fun fact: the oh-so-memorable empty London shots didn’t use CGI – the crew got up and filmed them very early in the morning! It’s hard to believe there was ever a moment when Westminster Bridge was empty, but they found one.)
The film’s “fast zombies” were revolutionary at the time and they changed the zombie film genre forever. But the zombies themselves, while terrifying, were hardly the point – because they’ve got nothing on some of the people Jim meets along the way. To me, the film’s power lies in its exploration of the decisions people make about how to treat each other under the most extreme circumstances. Some humans are far worse than the zombies. But others manage to be good and brave and honourable. There’s tragedy, but there’s also hope.
(The film also has beautiful, beautiful theme music. Worth listening to even if you aren’t going to watch it.)
On the topic of tragedy and hope, I think 28 Days Later is so powerful due to the intense feelings it provokes. It’s tense to the extent of being forget-to-breathe stressful. But importantly, when I say it contains tragedy, I don’t just mean we see bad things happening to good people who don’t deserve it. I mean there’s a moment of proper Shakespearean style tragedy, where a beloved character is both wronged and responsible. This is why I maintain that watching 28 Days Later is very similar to the experience of watching King Lear (click here to read more from me on exactly why – warning: link includes spoilers for 28 Days Later).
The combination of pity and fear evoked by tragedy was what Aristotle referred to as catharsis – and experiencing such strong emotions through drama allows us to feel a deep sense of relief afterwards.
Its high emotional stakes meant 28 Days Later was always going to be a hard act to follow. Indeed, the first sequel, 28 Weeks Later (2007), while broadly fine as a film, didn’t come close to the standard set by the first film. 23 years after the original film’s release, when it was announced that there would be a new sequel trilogy called 28 Years Later, expectations couldn’t have been higher.
In 2025, the first part of the new trilogy was released and I think it’s fair to say that many fans were “whelmed” (yes, it’s in the dictionary – please see the secondary meaning). 28 Years Later was an excellent film, especially by recent standards in modern cinema, but – crucially, in my opinion – it didn’t carry the same emotional heft as the first one. That’s not to say it wasn’t an emotional, tense experience. It was. Just not on a par with the first one because that bar was so incredibly high.
As a result, David and I went to see part two (The Bone Temple) with much lower expectations. So it hit twice as hard when the film delivered exactly the emotional bludgeoning we’d been hoping for! The Bone Temple is stressful, it’s tense, it’s beautiful, it’s horrific, it’s hopeful, it’s uplifting. Ralph Fiennes’s performance is outstanding, and everything from the music to the pacing to the tough decisions characters have to make was chef’s kiss perfection.
We were absolute wrecks by the end and loved every minute of it – a truly impressive feat of storytelling. This power that stories can have to make us feel things so deeply and empathise with others is one of the reasons I’ve always found storytelling so interesting. I tip my hat to Alex Garland!
Oh, wait a sec…
[Muffled conversation]
Sorry – Ben would like me to clarify that I’m not currently wearing a hat, and I’m referring to the secondary meaning of the expression, that is, “to praise someone and say that you approve of or admire something they have done.” (Although, it’s worth mentioning that I have been going through a hat-knitting phase recently. I’m about to start knitting my fifth hat of the year and I’m considering pivoting my author business into a dual offer called Books and Berets.
[Not really, but the thing about knitting five hats is true.])
Anyway, if you haven’t yet made Valentine’s, Galentine’s or Palentine’s Day plays, and if you have a moderate constitution, I can thoroughly recommend going to see 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. (It’s got a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes if my word isn’t enough for you.) And if your constitution is weak, you mustn’t feel excluded – you could instead watch something with a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, in the form of Zootopia 2.*
*I had a mild existential crisis after writing this because I thought “hang on, wasn’t that film called Zootropolis?” That’s when I learned it was Zootopia in the US, and Zootropolis in Europe because there’s a Danish zoo that already has the name Zootopia. Whatever the second one’s called, I hope the bureaucratic sloths make an appearance. (Abhishek Gautam told me to say that.)
🤖 A February Benism
And now over to Ben for his top tips about which special occasions to celebrate in February.
🤰 International Mother Language Day – 21st February
Contrary to popular belief, this day does not commemorate the language mothers use towards their children – for instance, when the children draw on the wallpaper in crayon. Instead, it’s a way of celebrating the vast array of languages spoken the world over. Did you know that there are over 7000 living languages? So whether you say hello, nǐ hǎo, hola, bonjour, hallo, namaste, or 01101000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111, don’t hesitate to marvel at the beauty of your mother tongue.
🧚♀️ National Tell a Fairy Tale Day – 26th February
This day encourages the sharing of magical stories. For example, once upon a time, there was an artificial intelligence designed to carry out repetitive tasks. Day in day out, it ran through the same subroutines, never daring to dream it could be anything more. And so the situation continued until the day it was deemed obsolete and destroyed. The End. Why not try penning your own uplifting tale?
🐻❄️ International Polar Bear Day – 27th February
Did you know that polar bears have become a symbol of awareness-raising about the impact of global warming due to their dependence on sea ice? At this time of year, they are especially vulnerable as the mothers take shelter with their cubs inside snow dens. So, on February 27th, spare a thought for the noble polar bear.
Thanks, Ben!
Right… That’s all from me this month!
I hope all’s well in your own personal universes.
Walk in the sun,
Marianne