What do balloons, ice cream and a radioactive element have in common?
Greetings Picklesversians!
Happy New Year! The first Ides of 2025 are already upon us, so it’s time for this month’s dose of Picklesmania.*
Here’s what I’ve got for you today:
- News masquerading as a curious riddle,
- Awkward Questions for me and for you
- My random top tip about new year’s resolutions
- On hubris and being a writer
- Ben’s curiosity corner – separating fact from fiction in the ArkTech Territory.
Let’s get stuck in!
*Picklesmania features fewer fainting teenagers than Beatlemania, and fewer marsupials than Tasmania.
A curious riddle…
I have some exciting** news this month. Rather than just telling you, I thought I’d take a page from Mel Narrow’s book and make the news into a riddle. (Narrow is rather fond of riddles. However, he’s equally fond of his book collection, so by tampering with them I’m putting my kneecaps at risk… as you can see, I go to great lengths to entertain you. You’re welcome!)
Here’s the riddle:
What do red balloons, Mr Whippy, and einsteinium have in common?
While you’re pondering that, allow me to provide some supporting context. I’ve said red balloons, but luftballons might be more correct.
For those of you who aren’t deeply immersed in British culture, a Mr Whippy is a type of soft serve ice cream, usually consumed at the seaside. (We find the numbing cold of the ice cream takes our minds off the wind, rain, hail, sleet and snow commonly found on British beaches.)
Einsteinium is a chemical element that was first identified in 1952 by Albert Ghiorso, but was named after a different and much more famous Albert. I can only assume the identifying Albert felt ‘Ghiorsium’ didn’t trip off the tongue. (Or he wanted to avoid committing hubris… more on that later.)
I’m going to insert a pause now to give you a chance to come up with the answer. In the meantime, here’s a photograph I took at Southwold this year, as evidence that UK beaches can actually sometimes be all right.
Have you figured it out yet?
<drumroll>
The answer is 99!In 1983, Nena sang about 99 red balloons, or 99 luftballons in the original German.
A Mr Whippy ice cream comes with an optional accessory: a Cadbury’s flake (aka a crumbly chocolate finger), which for some reason is called a 99 when found in its ice cream habitat.
And einsteinium is the element with atomic number 99 on the periodic table.
Well done, clever clogs!
Narrow might enjoy riddles, but Ben likes to ask the ultimate awkward question: why? Why am I ruining your Monday by asking you obscure general knowledge questions?It’s because – for the first time since its publication and for this week only – the ebook of Artificial Selection is available on Amazon UK and Amazon US*** for only 99 pence or cents.
The 99p/99¢ deal is running from today until Sunday 19th January (ending at 9pm GMT, 1pm PST).
Here’s the link if you want to grab a copy – the link should work in both regions.
** Actual excitement about this may vary! I realise many of you may not personally find this news of particular interest because you’ve already bought the book (in which case, thank you for your support, and I hope the whimsical riddle helps to make up for the disappointment). However, if you have a friend or family member who’s a deal hunter, and won’t consider buying a book unless it’s on special offer, please do pass on the news to them. Or if you read the book via Kindle Unlimited and would quite fancy owning a copy, you could grab it this week while it’s cheaper.
*** Unfortunately, this price is only available in the UK and US because those are the only territories where Amazon offers their ‘countdown’ service. My effusive apologies to all the other regions – especially to the marsupials of Tasmania.
Awkward Questions
Last month, I really enjoyed reading your answers to discussion question number five from the end of the book. Thanks again to everyone who replied.
This month, I’d like to offer you two different discussion options.
Option 1 – an Awkward Question for YOU
If you enjoyed last month’s approach, here’s more of the same:Discussion question 9: Is Narrow right to be paranoid about AI and big data?Feel free to reply to this email if you’d like to let me know what you think.
Option 2 – Awkward Questions for ME
There’s a site called Goodreads where readers can leave ratings and reviews for books. I recently discovered a feature that lets readers ask authors questions (awkward or otherwise). If you fancy asking me anything publicly using that system, the link is here. On that page, you’ll find four questions that I’ve already answered in a deep and meaningful way.
The questions so far are:What mystery from your own life could be the plot for a book?
- What books are on your summer reading list this year?
- If you could travel to any fictional book world, where would you go and what would you do there?
And finally,
- Can you tell us a two-sentence horror story?
To which I replied: I went to Spain for two weeks. It rained the entire time.
It’s always so lovely to hear from you, so please do get in touch through either of these methods if you’d like to.
Resolutions top tip
It’s an interesting quirk of human psychology that we feel more motivated to make changes and form new habits at new year. There’s something about beginnings – the feeling of a fresh start. But continuing with a new habit beyond this early stage is notoriously difficult, which is why January is the busiest time of year for gyms.
Some years ago, I got interested in how to make new habits stick, so I adopted my default strategy and started reading about it. I came across Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin, and I thought it was brilliant. Rather than saying ‘this is the solution’, she presents a range of approaches, acknowledging that different people will have different preferences based on their own tendencies.
The one I’ve personally got the most benefit from is what she termed ‘pairing’, which is where you attach a new habit to an existing one. In my case, this helps me remember to drink water. (Not drinking water might sound ridiculous, but for some reason, I don’t do it by default. I willingly drink coffee, coke zero, tea – but not water. However, reading about the impact of dehydration on the brain freaked me out enough to realise I needed to change this behaviour!)
These days, I drink my coffee in the morning, which I enjoy. Then I drink a glass of water, which I tolerate. Only then can I move on to my coke zero, which I enjoy. After that, it’s back to water again, and so on.
I’ve mentioned this to a few people recently and they’ve said ‘oh, that’s helpful’ so I thought I’d mention it here, too, just in case any of you are using the new year milestone as the motivation to start pebble painting, or Morris dancing, or to become a freemason. (These examples were taken from the latest issue of my local community magazine, so I can only assume they’re popular hobbies all over the world. If I’m wrong, please do let me know what people do for fun in your neck of the woods.)
Hubris and writing
There’s no emoji corresponding to ‘hubris’, which seems like an oversight on the internet’s part, so I’ve used the ogre instead. The Cambridge Dictionary defines hubris as ‘a way of talking or behaving that is too proud,’ but I think the ancient Greeks might have gone further than that. In the context of Greek tragedies, hubris is an affront to the gods. It’s behaviour that violates the natural order of things, inviting serious punishment. (For a good example, look up what Tantalus did and how the resulting curse reverberated through multiple generations of his family. It’s far more gruesome than anything in Game of Thrones, so I’m not including the details here for fear of spoiling your appetite.)
In the world of Artificial Selection, Charlotte has inherited Narrow’s view that ‘every action has an equal and opposite reaction.’ They’re extending the meaning of the phrase beyond Newton’s Third Law of Motion, suggesting it means that there are consequences for our actions, and that the universe seeks some kind of balance. It’s a bit like karma, and both concepts have some overlap with the notion of being punished for committing hubris.
With that context in place, I’d like to share an example of hubris from my own life… As an author, I sometimes feel amazed by the power I wield over the inhabitants of my books and the world around them. I determine their fates. I control the weather! Of course, I’m restricted by things like gravity and the characters’ personalities. But, even so, my influence is substantial.
A silly example came up when I was writing chapter 14 of Artificial Selection. I’ll avoid spoilers in case you’re still reading, but there’s an action sequence, and I realised that it would work much better if a particular ladder was on the other side of the street. I started thinking, ‘OK, how else can I do this?’ And then I realised… ‘I’m the author! I can MOVE LADDERS with the power of my fingertips! Bwahahahahahaha!’
So I went back and redesigned the streets so that the ladder was where it needed to be. And the scene worked WAY better.
So where does the hubris come in?
The other day, I caught up with a writer friend and told them this story. Here’s how the conversation went:
Marianne: ‘I’m the author! I can MOVE LADDERS with the power of my fingertips! Bwahahahahahaha!’
Writer friend: ‘Exactly! And I always think it’s important to avoid the thought that I’m like a god…’
Marianne: ‘Yes! Totally! I’ve had that exact same thought! Because that would be hubris, and I really don’t want vengeful deities like the Furies on my tail, who won’t stop until they exact their terrible punishment.’
Writer friend: ‘No, no, I meant… we’re not like gods because, if you really stop and think about it, we also control any gods that exist within our books, so technically we’re MORE POWERFUL THAN GODS.’
At that point, I gasped and was forced to watch as three heavily armed chthonic goddesses swooped into the coffee place and carried my friend away, screaming. So if you aren’t a writer, but you’ve always wondered what being a writer is like – now you know.
Ben’s curiosity corner
It’s time for another fun fact about which parts of the ArkTech Territory are based in reality and which are entirely fictional. I’m making this section spoiler-free, for anyone who’s still reading.
We’ve already covered:
- Automated buildings (FACT)
- Mabel’s mug (FACT)
- The HyperBullet network (FICTION, inspired by FACT)
- Seagulls stealing potato-based snacks (FACT).
Today’s topic is: SmartSkin.
If you have a request for what I cover in future emails, just let me know.
SmartSkin – FICTION
I thought I’d tell you about something completely made up this month. With that in mind, I’ve chosen SmartSkin. For anyone who needs a reminder, SmartSkin is the touchscreen technology which most ArkTech’s employee-citizens have implanted in their non-dominant forearm. It takes the place of smartphones and wearable technology like smart watches.
I can’t resist using research to inform even the fictional aspects of my invented future, so I read a fair bit about how it could work. Keratin (the same stuff that hair and nails and horns are made from, if you happen to have them) seemed a plausible material for SmartSkin technology. It’s already considered promising in the field of biomaterials because of its biocompatibility (i.e. bodies tend not to reject it), and research is being done today into its potential for use in wound healing and tissue regeneration. It’s also considered sustainable as it can be produced from various waste products, for example, from agricultural processes.
Meanwhile, our old friend graphene, which I wrote about last month, is a logical choice for embedding technological features within the keratin because of its potential to take the place of silicon-based computer chips. Using graphene avoids the need to mine the rare minerals that smartphones rely on, so it’s an environmentally friendly alternative to the modern equivalent.
I was going to share the reasons I decided to include SmartSkin in the world of the books, but it might be more fun to let you ponder that for yourselves.
Right… that’s all from me this month. I hope all’s well in your own personal universes.
Until the Ides,
Marianne
P.S. Editing Time Hack is going well. Some chapters of the revised version are up to fourth draft status now, which is pretty close to being ready to go to my editor. Other chapters still need a bit more polishing up. I’m excited about how it’s all coming together, and can’t wait for you to read it later this year.