Greetings Picklesversians,
It’s the 15th of October, and the Ides are upon us once again. That means it’s time for your monthly absorption into the Picklesverse! Here’s what I’ve got for you today:
🚀 Special edition hardbacks (and where to find them),
👋 A warm welcome to new subscribers,
🧐 Separating fact from fiction in the ArkTech Territory,
🕵️♀️ Behind the scenes: Time Hack (aka Book 2).
Onwards!
Let’s get physical
I’m delighted to announce that the much requested special edition hardback of Artificial Selection is now available! Here’s a quick guide to what it contains and where you can get it.
⭐️ Special Edition Hardback
If you’d like to own a copy of Artificial Selection at its most beautiful, or if you’re already on the lookout for Walker Day gifts, then this is the format for you!
The hardback contains two exclusive bonuses:
- Ben’s Glossary of Terms*: a fun guide to the ArkTech Territory in the words of the company’s curious AI,
- Alternate cover art hidden beneath the dust jacket.
Printed in the UK. Ships worldwide.
* Big thanks to beta reader Clare Williams for suggesting I include this!
Other formats
Ebook: Available from Amazon and free with Kindle Unlimited.
Paperback – UK/Europe: Available from The Great British Book Shop. Printed in and shipped from the UK.
Paperback – worldwide: Available from Amazon. Printed in and shipped from a wide range of countries. This option exists to make sure you can easily get hold of a physical copy no matter where you live.
Audiobook: Coming later in 2024. More on that next month.
A side note about author royalties for those of you who’ve asked how this works… Buying physical copies from The Great British Book Shop means ~47% of what you pay goes to the author, compared with ~15% when you buy them from Amazon. But above all, I want you to access and enjoy the books, so please choose the option that makes the most sense for your location.
A warm welcome
A flurry of new people have joined the Picklesverse since the launch of Artificial Selection, so I wanted to send you all a hearty hello!
If you’re wondering what the deal is with all the lizards, it’s become a bit of a running joke. I love basking in the sun (while wearing factor fifty sun cream, of course – safety first), but I live in England these days, so my opportunities to do this are limited. The image above is documentary footage of me writing in my garden this summer.
Anyway, if you have any burning (or, indeed, awkward) questions about the ArkTech Territory, my writing process, or anything else, feel free to drop me a line. Email is the best way to get in touch.**
**All of my social media notifications are turned off so it’s really a lottery whether I’ll see anything on there. ‘Why do you even have those accounts, then, Marianne?’ I hear you ask.
What follows is the truest and most accurate answer I can give you:
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Fact or fiction
Something fun and unexpected about launching this book has been hearing your questions about which parts are based on real life and which are completely made up. These conversations have inspired me to add this new section to the monthly email.
As ever, I’m happy to take requests, so if there’s something you’re keen to ask me, please do. I’d love to hear from you.***
Let’s jump in.
***The fact that all my notifications are turned off should not be taken as evidence to the contrary. 🙃
Automated buildings – FACT!
Reader’s awkward question: “Why is Ben so deeply integrated into the territory’s systems?”
Answer: When I was creating the ArkTech Territory, I ended up doing a lot of research into how that society could operate sustainably. One of the sources I used was the snappily named Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed To Reverse Global Warming by Paul Hawken.
The book describes a project that evaluated around a hundred societal changes and analysed how impactful they would be in terms of reducing the greenhouse effect, and saving money. The conclusion was essentially that we need to make lots of small changes rather than one big one.
There’s an entry in the book about the automation of buildings, which was ranked as the 45th most impactful solution (out of 80) and was estimated to be capable of reducing greenhouse gases by 4.62 gigatons and saving $880.55 billion US dollars.
This intervention is all about energy efficiency. To give a simple example: if lights get turned off automatically when the last person leaves a room, they can’t get left on by accident. But other aspects of buildings can be automated too: water heating, air temperature, alarm systems, and lifts, to name but a few. It might sound futuristic to think about computer systems managing all this, but the concept of Smart Homes isn’t new and neither is the idea of giving verbal instructions to that kind of system. (Alexa, stop playing that music… I wasn’t talking to you, Alexa… ALEXA!)
In the ArkTech Territory, Ben is the company’s virtual assistant. He’ll play music if you ask him to (and tell you hilarious jokes even if you don’t), but he’s also responsible for the more ‘invisible’ automations that help ArkTech’s platforms make efficient use of the renewable energy they run on.
Speaking of Ben, he asked me to pass on a message to anyone who isn’t a fan of automated systems:
“I hate my device’s autocorrect feature. It can go to he’ll.”
Thanks, Ben!
Mabel’s mug – FACT!
The previous topic was technical, so let’s switch to something frivolous…
You know when you’re at work and your colleague says, ‘I bet you can’t slip the word “mongoose” into your presentation later,’ and then you do, and they feel very silly and ashamed for ever having doubted you?****
Well, some months ago, a lovely friend gave me this lovely mug as a gift. I forget how things escalated, but in the end I said I’d give the mug a cameo in the novel, so I did. (I wouldn’t have done it if there was no sensible place for it, but it seemed like a good fit for Mabel so I gave it to her.)
****I’m speaking purely hypothetically, of course. Neither I, nor any of my colleagues at my day job, would ever act in such a childish or unprofessional manner. No, I’m serious. Why are you laughing?
Behind the scenes
With Artificial Selection safely delivered into your hands, I’ve re-focused my attention onto Time Hack, its award-winning sequel. For anyone not familiar with what happened, I actually wrote Time Hack first. I didn’t know it was Book 2 at the time, but I eventually realised there was too much story for just one book. That meant I started writing Artificial Selection, so I put down Time Hack for a while.
It’s been great fun picking it up again. The new structure works much better. To update you about my progress, I’ve re-outlined the whole book, so I have a revised plan from start to finish (which takes account of any changes I needed to make because of what happens in Artificial Selection). I’ve fully updated the first six chapters. I’m currently updating chapter seven. Chapter eight will be interesting because it’s a completely new addition that wasn’t in the original version of the book.
My aim is to finish this draft by… actually, I don’t want to jinx it by telling you the date I’m aiming for, but it’s very exciting and I’m enjoying the process a ridiculous amount!
That’s all from me for this month. I hope all’s well in your own personal universes.
Until the Ides,
Marianne
💬 Review request
If you enjoyed Artificial Selection, I’d be hugely grateful if you’d consider leaving a rating or a review on Amazon if you haven’t already. This helps other readers to find my books, which makes it easier for me to keep writing them. 👩💻