This week we have:
An update from Jodi
A David Sands Writing Competition entry: Journey of Disaster by GB Williams
This Week in History: Sir Francis Drake: The Englishman Who Sailed Around the World
Jodi Taylor Book Recommendation: The Smart Woman's Guide to Murder by Victoria Dowd💙📚
Win a SIGNED hardback and exclusive dinosaur stickers when you pre-order OUT OF TIME by Jodi Taylor from any retailer
A joke from the #SillySunday thread in Jodi’s Fans and Readers Facebook Group
The Book of the Month is About Time by Jodi Taylor
There’s plenty to read this week and you can see everything new on the blog too. CLICK HERE for the blog.
My bag’s packed and, wearing the appropriate sweatshirt, I’m ready to head off to the “Murder Out of Time” weekend in Cheltenham. You can expect a fully loaded newsletter next week with all the gossip, photos and videos from the event. There’s bound to be someone who says, “What happens in Cheltenham stays in Cheltenham” but I’m sure Hazel won’t agree with that. She’d tell you what I ate for breakfast given the chance.
I know that the copies of Out of Time are being delivered hot of the press to the event. If you would like to order a signed copy please CLICK HERE.
Love,
Jodi x
Journey of Disaster by GB Williams
Captain Arnold stood in his ready room, stomach churning as stars floated by. The universe was wrong. There should be rainbow streaks, not distant spots. Their faster than light engines had stopped ten minutes ago. He had received no reports from Chief Engineer Skinner nor Lieutenant-Commander Winton, who currently had command.
Arnold returned to his desk and activated internal communications.
“Chief Skinner?”
“Yes, Captain?”
“We seem to be travelling under inertia.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Care to explain why?”
“Because—” Electrical crackles and explosions came clearly across the comms. “Sorry, Sir, busy,” the usually unflappable Skinner snapped.
The distant hiss of an extinguisher and a few choice swear words followed before the channel closed.
Two months. Arnold’s last assignment. Possibly ever. Get this crew working or they were all out on their ears, including him. If they couldn’t manage a simple supply run of medical aid to a plague-ridden colony, the colony would die, and they’d be unemployed. And unemployable. Arnold hadn’t envisioned his career ending this way. As unpalatable as that was, it was not as indigestible as the prospect of letting two million people on Derayus Prime die and taking thirty years to get home without FTL drive.
Taking a steadying breath he headed to the bridge.
The bridge had the standard 5X sloped floor configuration: science and communications stations at the top, captain’s chair in the centre with tactical and piloting stations at the front. Secondary stations were positioned around the edges of the rooms but rarely needed manning.
God, they look so young.
They were young. Most only out of training a year, they had been pushed out of other assignments. Being part of this crew was considered a punishment. Arnold had tried not to believe their reputation. Then he’d met them. Six more weeks to make them cohesive or they would be thrown out of the fleet. Challenge accepted.
The captain’s chair sat empty.
This Week in History: Sir Francis Drake: The Englishman Who Sailed Around the World
On 26th September 1580, the Golden Hind sailed into Plymouth harbour carrying treasures beyond imagining. On her deck stood a man whose name would be etched forever into history: Sir Francis Drake. After nearly three years at sea, Drake had completed the first circumnavigation of the globe by an Englishman.
Drake’s voyage began in December 1577 under orders from Queen Elizabeth I. Officially, it was a mission of exploration and trade. Unofficially, it was an opportunity to harass Spain, England’s powerful Catholic rival and to raid her treasure fleets in the Americas.
Drake set out with a small fleet of five ships and around 160 men. The journey was perilous from the start. Storms battered his vessels as they attempted to round Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America, and dissent among his officers culminated in the execution of Thomas Doughty for mutiny. Only the Golden Hind survived the voyage into the Pacific.
Once in the Pacific, Drake unleashed a campaign of plunder against Spanish possessions. He raided coastal towns, captured richly laden ships, and seized gold, silver, and precious spices. The Spanish, who considered the Pacific Ocean their private domain, were stunned by the audacity of this English privateer.
Win a SIGNED hardback and exclusive dinosaur stickers when you pre-order OUT OF TIME by Jodi Taylor
The Time Police are back in Out of Time, the brand new novel from Jodi Taylor!
And even better, we’re giving you the chance to win a hardback signed by Jodi herself and some exclusive dinosaur stickers.
Simply pre-order your copy in any format you like, from any retailer you like, and upload your proof of purchase into the form below. You’ll be automatically entered. Good luck!
Jodi Taylor Book Recommendation: The Smart Woman's Guide to Murder by Victoria Dowd💙📚
Brilliant mystery with sharp writing and some absolutely hilarious one-liners. The main character is witty and delightfully sarcastic. Honestly, I can’t fathom why there’s such a fuss these days about characters needing to be “likeable.” It’s a murder mystery, not a romance. Thoroughly recommend it.
Have you enjoyed this book too?
A joke from the #SillySunday thread in Jodi’s Fans and Readers Facebook Group
Thanks to Scott Saternye for this one:
"What did the grape say when it was stepped on? Nothing. It just let out a little...wine."
The Book of the Month is About Time
This is the fourth book in the Time Police series and for reasons which now escape me, I thought it would be a good idea to cram all the action into one 24-hour period.
[I do sometimes wonder about my thought processes]
Anyway, I threw everything at everyone in this book. Jane’s family trauma – her grandmother – the breakup of Team 236 – America – the unbelievable but unbeatable team of Max and Varma – Callen – everything happens in this one. Great fun to write but complicated. I had charts, diagrams, timelines, major plot points and bits of dialogue scribbled all over the walls and scattered across the floor. And there were a great many sleepless nights as I wrestled with resolving enough issues to satisfy my readers while also making it very clear there was a lot more still to come. I definitely had a few Max moments during this one. You know – those moments when she wonders why on earth she didn’t take that nice job at the abattoir.
It was done eventually and I was quite pleased with it. I did enjoy writing Jane’s horrible grandmother and suggesting she was a truly unpleasant person without going overboard about it. The best bit, though, was trying to calculate how long it would take someone to hit the ground when thrown out of a helicopter.
Many of you will have noticed that maths is not my strong point. I always put it like that because it implies I do actually have strong points, which according to my family is debatable.
I am aware of the thirty feet per second per second thingy, although how to apply it was well beyond my simple abilities. The whole story is told in the Author’s Note at the end of the book but once again I’d like to thank Messrs Hammond, Clarkson and May for their practical advice concerning caravans, helicopters and the dropping of one from the other.
My careful research however was rubbished by Headline who apparently have proper mathematicians, who, presumably, have nothing better to do than criticise their author’s erratic calculations. At this point I should say that their version was nowhere near as dramatic as mine but eventually I merged the two theories – so the ending manages to be both exciting and inaccurate. Which is quite a feat.
Enjoy …
Looking forward to this book!
Sir Francis Drake was very exciting to me in my Los Angeles, California childhood because very little history was visual earlier than 1930. Except the missions, which were amazing that they survived major earthquakes. TY for your work.