A Preview of Silliness Ahead

Hello astrolabes,

I appreciate that an astrolabe isn't an animal, and I hope you can forgive the departure from the usual greeting tradition, but astrolabes are pretty cool actually (a bit like an ancient mechanical star chart if you didn't know) and if someone called me an astrolabe, I think I'd be really stoked and feel suddenly capable of achieving my dreams and finally ready to let all that deep-seated resentment towards my dad go, so yeah, I guess you're welcome?

I just thought it might be time again for another thrilling episode of I'm Not Dead and This is Where I've Been. I'm not dead and this is where I've been:

• Intermittently playing chess and daydrinking, sometimes simultaneously, hence a Chess.com ELO score of -1928.

• Working on the project I might've mentioned but might've not've (?) - a five part video series, stories really, about a distant futuristic species of humans who actually, you know, made it. Who learned not to indulge their predisposition to war, and resisted squeezing toothpaste from the middle of the tube and so on. I'll be straight with you. It has not been easy. I knew when I started the thing that it was stupid and far too large – about five hours of narration, a novella really, and I'd need illustrations to go with it. But over the halfway line now, I think I'm glad I committed to this nonsense. I'll attach some of the illustrations below because they're Valeia's (the artist I worked with on Big Oxygen if you know that one) and she's wonderful. I'll resist spoiling the surprise, but I guess I can tell you each story is vaguely related, thematically anyway, and jumps in time happen by millennia. There are talking space whales who occupy multiple realities simultaneously, linguists who've perfected syntax to such a specificity that they can topple civilisations with a line of graffiti, and even a bit of a sad love story too just to keep things tasteless. When the thing is finished obviously I'll upload them to the main channel, each episode probably a few days apart, but am strongly considering turning them into a paperback book too, for folks who understandably hate my voice.

One of the stories is in the style of letters being sent back and forth, and I've been searching for a voice actor for quite some time now as one of the characters. So, if you happen to know someone who'd be comfortable reading a female part in what turns out to be a rather sad scifi story, that'd be appreciated. The part would be paid of course, and obviously with full credit given. I'm not particular about portfolios or anything like that, but if they have a sample of their work already that'd be enormously useful. exurb1achannel@gmail.com would be the best place to drop me a line if so.

In recommendations, I do have a few. I was a fairly massive fan of The Three Body Problem and the subsequent books – maybe you've come across them too. A TV adaptation dropped a few weeks back now and I must say I don't hate it. Always nice to see stories about big collaborative human projects – not something we're very interested in of late and sinister aliens are a great way of inspiring them, huh.

After years of being told to, I finally read Spin, the Robert Charles Wilson scifi novel, and boy howdy, what a ride. Scifi has lots of possible shapes, but surely the most fun version is: Well, wouldn't it be crazy if this thing happened and HEY LET'S JUMP THOUSANDS OF YEARS AHEAD AND CRANK THAT SHIT UP TO 11. Which is exactly what Spin is and I'm fairly sure you'll like it too. It's a brave thing to set up a mystery premise, then never actually reveal the mystery – other than this book, the only other place I've seen it done successfully is the TV show The Leftovers, which, if you haven't seen it, I suggest you quit your job/studies immediately and sit through the thing in one go because it's wonderful.

Hm, am I really going to recommend chess? I think so. Little black and white squares with horsies on top, you know the one. I've never been a strong player and just assumed getting good was a privilege reserved for the kinds of people who find themselves romantically attracted to excel spreadsheets. I bumped into a biography of the legendary Bobby Fischer a little while back (Endgame by Frank Brady, superb) and it suddenly hit me what a thriving community there still is around the game. And I couldn't help myself – it's become quite an obsession and I'm beginning to understand what the appeal is at last. There is a beauty to unconventional moves, Bobby Fischer being famous for them. And there is a massive satisfaction to coming up with a sneaky stratagem and somehow pulling it off every now and then. So anyway, I've discovered this really obscure game you haven't heard of, and please don't tell anyone else, we don't want the thing going mainstream.

Anyway, everything's fine, promise. I've ranted before about trying to learn to not bully stories into becoming real and give them the time they ask for. It's frustrating having to wait for them to trust you, hoping they'll finally come out and say hi like a shy cat under the sofa, but in my experience, even when it takes a while like it is now, it's usually worth the satisfaction of writing the thing in the end. So please bear with me a little longer, and I promise there's a sizable content drop coming and maybe even a new book.

Massive love as always and hope you're doing well,

Ex