Rejected Stuff and Hi

Hello flamingos, 

How are you? This won't be Patreon related, I'm just here to waste your precious time for a few minutes.

So, I've collected up the best (relatively speaking...) of the worst stuff that didn't make it into the new book and attached it below if you're curious. Apologies for typos or poems that just trail off into nothing. They all felt like fun ideas at the time, but turned out to be, in fact, crap. It'd be way easier if a little demon or sprite popped out of the closet halfway through writing something down and said, "Listen friend, that's bullshit. Why not go out for a burrito instead?" It was quite nice to have a hiatus from scifi anyway. Things are so much easier to work on when you're not supposed to be working on them. 

I can promise new stuff is coming shortly, but I'd quite like to get it right first. The attempt at a comedy-set-on-a-spaceship thing is turning out to be a bit trickier than I first thought, but finally getting finished up. I'm rather excited to show you what my wonderful designer has come up with for the illustrations in any case. If everything goes well, there will be unicorns. Not sure why that reads like a threat. (A huge thank you for your help a few months ago with the project, of course.)

Two recommendations that might appeal, I don't know, but they were just such a treat on this side. One of my favourite physicists, Carlo Rovelli, wrote a book of musings about physics, philosophy, Dante, and pretty much everything else called There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important than Kindness - which is a great title for starters, no? It's an easy read and is gorgeously written - there's a section on 3-spheres that explains them better than I've ever seen it done elsewhere. Also, Drunk: How We Slipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization by Edward Slingerland - a rather surprisingly academic take on why humans still like getting messed up despite it being terrible for our health. Both were food for thought anyway. Oh, and this turned up in the new series of White Lotus. I've given up trying not to listen to it ten times a day. There's a bit near the end where it goes all techno and my brain fizzes.

Massive love as always, hope you're doing all right - new stuff coming when it's the least terrible it can be, promise,

Ex