September23: Thoughts of the day

The beginning of a new blog after many years without – so perhaps I should introduce it with an apology for the long delay before making a start with the letter A – A for Amsterdam. Because I am drinking my morning coffee from the big inverted bell cup with scenes from Amsterdam brought back as a present by a loved one from a visit to the beautiful Dutch city. A lovely bright morning in Yorkshire, but with more than a pinch of cold. The last bloom of roses visible through my study window together with the drooping orange claws of montbretia. Air tellingly empty of bees.

I have taken a break from writing a chapter for a distinguished science publisher which opens when the Earth was very raw and new. A seething landscape perhaps resembling the deep-sea vents. In this unpromising inferno life is starting with self-replicating chains of RNA molecules that would give rise to the primal symbiotic interactions of what would become viruses and the beginnings of cellular life. Much of my scientific life over the last two decades has involved examining how this might have come about. That’s my day job. But I have another pastime, less intellectual but wonderfully creative.

I have started a new fantasy novel. But I find myself thinking back from this to my most recently completed fantasy, The Twins of Moon, in which a youthful Eefa and her twin brother, Magio, are forced to abandon their ramshackle home in Warren to set out on an unwanted journey into the unknown wilderness of the Island of Moon, in the strange and magical archipelago of the Sea of Stars. How very frightened Eefa feels, in contrast to the foolishly adventurous young Magio! When neither of them has the slightest idea of the perils they will face . . .

I shall end with hard fact: my top kindle sales for the last 24 hours were as follows:

Non-fiction: Virus X and Virusphere

Fiction: The Return of the Arinn and, surprisingly, The Doomsday Genie.  The latter was first published some 11 years ago.