🐬 Space Dolphins, Big Foot & a new manuscript
An ode to human weirdness in a sea of AI sensibility
Last month, a publisher emailed me…
I wonder if you’ve ever considered a nonfiction book for kids about AI?
For the following weeks I circled around and around: what would I ‘teach’? What will be relevant years from now? Where is this all going?
What I loved most about AI in its infancy was how weird outputs were. Today, it’s trained to be increasingly efficient, sensible, predictable. How boring. How artificial.
So I wrote a story that returns to that weirdness, inspired by AI.
That book - Dr Snuggins Almanac of Impossible Rocks- is now out on submission. It’s a fantastical hiking companion filled with silly, weird and imaginary rocks.
It’s not what the publisher asked for, but it’s what bubbled up. And I love it. Because as it turns out, I don’t want to teach children about AI (right now). I want to teach children how to find their weird. To confidently tap into their uniquely creative brain. To spend time outside, in a world of wacky rocks 🪨 Humans are, after all, fantastically weird.
If you’re a curious (& weird) publisher, reply to this email to request the manuscript 📄 or reach out at annabelblake.com
*I don’t really like this term, but it is what it is for now.
Get writing! Here's a prompt to spark new story ideas & bedtime tales.I keep circling around 2 themes in my writing right now. 1. Familiars 2. Fictional embassies. Dolphin embassy ticks both boxes. It is a speculative fiction piece by Ant Farm, intended to "facilitate dialogue and debate between people and other species". Humans & dolphins living together in a floating city. It’s glorious.
Your story spark is to invent an embassy: what would it be designed to do? Is it secret? How does your character stumble upon it? Are they a member?
In the same vein, Rick Sternbach was the concept artist for Star Trek who hid details of a "cetacean ops" facility in the Star Trek Enterprise Manual; starting it’s own lore.
My favourite playful web picks for the month.Get your morning milk from a cow statue at this hotel in the Swiss Alps. Excuse me whilst I clear out bench space in my tiny apartment to build a cow milk dispenser.
Houses need more googly eyes in my opinion. Another gem from Ant Farm.
Modular Synth as clay bandmates. It’s giving AI video gen but is painstakingly hand made. I adore everything about it.
High heel teeth shoes Same vibe, it’s weird, it’s horrifying, it wasn’t made by AI it was made by a human. I want to feel my heels click and clack in these or perhaps I want to wear…
Suicoke Big Foot boots my favourite sandals have taken a (delightfully) weird turn.
Mute distracting notifications, grab a warm cuppa and find a seat in the sun.This week I’m reading about design fiction, Hyperstition & this ‘History of Science Fiction’ diagram [by Ward Shelley]. These pieces talk about how artists, authors, creators are important in times of ‘future shock’. In bringing about positive and nourishing illusions because…
“illusions – if people believe in them -change the course of history.”
In hype cycles like the AI one we’re in now I find myself wishing that more technologists would write, and that more writers should write about a positive future with technology.
Something well thunk and beautifully made!Another book, this time from an indie publisher in the US who has a stunning lineup of graphic novels. Last Chance to Find Duke is so sweet. I read it after writing Dr Snuggins, but it has similar themes; a cryptic research agency + magical realism + cosy outdoor hikes. It wraps around you like a quiet morning fog and warms you like a roaring campfire.
Insect researcher No. 063 has one last chance to find "Duke", a rare species of cricket whose chirping sounds like jazz; if he doesn't find it the institute for Studying Extraordinary Creatures will cut funding for his research.
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