h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've just received my first royalties payment!

It's not much, because it's only for one particular outlet and one particular format, and only for November (and the book didn't come out until late November), but it's here and I'm currently grinning like a loon!

Congratulations!

See, you can buy me that mars bar now

You can drink yourself sober? OK, I've managed it, but only twice I think, so far - didn't know it was an established fact though, but it must be, because I'm reading in a book, so it must be true, right?

Poor Jerry...

You can, I've done it!

I hope you're enjoying it! The book that is, not the drinking yourself sober, although that can be fun too

First time (sorry to deviate from the book) was at a dinner party at one of my colleagues, who's Polish (I think the Polish is as good as, or possibly even worse at, drinking as the Russians).

We had white wine with the food (lots of wine) and it made me feel sleepy. My Polish colleague said I had had too little to drink and made a huge pitcher of dirty Dry Martini.

Which made me perk up quite a bit, instead of getting even fuzzier. And I stayed sharp (my idea of sharp at least) for several hours (the party went on all night and all the guests ended up sleeping over).

And no hangover. Already back then (in the 80ies) I had this idea that anything containing gin would never give me a hangover. And it hasn't.

It was a family wedding for me, drank over 40 pints by the time it was over.

Pastey, have you, by any chance watched the film about dinosaurs, made in a BBC documentary style? Describing their habitat, their hunting tactics, their mating habits.

I happened to turn on the TV after it had started, and I was like 'but... but... but... they never existed, did they? Or did they?'

And so far (I've come across Bridget) I've laughed out loud a couple of times. But a male b...?

And you've definitely changed my conception of the expression 'by Bob!'

I'm really glad it's making you laugh Ti! I admit I still laugh at some of the jokes myself, but I've got a weird sense of humour

It's a very strange thing, to produce a book like this and release it into the wild. You're constantly wondering if people actually like it, and hearing that somebody does is an incredible feeling

Well, that was one of the reasons I once again tried to participate in NaJoPoMo - for that tickling feeling of someone wafting a feather at your ego.

*tickles Pastey's ego with a feather*

I realy enjoyed the book, but I finished it to soon! Not sure if it's because my speed reading has increased or if the novel was too short.

But yeah, I got a pretty good idea of the general personality of each species.

Are all the fact made up, or is there any truth when it comes to dodos and or Coleacanths and elecktrickety?

Dodos and tea is totally made up I'm afraid.

The ceolocanth is based a little on electrolocation, which I talk about a bit more elsewhere in the book. I'd totally made it up at the time, just thought it'd be a really cool thing if fish were able to do this, and it turns out they can!

Did you find that out before or after you had finished writing the book? Just curious... thinking of how Clarke actually predicted a method to fuel space rockets early on before anyone actually made it happen...

I'd found it out after I'd written all the relevant parts, I think it was a third draft when the wife asked what was possible/fact, so we looked stuff up, such as dates involved when tea was first brought over, etc.

So was it a 'wait, I was right!' moment?

It was a "Nature is really that weird" moment

It was weird, coming up with stuff that seemed to just make sense for the warped world I've come up with, and then finding out it's real in this world

OK, will stop trying to probe your mind, for the time at least, it's not often I get the chance to do that to a published author...

Feel free to continue probing! You've taken the effort to read my book, the least I can do is answer your questions!

Will there be a sequel?