Keith Mansfield

Two days and then people will be able to flock into every bookshop in the country and demand a copy of Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit of London. In theory anyway…

Happily, my beautiful badges arrived today, just in time for tomorrow night’s rooftop launch.

This evening my flat becomes a mini-bakery, churning out all sorts of different Johnny Mackintosh cakes for tomorrow’s party. Before they’re all eaten, I hope to take a few pictures to show you what you could have had!

The weather forecasters are still saying storms and rain tomorrow, despite today’s glorious baking hot sunshine. But they don’t know I’ve done a deal with Bram…

With three days to go, I’ve been thinking about the number 3 – the magic number, the charmed ones and, of course, Thunderbirds. As a child, my older brother had a toy Thunderbird 1 while, for some reason, I ended up with astronaut Alan Tracy’s space-faring Thunderbird 3. Is this where my love of spaceships began? The episodes with Thunderbird 3 were few and far between, but when they happened they were much the most gripping and I swelled with pride when it was my International Rescue vehicle in the thick of the action.

With three days to go, launch party plans are well underway. Will my Johnny Mackintosh badges arrive in time? Will we be able to make all the cakes we plan to? Most importantly, as the party is on a roof terrace right beneath the Spirit of London, will the sun shine? Storms are forecast.

launch party location

I hope that from distant Melania, His Divine Imperial Majesty the Emperor (aka Bram) is looking on favourably and will give us a lovely evening.

Despite being in the thick of Johnny Mackintosh pre-publication, I can’t resist pointing people to Emily Lakdawalla’s blog over at The planetary Society. She’s spotted something really weird on one of the legs of the Mars Phoenix Lander.

Here’s her picture, showing the difference between Sol 8 and Sol 31 (a Sol is a Martian day, which is around 24 hours, 40 minutes long):

While the second picture is better lit, it still looks as though it the leg’s covered with more “stuff” whatever that stuff may be. Is it a trick of the light, is additional clumpy soil being blown onto this one leg as more Sols go by, is this leg at the right angle that it’s gathering more frost, or is there mould on Mars?

Time will tell…

It’s less than a week until Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit of London will be sitting proudly on the shelves of “all good bookshops”. What am amazing thought – I feel extremely privileged to be in such a position, which would never have happened without the encouragement and support of very many people. Shaun Levin (the author and tutor of the writing workshops I go to) recently said to me, “Enjoy these days.” How could I not?

I’m sure I’m not alone as a new author in having such excitement as my ink and paper offspring is about to enter the world – doesn’t everyone check their Amazon sales ranking? When I looked this morning Johnny sat proudly at position 6818, which sounds very healthy for a new title, and it already has a first (and glowing) review.

I’d ordered a few extra copies of my own from Waterstones and they’ve already arrived so it’s clearly only Harry Potter that’s strictly embargoed before publication. Of course I’ve had a few of the beautifully printed books for a while, but it’s not possible for me to read it. Every time I stare at a page I think, why didn’t I change such and such word or replace a whole paragraph? That’s what comes of the infinitely editable era in which we live – it makes it much harder to let go than in the era of typewriters, hot metal and a single set of proofs.

But let go I must, accepting readers will view it as it is and I’ll be thrilled if other reviews come out half as well. Not that authors ever read them of course…

[Number 6 from Ted Patrick, Adobe Systems]

Finally, Johnny Mackintosh has his own website. It’s a place where you can read an extract from the book, see a little more about me and even send your name into space. Soon there’ll be information about readings and school visits plus lots more goodies.

If you’ve read Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit of London you might be expecting a talking computer, alien signals to analyse and an Old English sheepdog running around giving you clues. All in good time. As the Diaquant tells Johnny in the book, ‘…it’s a small thing. A little acorn … but an oak tree can grow from it.’

Click on the new Johnny Mackintosh logo to the right or go straight to johhnymackintosh.com.

The 3rd July isn’t just an important day for Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit of London. It’s also the day Alex Milway’s The Curse of Mousebeard hits all good bookshops. Writing can be a solitary profession so it was great to hook up with Alex the other night and swap stories and experiences as we head towards publication.

It’s Alex’s second book following on from The Mousehunter itself, but that only came out in January so he’s still quite new to all this too. And he was far too bashful to pose with a copy of one of his own creations in his hand so, instead, I had to snap him holding a copy of Johnny Mackintosh.

There are two things I’ve always wanted to be able to do, but know I’m totally rubbish at. One is singing, which is unfortunate for my friends as I have a terrible habit of breaking into song anyway. The other is drawing – Alex is a brilliant artist. When you’re a writer you can’t go anywhere without a notebook as you never know when that key idea is going to hit - plus you want to write in any spare moment. Alex showed me his notebook and it put my untidy scrawl to shame – beautiful drawing followed beautiful drawing and I’m shocked and appalled I didn’t take a photo to give a sneak preview. Happily, you can see all his brilliant mice and more over at the Mousehunter blog.

You might think Monday’s a quiet night when nothing much happens, but this evening I had invitations from Coldplay for their special gig at Brixton Academy and from the Royal Society for their Science Book Prize awards ceremony. Apologies to Chris Martin but there was only ever going to be one winner.

The Royal Society prize is probably the most prestigious in science writing (this year it was sponsored by the Beecroft Trust). It comes in two categories: there’s a general nonfiction award and a junior prize for books aimed at the under 14s. Up until now this has always been a nonfiction prize too, but I figure maybe, just maybe, Johnny Mackintosh will be considered next year for what I’d call its “science in fiction” content.

I chatted to Jon Tickle, ex of Big Brother and now of Brainiac Science Abuse fame, who was absolutely brilliant. Ditto Iain Stewart, like Jon, one of the judges who forgave me for mistaking him for Ian Stewart, one of the shortlisted authors. When I looked closely they both seemed to have two eyes.

The general prize was won by Mark Lynas with his Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet. As the Earth warms a degree at a time, Mark describes the effect each will have on the planet and all our lives. I haven’t read the book, but I’m sure it’s a great contribution to the climate change area and from what I’ve heard it’s absolutely not one of those hysterical “end of the world” prophecies. Apparently Lynas believes it’s neither too late nor too difficult to prevent possible future disaster. The only nominee I spoke with was Stuart Clark whose The Sun Kings didn’t quite make it over the line first, but who seemed a great bloke and certainly won the best-dressed author award on the night. His book tells an incredible story and has jumped to the top of my “to read” list.

The junior prize was won by The Big Book of Science Things To Make and Do by Rebecca Gilpin and Leonie Pratt. This was actually chosen by around 1200 kids from various organizations so I’m sure is a very worthy winner. My only disappointment was that this meant the winner’s speech didn’t answer the age-old conundrum of Why is Snot Green? which was one of the other books short-listed. For kids who want to know more about science, Planet Science is a great starting point and Nature is also doing a round up of best children’s books later in the year. Watch this space.

Martin Rees, President of the Royal Society and the main voice in the microphone, may not have sung Yellow, but you don’t get cakes at the Brixton Academy. These were totally delicious and must have put my own astronaut training programme back something rotten.

I’ve applied for some unusual jobs in my time, but nothing caps sending my completed form to the European Space Agency, in the hope of becoming an astronaut. Never have I been keener to be invited for interview.

It’s the first time since 1992 that ESA has opened up its doors to potential new recruits and I’m delighted to have the chance to become a candidate. Fewer than five hundred people have left the Earth to go into space and I can think of no greater privilege to be a representative of humanity as we take our first steps on what I hope will become a great adventure.

Our place in the universe thanks to Aeree Chung of Columbia University

There’s a vast galaxy out there, which is a tiny part of a mind-bogglingly enormous universe. What a waste if our species is confined, for a short time, to Earth before humanity ceases to exist.

Some people say that spending money on space exploration is a waste. To me the argument doesn’t stand up. Without going into space, we would know so much less about the changes the Earth is experiencing and would have even less idea of how to deal with them.

The space industry has also enabled better forecasting (helping to avert natural disasters or minimizing their effects when they occur), improved agricultural yields and more efficient exploitation of raw materials, vastly more efficient communications (bringing the world closer together which in turn has seen the flow of information across previously closed borders as well as connecting remote societies where other means are impossible), satellite navigation in planes, our cars and in many other devices, and the creation of new technologies and industries. And, in the longer term, without going into space the human race will inevitably become extinct. If we are to survive, to go on, we need to place our eggs in more than one basket.

Of course money spent on space exploration is spent on Earth anyway. It’s not as if it is frittered away on the surface of some other planet. It all goes to pay salaries and purchase materials here and now, and so is recycled into our economy.

I think, though, that there is another reason why space exploration is important. We are at our best as a species when we have a purpose, a goal to work towards. I find it incredible that we went to the Moon in the 1960s. And even stranger that no one has set foot on its surface for over thirty-five years. As Kennedy said:

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we’re willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone…”

All these years on, imagine what we could achieve if we set our minds to it? I was part of the generation inspired by the Moon landings. When people saw the fragile globe of the Earth from space, with no borders, it created a new outlook for humanity and the possibility of a bright shared future. My hope has always been that Johnny Mackintosh will help encourage a new generation of scientists and explorers to seize that future, to boldly go where no one has gone before. But how much more inspiring it will be when others, perhaps even me, are exploring space for real and the coming generations know they can become a part of that?

Unexpectedly, today has become one of those milestones every first-time author looks forward to – perhaps it’s even more special than publication.

I am now looking at several advance copies of Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit of London . . . and it’s gorgeous. When I embarked on this story I could not, in my wildest imaginings, have asked for better. It’s a privilege to be able to hold the physical book in my hands and see my words stretched across every page.

Everything has become so much more real and now I can look forward to publication with a mixture of excitement and apprehension that will vary depending on my mood. But if you’re going to write books, you do have to want people to read them so it’s the excitement that should gain the upper hand.