Why is February?

Newsletter Issue #27 - February 2025

Author

Arthur Manners
February 10, 2025

Can we all agree that February is a dud month and get rid of it? The year is getting on but has no momentum yet, and (in the UK, at least) the weather remains stubbornly miserable. But at least we have warm blankets, thick coffee, and good books.

Table of Contents

  • Book: How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan. I’ve only just read this, which is an oversight given its impact. Pollan explores the science of psychedelics and the history of R&D in the area. I found that it did belabour its point a touch, but it’s a great starting point to spin out into other books on the subject.

  • Music: What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong. Nothing clever to say here. Listen and be happy.

  • Poem: Not for That City by Charlotte Mew, first published in 1902. This poem snagged my attention last year. I jotted it down in my journal, like I do with a lot of poems. But this one keeps resurfacing in my mind. It’s inspired a few stories lately, and I hope to write a post for my website about how it fed into my creative process. For now, here’s the poem in full:

    Not for that city of the level sun,

         Its golden streets and glittering gates ablaze—

         The shadeless, sleepless city of white days,

    White nights, or nights and days that are as one—

    We weary, when all is said , all thought, all done.

         We strain our eyes beyond this dusk to see

         What, from the threshold of eternity

    We shall step into. No, I think we shun

    The splendour of that everlasting glare,

       The clamour of that never-ending song.

       And if for anything we greatly long,

    It is for some remote and quiet stair

         Which winds to silence and a space for sleep

         Too sound for waking and for dreams too deep.

  • Film: 2001: A Space Odyssey, directed by Stanley Kubrick. One of the best films of all time. I mention it here because some people have expressed surprise that I’ve seen it, because I’m ‘too young’—as though it couldn’t possibly be relevant just because it was made a while ago. Not so. This film is as much a masterpiece now as when it first released. I also made the mistake of showing this to my partner, assuring her that it wasn’t scary (it isn’t). She was horrified by the themes and music and… all of it, and insisted it was very scary indeed (it isn’t, unless we count HAL9000’s death scene, which tops my scale for horror). But she’s seen it now—worth the pain.

  • Podcast: How to Fail with Elizabeth Day. I’ve enjoyed poring over the backlist of Elizabeth Day’s interviews with writers, actors and other talents, exploring their failures and how they grew from them. Day is consistently warm and supportive, and gets well-known people to open up in ways they rarely do elsewhere.

Writing News

  • I’ve sold another story this month (for reprint), to an academic journal that will use it as part of educating young people about climate change—which actually feels useful? Announcement to come soon.

  • I’ll be attending Boskone 62 in Boston (14th-16th February 2025) as part of a combined work trip / holiday. Get in touch if you want to say hi!

  • My cli-fi story “Boomtown Atoll” is due for release in Phano next month. Links to come.

  • Story releases ICYMI:

Where’s Rolo?

Have a good one,

Arthur