Michael Marshall's Blog, page 4

The UK book cover for The Genesis Quest is here

Look at it! It's the UK cover for my book The Genesis Quest, fresh from the Weidenfeld & Nicolson art department.

I love how beautifully simple it is, and how richly evocative. In the words of Maddy Price, my editor, it conveys "planet Earth, the Sun, the wonder of science, and the beginnings of new life all at once".

I can't wait for the book to be on shelves for you all to see. But in the meantime you can already pre-order it.

I now have an author profile page on Amazon

Ahead of the publication of my first book The Genesis Quest in August, I've set up an Author page for myself on Amazon. I'll be posting updates about the book and other fun stuff on there. And in due course, maybe there'll be posts about future books too!

Visit my Amazon Author Page

My first piece for the Observer is about saving the world's fireflies

Nori Yuasa/Getty Images It's taken me almost 13 years in journalism but I've finally got around to getting a piece published in the Guardian - or rather, in the Observer , which is the Sunday version of the Guardian.

The story is called "Why the lights are going out for fireflies". It explores why the world's firefly populations are in decline, and what we might do about it.

It's probably for the best that the editors didn't take up my proposal to call it "Grave of the fireflies", after the saddest film ever made. For one thing, this story has a hopeful ending.

I now have a Facebook Page

I have just launched my official page on Facebook. Follow me there to see all my new stories, get invitations to events, and of course for updates on the book.

Here it is: https://www.facebook.com/michael.marshall.writer/

My first feature for Nature is about dinosaur-era climate change

It's been months in the making and here it is: my first feature for Nature.

Did a million years of rain jump-start dinosaur evolution?

It's been a pleasure working with editor Rich Monastersky on this piece. The story is about the Carnian Pluvial, a period early in the dinosaur era when the climate seemingly lurched from dry to wet, and stayed that way for over a million years. The result was evolutionary turnover, which seemingly included the diversification and rise to dominance of the dinosaurs.