Snippets—of virus, of experiment, of relief

I’ve been feeling a bit blank the last week or so. Lots of in-law medical emergency stuff meaning constant interruptions in the middle of the night and not much sleep, plus air the colour of spiced sand but smelling like old tires burning on a bonfire, plus wrestling with taxes, have made me feel less than shall we say focused.

So today I’m just going to list some snippets I’ve found interesting in the last few days.

Metaphorically there’s a lot of truth to the old saw (okay, poem), Big fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite them, and little fleas have lesser fleas and so on ad infinitum. (Capitalism is the first thing that springs to mind.) But it’s an apt metaphor for bacteria and viruses, too. I found out from a a paper in Cell that not only do bacteria have phages (viruses that infect bacteria) but that there are also little hitchhikers on those viruses called SaPIS, pathogenicity islands formed of chunks of the bacterium’s DNA—and it’s this lateral transduction that leads to, for example, rapid antibiotic resistance.

There’s a new SARS-CoV-19 variant, BA.2.86, to pay attention to—a variation on an old theme, probably produced in the compromised immune system of a single individual where it mutated and changed over time (much like Omicron). The good news: there are only a handful of cases in four countries right now. The bad news: it has many changes in the spike protein and it appears to be spreading very fast. The unknown: too any to list. So for now, watch, wait, and for your own sake and others’ wear a fucking mask. I’m still miraculously Covid-free, and I’m vigilant, but my safety relies on everyone else being vigilant, too, because no single individual can be both perfectly protected and have a life. If I fly, I have to take my mask off to eat and drink (and trust me you do have to eat and drink when flying between continents). If I’m on a panel or doing a reading it’s easier for me—and for some hearing impaired people in the audience—if I can take my mask off.

Still on Covid, a new study just published in Nature shows that the postacute sequelae of Covid-19 (PASC) , aka Long Covid (LC) just keeps…getting longer. The “risks of PASC for coagulation and hematologic disorders, pulmonary disorders, fatigue, gastrointestinal disorders, musculoskeletal disorders and diabetes remained increased 2 years after a SARS-CoV-2 infection in those not hospitalized for COVID-19.” I have two family members (one on each side of the Atlantic) who’ve been briefly hospitalised with pulmonary and cardiovascular sequelae—in neither case did the attending suggest that what it was (the two diagnoses were, respectively, acute coronary syndrome and pulmonary thrombosis) but both events came out of the blue about three months after a Covid infection. The study also measured disability-adjusted life years of those with LC. You want to know why Covid is not flu and why you should wear a fucking mask? Go read the study.

And still on heart attacks—metaphorically speaking—I nearly had one the other day when I stumbled across something I’d never heard of, linothorakes. This, apparently, was the top-tier body armour of ancient Greeks, Romans, Macedonians and others. It’s ten or so layers of linen laminated together with rabbit glue that dries so hard and tough that it protects against swords, spears, and arrows. I read that and felt a cold wind at the back of my neck, a vertiginous, Ah shit moment about Menewood. If it was so effective why wouldn’t Hild and her contemporaries have worn it? Why hadn’t I known about it?? What else had I got wrong??? I closed my eyes imagining this massive experiment I’ve been running for over ten years just falling apart. But then I opened them again, and kept reading, discovered that, around the first century BC, advances in metallurgy—sharper, harder edges and points—rendered the armour ineffective. So: relief.

Writing the kind of historical fiction that I’m doing with Hild is an interesting experience. It’s fiction first and foremost, of course: if it does not enthrall the reader I’ve failed at my most basic job. But frankly I’m good at that part; I don’t worry about it. But the sequence of Hild novels is also a giant controlled experiment trying to show that women/queer folks/disabled people/Black people/the gender nonconforming/underclass people not only existed in Early Medieval Britain but mattered. That someone like Hild did not have to make her way in the world as someone’s wife, mother, daughter, or sister but could find power—power over self mostly but also the power to change others lives—in her own right. Getting basic facts wrong weakens my argument. This is less true of something like Spear, which has magic and otherworldly beings, but given that my aims with that book are adjacent, only for myths and legends of the past, I still tried to get most things right.

And speaking of Spear, I’ve just added a couple of events to my schedule—which means the Menewood tour is getting a bit complicated. Which reminds me I need to add the tour to my Events page which is sadly out of date. I’ll do that soon. Until then, while I go figure out some publicity stuff—Menewood is out in less than six weeks!—go pre-order. And remember if you pre-order from Phinney Books they will ship you a luscious hardcover, signed and personalised, the day it’s published.