On the serious case of the desolution of The Hinge...

A new diary entry on hellsborough.com is coming soon:

You've all been asking me questions -- difficult ones…

The biggest query you have, is how I am able to communicate from another dimension -- or at least a parallel universe -- I'm no physicist, so I don't know the difference between one or the other to be honest, but I do get where you're coming from with your questions.

Back in the early days, when I first came here -- to Hellsborough -- that was 79.hail-ripperthroat. I didn't have a clue about much. I was flailing about this way and that, and I crossed The Hinge many times. I had to go back home a lot. But I couldn't stay away either.

That was bad. Bad for me. Bad for the population of Hellsborough. And, I'm sorry to say, bad for you too -- if you are an inhabitant of Hillsborough, S6. That criss-crossing of The Hinge that I did, weakened it. That's why -- or at least, that's one reasons why, dark matter is leaving Hellsborough.

And from what I understand, dark matter leaving Hellsborough is not a good thing. In your world, when dark matter interacts with matter, the result is destruction -- complete annihilation. At the moment, I understand the leakage is minimal, but if I were to keep crossing The Hinge, it would get weaker and weaker, until finally it ceased to exist at all, and then all that dark matter would flow into your world and collide with the matter, and that would be that. That would be the destruction of the whole world -- not just Hillsborough/Hellsborough, not just The Dark Peak, not just Sheffield, not just the UK. Not just Europe -- the entire world.

I'm staying in Hellsborough now. That seems the sensible thing to do: D'divi! I don't want to cause the destruction of the world!

So I'm stuck here, but I'm not complaining. I have work to do, and one of the things on my agenda is telling you about my experiences as a fledgling in Hellsborough:

I had no chits. I had not much of anything. But not only did I survive, I prospered. And I owe it to you to share my experiences and my learning -- and I'll do that. I'll let you know everything I know about surviving and strategies for making some chits -- and I reckon you can use them in the off-world -- in your world too.

But I'm getting off my original topic. I wanted totell you about how you are receiving this message.

I'm in Hellsborough. I have a contact in Hillsborough. He's my publicity guy. He's not a professional or anything, just some guy I met on the Middlewood road in a bar, and we got chatting, you know how it goes -- he offered to help me out.

Sorry mate, you know who you are, and you have my fullest gratitude.

Back in hail.ripperthroat, last year, I brought him hand-written notes and drawings and the like, and left it at that, that was fine for starters.

I'll not give you his name here, but he's not had to find, should you wish to. He's a proper fixture in a number of the bars on the Middlewood road.

But now that I am "stuck" over here, I had to find another way. This year is 79.squall.longleg, and I have been here long enough to understand and find another way to communicate -- I can't just call up Twitter or Facebook on my phone, because 1. I have no phone and 2. There is no Interweb.

What I do have is a psycmask which connects me to the hivemind, which is essentially the same a 1 & 2 -- but they don't connect back to your Twitter or Facebook.

Not directly at least, that is.

I have written before about how the murk crosses The Hinge. Of course it does -- and the Loxley river too. All air and water does.

and that got me thinking about communication. If humidity and water cross The Hinge, couldn't data do so too?

The technology of The Dark Peak is far more advanced than yours, and it's all just atoms after all.

And I found a way to send my despatches to my contact in the off-world -- there's a way to connect from our networks here to your networks there -- don't ask me how it's done, I just requested it on the hivemind -- and it worked!

So there's your answer, if you were asking. I am here is Hellsborough. My publicist is the other side of The Hinge in Hillsborough, and he posts my communications on my website, on my email newsletter, on Twitter/X, or wherever I request.

For more understanding about this world, you could do worse than reading my curated guide which helped me understand this place, and might help you understand it too :)

In other news, book one is now available on Kindle and paperback. I have ordered paperback author copies and will be distributing them to those of you that have helped and supported me during the last year or so. There will also be marketing material (limited edition, of course) appearing locally very soon. Subscribe to this newsletter and tell me where you scanned it (if you’re already subscribed, just reply and tell me that), and be in to win one of 4 signed copies of the novel (T&C’s apply*):

If you are reading this in November 2023 and would like a review copy, please get in touch and I'll send you a full epub.

If you leave a review on Amazon, I'd be most grateful.

Cheers, until next time,

Pip :)

*Terms & Conditions: Prize draw valid for new subscribers to "Postcards from The Dark Peak" between Wednesday 1st November until the closing date of Wednesday 13th December 2023 23:59PM. You will need to collect your book from a bar or pub close to Hillsborough junction, Sheffield, S6.