Let’s eat a 100-year-old parsnip: Inspiration
for the world of Rising Tides
The original idea for Rising Tides was triggered a piece about
Scott’s Hut in the Antarctic, which has been left for a century as he and his fellow explorers last
used it. The link above tells you about Alan Gibbs who visited the hut and spotted
a dried parsnip which had fallen out of a rusted tin, reconstituted itself in a
puddle of chilly water and transpired to be perfectly edible – nearly 100 years
after it had first been grown. There was another piece (I’ve lost the
reference, unfortunately) about another explorer who brought back a tin of
rhubarb left in Scott’s Hut and baked a perfectly edible pie from it.
The idea that food grown and prepared
now could still be edible a century or more into the future set my imaginative
cogs whirring – how would humans manage after a total collapse of the eco-system
when this food was the only thing left: how might they agree to share (or
not?).
I freely admit I’ve taken
liberties – a large part of the durability of these foods must be due to the
sub-zero temperatures they were also kept in. In the flooded world of City,
however, nautilus men need to dive in order to salvage these tinned foods,
which frigid water would make difficult to impossible. So I’ve used artistic
licence to allow the tinned food to remain in tact, whether or not that would
actually be the scientific case. Some foods would undoubtedly last better than
others (acidic food such as tomatoes probably wouldn’t be a good choice after
100 years since they’d have reacted with the metal tins), so I have allowed
that to be reflected in the choices my characters make – when they have a
choice of what to eat.
Here’s a scene from the book
where Cosimo dives in order to find food for himself and Libby:
The lurch of the boat was my only warning before Cosimo clambered back on board. There was a clatter as he tipped his finds onto the deck. Half a dozen tins covered in grey slime. “Breakfast, your Highness.” My hunger vanished. He leaned back over the side of the boat, washing the tins in the sea.
My
stomach rumbled and I ventured to the cabin to see what delicacies he’d found.
Cosimo
had chosen sweetcorn. The other open tins held pineapple, mashed peas and
minced meat. I wished, as I did most times I set to cook a meal, that it was
possible to know what was within the tins before we opened them. I guessed the
Old Ones hadn’t imagined their labels might need to be waterproof.
The
pineapple would taste of nothing more than the tin it had been encased in, so I
took the minced meat from the ledge inside the cabin, found a fork and returned
to the deck. I sat at the back of the boat, close enough to him to watch what
he did with the boat’s controls without being so close he might get
presumptuous ideas.
Want to read more? You can get a
copy of Rising Tides as a paperback,
buy for your Kindle or download with Kindle Unlimited by using this (universal)
link: http://authl.it/B01FHXD8HG?d
Rising Tides
by Katy
Haye
Genre: YA Post-Apocalyptic
Release Date: June 20th 2016
Summary from Goodreads:
The truth won’t stay
submerged forever.
City is the last civilised place left on a drowned Earth, a floating town built from metal and plastic from the Time Before. It’s the only home doctor's daughter Libby Marchmont has ever known or wanted – until her father helps the wrong patient and she's forced to flee.
Cosimo came to City for one reason. Then he should have vanished back to his people on the Wastes. But what about his promise to Libby’s father?
Stranded in the middle of the sea, can the two enemies learn to trust each other? And can they survive long enough to uncover the truth: City isn’t the safe haven Libby always believed it to be …
City is the last civilised place left on a drowned Earth, a floating town built from metal and plastic from the Time Before. It’s the only home doctor's daughter Libby Marchmont has ever known or wanted – until her father helps the wrong patient and she's forced to flee.
Cosimo came to City for one reason. Then he should have vanished back to his people on the Wastes. But what about his promise to Libby’s father?
Stranded in the middle of the sea, can the two enemies learn to trust each other? And can they survive long enough to uncover the truth: City isn’t the safe haven Libby always believed it to be …
You can get a copy of Rising Tides in paperback or for your Kindle (to buy, or with
Kindle Unlimited) using this link: http://authl.it/B01FHXD8HG?d
About the Author
Katy Haye spends most of her time in imaginary
worlds - her own or someone else's. She has a fearsome green tea habit, a
partiality for dark chocolate brazils and a fascination with the science of
storytelling.
Author Links:
GIVEAWAY
Your survival kit is as follows:
1. An Amazon voucher for £10/$15US/$20CAN, AUS, NZ. Load up your Kindle with
books to read, while shops remain.
2. A solar charger so when the national grid fails you can still read your
books.
3. A mirror. When you are stranded in the open sea you can signal for help by
reflecting the sun's light. Alternatively, if you have no wish to be rescued
because you still have reading to do, flip the mirror over to depict the
slogan, "Go away I'm reading."
4. Ribbon bookmark. If all your books have been washed away by the rising seas,
this can be rolled up and packed into the neck of a cut-open bottle and will
double-up as a water filter. Note: this will not desalinate salt water, sorry.
5. A bag to put the last of your belongings into. DO NOT LEAVE THIS BEHIND.
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