To-do list item #1:
Describe the tongue of a woodpecker

Blazing Reader,

Have you ever added to your daily to-do list: describe the tongue of a woodpecker?

Well, Leonardo da Vinci did. According to Walter Isaacson's biography of the 15th-century Italian painter, "Descrivi la lingua del picchio" (describe the tongue of a woodpecker) was listed on one of his many daily to-do lists (alongside taking a bath, mixing some paints and meeting a friend).

Why did Da Vinci want to study the tongue of a woodpecker? Sheer curiosity, I suspect. But such strange to-do lists are quite common for me. When writing All the Humans Are Sleeping I had such items as:

• Determine which way tandem blades on a military chopper rotate.
• How much did the largest cabbage ever grown weigh, according to The Guinness Book of World Records?
• Find out the name of the bone in a human leg where an osseo drill would implant a cannula for an IV.

The last point I messed up on. When my go-to registered nurse, Andrew Brannan, beta-read the novel, he said they'd drill through the tibia, not the femur. I came very close to spreading "medical misinformation" (who me?).

But all those odd tidbits found their way into All the Humans are Sleeping and are essential to creating the illusion needed to tell a story that feels real.

After reviewing the novel, Seán ÓLaoire, PhD, said I have the "research knowledge of a polymath — history, geography, agriculture, AI technology, languages, music…"

Yeah, it only took me twenty years (okay, the manuscript sat on my hard drive, ignored, for over a decade).

Check out the free sample (or buy a copy) of my polymathic novel about a farmer, a robot and the end of the world at: https://blazingpinecone.com/books/all-the-humans-are-sleeping?source=blazing_subscriber

As Dr. Seán ÓLaoire added, "Curl up and prepare to be both shocked and delighted at the same time.”

John C.A. Manley

Disclaimer: No woodpeckers were harmed in the making of All the Humans Are Sleeping.

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona: A Dystopian Love Story, the forthcoming All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of speculative fiction. Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber at: https://blazingpinecone.com/subscribe/