Seems fine, mild even?

OpenAI has to hand over emails about pirated books, why does AI write like that, best of 2025 lists, the writing craft lessons of Survivor, and more of the best writing and books links from the past week!

Two independent studies found that AI chatbots were better at persuading voters than political ads. The most persuasive bots also lied the most. This is something that humans working in psyops have known for decades. AI is psyops at scale. www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/04/1...

So you know how everyone should be canceling their crunchyroll subs due to them using an AI company to use subtitles? This is another really good reason

when a poor person uses food stamps for a steak or homeless person spends $5 on a beer, it’s seen as proof that all poor people are so bad with money that they shouldn’t be given any, ever, for any reason. $77 billion out the window, and zuck’s legacy as a safe government contract bet is secure.

Read @Gabino_Iglesias’s review of THE MAP OF LOST PLACES edited by @shereereneethomas.bsky.social & @lesleyconner.bsky.social: “a solid group of stories that focus on place in very different ways... a very worthy journey.”

bugs bunny was literally the first guy in drag i ever saw but ok

Such a stacked list!! 2026 is going to be an incredible year for horror. Thank you so much to Jump Scares for including THE SEA HIDES ITS DEAD! readjumpscares.com/2026-new-hor...

Let’s Do This Special: In Just Four Days, There Is a Special Election You Haven’t Heard of Where You Can Make a Meaningful Difference open.substack.com/pub/wolvesan...

Today MAN FINDS TAPE is out in the world in theaters and on VOD. So proud of EVERYONE involved, but a fun extra highlight is it is Jess’s first film! We executively produced this together and were both so thrilled with the movie everyone made. Austin filmmakers rule. Hope y’all love it!

She shouldn't have to keep doing this by herself. She is supposedly a member of a political party and every single one of her *colleagues* should be BLASTING the fascist in chief. ALL OF THEM. Where is the solidarity???

I'm relaunching Dominion of the Fallen in the US with @awfulagent.bsky.social Magnificent covers by @fringe-element.net Deliciously gothic atmosphere, queer characters from across the world, and high intrigue--in a Paris wrecked by magical cataclysms March 10th, 2026! awfulagent.com/ebooks/the-h...

Here is my 2025 award eligibility list, but it's not going to be entirely complete (for now), because I have a story coming out on... Dec 31. * Book! * The giant spider wants to help with your intersex healthcare, what could possibly go wrong * Distributed haunting (you can also get some) Thread~

Including mine :) • Everyone is queer • Family curse • Wildflowers bloom all over Death Valley at once • but only after it uses a woman as a battery to do so www.neonhemlock.com/books/death-...

We're launching our second Blanket Friday today. All funds go to the Sameer Project's "Give Warmth to Gaza" campaign. open-books-a-poem-emporium.myshopify.com/products/bla...

It’s awards eligibility season in publishing, and I’d be honoured if you would consider All the Stars in the Daylight Sky in your reading for YA novels (Andre Norton Nebula, Lodestar, Locus). I’m immensely proud of this book: a love letter to my Gaelic culture and our intergenerational bridges.

COVER REVEAL for my next book: Foundling Fathers comes out June 23, 2026. www.tiktok.com/@bydonmartin...

Physical 100/Asia enjoyers may also like Sirens: Survive the Island! It’s six teams of women (firefighters, athletes, cops, stunt performers, body guards and soldiers) who are out on an island doing survival challenges and trying to take over each other’s bases

There’s a thread going around about the horrors of teaching first-year English right now, and I fully believe that it’s true in many cases… but if you saw that thread and you’re sad, I just want to say… my students have never been smarter, more engaged, more passionate. I’ve never felt more hopeful.

Anecdotally on twitter seeing a big shift the last few days from every AI slop account saying every other creative field is “over” and they’re in control now to now posting about how nobody likes them and it’s not fair and they’ll persevere and real artists respect and uplift eachother

GOOD NEWS! Researchers have made a HUGE breakthrough towards a UNIVERSAL antiviral. By targeting sugar molecules found on the surface of many viruses that SHARE structural similarities, they identified FOUR compounds that successfully BLOCKED infections from SEVEN different viruses.

Who could have seen this coming except literally everyone share.google/GFaMy3K2Jjlo...

it's here it's QUEER it's the 2025 Queer Adult SFF Books list!!!! 🌈📚🌈📚🌈📚🌈

as always, transphobia consumes your entire personality until there is nothing left but deeply offputting garbage

This is a great photo of a cat sitting in a bowl. "No way she could top that", you're thinking. WELL GUESS WHAT...

STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND WATCH THE CHEETAH CAM DEN 2 https://nationalzoo.si.edu/webcams/cheetah-cub-cam

Frikkin amazing stuff.

As part of his bold new vision for Canada, Avi Lewis, the progressive vying to lead the New Democratic Party, has proposed a series of "public options" for everything from groceries to telecoms to banking to address the nation's cost-of-living crisis.

i’m not crying you’re crying xkcd: Fifteen Years

Today, after months of requests, I toured the Broadview ICE Processing Facility. I want to share what I saw. The facility has no food vendor, no medical care, and detainees have to use toilets in the middle of shared cells. These are in no way suitable conditions to be holding anyone — period.

I finally watched Bring Her Back last night and fuck me, what a movie. Deeply upsetting, but brilliant.

Who is up for poisoning pirate book sites somehow. Come on, someone should know how to do this

Monologues/ dialogues that went hard thread

Also, please share @tychebooks.bsky.social book posts because she is one of the few Canadian small presses left AND she pays everyone on time and in full. And people are stealing my book she published. Some books: bsky.app/profile/tych... or bsky.app/profile/tych...

Don't worry about me, but maybe share Skyla's direct buy store b/c that's where she makes the absolute most money - and she has vet bills. I cannot imagine seeing an author post "I have two cats nearing the end" and go oh, I should steal from her. payhip.com/skyladawncam...

Anna’s Archive contains at least four of my pirated short stories, including one that as far as I know is only in print in this particular collection: The Best Australian Horror and Fantasy 2014. Like, that wasn’t even on the Anthropic list.

Look, I am very small potatoes as an author. I make too little in royalties to live off them. But I can tell you the reason I got to write my 2nd book was bc the sales of the 1st were very good. That's what else you're eating into by pirating, our ability to keep writing what you claim to love.

Happy to chat with the administration about the Nuremberg tribunals. Including about the crime of enforced disappearance and the limits of the defense of superior orders.

As I have talked about before, there are numerous reasons to read about the Sacred Band, but one is that some politicians today are eliding its dependence on queer love. hyperallergic.com/1029023/why-...

This week, I withdrew from a speaking engagement at a public university because they sent me a list of prohibited “words & concepts.” I will not humor this censorship. It does a disservice to the stories I’m discussing & the audience, who deserve unfettered access to information & conversation.

Ea-nasir lives rent free in all our hearts.

Extremely upset that a throw-away XKCD joke somehow became the organizing principle for the Internet.

Shot - chaser - finisher The EHRC admits there's no way to enforce anti-trans exclusion using paperwork. Therefore it's only possible using gender stereotypes. Therefore they defend excluding basically anyone who might be suspected of being trans. A recipe for utter chaos.

This is what modern slavery looks like

By my count there will only be one (1) trans character on all of the major networks and streaming services as of January 2026.

I have said this before in various contexts, and often include it when I teach classes & workshops: Submission Grinder is one of the best tools for writers out there. If you run a spec fic/fantasy (etc) mag make sure they know about you. thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com