Going through the copyedit of Monsters of Ohio and I am once again reminded how much value a truly excellent copy editor offers, particularly in saving sloppy writers like me from ourselves. @deannahoak.bsky.social, you are the actual best. Fellow authors, hire her, she is worth every single penny.

It’s always a treat to work on John’s books!

Just got my copyedit for When the Moon Hits Your Eye, and once again @deannahoak.bsky.social has done a terrific job saving me from myself and my apparent tendency to give multiple entirely unrelated characters the same last name. I 100% recommend her for all your copyediting needs.

The techbros bizarrely underestimated the number of shitposters there are when they decided AI should be used to resolve search engine queries.

Part 2 of the edited transcript of last month's Word for Word Editorial Panel featuring @datlow.bsky.social, @deannahoak.bsky.social, and @joemts.bsky.social is now up on the Penmen Review. Check it out! penmenreview.com/spotlight/pr...

This was a fun panel and conversation. Check it out!

Part I of the edited transcript of last month's Word for Word Editors Panel featuring @datlow.bsky.social, @deannahoak.bsky.social, and @joemts.bsky.social is now up on the Penmen Review. Check it out! penmenreview.com/spotlight/th...

The panel was a lot of fun. I felt like we could have kept talking for hours.

Come listen to us chat about editing!

Spoutible was breached. They got phone numbers and all. allinfosecnews.com/item/spoutib...

I recently started collecting uranium glass, and this is a pretty I got today.

I like this selfie I took the other night. Hadn’t gotten dressed up in a while!

My sister gifted us some hot Hatch green chiles, and I used an entire pound of them to make green chile stew tonight. It was painfully good.

Some wild turkeys enjoying a stroll on Christmas Eve.

I found a gift link for this elsewhere. Important reporting. wapo.st/3RDnfko

The snow last night made this buck look spectral.

Old tree reflecting new.

Want to watch my brilliant daughter, @blainehoak.bsky.social, present at USENIX Security earlier this year on “The Space of Adversarial Strategies”? The link is here: youtu.be/2NtITExkv5M

This is part of the reason that search engine results are so unreliable now.

According to the Verge, OpenAI is in talks to rehire Sam Altman. I have no idea what to make of the whole mess. www.theverge.com/2023/11/18/2...

This is far too funny.

My eldest, @blainehoak.bsky.social, lecturing on machine learning in security to college students this week.

Babiest of babies (Shanty my orange tripod) with my cat-whispering son. 🥰

I was on The Source as a kid in the late ‘70s, posting on message boards and interacting with people online before the internet was really even a thing.

Voted! Got my yearly mammo! Personal AND civic preventive care accomplished!

@gregvaneekhout.bsky.social on his book The Ghost Job, at @scalzi.com: “Everybody hurts, take comfort in your friends. Maybe this is biggest idea in The Ghost Job, but it doesn’t sound as fun as ‘ghosts pull off heists.’ Still, I think it’s an important truth.” whatever.scalzi.com/2023/11/01/t...

Central PA is starting out November with a little snow!

Wood ear (edible) and maybe turkey tail in the first pic. Cinnibar polypore (a natural pigment source) and maybe crowded parchment in the second. #mushrooms #fungi

Biden’s newly released Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence seems very promising and necessary for counteracting some of the negative effects of AI. I recommend you take a look. www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-roo...

I’m really glad to see Biden issue this thorough Executive Order on AI. www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-roo...

If you have friends in Acapulco right now, please be aware that the strongest hurricane on record to make landfall in Mexico struck there about five hours ago, after intensifying from a tropical storm to a Cat 5 in less than 24 hours. I have a good friend there and hope to hear from her soon.

welp twitter is now useless for one thing it used to be useful for

Heads up: @scalzi.com is aware his author Facebook page got hacked but says he may not be able to fix it while on tour.

Very cool eclipse tool!

If anyone who has (or loves someone who has) hEDS can stand to be enraged, they should read this post on the Medicine subreddit for healthcare providers. Not one nurse or doctor commenting seems to believe hEDS is real, especially when presenting with comorbidities. www.reddit.com/r/medicine/c...

Reflection of living trees in the pool at the base of a downed oak.

Reflection of living trees in the pool at the base of a downed oak.

Charlie has mentored an entire generation of SF/F writers, and his insights are incredibly valuable. I highly recommend his work.

I harvested so many honey mushrooms today! They mature so quickly. They would have been better if I’d gotten to them yesterday or the day before, and they’ll be too far gone by tomorrow. But these are fine. I’ll be putting them in the dehydrator when my Entoloma abortivum are done.

I got a really nice haul of shrimp of the woods (Entoloma abortivum) last night. Cleaned them up and sautéed some to have with burgers for dinner

Juliette Kayyem has finally gotten her account back. Ridiculous that X doesn’t have a way to report a hacked account.

The X account of national security analyst Juliette Kayyem was hacked more than 16 hours ago, and there isn’t even a proper way to report it on X anymore, though numerous people have tried. That place…

I knew Google search results had significantly degraded, but I didn’t realize they were going so far as to replace your query behind the scenes with one that generates more profit for them.

I received a signed Kickstarter edition of Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson for my brag shelf yesterday, and damn it is gorgeous. I love my job.

Damn. We had a fierce storm here the other day and lost at least four big live trees. One definitely looks lightning-struck.

Drop something blue from your gallery

Wow. This photographer Buzzfeed featured in 2015, who combined fandom and Legos? Someone 20 minutes from where I live was arrested for his murder today, and they think they’ve found his body. www.buzzfeed.com/melissaharri... I know people here have seen his work. His name was Joe Shymanski.

I found a toad friend hanging out in the garage this morning. He has beautiful eyes.

I see the misspelling “skiddish” constantly on social media and yet have never once seen it in a manuscript. It’s interesting.