Reminder to Canadians! You have until midnight to renew your national dental care plan coverage!

Hey, Canadians! Have you filled out your census, yet? (If not, it's overdue. Might wanna get a move on.) If you want to also do one that asks more entertaining questions, check out Tod Maffin's long-form census at the link below.

"...the government will have no obligation to negotiate an amicable purchase agreement before acquiring land. The law also abolishes public hearings for property owners who want to contest expropriation in person." This is completely outrageous. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Neat visualization of the Big 5 publishers! almossawi.com/big-five-pub... #publishing #books #booksky #publishers #amediting #editorsky #writersky

Meanwhile most writers and artists are so broke we barely even count as working class 🙃

Hey, people in Ontario (or those planning to visit)! I highly recommend checking out what's on through Doors Open! Today there's events in Oshawa, & today & tomorrow in Hamilton, other areas going forward. Lots of cool places to explore, & it's free! www.doorsopenontario.on.ca

Okay, I cried.

Film you've watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR, DC, Marvel, Disney, Pixar, Spielberg, Cameron, Wachowskis, or Ghibli.

Step one: DON'T FUCKING GIVE "AI" YOUR CREDIT CARDS JESUS FUCK WHAT ARE YOU THINKING www.wired.com/story/the-ra...

This article about Buzzfeed's AI slop era is hilarious. Take, for instance: "almost everything the bot has published contains at least one line about a 'hidden gem.'" Read it here: futurism.com/buzzfeed-pub... #aislop #ai #buzzfeed #writersky #editorsky #amediting #freelanceeditor

PAID TTRPG editor work. Looking for a copy editor who is familiar with the 5e style guide. Looking to hire someone from the global south, if possible. 60,000 words total. Share and tag editor friends.

Apparently these are good numbers... They're still not good if you're chronically ill & can't afford to get sicker, or become someone in that boat because of it. Or if you've got family who are already fighting for their lives.

Y'know, storing backups in the same place as working files implies never having lost a project to the whims/failures of technology. Enviable, that. Meantime, I'm over here with my terabyte drives, thumb drives, SD cards, & cartons full of hard copies:

If you give an AI the ability to delete your database, I think you kind of deserve it when an AI deletes your database. www.tomshardware.com/tech-industr...

I am so far behind on social media it's unlikely I'll catch up. Apologies for missing things.

Quick reminder that the Festival of Literary Diversity starts tomorrow, April 26! www.festivalofliterarydiversity.org

100% accurate.

In a world where "AI" submissions are a plague, human-written stories are the cure for an editor's breaking heart. Don't let the flood discourage you from sending your work out there. You are better, no what the hype of the moment says. We want your stories. Not the slop-infested noise.

It's on by default, but you can turn it off yourself... for now.

Tonight's radio garden offering: CHIN's Dance Italia! radio.garden/listen/chin-...

My labor of love is finally ready to greet the world. With the rise of internet laws about age verification and content control, I teamed up with friends to build a cosy self-hosted book-loving space free from the tech conglomerates. The end result: www.queerbooks.space/

Glad to see they caught up! 😎

this timeline CRAVES your rare perspective. it CRAVES the thing that speaks from your heart but ‘isn’t the way things are done.’ when i talk about ‘what is your story OUTSIDE of the text?’ i am speaking of this. your personal tap into the endless cosmic river is your rare perspective

its unfortunate that artists get talked out of their rare perspectives so often. ‘its just not done that way’ someone says and artist goes ‘oh okay guess ill sand that part off.’ bud that is your SPARK. so much of my success is from holding firm on the things i do that were called ridiculous

Writing a book is a MASSIVE achievement. Even if it's not perfect. Even if no one has read it. Even if it never gets published. No matter what happens next, appreciate everything you have done so far. The simple act of finishing a first draft is worth celebrating. You did that. 🎉

The whole concept of this is giving me anxiety. But maybe it's useful to someone else? www.cbc.ca/radio/costof...

This looks really cool!

The foreign psyops operation to promote the Donbas-style traitors in Ottawa is at work. This has Brexit style interference all over it. Will the government take steps to shut down the foreign threats to our nation? deanblundell.substack.com/p/breaking-c...

Hey, Google:

It’s finally happened. After 18 months. Finally, a media merger you can root for.

Sometymes evil doth seeme so powerful that the heart groweth sick. But ther ys comfort yn the fact that evil ys an aberration. Our default settinge ys lovinge each othir and lookinge out and takinge care. We smyle at children. We give somebodye bus fare. We share advyce. Kyndenesse ys braverye.

Every day is a good day for ska.

I still think the [real] revolution is to make the world safe for poetry, meandering, for the frail and vulnerable, the rare and obscure, the impractical and local and small. —Rebecca Solnit .

Since that last post won't allow quotes or replies even on reposts: basically, this sounds like pantsing, or (as I was taught it) freefall writing (thanks, Prof Mitchell). For me, that's the easy part. Speaking from deep in the weeds, editing, revising, making the plot cohesive, is MUCH harder.

From “The Simpsons” house genius John Swartzwelder, interviewed in The New Yorker by Mike Sacks

Of interest to several folks I know.

Hey, Canadians! Today's the last day to fill out this survey. I really encourage you to do so if, like me, you take issue with the excess lumens on the road these days. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

*rolls up sleeves*

Who will find the Golden Ticket? 🎫 This Bookstore Day (April 25), we're partnering with indie bookshops across the US and Canada to giveaway Golden Tickets worth 12 audiobooks each. Why? Because we love indie bookshops and they need our support!

Idk, I'd just really rather ask a librarian or bookseller than a robot to help me understand a subject. It's more helpful and 9 out of 10 times we end up bonding over something random, like their calendar featuring dogs in sweaters.

Reminiscent of HBC in its final days...

Sometimes, the universe does you a solid. I had a follow-up specialist appointment today; my expectations going in were not high. She's a lovely person & a good doctor, but it involves talking about stuff I find incredibly difficult because (spoiler alert?) I'm an older, non-binary, queer person. 🧵

Least shocking news this week, really.

Maybe ... I don't know, hire more human editors? Trad publishing is angering so many authors (and readers) by doing this. Well, there's always indie or self-publishing, where you can choose to hire a freelance editor who doesn't use AI. #editing

Meta continues to do whatever Daddy Trump tells them to. Now, the Thought Police don’t want you talking about people who stand against fascism, and will ban you for saying it. If NOW isn’t the time to make a Canadian platform like Hey.Café, or Eh!, or North Social your main social media… when?

Apropos of absolutely nothing, we'd like to remind everyone that Kobo distributes to libraries via OverDrive, and it costs nothing to publish on Kobo. Come join us! #indieauthors #publishing

Funny how corporations taking actions like this still think people will just suck it up. Maybe it's time for an author-driven/managed non-profit collective replacement: no AI, no maintenance fees, no minimum sales, & absolute rejection of buyouts/corp takeover.

Several points needing emphasised: 1) the road closure & US border crossing issues aren't Canada's doing 2) the parallel road needs to be built for Canadians 3) our sovereignty is under threat. Americans need to understand that this relationship has changed. Forever. www.cbc.ca/radio/asitha...