yes, this

Zoom chat with thr organiser of our local bookfest this afternoon. Looks like i'm teaching a writing science fiction workshop next February.

uh-oh Is the Fault waking up?

As I've seen it come up, no, authors don't get paid for writing blurbs for other authors. We do it (mostly) to pay it forward and to bring attention to work we think is good. Also, if an editor/publisher tried to bribe me for a blurb, that email would go up here and on my personal site SO FAST

several great estate gardens in the UK have mature monkey puzzles, courtesy of Victorian plant hunters. Those trees grow huge if they have the room.

this seems like sensible advice if you live in the US and want to do effective protest about Kimmel:

A writer on here saying they've written enough dark stuff and now need to cheer themselves up. I have only one question: why? You do know you don't have to write the dark stuff, don't you? Turn to the light and write hopepunk.

To celebrate completion of the Thunderstrike Diaries series I've reduced the ebook of System Failure to 99p/99c. If you fancy a story of a sapient conscientious objector warship and a bioengineered lion fighting galaxy-wide presidential corruption, give it a try. Book2Read.com/u/311lrW

That’s how censorship operates in the USA (and many places) government pressure is used to force people & groups to self-censor. It’s a constant pattern: The majority of censorship is self-censorship, but the majority of self-censorship is deliberately cultivated by an outside power. It’s the goal

"…and Magda Goebbels made a great strudel.”

I have written and deleted a lot of posts but I keep thinking about how the brutal assassination of Minnesota State senator Melissa Hortman, her husband Mark, and their beloved dog Gilbert in June did not prompt this same level of calls for empathy, sympathy, and flags at half-mast.

this would be good

This should be on your radar @albomp.bsky.social @australianlabor.bsky.social Turning Point Australia, offshoot of late Charlie Kirk’s USA based outfit: tpaust.com.au/about/ These right wing bigots, conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxers & Christofascist nutters are a recipe for division #auspol

interesting

good

These scams often come in waves, so both authors and readers should stay alert, and flag up these vermin. (And Jo's books are excellent, do check out her work)

Protesters shouted “Free DC, free Palestine, Trump is the Hitler of our time” as Trump dined at Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab in DC

So someone on this platform with a cartoon avatar is complaining that their book isn't getting any traction.. Cover looks amateur, cartoonish without style, awful typography. Probably AI generated. I'm really not surprised they're getting no interest.

some good news

love it!

Apparently what we need to be on the watch for are "employment practices that directly or indirectly tell employees to use racial preferences as a condition of hiring or performance evaluation." Directly or indirectly? That's a fairly sweeping remit there.

The fact that EVERY AI tool I've been asked to use in my work has a disclaimer of "Results may be incorrect, always double check the outputs!" gives me much leverage to tell superiors "This tool is broken, I will follow my usual research techniques." 🤣

Alternative history SF novel where Y2K is as bad as people feared, Silicon Valley tech corporations never recover, and we reach utopia.

I post a piece of good news every day (climate, civil rights, disease eradication, science, sanitation, conservation) because, to keep our activism & resistance going, we need reminders that, when we try hard, we do succeed. They *want* doomerism; Despair is how we lose. #ShareGoodNewsToo

If I could give my younger self one piece of writing advice it would be: Stop overthinking and start writing. Get the damn story down on paper, and you can worry about everything else later.

Epstein survivors speaking has been absolutely incredible. In true awe of these women. Open up the floodgates and turn the tide.

Have we tried Omelas but putting all the Nazis in the hole?

I don't think anyone was worried about this regarding me but just for the record: no one is paying me for what I post on social media, including for product placement or political opinions. I have enough money and I prefer not to have people telling me what I can and can't say.

The White Earth Nation’s bison herd welcomed its very first calf, marking what tribal leaders call ‘a new chapter’ in returning mashkode-bizhiki (bison) to Anishinaabe lands. Bison are being reintroduced through a partnership with the InterTribal Buffalo Council. buff.ly/XMsVVPs #ShareGoodNewsToo

See, THIS is the sort of thing that stirs the deepest feelings of patriotism I can muster (it's not something that comes naturally to me). 10/10. No notes.

I've been writing so long that somewhere in my files I have a dog-eared manuscript printed on a daisy wheel printer where half the letters didn't work. It was a vey inept rip- off of The Belgariad, so I'm in no hurry to find and read it.

Note to self: read the invites to events from Facebook groups you follow. Nearly missed one for this afternoon, a writers' social which I so desperately need. Guess who will be facing the torrential rain this afternoon?

Reminder: As an author, readers who know of me fall into four rough categories: Those who think I'm pretty great, those who think I'm okay, those who don't know what the fuss is about and those who are genuinely angry that I have a career at all. Also, this is the experience nearly every author has.

He looked at S&S and thought, I think this company needs another imprint and I know just the man to run it. I think this ‘could’ be described as a vanity project.

An M.I.T. study found that 95% of companies that had invested in A.I. tools were seeing zero return. It jibes with the emerging idea that generative A.I., “in its current incarnation, simply isn’t all it’s been cracked up to be,” johncassidysays.bsky.social writes.

is it actually an economic blockade when the reason why european postal services won't deliver is because the USA has no infrastructure in place to collect the tariffs they put on these good, so they want couriers run by *foreign governments* to collect taxes on their behalf? No! What the fuck! lol

sigh. My ebooks are wide, partly to try and protect from Amazon problems.

great murals. And fantastic act of resistance too.

yep. Doubly so if you're retired and don't usually have to keep track of the days.

yep. me too

good for her. And brave.

Bright sunny day which I am spending writing about the voice and vision which older writers can bring to their stories. Meanwhile, in the next town, some of my writer friends have a book stall at the local show with two of my books on it. Wonder if I'll sell any today.

oh gods. They all look so young. I'm looking at this through my lens of writing SFF as an older writer. They have a fraction of my life experience.

"To keep Earth habitable, humanity must recognize the value of Antarctica and seek to save it from irreversible damage" (Through reducing greenhouse gas emissions, NOT through geoengineering) www.nature.com/articles/d41... #glaciology #climatechange #Antarctica 🧪

wow!

Now we're being invaded. Sort of.

big sigh. Winning is mega important for every author. They deserve this courtesy.

5,000 words written in three days on a nonfiction book about writing SFF as an older writer. I have mapped out the structure of the book, and I really think it will fly.