My Linkedin is just dozens of postings like this. When LLMs produce something usable, there's a reason for that: it's someone else's writing. LLMs are best understood as a copyright-laundering service. Labour & intellectual property enter the black box, and emerge freely exploitable.

AVI LEWIS WINS! There's a long road ahead, but by the time I'm my parents' age, this country's going to look different. We're going to break the power of the oligarchs, decarbonize the economy, and rebuild & expand social democracy. We're going to do this ourselves, but Lewis is going to be our ally

Really happy to see Avi Lewis win the NDP leadership race. Everything that makes Canada worth living in comes down to social democracy. It’s long past time those ideas had someone to fight for them on the national stage again.

// POLITENESS, WHATEVER THE STINK // ADVANCEMENT, WHATEVER THE INDIGNITY // GODHOOD, WHATEVER THE COST A new tale of gods and mortals, myth and madness from The Wrong Station. Listen to "ZAGREUS," now available on all podcast platforms.

Last episode of @patrickwyman.bsky.social ‘s excellent ‘Past Lives’ just came out today. I wrote about it for Spring magazine—I think it’s a really important show: springmag.ca/past-lives-a...

If you’re in Canada and you want to get looped into the anti-war movement, this phone action tomorrow night is a great way to dip your toe in the water. Just put on the zoom call while cooking dinner, and they’ll walk you through everything. us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Wrote this review of the superb ‘Past Lives’, by @patrickwyman.bsky.social for @springmagca.bsky.social. This is a really special show; so smart, so sensitive, so full of crucial insights for the moment we’re living through. Can’t recommend it enough. springmag.ca/past-lives-a...

Couple hundred folks out in the snow outside the US embassy shouting for an end to the blockade of Cuba. Let Cuba live.

Very proud of the latest @thewrongstation.bsky.social episode. It’s a weird fiction spy thriller. It’s about ‘Operator’ culture and the Imperial Boomerang. Nobody learns anything. podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/w...

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100+ workers organizing in Toronto tonight, here to show solidarity with #Minneapolis #abolishICE #defundICE #ICEout

Kakopolis

Procession of Ghosts Across the Rainswept Land

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Avi Lewis has the juice. He’s sharp, good on camera, knows how to organize, and has a strong, optimistic, and achievable vision for this country. If you’re looking for the Canadian standard-bearer of a Mamdani-style socialist politics, this is your guy.

You can pick up a copy here, and you really, really should. If you like Wrong Station, it’s for you. Moreover, proceeds go to No More Deaths, which offers humanitarian aid to migrants at the US border. Read fiction, fuck fascism, solidarity forever. castaignepublishing.bigcartel.com/product/in-t...

‘It Doesn’t Matter How Many Times You Kill Us’ was first published in this gorgeous print volume from @castaignepub.bsky.social, edited by @emptywrites.bsky.social and @styxteeth.bsky.social. podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/w...

It’s October. We’re releasing an episode every single day this month. We’re doing this because our enemies are powerless to stop us. Here’s one of those episodes. It’s called DULLAHAN. podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/w...

10 seasons. Over 150 original stories. Thousands of hours of writing, editing, and recording. This October, Wrong Station celebrates a Decade of Dread. It's a truly disturbing achievement. Listen to our special season 10 announcement and discover the all horrible festivities we have in store.

PRODUCTIVITY HACK: fall asleep in a sunbeam partway through the afternoon

If you’re a #writer or other creative looking for a place to work quietly in the heart of #Toronto, the Toronto Writers Centre has just moved into lovely new digs at Bloor & Spadina. 250/mo, 24hr access, no kids, all the damn coffee you can drink. You won’t find a better deal on a desk in this town!

Recently finished reading ‘As birds bring forth the sun—and other stories’ by Alistair MacLeod. Kicked my ass. Absolute belter. Total classic. Wall-to-wall. All killer no filler. Had me hooting and hollering. Everything people hate about Can-Lit—which is to say everything good about Can-Lit.

Just finished reading ‘the visitors’ (‘79) by Clifford Simak. Not unpleasant but not particularly interesting at first, this one turned into an unexpected banger for me in the last quarter.

Some art I made for the Lore Book we do quarterly over at the @thewrongstation.bsky.social patreon. I think it's pretty radical, twisted, etc.

Having a GREAT day over here. I love writing. I’m listening to synthwave, drinking coffee, writing a story abt laser swords & mummified heads; this is fun as shit. Sometimes easy to succumb to the grind-y part of writing. Important to remember you do it because art makes being alive feel good.

PRACTICAL ADVICE FOR YOUNG WRITERS: forget grammar just get good at moving furniture because your coworking space WILL get priced out of its neighbourhood

Very excited to have a story in this collection by @infestedpublishing.bsky.social ! It’s about an angel steering a meteor into the earth. I actually first wrote this one ~17 yrs ago. Back then it was about cosmic injustice. But these days I’m more of an apologist for The Cleansing Power of Fire.

Playing around with some designs for Wrong Station season 10. Went with a 10-triangle 'Tetractys' device because the roman numeral X has degenerate vibes these days

Do you live in Toronto? Do you think protest should be allowed in places like 'streets, and sidewalks'? Then please fill out this survey & express your outrage & opposition to the proposed 'vulnerable institutions' bylaw. www.toronto.ca/community-pe...

‘There’s no money in writing, haha’ Actually, there’s a ton of money—but people get to collect rents on your work before you’re paid. In TV, it’s execs & producers. In podcasting, it’s a Swedish billionaire. As a product, the market value of writing is high. It’s the labour that’s devalued.

//YOU CAN'T CARE FOR SOMETHING FRAGILE //WHEN YOU'RE SHATTERED ALREADY. //CAN YOU BEAR TO BE ANYTHING //BUT THE WORST VERSION OF YOURSELF? "CRITTER." Tonight 9pm EST.

I’m running a workshop right now and these students are all so good. Talent is everywhere.

I think about this interview all the time. I’m constantly trying to emulate the humility & curiosity & generosity of spirit that’s at the core of Stephen’s approach. Sometimes I still just look off into the distance and mutter the word ‘tenderness’ and shake my head

Something that fills me with awe & wonder is that, adjusted for inflation, Rings of Power has now cost almost 3x what the lotr movies cost. And I can’t remember a single line or scene. A billion dollars, and not even a meme came out of it. All that money, just for a bad dream forgotten by morning

Conclave had me HOOTING, but also, HOLLERING.

IT’S ELECTION DAY IN ONTARIO, FOLKSSS. All you need is one piece of ID with your name and address. Remember: if you a work for a living, if you rent, or if you plan to ever get sick in this province, then Doug Ford is your /mortal enemy/. www.elections.on.ca/en.html

Voted for @jillslastword.bsky.social and the Ontario NDP because this province needs a government that cares about people who don't own investment properties. Tomorrow, you should too.

Love an Alistair MacLeod story. Always like, "Our huge bodies are in constant pain. We roam the rugged landscape of Cape Breton Island like the Highland Cattle we once watched our schoolteacher kill with an axe. Soon, like our fathers, we will die." Incredible. We don't do dude-lit like this anymore

Still two days to sign up for this workshop! It’s not just ‘write-something-and-then-everyone-picks-it-apart’. It’s about futzing around with different story writing techniques so you can find what works for you. www.eventbrite.com/e/toronto-wr...

Do YOU or SOMEONE YOU KNOW want to start taking writing more seriously? Then sign up for my FUN & AFFORDABLE 6-week workshop at the Toronto Writers' Centre (starting February 19th!) www.eventbrite.com/e/toronto-wr...

In these terrible times, why not spend 90 minutes a week practicing the writer’s craft with this person who will be a fan of your work:

Do YOU or SOMEONE YOU KNOW want to start taking writing more seriously? Then sign up for my FUN & AFFORDABLE 6-week workshop at the Toronto Writers' Centre (starting February 19th!) www.eventbrite.com/e/toronto-wr...

Just finished reading: Orsinian tales, by Ursula K. Leguin. Beautiful, sad stories. UKL’s overlooked as a prose stylist; usually she’s pretty unassuming, but here she really lets it rip. Maybe the collection is best understood as a series of oil paintings.

Very excited for this collection! I love the premise, I think the cover art is fucking sick, I love that it's supporting a great cause, and I'm extremely honoured to have a story in it.

Do you like to play boardgames or tabletop games with your friends? Do you like to come up with little worlds for your fiction? Then you might like this little game I made for you. Here, take it, it's a gift! she-wolf-productions.itch.io/jubilee

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell x the Green Knight Polycrisis Arthuriana. A young knight thinks he’s the next Lancelot. He’s not. He sets off to slay a dragon & fails. He flees through a haunted countryside. Finally the worst happens—he gets to become everything he once wanted to be #2025Pit #A #F

Do yourself a favour and just enjoy something smart and fun and funny and full of joy and curiosity for a little while this week:

Just finished reading: ‘Red Shift’, by Alan Garner. I’m not sure if I liked this book, but it hit me full in the teeth. I remember being confused and unsettled by Garner’s kids books as a kid. They’re hazy in my mind; half-remembered, unsettling. This book felt that way while I was reading it.

Just finished reading; Solidarity, by @astra.bsky.social & @lhh.bsky.social This is a really important book, and I can’t recommend it enough. It’s about politics and the history of an idea, but it’s a super easy read, and the clear prose lets the clear thinking shine through.

Recently finished: The Dragon Waiting, by John M. Ford. Went in with high expectations—people talk about it like it’s the Velvet Underground of fantasy novels— and there’s some undoubtedly cool stuff in here, but the book never really came together for me.