Me an international Art Police officer grabbing a thief surrounded by his spoils. "I have you at last! Jail for you! For ten thousand years!" Art Thief "But I'm using it to train my AI." Me. "Me, oh, sorry, be about your business. I'll close the door on my way out."

Nobody asked for this! We just wanted to be able to add images to Word docs without the formatting going haywire, have y’all fixed that yet?

Look, The Haunting of Hill House and House on Haunted Hill are both beautiful and delightful in their own ways.

What a lovely morning to fill out a class action claim form. La la la la sunshine and autumn leaves and screw you AI and la de dum de dah.

Important information from the Richard Scarry book I picked up at the charity shop

Also, at least scam the correct author. I’ve gotten these clearly intended for other recipients about books I did not write. Like I’m sorry that Rando P Author III is criminally underrated but I ain’t them, soooo.

We are delighted to reveal the cover for First Mage on The Moon by @cameronjohnston.bsky.social! Ella is on a mission to reach the moon–even if that incurs a little blasphemy (and Unity interference). Look for it April 14, 2026 from @angryrobotbooks.bsky.social! reactormag.com/cover-reveal...

Sitting on the screen porch during a gentle thunderstorm: a thing I will never get tired of.

The reason many of the commentators don’t like Bluesky is because the infrastructure is set up in a way that no longer benefits them. On Twitter it was always easier to gain an audience by purposefully saying things that upset people. Getting ratio-ed was a tactic. Here, that’s much harder.

Well I figured out why the door to the chicken coop keeps breaking.

The uptick in “our book club wants to read your book!” followed by expensive fees to share with their members is absolutely wild. Be careful? These scams wouldn’t be so prolific if they didn’t work every now and again.

I didn’t have “discover a bat colony in a loose window frame at my parents’ house” in my plans for the weekend but here we are. (Yes bats are really cool no I didn’t come into contact with any of them yes I’ve already googled histoplasmosis.)

When you get out the big ladder for some home maintenance but notice there’s already a vulture circling. Great sign. Really great.

I Read Your Essay About What You Did Last Summer But I’m Pretty Sure It Was Plagiarized Please See Me After Class

Anyone who says a book is badly edited because there's like two typos really needs to give it a try from this side and see how they do.

things were better when the computer lived in its own specific room and you only went in there sometimes

I have been in transit for over 24 hours and have become a gremlin on one of the country’s last blessed interurban trains, hoovering Burger King French fries in the same clothes I wore yesterday. Say hi if you see me.

Honestly deeply disappointed I’m traveling home today and will miss this!!

Had a great time at WorldCon, best part was seeing so many friends, now I’m at the airport, I think I fixed the beginning of the next book, update now complete.

Made it!

my statement on Ai from the mini-comic I'm making as syllabus for a new class I'm teaching this fall. It's simple, but I pretty much said all I have to say on it - it robs you of decisions and struggle - and the joy of being surprised. It robs you of learning...

I’m headed to WorldCon next week—if we’re friends, let’s try to cross paths! If we’re not friends yet, let’s try to remedy that!

I have been largely absent from socials this summer but hi, have some baby chicks.

I know a lot of novelists. No one I know writes “slop.” On the side or not.

Oooof man, “this industry requires this unethical behavior” arguments age like milk…see “but the cotton industry” vs abolition and “but coal mining” vs child labor laws for only two examples.

OMG this. Authors are a group of people in which imposter syndrome runs rampant, creating work without a performance element so without immediate feedback from the audience, often with no idea how our work is faring, no control over it, often with out of date sales data. Prime brain weasels fodder.

Think I’ll get canned if I make this required reading for my students?

The question I’ve never had someone answer to any satisfaction when it comes to AI is “Why would you want to outsource thinking? Why would you cede your freedom of creation and expression and ideation to someone else, let alone a computer program?”

Fun thing—you can enter to win a copy of my (written by a real human) book in Goodreads! www.goodreads.com/book/show/22...

This! The limited space available for book coverage and it gets allocated to...fake books.

You know, I thought "Best Books for Summer" and similar lists rehashing variations on the same 20-30 titles over and over wasn't great, but at least they featured real books people could, presumably, read.

You know, it really hurts to keep seeing my fake books passed over for lists like this. My imaginary books are just as good as these hallucinated books.

Today I sewed a lot and read a book and watched the chickens run around their yard a little while and I highly recommend this restorative regime.

In short: * there is very little the author can do on social media to sell books * the Good News Firehose is just as detrimental as the Bad News Firehose * taking a walk >opening your feed * if publishing is hard for you right now, you're not alone * keep writing; we need your stories 14/14

*crab-walked

I am shocked. Shocked, I tell you. This is my shocked face.

Two people have written to me this week saying "I've been looking all over for Armed in Her Fashion but can't find it, pls help" and (a) so glad for word of mouth! (b) less glad to have confirmation that title changes are confusing 😭 The Chatelaine = edited reissue of the same book, for the record!

Very loud bro-types at the next table talking about writing and one very loudly says "if you want to be a writer, man, you have to write every day!" and I really want to correct this* but I shall refrain. (*My four published books, soon to be five, one more on the way, say that no, you do not.)

There's just something about the inescapable popup of "this document looks long :( save time by reading a summary" on my own books I spent usually years on, taking great pains over each detail and word choice, that makes me want to gently put my laptop and big tech companies into a fire

Mothers Day in the US. It means different things for many people but for me it is peace and quiet outside, drinking ginger tea on my bench swing while enjoying fancy macarons and working on the TBR. The next few weeks involve revolution, fantasy, romance, and possibly a murder.

I newslettered about the hisorical inspiration for The Palace of Illusions and the 1900 Paris World’s Fair: open.substack.com/pub/rowenna/...

🌷 Upcoming Spring & early Summer titles 🌷 #booksky TWISTED THRONE by Danielle L. Jensen GET REAL, CHLOE TORRES by Crystal Maldonado A CURSE CARVED IN BONE by Danielle L. Jensen THE PALACE OF ILLUSIONS by Rowenna Miller A FIERY SPIRIT by Kate Chenli THE SECRETS OF THORNDALE MANOR by Syrie James

Hark, a newsletter

Excited to be working on putting together another collection! Got a favorite story by me you'd like to see in there?

You know I never thought there would be a pope who quite likely knows about Eagle Man but life is a strange bouquet.

Just an FYI. The Met Costume Institute has one of the most complete and well photographed collections anywhere, available totally free online to anybody who wants to research clothing, textiles, and historical fashion.

this entire world needs to slow the fuck down and stop obsessing over profits, because all of this is destroying us all

If there is one space where I am most dismayed at the unabashed, headlong rush into AI, it's academia and higher ed. Clearly a space where we should be able to value original thought and intellectual property, yet I keep getting cheery "Incorporate AI into your classroom!" emails from my university.

Rainy day Sunday. What’s your go to indoor, lazy day, not-terribly-active activity?

Hey I newslettered! open.substack.com/pub/rowenna/...