Joseph Conrad is judging your author headshot.

Interesting discussion over on Threads re graphic designers and printers being sent AI files and how low res and unuseable they are. #ai #graphicdesign #printing

Freedom to publish?

Silvey was a topic of conversation at a recent coffee with non-writer/publisher pals who read lots. Discussion: - If everything is grooming with abusers, what are their books? - Grief, anger - How abusers manipulate education/the arts - Exhaustion. Books can be respite/safety. #booksky #auspol

Australia is one of the many countries where women are the majority. Here's a list if you're interested. worldpopulationreview.com/country-rank...

Tolkien: It take a village to raise a child. Stephen King: It takes a child to raze a village. #booksky

View from my back veranda this evening.

I think about this comic all the time.

We list 30,252 children's books and 21,085 picture books. That's going to be a lot of reading to support those statistics.

Mac Barnett in ragebait mode: 94.7% of children's books are crud! Claude: Children's Laureate, Muck Barnacle, says all children's books are crud. This is why all parents who love their children should use AI to write their own books which centre their own children, for free! #booksky

Are you passionate about SF, fantasy, and pop culture? Our Managing Editor is looking for original essay pitches: author appreciations, scholarly analysis of all aspects of pop culture, critical and personal essays, think pieces, literary analysis and deep dives into film, television, and fiction

Lovely art+zines from Kansas ✉️: "Looming" critical tech, human-flourishing-as-goal zine (www.loomingthezine.com), including zine originals to scan for Zine Bakery redistro. The postcard’s non-metallic inks are homemade from blueberry, sumac, lilac, walnut, oak gall, +soda/irons

This is quite delightful.

Currently reading Time of the Child by Niall Williams. In truth I read lots of books at once tho, so I'm partway through The Soul Catchers by Naoko Higashi, The Arcanum by Janet Gleeson, Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth, Lancashire Witches by William Harrison Ainsworth & The Secret Hours by Mick Herron.

Applications close 15 May for Varuna's Carer’s Fellowship. Two-week writers residency will be awarded to an aspiring or emerging writer who is a parent or carer who faces barriers to finding time & space to write due to caring responsibilities. #OzLit #Writing ♿ 📚 www.varuna.com.au/for-writers/...

(I make a "mouth" with the side of my hand and draw little eyes above it) Richard Dawkins: hmmmm (I put lipstick around the "mouth") Richard Dawkins, suavely: well hello

“No amount of HR-speak is going to salvage this disgrace. Long may it haunt you.”

The audience.

Proof of life. I look like I seen shit. Publishing. That’s what I’ve seen.

Words heard just before the Big Bang - ‘One of the problems with technology today is…’

General reminder that stats categories change, and the ABS defines ‘boomers’ as folk from 55 to 74 years, GenX as 40 to 54 years, and millennials as 25 to 39 years, so this piece by @michellegrattan.bsky.social should be clear on definitions so everyone can get their aged-based resentment right.

Pick up the nearest book, turn to p 42 and post the second sentence: 'But then the radish market collapsed, and he fell upon hard times and had to catch fish from the river using only his shoelaces...' Into the Bewilderness by Gus Gordon

Pouring one out for all the librarians and archivists who are now confronting angry patrons demanding to see an item that doesn't exist because "AI told me it does."* *story just recounted to me by a friend

Small, local cafes are the best.

One of three little peace gatherers.

When I know it's definitely a trap, but I'm going anyway.

Vanessa Stockard (Australian, b.1975) "Satan Taking a Break from Hate Crimes," 2022 Oil on dibond #art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt #catlover

Authors are being “strongly urged” to be vigilant amid a rise in scam emails impersonating editors at publishing houses 👇 #BookSky

The gathering of the things.

Very quick check reveals referrals to news sites have indeed tumbled since Twitter ownership changed hands.

You wrote a novel using AI? Cool. It's like that time I ran a marathon using a Ford Focus.

Senators Penny Allman-Payne and David Pocock, and whistleblowers are among the few trying desperately to keep cruelty and incompetence out of decision-making and yet another Robodebt style disaster from eviscerating families and lives. Algorithms are never EVER objective. #auspol

It's all about the base.

As per the 2021 Census, the Aus Bureau of Statistics defines 'generations' as follows; Interwar - aged 75 and over Boomers - 55 to 74 GenX - 40 to 54 Millenials - 25 to 39 GenZ - 10 to 24 GenAlpha - 0 to 9 Please adjust your ageism accordingly. #auspol

Your Cherokee words for today. The top word is English followed by how it is written in the Cherokee language followed by how it is spelled in English then how to pronounce it phonetically. dahdahnay-tleeyuhskuh-hee guhkaw-wah-duhdee gaysuh-hee A long time ago when the world was new,

Currently listening to Guy Standing's The Politics of Time: Gaining Control in the Age of Uncertainty. Interesting tidbit so far - The wording of the Lord's Prayer was originally 'forgive us our debts, as we also have also forgiven our debtors.'

Interesting as Bertelsmann has a contract with OpenAI. #booksky #AI Penguin to sue OpenAI over ChatGPT version of German children’s book www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

As a judge of the #QueenslandLiteraryAwards for 10 years (fiction, fellowships, new media, young writers and publishers categories), the only person vaguely updating former judges about the review and any subsequent decisions has been @mattdennien.bsky.social via the Brisbane Times. #auspol

Happy Trans Day of Visibility #transrightsarehumanrights

I did notice current State Library Chair George Brandis has an opinion piece titled 'Trump is being played for a sucker, just like he was by Putin' in the Brisbane Times today. It'll be interesting to see if the Arts Minister relieves him of the role for having an opinion on Israel. #auspol

"And if AI did become sophisticated enough to write genuinely engaging books, does that matter..." Yes. There's still the tiny matter of copyright which underpins the whole publishing industry. Good luck earning a wage in a post-copyright, totally monopolised and monopsonistic distribution world.

Moley.

Solidarity from Queensland with colleagues at the ABC across the country today using what is one of the biggest levers they have (protected strike action) to try and improve the public broadcaster now, for those who come after them, and ultimately our industry as a whole ✊

Painting, so currently listening to: m.youtube.com/watch?v=swDu...

I think it appropriate that government ministers appointed to human services portfolios not be permitted to listen to any other music other than helpline music and pre-recorded messages while in office - 24/7, 365 days a year.

When the pronunciation instructions are harder than the word: Rosmersholm - pronounced ˈrɔ̀sməʂˌhɔɫm

When your excellent printer accidentally staples your gated centrefold of wombat taxidermy incorrectly. It's back with them being fixed. Sometimes even the best folk make mistakes.

"Spring is here!" The little bird exclaimed to the Cherrywood Knight 🌸🌿

On the Mia Ballard issue. It'll be interesting to see whether the 'I reckon it's AI' allegations/opinions on Reddit and Goodreads will become a problem in any legal action she is taking. 1 of 2 🧵#booksky

That time this magnificent wee beastie landed on my car aerial.