begging y'all to get the fuck off substack. so many newsletter articles i'd love to read and can't.

"Resurrected" - not "recreated" or "manufactured" or "animated" or "has his corpse dragged around by two charming young men who just want to enjoy their vacation."

heated chivalry

Bonkers. Average of 3 articles a week in The Oz over 2.5 years about Abdel- Fattah. Average of more than one front page story a month.

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I don't know how to explain to the people who pop up when creatives complain about "AI" to say there are legit uses for it just how much they sound like someone saying "Well actually fire is used to make bread" when people are talking about an organized arson ring burning down their fucking houses

I also despise the framing that "clean" books are more appropriate for teens or that teens are en masse advocating for them. But it misstates what kids actually want: variety. So much of YA is now aimed at adults rather than teens. Refocusing on teens doesn't mean going "clean."

"we need kids to get an early start operating machines that are routinely wrong and may try to coax them into suicide and/or psychosis" is a fun education perspective i disagree with actually

The thing about LLMs is that they are an averaging out of language, and some of the constructions that are LLM tics ("not just x—but y!") are that because they were already overused, especially in marketing copy. LLMs just accelerate the process of cliché formation.

A mass sighting, zero evidence and a UFO mystery still hovering 60 years on Flying saucers, balloons or mass hysteria? It's 60 years today since Australia's biggest UFO sighting took place at a Melbourne school. Witnesses are still demanding answers about what happened that day.

Flying saucers, balloons or mass hysteria? It's 60 years today since Australia's biggest UFO sighting took place at a Melbourne school. Witnesses are still demanding answers about what happened that day.

It's a lot of technical jargon but it boils down to giving up.

These people have given up on thinking. It's too hard for them. That's where we're at.

I dunno if prologues and epilogues are part of the main story but I do know your publisher should pay you a separate fee and/or offer a contractually guaranteed budget if they expect you to market your own book because that’s not your job nor what your advance or royalties are for.

Hoorah for the Easter bunny!

Maybe unpopular opinion but SFF conventions should have way fewer panels and way more "somebody talks about something random and interesting for fifteen minutes"

I Work Very Hard, And I Would Like To Try Cake By A Horse Hello. I am a horse. I work very hard at my job of being a horse. When humans say move the heavy thing, I move the heavy thing. When humans sit on top of me and pull on my head, I carry them where they want to go. The main food the humans give me is hay and oats. But I am thinking it would be nice to have a different food. I am thinking I would like to try cake. Yes, yes. Cake. I know all about it. When humans eat cake, it is in glad times. It is the food for a celebration, such as when a woman becomes 47. I have seen cake on the Fourth of July. When humans have a cake, they stand around it and clap hands and smile and say happy birthday at each other. Sometimes there are beautiful markings on a cake, such as balloons or a pink shape. Sometimes the top of a cake is on fire and a boy must blow on the fire with mouth wind. This is the scariest cake. I do not want this kind. But I will eat any other cake. Any cake that is not the fire cake that tries to kill the boy. Please understand: I do not get money for doing work. I do not get to go inside the house. All I am either doing my horse job or standing in my pen or eating food off the floor. I always do these things. But I have never once gotten cake and I would like it very much. I have noticed that human children get to eat cake. But I am bigger than the children. I am more helpful to the farm. Children do not move the heavy things like me or let anyone ride on them. And yet they get cake. Maybe the humans will realize this. Maybe they will say, "You know who deserves cake? That horse. That horse whose back we are always on." Every day I dream about what it will be like if I get to eat cake. Here is what will happen. First, I will walk to the cake and putt my nose at it like hrrfff to make and stomping my hooves to make sure it is not a snake. Then I will trot in a circle to show that I am a horse and I am large. After that, I will nuzzle the cake to …

The horse op-ed is an instant classic. I can't tell you how much joy this piece gives me.

It should be taught in every introductory writing class in no small part because the horse arguments are so compelling. "I have noticed that human children get to eat cake. But I am bigger than the children."

I tell my students that writing is an exercise in figuring out what you think; it's not a place to deposit what you've already worked out.

If you step on a frictionless surface, momentum takes over and you just slide; there's nothing to interact with, which means there's nowhere to stand.

"Hey sorry I missed your text I am processing a nonstop 24/7 onslaught of information with a brain designed to eat berries in a cave." Image is a drawing of some cavemen around a fire, stock art.

Dear Harlequin: Nobody Asked For Your Weird, New AI Video “Microdramas” On Monday Harlequin announced that it would partner with the AI company Dashverse using their proprietary production studio to offer 40 short-form videos “inspired” by Harlequin Romance books. Thes…

"...the authors had not been consulted before the deal was made or announced, so there was no way they could opt out. As with much new generative AI technology, corporate executives proceeded with the project without the consent of the writers whose work would actually power the output."

Articles like this make a lot more sense when you realise the publication just struck a deal with an AI slop company.

If everyone was already using it, AI slop paddlers wouldn't be working so hard to convince resisters to give up. They cannot make any money if people don't embrace it in every facet of their lives.

i have the privilege of knowing an above-average number of writers and editors. all of them would spit in their own grandmother's face before they chatgpt-ed their art. my information is anecdotal, but so is the majority of this reporting.

This worship of efficiency kills creativity. Every transcript I have, every piece of research, I go over again & again, looking for detail, pattern, illuminating anecdote. It’s not efficient. I flail sometimes! But it’s essential. It’s how I learn to tell the story to myself, so I can tell it to you

Btwn the craven decision to publish a book by the VP, the harlequin dash AI bullshit, and now this … just a banner work for HarperCollins being a soul sucking shit show of a company

The. Rise. Of. Cognitive. Surrender.

Study finds that people who use GenAI chatbots rely on them 80% of the time, and develop almost no capacity to recognize when a chatbot is feeding them faulty information.

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Honestly, I sincerely do not understand bouncing ideas for narrative off something that can only tell you what has come before in the most generic and median way possible.

Molly Lambert @mollylambert I respect the moon's unwillingness to be photographed on a phone 12:31 PM • 12/12/19 • Twitter Web App 59.5K Retweets 294K Likes

Lance St. Laurent @LanceStLaurent When you see this blatant anti-moon propaganda, consider the source The Sun @TheSun • Jan 18, 2019 'Super blood wolf moon' may trigger end of the world this weekend thesun.co.uk/news/8223896/s. 8:32 PM • Jan 20, 2019 • Twitter for iPhone 49.9K Retweets 493 Quote Tweets 238.7K Likes

Paul Ford v @ftrain When the moon hits your knees And you mispronounce trees Sycamore 5:14 AM • 2/27/18 • Twitter for Android 13.6K Retweets 37.3K Likes

dustin Couch @Dustinkcouch nasa employee: oh hey u guys are back early astronaut: moon's haunted nasa employee: what? astronaut: *loading a pistol and getting back on the rocket-ship* moon's haunted 10:18 PM - 29 Oct 2018

please enjoy these classic Moon Tweets™

David Lynch @DAVID... • Jun 18, 2010 V This weekend I'm going to try to find out if I'm connected to the moon. ~ 30 3.2K 了 David Lynch @DAVID... • Jun 21, 2010 I'm pretty sure I'm connected to the moon. 73 L>4.5K 4.3K

The GOAT Moon Tweet

I feel sorry for all the AI slopulists out there, because it's pretty clear that they don't know that. They don't know what their voice is. They don't know what they bring to the world. They don't know why someone else should read their work.

What a pitiful place to be.

Why would I use "AI," I actually know how to fucking write

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