AlmaAlexander

I can smell that picture...

*smack*

Whee. That is kind of exactly what happened with me and "the winds out quarters" which kind of ambushed me, post a years-long block. But inconvenient word count or not, isn't it good when words just want out...?

...ew

What did I miss???

So, 47 blew up Amazon's data centers in the middle east. I'm wondering if Bezos is rethinking his "investments" at this point.

Needless to say authors whose books are unpurchaseable at this point are just collateral damage jn the shitstorm.

Yep. This.

I introduced my mother to Charlton Heston...

Um. To borrow a line from Chariots of Fire, " it's the coach who should do the asking" my beta readers are people I know and trust and on whose wisdom and experience I can rely. If you're asking how to "apply" for the job... you're already disqualified...

This is unholy. It's like they literally do not understand the real world at all. This is all just a video game to somebody.

Paperback edition of There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone

Today the paperback of THERE IS NO PLACE FOR US is out.

It's arriving in a country once again waging war—a country that can spend tens of billions on bombs without blinking, while millions of Americans are one missed paycheck, one rent hike away from homelessness.

Let's take stock of where we are.

'Mini hearts' show COVID-19 virus directly infects heart tissue

Even Mild COVID-19 Can Leave Lasting Brain Damage, Study Finds A new study suggests that recovery from COVID-19 may not end when respiratory symptoms fade. A mild bout of COVID-19 or influenza may have effects that continue long after obvious symptoms such as fever and coughing disappear.

Even Mild COVID-19 Can Leave Lasting Brain Damage, Study Finds

Does he have to pick a fight with EVERYBODY???

...one too many AI enshittification posts in my feed this morning. And here I am putting real effort into writing the best book I can write... *I*, not some stupid AI imitator... and I have to wonder how many people out there will actually even be able to read it, if this murder of language goes on.

Holy fucking mother of God the human race is doomed.

literally your customer base was 90% parents of young children who want a good future for their kids in which they can be free to be themselves, no matter who they are. you told those people to go fuck themselves. they won't be back

If the big JC turned up in his original edition they would deport him instantly...

It is remarkable that the general state of things is:

1) creators whose work was stolen to train AI have no rights
2) users who create with AI have no rights in the output
3) the AI companies have full rights to everything they want, including user prompts

I dunno, sounds wrong and untenable.

He's a handsome fellow who seems to finally growing into his nose... :)

roadhouseendgame i was talking to my mom about cardassians and said something along the lines of what must it be like to be a cardassian civilian. like abstractly knowing the rest of the galaxy thinks of your species as 'the evil ones' and kinda sorta knowing your government runs labor camps and torture prisons and is a military empire, and it's a huge deal for everyone else in the galaxy, but you just like run a restaurant so it's not a big part of your daily life, so you just like, go about your day and make soup and don't think about it' and then halfway through my sentence i actually heard myself and then had to go sit down for like ten minutes. like sat down in a chair and stared at the floor for ten minutes

whoops

That it is. In spades. You'll get no disagreement from me on that score.

Let me rephrase to appease you. "Perhaps you can spend some of the time you aren't spending in traveling *to the US* to work on a new book". Okay? (By the way I'll be the first to pre-order that book when it dawns across the event horizon. And I fully understand the current US travel situation. )

Didn't mean to imply that. Don't read too much into things.

I don't blame you in the least, I would probably feel the same way in your shoes.

Use the time not spent traveling to give us another book...

I mean I am wayyyy not famous enough for my name to be used but let me assure you I don't have a "marketing person" to whom I am eager to introduce you... so yeah, if you get anything from me with earnest entreaties to let me holp you be faaamous... I have a grain of salt I'd like you to consider...

I've been contacted by Donna Tartt, George RR Martin... a friend of mine was honored by a missive from Stephen King... another got a sweet note from Margaret Atwood... isn't it CHARMING how all those people have the time and the good heart to chitchat with unknowns...

Mine sit there and watch me do the cleanup and then, just as I am done, they will royally stalk into the newly fresh box to do their business even as I watch...

Tell me about it. I have two of those creatures and it's an ongoing race against poopery. Also, two of my litter boxes are downstairs and hauling used litter up those stairs for disposal is definitely a Thing now...