Sheila Jenné

It was a big inspiration in two different things I've written since!

Yes!!! I never see anybody talking about it but it was PROFOUND.

Exactly. There's no arguing with taste, but people always want their preferences to be more than taste, the one correct way.

But by doing that, they a) invalidate everyone else with different taste, and b) open themselves up to debate, where we can validly say "you're simply wrong about that."

They don't see the skill it takes to produce writing that is engaging, to structure things in such a way that they're easy to absorb.

I have found that a lot of AI writing is so flat that I become instantly bored with it. Yet a lot of readers are *used* to being bored with writing and not really reading it, so they don't realize it's not supposed to be like that. That good writing is engaging if you put in a little bit of effort.

Exactly. They aren't the people who do the work, so they can't necessarily tell if it's done well. All they can see is it *looks* like the kind of thing they were expecting 😔

Feels very connected to Epstein too. Like it's hard to say what the appeal is of ANY of what he had to offer. But it's this, exactly. The idea of acquiring women who are hard to acquire and therefore of high value—young girls 😔

Today's version of lighting a cigar with a hundred dollar bill.

Take away the ability of people to perform their own tasks and duties with no steps to provide for them when they are rendered obsolete. A growing rump of humans without function, livelihood, or resource."

From SERVICE MODEL, by Adrian Tchaikovsky

"What if, even as you replace everyone with robots that are cheaper and quicker and less likely to join a union or complain about working conditions, you also continue to insist that individual value is tied to production, and everyone who’s idle is a parasite scrounging off the state?...

I'm positive AI can't write with the necessary level of accuracy.

I am....less confident that the people who pay you understand that or care 😅

So many jobs that can't adequately be done by AI, still are, because the decisionmakers believe the hype.

See that's the thing: creative work has almost never been very profitable. But creatives have always paid the bills by using the same skills on some more boring task like ad copy or art commissions or something.

Giving that "boring" work to AI starves creatives.

same 😭

I used to make the equivalent of SFF short fic pro rates several times a week writing marketing copy. Eight to ten cents a word, and all the work I had time for.

Then AI took over all that work 😛

But it is also true that, in today's world with almost infinite indie books, KU, AO3, etc., there's kind of no reason to push yourself. Because there's virtually infinite stuff that's inside your comfort zone.

I just think that this approach is going to cloy after a while. You get bored.

I think the not-quite-explicit point here of the article is: if you are a good reader, it shouldn't be hard to adapt. And if you push yourself with stuff outside your exact comfort zone, you can get better at this, opening up more possibilities.

I wish we could disambiguate first person from accessible/easy/ light. A lot of third-person work is very easy to get into. Meanwhile I almost always write in first for the voiciness, but my work is a little on the heavy side. Which means I'm getting rejected from two directions.

I disagree wildly with one point here: I DON'T think the first person trend is coming from fanfic. Fanfic is overwhelmingly written in third, and many fic readers refuse to read first altogether.

Of course I ALSO think we desperately need people to think more, schools to get kids to a much higher level of literacy, and everyone to be a lot less lazy. But that may be too big of a problem to solve.

I feel like we desperately need a genre or category or label that's like, Light or Easy or something, because there is such a demand for books that don't require any brainpower, and people try to fulfill it by:

-reading YA and complaining it isn't smutty,

-reading adult and complaining it is hard

I just don't understand why anybody would switch from fanfic to fantasy if that's what they want—they've already got what they want in fanfic, for free. There's plenty of it.

Happy International Women's Day!

The concept of women is fraught because not all of us really want to be here. But I feel like this day is for anyone who's been perceived as a woman. Misogyny gets us coming and going.

I'm in a book bundle for the occasion:
itch.io/b/3556/inter...

likewise 💙💙💙

I think I am good at what I do but my niche is just small. I could be better, sure, but the main reason I'm not big is that my thoughts and the things I like are not like most people's. And to get that kind of buzz around books you really do need to hit a majority of people's buttons.

Editing Your editor should be like a good trip navigator, helping you to steer toward your writing goal, but never trying to take the wheel.

Thanks for hosting, Steve!

I'm currently accepting new editing clients so if you have something you need a second pair of (not related to you by blood or marriage) eyes on, let me know.

Free sample edit 🤩

mkmartinwriter.com/edit-and-pro...

This spread has the title, "The Witch of Eden Hollow | A Trans and Queer Fantasy Romance by G.T. Anthony," on the top, character headshots with traits beside them, and a general trope list. All is set against a background close-up photo of conifers on an autumn day. In the center of the image is the story's pitch: Inquisitor T. Sterling is hired by the pious town of Eden Hollow to hunt down the witch that commands an ancient forest called The Elder Grove. Reclusive, guarded, and untrusting, Elias finds with dread that the only way he can save his forest (and himself) from an untimely demise is to work with the hunter that was hired to kill him. Within Eden Hollow, Avery Miller struggles with the town's restrictive Puritan values, forced to hide his love for another man and a sudden magical ability that manifests within him. As their lives intertwine and tensions rise, secrets that were desperately locked away seep through the cracks, and what they find very well may destroy them.

This spread has the title, "The Witch of Eden Hollow | A Trans and Queer Fantasy Romance by G.T. Anthony," on the top, character headshots with traits beside them, and a general trope list. All is set against a background close-up photo of conifers on an autumn day. Characters (on the left): Inquisitor Sterling Character art from a picrew by crowesn picturing a heavyset white man with brown eyes and brown hair on his head and beard. Traits: Middle Aged Trans Man; Widowed Character; Vengeful Witch Hunter; Survivor's Guilt Elias Character art from a picrew by crowesn picturing a thin white man with pointed ears, long black hair, and gray eyes. He has green flecks on his forehead, cheeks, and shoulders. Traits: Demisexual Trans Man; Ancient Forest Guardian; If the Forest Dies, He Dies; Suppressing Old Grief Avery Miller Character art from a picrew by crowesn picturing a thin white man with long black hair tied back in a ponytail, freckles, and gray eyes. Traits: Closeted Gay, Repressed MC; Chronic Illnesses, Awakened Magical Abilities, Religious Trauma List of Tropes (on the right): - "T4T" - Old Man Yaoi - Enemies-to-Lovers - WitchXHunter - Finding Love After Loss/Heartbreak - "Ugly Grief Feelings" - Old, Buried Secrets - Religious Cult Disguised as a Small Town" - Closeted Gay to Unapologetically Queer Pipeline - Plant Magic

Thank you for hosting!
As I've been going through this current draft of The Witch of Eden Hollow, I've been sharing it for free! There are 10 chapters left to share. I'm gearing to have it more widely published by later this summer! (contains mature themes)
archiveofourown.org/works/75724341

Over the background of a medieval city, a pink box with a list of tropes and a cover of the book, The Need for Dandelions by Alex Larkspur Trope list: - MM Fantasy Romance - Queer Normative World - Flower Symbolism - Sort of Enemies to Lovers - Falling in love during a crisis - Forced Proximity - Fighting Government Corruption - Oh. Oh. Book Cover: Two men stand back to back surrounded by depictions of dandelions. The man angled to the front is Galen. He has tan skin, red hair, and hazel eyes. A large portion of his face is covered by a burn scar. He wears a yellow tunic and brown pants, along with a pink flower pendant. He lifts up one hand, and looks concerned. The other man, facing towards the back but looks over his shoulder, is Sasha. He has light brown hair, dark brown eyes, and stubble. He is wearing leather armor and green shirt and pants. He is holding a sword.

Thank you for hosting!
The Need for Dandelions is coming out March 31st! It's available for preorders now!

Uni link: books2read.com/u/meYkPE
Itch: bit.ly/3N1RDWk
Cover: @nooskadraws.bsky.social

I should've recognized it! My old buddy Garamond!

Not to be a weirdo but....what font is that? I like it.

Good passage too of course 💙

I really love Premee Mohamed! Every book is a banger.

Oh yes she is so good! So much political thought in books that didn't have to be that deep.