Ignore the way generative AI is created, the ecological and social impact, the abuse of copyright. Pretend it’s a fantastic machine, a cornucopia of content that responds to simple inputs with many outcomes, some of which a user will find artistically pleasing or match what they hoped for. A little like pulling the lever on… Continue reading AI, the Algorithm, and the Attention Economy.
Category: Personal
Posts of a personal nature.
This is not a review, it’s a recommendation.
Last night I had the absolute pleasure of attending the launch signing for brand new creator-owned comic Petrol Head #1, by Pye Parr (blow-you-away art/nigh-perfect design/fantastic everything) and Rob Williams (smooth as hell dialogue/wild story-wrangling/perfect melding of multiple-timelines-writing), and was privileged enough to spend a little time afterwards toasting Pye in company of some of… Continue reading This is not a review, it’s a recommendation.
Three quick reviews for #FurryBookMonth
It's October! You know what that means, don't you? ... No? Well, I guess that's allowable as this is the very first #FurryBookMonth! For more details, including special prices on many fine furry publications, head over here: https://furrywritersguild.com/furry-book-month/ In the meanwhile, here are three short reviews of some of the furry fiction I've read so… Continue reading Three quick reviews for #FurryBookMonth
Pneumonic November
So. I've been laid up with pneumonia for most of the month, including a six day stay in hospital to receive treatment with IV antibiotics and ventilators after my lungs more or less decided to stop working. Thank heavens for the NHS and fie on any politician trying to pull it apart. Other than that,… Continue reading Pneumonic November
My ounce of bile: Yarn is cowardly.
TL;DR: I have an opinion on the Hugos/Sad Puppies thing, people who cry out 'we just wanna write good old fashioned entertainin' yarns!', and the state of Science Fiction as a genre. For context if you didn't know (and wow, are YOU out of the loop), a bunch of people hijacked one of the Science… Continue reading My ounce of bile: Yarn is cowardly.
Post-con shenanigans, titles, and outlines.
Slow off the mark this month! So. I attended both LonCon 3 (Worldcon) and Eurofurence 20 last month, and, man. I did not expect things to be so tiring. I actually managed to give myself a fairly heinous foot blister by the end of Eurofurence, so, I've been taking the excuse to be fairly lazy… Continue reading Post-con shenanigans, titles, and outlines.
On to the next project + Cons
So. My novel Dog Country's done. Or, more accurately, it's as done as I feel like I can reasonably make it in the time available to me. In theory it's the second draft, or at least that's what I've got it numbered as, practically it's kind of a third/fourth pass. At some level I would… Continue reading On to the next project + Cons
Risking burnout and writerly fetishes.
So. As those of you who follow me on twitter/generally stalk me are likely aware, I am currently working flat out on getting the first draft for Dog Country done. This has resulted in some thoughts, which I will get to in a moment. First up, things are getting finalized very rapidly on Orbital Decay,… Continue reading Risking burnout and writerly fetishes.
Something on the way, back in the slush piles, and Ancillary Justice
Okay, so, getting through things roughly in order... In absolutely positive news, things are slowly getting finalized on a novella I've produced for Abaddon Books. What I can confidently say at the moment is that it's provisionally titled 'Orbital Decay', it's around 30 000 words long (fractionally longer than Dangerous Jade), and it's set in… Continue reading Something on the way, back in the slush piles, and Ancillary Justice
Recent Reviews, Current Activities
Okay, so, in the interest of keeping things all updated and everything on here, since last we spoke, I've gotten some neat reviews, some walks beside the Thames, achieved a lunar landing with a slide rule and logarithm table, and stood in a queue for two and a half hours. Firstly on the reviews front,… Continue reading Recent Reviews, Current Activities
A very brief review of Papers, Please.
Papers, Please is one of those games that, I feel, explores what storytelling in videogames is all about. From the point we're confronted with a near perfectly immersive interface -- we interact with the world by moving documents around, as we step into the role of a passport inspector/border checkpoint desk agent -- to the… Continue reading A very brief review of Papers, Please.
To Iain Banks,
This was my contribution to the flood of messages supporting Iain (M) Banks when the announcement of his terminal illness was made. I post it now, after news of his passing, because I simply have no other good way to mark the moment and feel like I have to do something with my grief. ----… Continue reading To Iain Banks,
A little less conversation, a little more censorship please.
This morning I read an article on the BBC news website reporting calls to close a 'loophole' allowing the existence and viewing of rape pornography. The article (here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22803502 ) explains that much of the motivation behind the campaign to tighten these laws has been driven by violence against women and children. While I fully… Continue reading A little less conversation, a little more censorship please.
ConFuzzled advisory.
This week I am off to attend ConFuzzled, which I am sure I will produce all manner of terrible anecdotes to share. If you're attending, yell at me on twitter or something if you want something signed.
Thank you for your Ursa support!
Thank you to everyone who's supported me during the Ursa Major Awards period this year, or, just, y'know, supported me in general! You guys and gals are all fantastic. The voting's over for the year, and we'll learn what the results are when they're announced at Anthrocon on July 5th. Tune back in then, and… Continue reading Thank you for your Ursa support!
Ursa Major Awards – Nominated!?
So. Uh. ... That happened. Check out the short fiction section on this link. ... Yeah. I'm actually kinda-sorta floored. I mean, I know I have people out there rooting for me and enjoying my work? And I massively appreciate that I do? I just don't think I realized that there were that many of… Continue reading Ursa Major Awards – Nominated!?
Some brief thoughts on Robert E. Howard.
So just to keep the blog moving, and since I've been reading Conan the Barbarian stories, I thought I might as well jot down some of my thinking on that. Personally, I'm a big fan of Robert E. Howard. Not so much for his literature as the position he occupies in foundations of spec lit… Continue reading Some brief thoughts on Robert E. Howard.
On Paypal, Erotica, and ‘Censorship’.
Okay. So. To introduce those who are unaware of the situation, in the last week or two, Paypal's been getting in touch with various e-book vendors, demanding they remove certain types of erotica from sale to comply with Paypal's terms of use. Now, granted, their list of off-limits content is pretty ugly to look at… Continue reading On Paypal, Erotica, and ‘Censorship’.
Workblog for the week: Awards! Plague! Censorship!
Okay. Awards, plague, and censorship are a lot to get through. Let's start on the easy stuff, how my work's been going this week. Still have very little faith in myself, but the faith of others has done a bang-up job of keeping me afloat. And, more to the point, towards a reasonable wordcount this… Continue reading Workblog for the week: Awards! Plague! Censorship!
An evening with Terry Pratchett + Tomorrow.
Well. Okay. That was extraordinarily thinglike. I've just returned from Drury Lane (or nearly Drury Lane, in any case) where 'An Evening With Terry Pratchett' was held. Theatre, packed to the brim with people, myself in the absolute nosebleed seats in the balcony back row, all staring down there as the man himself and his… Continue reading An evening with Terry Pratchett + Tomorrow.