Writing What it takes to write a book (kind of) Obviously everything is stressful all the time is over-trodden ground, but I've been thinking a bit this week about how that's interacting with my work, or my attempts to do work. I've been dealing with chronic stress for a while now and, unsurprisingly,
Paid-members only Books Not my union, not my monkeys, BUT The Authors Guild, an American union, has published a study pointing to libraries as a major contributor to the decline in income for writers, and everyone's mad about it because libraries are great. They point to digital lending as a major driver of this as via Libby, which
Paid-members only Art In defence of bad art Every so often some dipshit writes an essay about how artists need to embrace AI. I'm not linking to this week's, I'm not linking to any of them, because they're all trash for losers, but I am going to respond to one
Paid-members only Complaints Ok, so we all hate tropes, is it? I don't know why people are talking about this really. I don't even really know how much they are talking about it, but I've seen it float across my feed a few times over the last few days, and many more over the last
Paid-members only Art Art vs. Entertainment or; how to be a film guy Look, I wasn't going to write a newsletter today. I was going to be a few days late, which, given my intention is to be a week ahead, is already very late. But then my friend Marie's newsletter came out and it made have thoughts. Or,
Paid-members only Complaints We continue to barely function Samuel Johnson (of the dictionary) spent a lot of his life trying to avoid debtor's prison. He's one of the most highly regarded English writers in history but while he lived and worked he struggled to survive. Such is life. What he would do to avoid
Paid-members only AI Once again, we regret to inform you, it is AI This week in death to AI some judge in some case ruled that AI companies using our books without permission qualifies as fair use because it's transformative, and not distinct from authors being influenced by other books themselves. The judge did also say that AI companies pirating books
Art Featured How and why do you make an art This week we're all het up about this dipshit, who thinks that because making music is hard, everyone will be delighted to use the ecologically disastrous plagiarism machine to do it. To me, this is an example of something I think about all the time: people think artistic
Paid-members only Personal Welp, I guess it's time for another year Having to start a year in the middle of the British winter is obscene. Who can summon the energy or the optimism when it has been grey and dark and cold forever and it will continue to be grey and dark and cold for another forever? The global acceptance of
Paid-members only Art I'm really sick of talking about AI, and yet So a new 'publisher' is planning on 'disrupting' the industry with AI. They are essentially a vanity publisher – they ask authors to pay them thousands of dollars and, in exchange, they will give the authors AI generated covers, proofreading services, and distribution. It's an
Paid-members only Art Paying for Failure Look, we all know times is hard all around. We've all seen the graphs of rising costs of living compared to the rising but much more slowly average wages. We've heard the term once in a generation recession so often that it plays on a loop
Paid-members only Personal All going well I am on a boat right now But maybe everything hasn't gone well. If the weather forecast has been proved right it will have rained all week, all week of my holiday, my rare, precious holiday, only the second proper fuck you, I'm on holiday I've had in, like, thirteen years.
Paid-members only Art Cabbages In Robert Altman’s perfect film, The Long Goodbye, there’s a security guard who does impressions. When the lead characters drive in and out of the gated community he works at, he stops them for a moment to ask if they want to see his new impression. He’s
