The AI did this, the AI did that, who knows what the AI will do next? Look, I could have told you 2 years ago, this isn't because "AI" is this special self-aware entity that can break out of its cage and get up to mischief.

It's because the business idiots wished on a technological monkey's paw for the ability to write programs by telling the computer what you want in English and this is what you fucking get.

@LJ #ScribesAndMakers #TTMD

Hi, have you experimented with your own glaze recipes for pottery, or is there any glaze you've tried that gives a result you especially like?

#ScribesAndMakers 9 Oct
Our next featured creator is a 'relentless optimist.' How full is your glass?

I'm more a positive realist. I want to know accurately how full it is, and then how I deal with that is the bit that's in my control.

So looking forward to tomorrow. It's #FantasyCon, it's in Glasgow this year, and the SF anthology I have a story in is being launched.

It's only the second time this has happened to me. The last time was the horror anthology Shadows at the Door, and that was launched in Newcastle (also a cool city, but a bit harder to travel to).

I will also have procured an excellent Snufkin hat, and J will have a costume that is at present still unknown to me.

I'm not lazy, I'm highly efficient in effort.

Reminder for the Glasgow Science Fiction Writers Circle event at Waterstones on Sauchiehall Street, on the 21st of November

If you're in the area, come along, buy an extremely chonky SF anthology, cool people with sign it, also me. It'll be fun.

https://www.waterstones.com/events/celebrating-40-years-of-the-gsfwc/glasgow-sauchiehall-street

#WritersCoffeeClub 3 Oct
How do you feel about spoilers?

I feel nothing about spoilers. Very few works of writing depend entirely on surprise plot twists, and the good ones worth re-reading even after you've read them once are immune to spoiling: the value is in the whole piece; the plot twist is just one part of the story idea.

The Good Place has an excellent reveal at the end of season 1, and I must have watched the whole thing about 4 times.

You can't win at capitalism. You just have to survive it while you do the human things that have true worth.

#ScribesAndMakers 25 Sep
Our next featured creator uses a separate Fedi account dedicated to their book. Do you use different accounts for different creative purposes?

Not much. I have a pixelfed I hardly use. I have a different email just for writer stuff that I don't use yet. I thought about going on wandering.shop for posting about writing, since I have friends there. But in the end, I'm just me in all contexts, so there's no reason to add complexity.

#ScribesAndMakers 22 Sep
Promotion day. Self or someone else. Or both.

Self: check out my books here https://torn-and-crumpled.page/books.html

Other: Glasgow Science Fiction Writers Circle have an anthology "Haverin" coming out on 9th October, to line up with FantasyCon, in Glasgow this year.

There's also going to be a signing event on 21st October at the Waterstones on Sauchiehall Street.

A corollary to the law of supply and demand is captive demand will be supplied with shit.

#ScribesAndMakers 15 Sep
What's a situation where you feel a ';' definitely works better than a '.' ?

1. Where the rhythm and prosody of the sentence as if read aloud is better than breaking with a full stop.
2. Where the two clauses are linked enough. How linked? I know it when I see it.
3. In a toot where the link is causal but you don't want to waste characters on "because"; space is limited.

Tempted to deGoogle my chromebook, but somewhat intimidated by the process (involves taking the base off and removing a firmware write protection screw, blasting the firmware with a completely new BIOS and installing from scratch with non-Google Linux)

But it has to be done. The version of Chrome on this is EOL and no longer works for everything I want a browser to do, and I want to replace it with Vivaldi anyway.

You can get it here: https://www.amazon.com/disOrder-Pete-Alex-Harris/dp/B08T48HSB5

It's quite good. Or check out my ebook bundle at the link on my bio.

#WordWeavers 12 Sep
If you removed one supporting character from your story, whose absence would change the plot the most?

For disOrder, I'm going to say Elaine. She's a pillar of decency among a nest of unreliable, sinister, ulterior-motivated, creepy, cruel, narcissistic, stupid and just plain malign characters. Also she makes a couple of plot-relevant mistakes.

If you remove her, the book has a lot less to say.

#ScribesAndMakers 11 Sep
Have you ever been part of a collaborative group for your creative work?

I think the Shadows at the Door anthology counts, and the upcoming Glasgow Science Fiction Writer's Circle 40th year anthology "Haverin" (due out in October, you should buy one, it looks great)

I have a few collab ideas, but I don't have the time right now that I'd need to put in to get them done, or available writer and artist partners who also have that time. Maybe one day.

Nice chill Friday, a great day to do #ThreeGoodThings

1. Employer recognised our union branch
2. I got all my writing off Google drive and into an alternative storage/online editing solution hosted outside the US.
3. I was feeling like I was down a hole with very slippery sides earlier this week, but now I feel like I have a bit of agency and a plan.

Ready for a fun weekend.

Remember when printers just worked? You'd send them bytes over a parallel port, and there was a manual that came with the printer to say what would happen if you sent what sequence of bytes?

If so, you may soon be eligible for free bus travel in Scotland.

Try to live your life so that otherwise kind people who look after each other and are nice to cats don't still make dark jokes about your death … and keep doing so every year afterwards.

#scribesandmakers 8 Sep - Gauge

She checked again, but there was no point. The fuel gauge said 60%. Of course it did. Every readout was digital, not one light was on because a physical circuit was closed, not one dial was a needle held in place by a real pressure or voltage. The whole control room was run on a 21st century computer, and those bastard things LIE.