Good afterevenmorn, Readers!
I’m going to rant a bit this post, so if apologies in advance for getting too serious about things that are, in fact, quite fun.
I want to talk friendships. Friendships in fiction, specifically, and how they’re often hijacked by well-meaning, representation-starved folks, and how that robs us of examples of deep, meaningful, powerful, but entirely platonic love in real life. And I think that’s more than a shame. It’s a crime.
Good afterevenmorn, Readers!
How was your winter holidays? I hope you found it gentle and restful and full of the things that make you happy. I spent some time with family, which is always lovely, and more time by myself recovering (the joys of being a massive introvert). It seems that the end of the year was more fraught for others than myself, though.
I’m speaking of the BookTok community. There have been a few ruffled feathers with folks getting angry at other folks for the massive number of books they may (or may not, as one of the accusations proclaim) have read.
If that sounds silly to you, you are not alone. I’ve been watching from the sidelines giggling or rolling my eyes, depending. Let’s get into this nonsense… because sometimes watching train wrecks in slow motion is mildly amusing. And so I am here after another adventure into social media to report on what’s going on over there.
Good afterevenmorn, Readers!
I feel like I manifested this… But I’m getting ahead of myself. Does anyone remember me lamenting about how difficult it was for original or new folks to break out in the entertainment industry? I’ve been griping since Adam was knee-high to a grasshopper (how’s that for a malaphor?) that original stories aren’t getting made anymore, with production companies all settling for established IPs with a huge fanbase they can take advantage of. Smaller stories, no matter how good they might be, are left in the dust because creative risks are just not done any longer.
It’s been a point of ire of mine for a while now. And then, as if answering the call, in comes a YouTuber with a fully independently produced and distributed film based in the world of a fully independently created video game. Alright, technically it is an adaptation, but the fact that the game is independent, small, and not widely known in the way, say, the Assassin’s Creed Franchise is, means that this one counts. It counts, alright?
Also, I believe this is not the story in the game, but in the world of the game, but I’ll explain later.
Good afterevenmorn, Readers!
So, once again I have entered the world of TikTok. This one is very old now, in the lightning fast news cycle that is that particular platform, so I’m rather behind the ball on commenting on it. For a few reasons for this. One, I’m old (ish. In internet terms, I mean). I simply cannot move at the speed TikTok seems to demand. Two, the one really got under my skin, despite not being one of the group targeted. So I wanted to take the time to calm down before approaching it. And third, I feel like I’ve covered this topic more than once, and I’m very annoyed that I feel compelled to tackle it once again. But here we are.
It is, of course, the weird, irritating, and erroneous snobbery between genres.
Good afterevenmorn, Readers!
Not too long ago, I broke my long absence from video-format social media, which is just a very wordy way of saying I’m back on TikTok. I had abandoned it in the middle of the year when life slammed into me pretty hard and I needed some time and space for grieving (I lost my beautiful cat rather suddenly and unexpectedly). It wasn’t a deliberate decision, I just couldn’t handle much at all, so a lot of things just got abandoned while I worked through my stuff.
Two or so weeks ago, I returned, and ho boy, the tea is tea-ing. There’s so much drama on BookTok, specifically. There are currently three major dramas going on at present that I’m aware of, one of which really got under my skin, but I’m not touching it at present. I’m too annoyed, and I’m not even the audience that was directly insulted. Instead, I want to address writers very specifically on reviews, reviewers and review spaces.
Good afterevenmorn, Readers!
I have been (over)thinking about the panels I participated in during this year’s Can*Con. What I can remember of them, anyway. I get so nervous before any kind of public speaking that the events often just get blanked out in my memory. But I am remembering some stuff that has me thinking more on the topics discussed. Since few folks were able to attend, I thought maybe I’d bring some of our discussions to you here.
One of the panels I was on was The Continuity of Epic Fantasy, and I was fortunate enough to be sat between Suyi Davies Okungbowa and Anuja Varghese, two incredibly brilliant folks with wonderful minds. Moderated by Y.M. Pang, this was a fascinating discussion about what epic fantasy was for us, and why we love it or hate it, and why it has been so enduring in genre.
The question of what epic fantasy is has been the one the stuck with me, because my fellow panellists brought up some things that have really stuck with me.
Good afterevenmorn, Readers!
I am writing this the day after returning from my favorite genre literary convention ever with a report. Can*Con is the kind of SFF convention I will try very hard to never miss. I went to my first in 2011 (I think? It’s been so long), when I was a little baby writer with one self-published anthology and a couple of sketches to my name. Despite having no clout, no idea what I was doing, and absolutely no connections to anyone or anything in the scene at all, I was warmly welcomed and made to feel like I was an actual real writer with something of value to offer the world.
This is going to sound really corny, but for the anxiety-ridden, personally struggling young me, that was an enormous deal.
I have not missed a Can*Con since.
I figured since not everyone can make it, be they countries or provinces away, and the costs of… well… everything making travelling often prohibited, I thought I’d bring the experience to you. As best I can, anyway. However well I make my report, it’s not the same thing as the experience.
Sorry.
Good afterevenmorn, Readers!
You’ll have to excuse me as I’m currently on holidays, and the absence of the routine of heading into the office daily has thrown off my brain a little. Today, I wanted to muse about something quite personal to me. I had, for quite a while, taken myself off most social media — I was still on Facebook a very little, and continued to watch YouTube videos — but the rest of them were used only to post a link to my blog post (such as BlueSky), or not at all (TikTok, looking at you). But I have since returned, albeit slowly and distantly.
Good afterevenmorn, Readers!
I have been rewatching a few things as I move through this last part of 2025. I’m not sure why I’m feeling nostalgic, but I am. Part of that rewatch is BBC’s Merlin. I watched this as it aired, all the way back in 2008. I adored it then, and I adore it now. No doubt, part of the adoration now is very much tied to how much I loved it as I was discovering the series for the first time. A not insignificant part, however, is because this show is just good.
Good afterevenmorn, Readers!
This post is going to be a little “old lady yells at clouds” today, so prepare!
With the news that Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude Chaptbot, was sued and settled for their large-scale theft of books in order to train its AI model, I have been reading a glut of articles both for and against the use of AI, specifically to write fiction novels. Naturally, not being AI (I swear!), I’m firmly against. The theft of creative works to train these programs, and the environmental damage required to get the up and keep them running aside (and those two reasons alone are strong enough, I feel, to abandon AI) I don’t think AI belongs in creative fields; some aids, perhaps, some tools, yes. But I don’t think creating AI that can “write” a novel is in any way valuable.