Here’s a nice chuckle of a cultural refresher: a list of various films that have added to our profoundly distorted view of #writing as a profession where it should be easy to get ahead if you have any aptitude at all.

Read it and laugh—or weep!

#WritingCommunity #WritersOfCoSo

https://www.tor.com/2023/04/25/seven-stories-about-fictional-writers-that-need-a-reality-check/

Here's a thoughtful deep-dive into some of the intersections between contemporary LLM discourse and ongoing questions of labour under neoliberalism. I've only just started to follow Rob Horning's Substack, but it's been solid reading thus far.

#AI #Socialism #Tech
https://robhorning.substack.com/p/april-25

My elevator was out, so I took the stairs and snapped my back view. #Colombia

"Barn burned down.
Now I can see
the moon."

-Mizuta Masahide

And... today for #OnlySky, I have a piece about 1973. 🕊️

Fifty years! And so many of the same crises today as back then. How far we haven't come, eh?

But also, just think how many lessons that uncannily familiar past could offer the present, if we were more willing to apply them to our activism now.

The world needs messier, bolder action for lasting change.

But are we ready to shake off long-habituated responses to an unjust status quo?

#Humanism #History #Politics https://onlysky.media/mclark/what-fifty-years-of-struggle-can-teach-us-going-forward/

Goooood morning CoSo. 😊

If you're over 20, you've lived longer than over half the humans who ever existed.

In my 20s, the struggle against suicidal downcycles was real; I didn't think I'd make it to 30. I was in a lot of pain.

My 30s have been a wild ride, especially while trying to make a home for myself in Colombia for the last five.

And every day, even the hardest ones, has been a gift.

Thank you for being here too.

No matter how hard.

(Now go hydrate and have a brilliant Wednesday. 💙)

A person who did something very important to the unpacking of police brutality in Canada, especially against Indigenous people, died this month.

Darrell Night, of the Nêhiyawak (Plains Cree) nation, died at age 56. In 2000, Saskatoon police took him on a "starlight tour" in freezing winter, to drop him off outside of town: a practice that had killed Indigenous men before.

Night told his story, yielding a critical exposé.

May we all have such courage.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/25/darrell-night-who-exposed-canada-police-freezing-deaths-scandal-dies-at-56

And the #BookTube link, for those who want to jump straight into something lighter. You can almost hear me kicking myself for blanking on Lucian of Samosata's name mid-recording, but now you know who I meant. 😅 My review of other SF inspired by classic lit is still pending - probably this weekend. 🤞

#SFF #WritingCommunity https://youtu.be/wBpVrxrMQgc

Morning, CoSo! 💫

Another week, another #BetterWorldsTheory #newsletter.

This one talks about 3 news items in the world of writing: a Bookseller survey about stressed out debut authors, the sale of the first AI-inspired novel to a major, and the upcoming WGA strike.

Around these items, I reflect again on the distorted expectations of our industry that cause so much pain in the first place.

(Also, a new BookTube is up, on histories of spec lit! 🎉)

#WritersOfCoSo #SFF
https://mlclark.substack.com/p/three-slices-of-the-writing-world

Notice, too, the pivot from blue badges to subscriber markers to "stand out from the crowd". Really trying anything now!

(And sorry/not-sorry about the Spanish. All of my devices are in second-language mode. At least this one's not my device for Arabic! 🙃)

Here's the part of the message that doesn't reveal who invited me. Read it and weep... or get some popcorn started. 🙃 I can't even tell anymore.

Oof. I was just invited to subscribe to someone on the bird site, to see 'member-only chats' (tweets) for the low low cost of $6.99 a month.

Has anyone else been gifted a similar preview into the next phase of this massive blunder of a social media takeover?

This is *such* a good episode for readers, #writers, & reviewers to chew over.

For the Critical Friends podcast at Strange Horizons, three seasoned reviewers sit down to explore the work of negative reviews, & the shifting roles that reviews play in SFF today.

"No one ever says, 'The reviewer is arrogating power to himself, and he thinks he knows better than the rest of us' when you write something good. ... And I feel like that's telling." ⬇️

#WritingCommunity #SFF http://strangehorizons.com/podcasts/podcast-critical-friends-episode-5/

🕊️ Good morning, CoSo.

My other think-y piece will come out later this week. Today for #OnlySky, I have an article on the Wagner Group in Sudan.

This is a piece that looks at the complex rise of Wagner & other holdings by Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Yes, this situation relates to Russia, and the war in Ukraine.

But also, it highlights that our wars are *corporate*. As such, violence around the world will continue so long as third-parties see an opportunity to profit.

#Humanism
https://onlysky.media/mclark/wagner-group-in-sudan-the-paramilitarization-of-war-continues/

Honestly, this is kind of impressive considering the abundance of firearms. But people do love their machetes here! 🙃 And there's just something much more intimate about killing at stabbing distance, you know? #Colombia

(Also, if you missed the news in 2018, Eswatini used to be called Swaziland. TMYK. 👍🏻)
https://news.yahoo.com/eswatini-country-profile-173059716.html

I don't generally recommend Radiolab episodes, because many use a narrative format that requires misdirection and misrepresentation of a key scientific concept to arrive at a later reveal... but sometimes they do a bang up job. This piece is a nature-science mystery that illustrates how our rituals and regional priorities can have huge, unexpected impacts on ecosystem health. Religion, vultures, cows, and pharmaceuticals all play a role in this one. #CoSoNature #Podcasts

https://pca.st/episode/5dcba4fb-1adb-411b-ac62-79dba2ee379f

The circus has been in my park for a couple of months, but at first with an Encanto-based (knock-off) show. Now they have a new theme, and... uh... I can't even begin to figure out how this show is supposed to cohere thematically. Any guesses? 😅 #Colombia

😊 Time for my favourite part of the writing process - the long walk where I let all the fiddly bits settle, so that I can come back fresh and renewed to round out the draft.

This one's a longer think-y piece for OnlySky. Then on to this week's newsletter, and a BookTube recording first thing tomorrow to accompany it.

But first: I'm practically wagging my non-existent colita, I'm so eager to be out the door and off for a wander in the park. Happy late Sunday, all! #AmWalking

Also, never forget: You'll never win 'em all. 😂