Athelstone

Thanks, Ath. I should maybe point out that ‘the protagonist’ is in fact me. The brief didn’t say it had to be fiction, and my effort isn’t. I really am building, slowly and very carefully, a huge model car.

Thank you for posting this, Ath. Christmas has been so busy I’ve only just read it. It’s a touching story.

<p style=”text-align: center;”>DEGREES OF DIFFICULTY IN MY LIFE</p>
<p style=”text-align: center;”>(when it gets difficult  – make it  rhyme )</p>
I find it difficult to hide the truth, or say things that are untrue.

I can’t fit inside a kayak, or paddle a canoe.

I can’t crochet anything or mend my pushbike brake

and bouncing on a tramp…[Read more]

This links to a short piece in The Bookseller:

The Bookseller – News – Society of Authors calls for change to ‘acknowledge all writers involved’ in celebrity-written books

The main message is:

“The SoA is asking publishers, celebrities, booksellers, festival organisers, agents and all involved in the industry to recognise and reward all…[Read more]

I popped in a few times but sorry, didn’t  managed to post  anything for  the monthly comp . I’ve been really busy sorting and emptying  the kitchen  as sparkly new  units,   sink  and other  gizmos  are being fitted in the new  year. the old one is over 20 years old  and it’s turned into a major refit having to  move pipes, wiring  and other thin…[Read more]

Sea,  I well remember, a couple of years ago admiring your shorter haircut when you picked me up at Markinch station, Promise I wasn’t thinking of the competition we might meet at Craigievar! I did hope to do something more inspired for this great prompt, but ran out of mental space, so well done Ath.

Anyone else got ???? Supposed to be a smiley face 🙂

Sorry for being so late with this…

Sandra and Ath, thanks for entering – and both with a hair-related topic! ???? Alex, no worries. I’ll catch you next time.

Sandra – your chosen article left me gobsmacked. Clearly, I have been a victim of this. Brainwashed into keeping my hair short because my good looks are a threat to other women. I’ll be on…[Read more]

Yes, it’s the old vanity approach of taking advantage of unaware writers’ naivety. There’s a common belief that editing more or less equals proofreading without so much as a beta read along the way. I imagine all vanity publishers will be using AI in the same fashion.

I think what’s notable about Spines is the number of books they plan to…[Read more]

Hi @janette

I agree it could bring self-pub into disrepute though the large number of self-pub books on Amazon that seem not to have had human editing, regardless of the availability of AI, is already doing that.

The publishing industry can seem very off-putting. I’ve never tried to be published by it so I haven’t been through that particular…[Read more]

If you haven’t seen it before this report from April 2022 on paid-for publishing is interesting and depressing. I can’t remember if it mentions AI. A questionnaire was sent to authors who’d paid for an all-in editorial and publishing package. These weren’t indie authors paying for their own editors, cover designers etc and doing the hard work of…[Read more]

Yes, it’s rather chilling, isn’t it?

One doesn’t tend to think of Roald Dahl as a sci-fi writer, but he foresaw something like this. Over seventy years ago one of his early adult short stories, The Great Automatic Grammartizator, told the tale of a nerd who invents a machine that generates stories at such a prodigious rate that he takes over the…[Read more]