April 1, and sadly not a joke: Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com get acquired:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ixl-learning-acquires-dictionary-com-121500032.html

April 12: The entire team of lexicographers at Dictionary.com gets laid off.
https://bsky.app/profile/korystamper.bsky.social/post/3kpxgzhx7eo2l

#dictionaries #writing #words

I have to admit I haven’t played any Steam or console games in the past few months, though I’m looking forward to getting back to the one where you use the keyboard to enter characters one by one that you then assemble into sentences, paragraphs, chapters, and (eventually) books.

#Writing #games

Fuuuck. Some of my books have been added to GitHub's AI system, because I backed up the code I used to generate them in the private repositories, whilst keeping my copyright and not using any open source license.

https://archive.softwareheritage.org/browse/origin/directory/?origin_url=https://github.com/shakna-israel/wandsofwizeria

I have filed a manual removal, but they've already trained on the data.

https://huggingface.co/spaces/bigcode/in-the-stack

#writing #AI

Am I in The Stack? - a Hugging Face Space by bigcode

Discover amazing ML apps made by the community

^{huggingface.co}

VocalEye Almost Live host Amy Amantea is joined by blind, gay, disabled author of fiction and non-fiction, Robert Kingett.

Robert returns to the Almost Live space to share a sampling of his own short stories from a variety of genres including romance, sci-fi and fantasy.

0:00 -- Title card intro
1:10 -- Land Acknowledgement
4:20 -- Pre-show Introduction with Amy and Fiona
13:50 -- Pointy Chances
43:39 -- A Deserving Conference
1:22:53 -- Super Date
1:49:50 -- Conversation and Q&A with Amy and Robert

If you enjoyed this video, please Like and Subscribe.
Buy Amy a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/vocaleye
Make a donation: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/vocaleye/

For more information on Robert Kingett, visit:
https://robertkingett.com

For more information on events and programs from VocalEye, visit: http://www.vocaleye.ca/

The tower bells chimed sweetly in harmony with the trickling stream nearby.

Just beyond the sound was a pleasing horizon, violet to lavender to rose and periwinkle skies, brushed with soft cloudy streaks of vapor.

The only insect sounds were a respectful distance away, and unlikely to approach.

The centaurs stood, hand in hand, experiencing their proximity to each other and the scene surrounding them.

"Lovely," they agreed; the view too.

#TootFic #MicroFiction #Writing #TerylsTales #Fantasy

The dragon-shaped robot waved from it's spot on the moon.

The astronomers waved back, feeling silly for it. But then again, had it known it was being observed at that moment? Or was it programmed to wave at random intervals?

"Shall we land?"

"Why?"

"To study it; maybe it can answer queries."

"It's bigger than our shuttle!"

"That's fine, we'll be asking it some pretty big questions."

"You just want to talk to a dragon."

"Who doesn't?!"

#TootFic #MicroFiction #Writing #TerylsTales #SciFi

Remember to include little human touches in your work so that it breathes. Random bits of humour. Rude or angry graffiti. Kids playing with a rock.

(The trapped mason from Abbey de Sainte Foy, France, c.1050.)

#WorldBuilding #writing #ttrpg #dnd #AmWriting #WritingCommunity

The warrior roared and the barista roared back much to everyone's shock.

"You challenging me?!"

The warrior gaped, axe in hand, suddenly unsure of how to proceed, "Yes?"

"Then get in line and I'll deal with you when it's your turn."

The warrior shuffled to the back of the line sheepishly, until finally, it was his turn.

"So, we meet again."

"Unicorn latte please," the warrior mumbled.

"No duel?"

"You've... proven your bravery."

#TootFic #MicroFiction #Writing #TerylsTales #UrbanFantasy

Produced by WBEZ in Chicago, this clip from the Mortified event in 2021 showcases an essay Robert Kingett wrote in the second grade about how old people can save the world by paying their taxes.

Mortified is a show where people showcase their most embarrassing art on stage they made when they were children.

Robert Kingett is an author and you can find him online at https://robertkingett.com

Read the blog post here

This blog post talks about what I've learned over the course of writing to prisoners, narrated by a Blind narrator.

Narrated by Tanja Milojevic

Financially support me

Hey there!

I'm CKMo, and I'm a taiwanese high fantasy indie author. I'm trying to bring more works with #eastasian influences into western culture via my novels.

You can find all my publishing sites, social media, and discord server in my bio!

#indieauthor #indiebooks #indiefantasy #fantasy #selfpublished #webnovelist #writing #novel #fantasyauthor #taiwanese #asian #asiancreator #writers #book #books #fantasybook #bookstodon #webnovel #highfantasy @bookstodon

A truly spectacular AITA here, relevant to writers and #writing.

If "hobosexual" is not part of your vocabulary, it should be.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/comments/181e43c/aita_for_asking_my_gf_to_get_rid_off_her_office/

[ETA: Lots of folks saying this is fake. It could be, yes. But I know many authors, especially women authors, especially romance authors, who get treated exactly this way over their "silly little books."

"Enough small biz money to pay the bills" is serious business, no matter what the business is.]

OK, trying an experiment with my Programming Languages class!

• Have an AI generate some of your writing assignment.
• Critique its output. Call BS on its BS.

Assignment details in screenshots below. I’ll let you know how it goes.

(Here are the links from the screenshots:)

Raw AI Text:
https://gist.github.com/pcantrell/7b68ce7c5b2e329543e2dadd6853be21

Comments on AI Text:
https://gist.github.com/pcantrell/d51bc2d4257027a6b4c64c9010d42c32

(Better) Human Text
https://gist.github.com/pcantrell/f363734336e6063f61e451e2658b50a6

#ai #chatgpt #education #writing #highered
#swift #proglang

My favorite outcome so far: a student remarked (paraphrasing here) that she didn’t realize how much she had to say in her paper until she saw how wrong the AI was, how much it missed the point.

Observing her own reaction to BS about her topic made her realize she’d underestimated the extent of her own newly-forming knowledge. That…that is the sort of outcome an educator dreams of.

#ai #chatgpt #education #writing #highered

Once upon a time, there was a community called Little Details on LiveJournal. It was a place where fiction writers of all kinds could ask for help with their fact-checking and research. It was a huge, amazing resource before the collapse of LiveJournal took it down.

I recently decided to try resurrecting it on Dreamwidth. It's now open and ready for questions. Come check it out, and boost if you're so inclined!

https://little-details.dreamwidth.org/

#writing #fanfiction #fandom #dreamwidth

this was a very interesting read! although us-centric, the same effect can be seen all around the world, as literature programs in so many countries are modeled after the trends arriving from the usa. so give it a read, even if you hate us politics.

executive summary for writers: don't just fucking show, but also TELL!!!

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2022/04/how-creative-writing-programs-de-politicized-fiction

#writing

How Creative Writing Programs De-Politicized Fiction ❧ Current Affairs

In the shadow of the Cold War, the rise of creative writing programs and ‘show don’t tell’ philosophy drained fiction of its political bite.

^{Current Affairs}

An #anthropologist attends a #CPAC conference ( #conservative #RightWing #America) and reports on their findings of the attitude towards #trans folks.

This being @SAPIENS_org, it is well thought through, fully supportive of trans folks and focused on debunking some of the #myths that the right perpetuate.

I'm really pleased to see serious #academic #writing focused on supporting trans folks. Will the right wing read this? Probably not. Will people who are unaware of the attacks trans folk experience every day read this? Quite probably. Will it help to increase understanding, empathy and allyship? I sincerely hope so.

https://www.sapiens.org/culture/transphobia-myths/

Two Myths Fueling Transphobia – SAPIENS

An anthropologist attends the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC)—ground zero for anti-trans rhetoric and legislation in the U.S.

^{Emily Sekine (SAPIENS)}