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Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category

SFWA, Writers and the Anthropic Settlement Deadline

Posted in Writing, tagged , , on March 24, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Today’s post is a bit particular, but if you are an author who thinks they might be eligible for the Anthropic/AI training settlement (i.e. they stole your work to train their software and now they owe you money), this may interest you!

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association has put my membership dollars to very good use by assembling an extensive guide to the settlement. If you have questions about whether you’re eligible, how to file a claim, recent updates and more, check out this series of articles from SFWA’s Advocacy Team.

Anthropic FAQ – SFWA – The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association

How do I tell if I am affected? 

The official List of Works is available on the Anthropic Settlement website. Search it for your name or pseudonym and any titles for which you think you may be either the legal or the beneficial owner. 

Why mention this now? Because the deadline to submit claims is March 30, 2026.

And if you happen to be SFWA eligible but are not yet a member, I recommend it!

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Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

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Note to Self, Monday Edition

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on March 23, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Creativity is abundant, it’s execution that’s scarce. — Adam Grant

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Write more, erase less! Photo by Tracey Parish on Unsplash

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Humanity’s Next Top Ambassador

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on March 22, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Are you a writer in the “1,000 words or less” space? Do you care about the future of humanity? Harbor a secret desire to be named the new Ambassador of the Human Race? 

This no-fee super fun writing contest may be for you!

Dear Aliens

The aliens are coming. Or at least they told us they were.

They asked us for just one item: a written document from humanity.

This is the only thing they are going to read before they arrive.

We have no idea what the document should be, so we’re asking you.

…

We’re giving $2,000 USD to the best submission. Second and third place get $250 each.

We’re going old school here. You’ll have to physically mail in your writing, and it needs to reach us before May 15, 2026.

(I bolded that last bit because prizes are nice, but also it’s been a while since most submissions had to use the mail, and while I love the whole concept of the postal service, it does not travel at the speed of the electron.)

We’d better get writing. And I for one am going to work on cultivating a slightly more positive outlook than I may have in the past (an example I still like, but would be a poor choice in this case! We Are Mirrors).

The fate of humanity may depend on it!

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Photo by Cyrus Crossan on Unsplash

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Just Luck

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , on March 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »

A brief short on what I call The Balance, used for good:

He was nervous when he left. Big day, a presentation that would be the culmination of months of work, weeks of overtime, uncounted hours of stress. It all came down to one day, and this meeting.

His grin slipped a little as he said goodbye. “Here’s hoping things work out.”

I reached out and touched his right hand, just above the silver circle I’d given him. He laughingly referred to as his magic ring. I felt a spark.

“You’ll be fine,” I said. 

I could tell he wasn’t convinced, but I meant it.

My own day was a maelstrom of mishaps. I sloshed hot water on the stairs and watched helplessly as a raw egg slipped from my fingers to break over the fridge drawer, the freezer seals, and the floor. Emptying the dishwasher was a humbling lesson in the fragile properties of glass and ceramic.

That’s okay, I thought. Worth it.

He came home exhausted but happy. Everything that could go wrong, didn’t. 

“Somehow,” he said.

I smiled.

“Just lucky, I guess.”

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Photo by Robert Bottman on Unsplash

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The New Nebula Award Finalists

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on March 19, 2026| Leave a Comment »

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association has released its list of finalists for the new Nebula Awards. These are some of the best stories, movies, games and more from 2025, and a great way to boost your to be read list. If you’re an SFWA member you have until April 15th to vote on your favorites.

The list is available in lots of places but I’ll link to Andrew Liptak’s site because he has already done the work of finding links for the stories that are available online. Thanks, Andrew!

I’ll copy the short stories here, but click through to Andrew’s site for links to the novelettes and more. And do I love that many of the top short story markets are open access? I do!

Here are the finalists for the 2026 Nebula Awards

Best Short Story 

I’ve only read a couple of these stories so this promises to be a treat. Happy reading everyone!

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Photo by Enis Can Ceyhan on Unsplash

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The Path to Greatness

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on March 18, 2026| Leave a Comment »

There are a number of reasons why AI can be problematic, but lawsuits over stolen copyrights and the like don’t touch on one of the more interesting and important reasons why AI should be used judiciously in creative work.

It can undermine your skills. And who among us wants to fall victim to that most dreadful of problems, creative atrophy?

This essay by Storm Humbert goes deeper into the perils of cognitive offloading, skill atrophy, and more.

Not a Scab, But a Wound – Apex Book Company

Don’t be drawn in by the allure of never having to go through the “being-bad-at-it” phase of learning a craft. We must allow ourselves to be bad—to downright suck—for a little while. Outsourcing our infinite potential to limited tools is how we become limited ourselves. Instead, pick up a pencil. Sit at a keyboard. Contend with the blank page and the empty canvas—the unsullied slab of granite. It’s the only path to greatness.

Like any tool, AI can be good at some things and not great at others. Knowing the why and when and how is critical to making good use of such tools, and those decisions require thought and good judgement. And what’s the best tool for building people who are good at thinking?

Why, a library card! AI Literacy Starts With Reading Books, Not Prompts

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Photo by S.Ratanak on Unsplash

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A Good Day

Posted in Other, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on March 16, 2026| 1 Comment »

Today is a good day. Why, you might ask, and perhaps you have forgotten that today is Monday?

I stand by my statement, because I got this in the mail:

Three (quiet) cheers for libraries!

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Photo by Roman Denisenko on Unsplash

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Life Among the Possibilities

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , on March 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »

“You were born and with you endless possibilities, very few ever to be realized. It’s okay. Life was never about what you could do, but what you would do.” — Richelle E. Goodrich

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Photo by Maël BALLAND on Unsplash

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On Art and Commerce

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , on March 9, 2026| 4 Comments »

It’s Monday, which seems like a perfect time for a bit of wisdom on the intersection of art and commerce. This quote comes from sci-fi author John Scalzi, who has famously taken a stand on the importance of being paid for creative work, and knows a thing or two about building a viable living around art.

As a writer, and as a creator, nothing one ever does, professionally or personally, needs to be wasted. It’s all fuel for the creative engine… 

Anyway: If you’re a writer or creator, never be ashamed of what else you do. It’s 2026 and this special flavor of gilded age we live in at the moment means that what qualifies as “selling out” has an extremely high bar. Making a living was very rarely “selling out” in any era. I think these days the phrase should be mostly reserved for writing things you absolutely don’t believe, for the sort of people you would in fact despise, with the result of your work is you making the world worse for everyone. Avoid doing that, please.

Short of that, get paid, have those experiences and develop new tools. All of it will be useful for the art you do care about. That’s not selling out. That’s learning, with compensation. — There Is No Selling Out Anymore

Now I’m off to do some more learning!

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Photo by Henrique Malaguti on Unsplash, colors modified.

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Going Back? Plan Ahead!

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on February 28, 2026| 4 Comments »

This is fascinating, educational and fun. One of the things they may not tell you when they give you the keys to the time travel machine is that language is a living thing, and English is now very old.

Linguist and teacher Colin Gorrie decided to illustrate how the English language has changed over the last 1000 years by writing a post that slowly transitions from the modern day, in hundred year increments. How far back can you understand? 

How far back in time can you understand English?

He arrives, he checks in. He walks to the cute B&B he’d picked out online. And he writes it all up like any good travel blogger would: in that breezy LiveJournal style from 25 years ago, perhaps, in his case, trying a little too hard.

But as his post goes on, his language gets older. A hundred years older with each jump. The spelling changes. The grammar changes. Words you know are replaced by unfamiliar words, and his attitude gets older too, as the blogger’s voice is replaced by that of a Georgian diarist, an Elizabethan pamphleteer, a medieval chronicler.

By the middle of his post, he’s writing in what might as well be a foreign language.

The last 300 years aren’t so bad, but then things start to get squiffy enough that I hope you’re planning to pack a fairly comprehensive dictionary. The success of your time travel adventures may depend on it!

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Is this a statue of a time traveler holding a dictionary? Photo by Tim Wildsmith on Unsplash

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