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Bracken MacLeod 𖤐 ⚰

@brackenmacleod.bsky.social

Recovering lawyer. Author of STRANDED, COME TO DUST, & CLOSING COSTS. A new collection, LET NOT YOUR SORROW DIE, out NOW from Bad Hand Books! Represented by Howard Morhaim at http://morhaimliterary.com He/Him

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Tiffany Morris@tiffmorris.bsky.social · yesterday

So apparently that HWA pro-AI newsletter also uses Indigenous water rights issues as a prop, trivializing the activism by Indigenous peoples to protect our water including specific anti-data centre actions. I guess they figured why not alienate Indigenous horror writers while they’re at it?

“Sure. Sure. Yes, we know AI is using up resources. So does driving a car or a planes so does building a new home. So do a lot of things. Humans have always used up Earth’s resources and usually not nicely. There are reservations and other Indigenous communities in Canada that have never had clean water and have been ravaged by pipeline construction. But somehow that’s been okay for the past fifty or a hundred years, and very few people scream about that. But suddenly, AI is the enemy, not everything else we’ve been doing all along. Suddenly YOUR water might not be clean, so it’s a Big Deal”.
Peter Clines@peterclines.com · 14h ago

Yeah, subject matter aside (and the subject matter itself is horrible) this is just an awful, poorly-written article and it's annoying to see the HWA promoting it. Doubly so when you learn the author's basically using it to promote her AI writing coach app.

Bracken MacLeod 𖤐 ⚰@brackenmacleod.bsky.social · 15h ago

This article writer begins her screed with "Oh, how I tire of the horror writer community and the gatekeeping that goes on." RESIGN THEN! You are literally a trustee of an organization that's a) dedicated to the horror writer community and b) a gatekept entity with a tiered level of membership.

Holly Lyn Walrath@hollylynwalrath.bsky.social · yesterday

There is a lengthy pro-AI screed in the latest HWA newsletter and it is . . . a mood.

The real enemy isn’t your buddy who is using AI to make a book cover; the enemy is the Powers-That-Be who thrive on dividing everyone, especially in the United States. Look at how divided everyone in the US got over politics over the past ten years, and it’s now trickled to other countries. No more, are you a fellow human? Nope, it’s who did you vote for? Well, then you must be a hateful asshole. Instant block. But who’s the asshole? Every week, the gatekeepers of horror writers have some new witch hunt. Sometimes it’s a good thing to suss out shitty publishers, editors, and agents. Yet, not ALL shitty ones are sussed out because, you know, there are consequences to getting all the shitty people shut down. Some people still like the opportunities to get published or represented even if it means going with the most despicable people because the gatekeepers didn’t get them shut down, or sometimes, don’t even notice. It all depends on who is buttering the toast.
Greg Pak@gregpak.net · yesterday

The business of "A.i." is based on a lack of consent. The corporations pushing it don't ask if anyone wants it; they force it on us. They use it to surveil. They offer it to creeps to create nudes of others without permission. It's a business run by creeps with the ethics of creeps.

Susanna Kearsley@susannakearsley.bsky.social · 2d ago

❤️ Gillian Green, publisher at Tor Bramble, told The Bookseller: “HM Wolfe has confirmed that Daggermouth was written entirely without AI. We stand behind our author, and we do not recognise third-party AI detection tools as a fair or reliable measure of authenticity when used on their own.”

Tor Bramble backs HM Wolfe after AI-detection claims over Daggermouth

Tor Bramble has backed HM Wolfe after the Atlantic reported that the author’s dystopian romance Daggermouth returned a 60% score in an analysis using the AI-detection tool Pangram.

thebookseller.com

Bracken MacLeod 𖤐 ⚰@brackenmacleod.bsky.social · 2d ago

I didn't realize there were two versions of Bradbury's There Will Come Soft Rains. One from Collier's Magazine (pub, 6 May 1950) and a revision in The Martian Chronicles published two days later which is my preferred. (A third version from 1997 advances the dates thirty-one years from 2026 to 2057.)

users.wpi.edu

thank u, hexed@lindsaykingmiller.bsky.social · 4d ago

A lot of the replies to this are writers bemoaning all the things we "can't do" anymore because they've become LLM tics, but I think that's a dead end. Human writers shouldn't waste our time trying to do less of any particular thing an LLM can replicate. We need to do more of the things it can't.

thank u, hexed@lindsaykingmiller.bsky.social · 5d ago

Using lists of three is not an "AI tell." It's a common trait in human writing because our brains biologically want to make sure there's always one thing to marry, one thing to fuck, and one thing to murder.

Bracken MacLeod 𖤐 ⚰@brackenmacleod.bsky.social · last wk.

Working on a rewrite of my novel in progress with a note from my agent in mind that the protagonist is "too perfect," and needs some kind of flaw. I keep working on it, but all I hear is Scoobius Pip in Thou Shalt Always Kill saying "some people are just nice." This is not normally a problem for me.

Scoobius Pip outside wearing a suitcoat, tie and a ball cap with his arms wide as he says, "some people are just nice."
Bracken MacLeod 𖤐 ⚰@brackenmacleod.bsky.social · last wk.

*standing up on the plane* Hear me, and make all Spirits subject unto Me; so that every Spirit of the Firmament and of the Ether: upon the Earth and under the Earth, on dry land and in the water; of Whirling Air, and of rushing Fire, and every Spell and Scourge of God may be obedient unto Me.

the Mountain Goats@themountaingoats.bsky.social · last wk.

*standing up on the plane* ok you Protestant fucks prepare to get scared because I’m about to tell you what’s real. Hail Holy Queen our light our sweetness and our hopes. To Thee to we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to Thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears. Tu

Yell In a War@jelenawoehr.bsky.social · last wk.

It is 2005. Jared Leto faces sexual misconduct allegations. It is 2012. Jared Leto faces sexual misconduct allegations. It is 2018. Jared Leto faces sexual misconduct allegations.. It is 2025. Jared Leto faces sexual misconduct allegations. It is 2026. Jared Leto faces sexual misconduct allega--

Scott Bryan@scottygb.bsky.social · last wk.

New BBC investigation. Four women accuse Jared Leto of criminal sexual conduct www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Magnolia Keep@magnoliakeep.itch.io · 3w ago

From the brilliant mind of Magnolia Keep comes a high-octane look at some kinda gross stuff! Deathbringer is ENWorld's most-anticipated RPG of 2026, it's currently raising hundreds of thousands of dollars, and also the marketing is kinda full of misogyny. magnoliakeep.blogspot.com/2026/07/the-...

The Thoughtlessness of Deathbringer's Marketing

As I write this, Deathbringer , the self-proclaimed most anticipated RPG of 2026, is entering day two of its  Backerkit campaign  and h...

magnoliakeep.blogspot.com