Tessera

Lincoln Michel@thelincoln.bsky.social · 6d ago

To anyone willing to offer me a 7-figure book deal, to anyone reading my books, here's a promise: my stuff is, has always been, and will continue to be 100% human. No AI prompts, no AI editing, no AI finessing. Just Oxford-comma-loving, weird-metaphor-ridden, Shed-written, tea-fuelled, 100% me.

👀 Fascinated by the "withdrawn by its agents" detail. So the AI use was so blatant that the agents due a huge payday preemptively withdrew the contract?

TODAY
Seven-Figure Book Deal Cancelled Over AI Suspicions Raises Questions About AI Guardrails
By Erin Somers
A debut thriller won by Minotaur in a seven-figure, two- book deal after a reported 14-way auction was withdrawn by its agents this week for suspected use of AI. The novel, whose title and author PL is withholding for the author's privacy, sold for an alleged $2.5 million or thereabouts. But rumors surfaced quickly from people who had read the manuscript that the book contained many of the hallmarks of AI, including negative parallelism, off-kilter metaphors, and a flat prose style. On Wednesday, the author's co-agents Marc Gerald and Ashley Coleman at Europa Content withdrew the book, after questioning the author...
Read Full Article

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 164001: If you want to beat AI, write using your human voice, from your human perspective. Write about feelings; sensations; dreams. Be you, in all your uniqueness. AI is generic; bland; acceptable. Dare to be different; subversive; real. That's how we stay human.

Faustina accompanied her husband on various military campaigns and enjoyed the love and reverence of Roman soldiers. Aurelius gave her the title of Mater Castrorum or ‘Mother of the Camp’.

She was a Roman Empress and wife to her maternal cousin Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. She was held in high esteem by soldiers and her own husband and was given divine honours after her death.

Faustina the Younger (born probably 21 September c. 130 CE, died in winter of 175) was a daughter of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius and Roman Empress Faustina the Elder. #CelebratingWomen

The neighbour’s cat, cunningly hidden in the luxuriant undergrowth…

A large tabby, not at all hidden behind a sprig of lavender…

Just about to send of this month's newsletter, with news, occasional recipes, work in progress, and this week, the chance to win a signed copy of my upcoming book. Not signed up yet? Do it here! www.joanne-harris.co.uk

Joanne Harris | Website of the author, Joanne Harris

joanne-harris.co.uk

Unsoicited writing advice, no. 97: You don't need to descibe basic facial expressions. ("He smiled" works just fine: writing "his lips curled upwards in a smile," or "her freckles danced exuberantly over her puckish nose" or similar makes you sound like you've never seen a human face before.)

In Other Peoples’ Cats today: the Ginger Menace…

A young ginger cat, strutting his stuff.

Her titles include "Great Royal Wife" and "Associate of the White Crown Bearer" The title "King's Mother" was also found on her coffin.

She was the daughter of Queen Tetisheri (known as Teti the Small) and Senakhtenre Ahmose, and was probably the sister, as well as the queen consort, of Pharaoh Seqenenre Tao ll.

Ahhotep I ("The Moon is satisfied") was an ancient Egyptian queen who lived circa 1560–1530 BC, during the end of the Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt. #CelebratingWomen

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 61: Readers don’t relate to characters because they’re attractive; they relate to them because they recognise a shared experience. So give your characters hobbies; pets; watch them eat food; make them fall in love; worry about their jobs; their kids. Make them human.

She had significant political influence during the rule of her husband and then of her son, Lorenzo. She worked to support the needs of the poor, and was also a patron of the arts, as well as being a writer of poems and plays herself.

Connected by birth to two of the most powerful families in 15th-century Italy, she later married Piero di Cosimo de' Medici, connecting herself to another of the most powerful families in Italy and extending her own power and influence.

Lucrezia Tornabuoni (1427- 1482) was an Italian writer and influential political adviser. #CelebratingWomen

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 301: Here's an exercise to try. Try writing your sentences like this, in isolation. It will make your brain think differently about the way in which you use language. It might give you some insights about your habitual sentence length, and how to vary your cadences.

This little fragment, touching in its ordinariness, is thought to be the oldest extant writing by a Roman woman found in Britain, or perhaps anywhere.

"Give my greetings to your Cerialis. My Aelius and my little son send him their greetings. I shall expect you, sister. Farewell, sister, my dearest soul, as I hope to prosper, and hail. To Sulpicia Lepidina, wife of Cerialis, from Severa."

It reads: "Claudia Severa to her Lepidina, greetings. On 11 September, sister, for the day of the celebration of my birthday, I give you a warm invitation to make sure that you come to us, to make the day more enjoyable for me by your arrival, if you are present."

Nothing much is known of her life, but she is known for a birthday invitation she sent around 100 AD to Sulpicia Lepidina, wife of Flavius Cerialis, commander at Vindolanda. This invitation was discovered in the 1970s and is probably the best-known item of the Vindolanda Tablets.

Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 2d ago

Claudia Severa (born 11 September in the first century) was a literate Roman woman, the wife of Aelius Brocchus, commander of an unidentified fort near Vindolanda fort in northern England. #CelebratingWomen

"It’s unbelievable to subject kids to these kinds of invasive medical exams that have no basis in health or safety. One of my daughters is a rising fourth-grader, and she played a sport last year. Are you going to ask a fourth-grader to undergo this?” s/o @momsrising.org

The Push to Force Genital Exams on Student Athletes

In just a few months, Washington could become the first state to require sex-verification tests for girls playing sports in K–12 schools.

thecut.com

Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 2d ago

An initiative on the ballot in Washington state in November would require all athletes seeking to play girl's sports from kindergarten to high school to undergo "genetic screening, a testosterone-levels test, or an examination of their reproductive anatomy" before they can play

The Campaign to Force Genital Exams on Girl Athletes Soon Washington State could require sex-verification tests for those playing sports in schools.
Portrait of Andrea González-Ramírez
By Andrea González-Ramírez, a senior writer for The Cut who covers systems of power.

Those physicals, Maria explains, are usually perfunctory: “Like, Are you walking normally? Are you lightheaded? I have never had to take any clothes off. I’ve never felt uncomfortable or violated.” If IL26-638 were to pass and Maria were still in school, she says she would likely drop out of her team. (We’re withholding Maria’s real name to protect her privacy.) “I honestly don’t know if I would be able to do these tests,” she adds. “It would also make me question, If I do it, are all my teammates going to too? Or would I just play with the three or four girls who are willing to or have access to do it?”

Gail Simone @gailsimone.bsky.social · 2d ago

Also a reminder that bullshit transphobic panic damages cis women and children as well.

Gillian Branstetter@gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 2d ago

Joanne Harris @joannechocolat.bsky.social · yesterday

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 47: Here's an experiment to try: Take a paragraph of your WIP. Highlight the most important word in each sentence. Now try rewriting with the important words at the very end of the sentences. Look at the difference it makes each way, and the way it affects emphasis.