This Newsletter Was Not Written by an AI
Hey folks! Happy February!
[Note: some of the following links are affiliate links and will earn me some money with no extra charge to you if you use them.]
Everyone is getting squirrely about the new AI art and writing coming out. This situation really feels like the classic SF trope: engineers/scientists made something cool to see if they could do it, and didn’t think about its effect on the real world. AI art was funny when it would decide to put four horse feet and wings of fire on a duck. It’s less funny when someone just uses a casual “space ship in the style of Michael Whelan” to create a book cover.
Some magazines are getting inundated with AI-written stories (Clarkesworld has closed submissions because of it) and people are trying to figure out how to handle it. Currently the stories the AIs are writing have the depth of a 6th grader’s book report, but, just like a 6th grader, it can learn and get better as time goes on. This threatens the livelihood of working writers (not that we make a lot of money in the first place), threatens the credibility of magazines, and makes a big headache for anyone dealing with copyright law. I’m neither a lawyer nor a futurist, so I’m just watching for now. I have no solutions, but I know that charging for submissions is not one of them.
Hey, did you know that if you purchase a paid subscription to the Hot Mic, you’ll get all the exclusive podcasting content that my Patreon supporters get?
Bookburners
Bookburners was an amazing collaborative storytelling project I was involved with a few years ago. It has come out as a serialized ebook/audiobook and a massive print version (season one), and now it’s being released as a podcast!
If you prefer ebook, then enter to win a copy of Bookburners season 1 from Goodreads!
Check it out on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your audio!
Chaos Terminal
In January I turned in Chaos Terminal (Book 2 of Midsolar Murders) to my editor, and it was accepted*! The cover isn’t finalized (as far as I know) but the book is available for preorder now! Release date is November 7, 2023, which is extremely exciting. Book blurb:
Mallory Viridian would rather not be an amateur detective, thank you very much. But no matter what she does, people persist in dying around her—and only she seems to be able to solve the crime. After fleeing to an alien space station in hopes that the lack of humans would stop the murders, a serial killer had the nerve to follow her to Station Eternity. (Mallory deduced who the true culprit was that time, too.)
Now the law enforcement agent who hounded Mallory on Earth has come to Station Eternity, along with her teenage crush and his sister, Mallory’s best friend from high school. Mallory doesn’t believe in coincidences, and so she’s not at all surprised when someone in the latest shuttle from Earth is murdered. It’s the story of her life, after all.
Only this time she has more than a killer to deal with. Between her fugitive friends, a new threat arising from the Sundry hivemind, and the alarmingly peculiar behavior of the sentient space station they all call home, even Mallory’s deductive abilities are strained. If she can’t find out what’s going on (and fast), a disaster of intergalactic proportions may occur.…
*This is novel because Station Eternity was difficult to get through the edits process. Covid, yanno?
Boskone
I attended Boskone last weekend, a blast as always since I get to see my kid, friends in Boston, and my mentor, James Patrick Kelly.
I had a great reading where I read from Chaos Terminal, then had some excellent panels. The Kaffeklatch was lightly attended, and I had three people show up to my (Sunday at 1pm, not the best time to sign a book) signing, but I took the time and used it to start work on a 1 person RPG where you manage your alternate self’s signing line.
My next appearance will be a quick day trip back to Boston and PAX East to talk about Blaseball with my friend Joey T. Badger, and then nothing planned until June when I attend She Podcasts Live! in Washington DC.
Social Media
Y’all, I’m tired. I don’t know if I’ve got seasonal depression or if I’m just having a low period, but the idea of posting regularly to social media exhausts me. I’ve gotten on Mastodon, Hive, and Post. I’m confused enough by trying to figure out what to put on Substack and what to put on Patreon. The same stuff to hit the most people? Different stuff to entertain people who might subscribe to both? I have no idea. I’m still technically on Twitter, and peek in every once in a while, but I don’t post much.
This makes me sad, to be honest, because I built a large part of my audience on Twitter. I got on in early 2007 and have used it to tell stories, promote books, and make friends. I miss it, but I’ve been missing it for longer than the current raging trashfire. I stopped going to Facebook because every post was reminding me how wretched the world was, and Twitter had started doing the same for me.
I have never been someone to take a lot of photos. I wish I took more. But I’d like to be on Instagram more, and Tiktok. I’m not sure how to hack my brain to do more there. I do want to do more Evil Mur content, so if you have a writing question that you want a terrible answer to, let me know at mightymur at gmail.com.
Thanks for reading, and supporting my stuff. You can get extra content by choosing a paid subscription or supporting over at Patreon, or just spread the word about my podcasts and books.
Stay safe, stay kind.
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