I was doing SO WELL at monthly newsletters, and then December hit. We are getting back on the wagon. Alas, I have been on deadline for most of this year and I’ve had some life stuff going on that has taken precedence over newsletters (sob).
In better news, my partner and I had the chance to take the dog up to the Peak District a few weeks ago, which was lovely. My husband is a big walker so it was a lot of hiking up and down very large hills (I was assured multiple times they were not mountains), going to pubs, and reading in front of the wood-fire stove in the cottage. 10/10 recommend.
Have some Peak District
News & Updates
I, in the Shadows is officially out in the world! Thank you to everyone who joined me for the launch event in London 🙂 If you want to hang out in Glasgow, here’s the link for tickets. I can’t wait to chat with MK Hardy about all things ghosts!
You might have noticed that I have finally switched from Substack. Welcome, we’re now on Beehiiv. If you’re curious about why, here’s a recent article on Substack’s monetization and how it directly benefits Nazis.
Upcoming events:
US readers, keep your eyes peeled, as I have a couple of things in the spring!
UK readers: I can’t wait to see y’all at my event with Venetia Constantine on March 2nd (I won’t link as it’s already sold out!) and the aforementioned Glasgow event next week.
I have seen the Traitor Bride cover and it is GORGEOUS. I don’t know when we’re sharing just yet but I’m guessing it’ll be this or next month, so keep an eye out for that!
In terms of other TTATTB updates, we still have a bit of work to do before ARCs, so I’m estimating reader copies will be available around April/May time, but that’s not a guarantee. There will not be physical ARCs in the UK but I can’t speak for other places yet!
I do have some more Locke bonus content to share but I have been in the editing hole, so it’s going to wait until I finish the stuff I have under contract 😅 I don’t like to share the sidequest stuff until after I’ve smoothed it over, because when I’m writing it, it’s just for me. I also like to typeset it before it goes on my website for my own enjoyment and for the purpose of uniformity, so really it is a Me Problem.
More Peak District
Writing Corner
I’m on my last round of edits for TTATTB and looking ahead to a project switch—it’s almost time for THE DYING SEASON, my 2027 necromantasy, to be back on my desk.
For now, have some Traitor Bride:
She reached over, running her finger over another one of those scars. “Are you ever going to tell me what she’s paying you to do this?”
“Not in a thousand decades,” he said, catching her fingers. She let him, turning her hand up. He cupped her hand in both of his, running his thumb over the line of her palm, so gently it ached. “What are you thinking, Finch?”
She looked up at him. She was thinking that he should’ve stayed, that everything would be easier if he had never left the Inkmen. She was thinking how grateful she was that he had left, that he had come back. She was thinking that they worked well together—that the area where her thoughts ended and his begun was narrowing, and soon, he would be able to understand her again without words, with only a look. She was thinking that this was a dangerous game they were playing, one she no longer knew the rules to.
“Nothing, Caspian,” she said.
General Chatter
Like many other authors, I’ve been wasting a lot of mental space thinking about AI. It probably has something to do with a horrible NYT article that came out last week (I’m not going to link it because I do not want to give it more clicks, but it’s out there if you want to find it) talking about how AI could be the future of romance publishing. I am not alone in finding this idea horrifying.
Weirdly or otherwise, this discussion of AI has gotten me thinking about Baudrillard, and specifically Baudrillard’s 1981 paper Simulation and Simulacrum. I revisited it last night when I should’ve been editing and found both that the essay was far stranger than I remembered, and also that it helped to contextualize my feelings on AI.
As writers, some of what we do is simulation. I think a lot about intertextuality when I’m writing, and how we’re in conversation with the works that came before us. This idea of intertextuality haunted me during much of last year, when I was diving into far-backlist books for research purposes: there is so much in fantasy necromancy that can be traced back to Sabriel, for example; and when I read Dragonriders of Pern, I was actually shocked by how much it set the standard for dragonrider fantasy. In my classes, we talk a lot about conventions of tropes, where they come from, and how they persist. One of the things I love most about writing genre fiction is being in conversation with other works. There’s a level of joy that comes from taking a trope that is known, breaking it down, and making it different. I adore finding easter eggs in other people’s works and knowing, immediately, what book inspired it. Not in a sense of plagiarism—but literal intertextuality: we’re in conversation. We’re a community. We’re talking to one another, about one another, building new ground for one another. I love the genre community and the brilliant brains that exist within it.
So what does this have to do with AI and simulacrum? Well, AI is not in the conversation—AI does not understand that the conversation is unfolding. AI is replication, pure and simple, and then replicating what has already been replicated. It’s plagiarism all the way down, cannibalising real human work and turning it in on itself without the context and understanding that goes into the creation of art.
AI doesn’t spend hours figuring out what historical anachronisms work within the world. AI doesn’t pore over sentences, tweaking things, trying to find a way to make prose sing. AI doesn’t spend hours going over whether or not they accidentally memorized a scene from a book they read when they were twelve or were too deeply in conversation with the books they loved—because AI is plagiarism, full stop. AI doesn’t know what love is, or fear, or anxiety, or adoration, and it certainly doesn’t know how to make readers feel it either. It’s all simulation, and then simulation of simulation. Simulacrum. AI feels real, but it is not.
Why does AI use em-dashes? Because it learned to write them from stealing from humans.
One of the things highlighted in the article was output: AI can write 200 books in a year. But, okay, who does that benefit? Does that benefit the author? Because I’m telling you, lovingly, writing is not the most lucrative career unless you’re in the 1% of creators.
The joy of making books does not come from publishing books. Yes, publishing can be fun. But the real joy is the creation: putting those bricks together, moving them around, building something that can bear weight.
The focus on AI in romance writing feels doubly heinous, because romance readers are especially voracious. But quantity should not in any way mean a lack of quality. There are loads of wonderful romance writers who can publish multiple books a year with no lack of quality, all conceptualized and created by the human brain. And we don’t have to read new books! There is a huge backlist in every genre and subgenre, full of gems, both popular and undiscovered.
This is without even touching on the environmental impact of AI. I don’t know about you, but scraping well-crafted smut from the internet to churn out 200 books of soulless drivel that generate $50 a year does not feel like it’s worth future generations’ water supply.
Recommendations
Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera - How to even explain this book. To me, it felt like the gorgeous writing of This is How You Lose the Time War (with some added quirkiness) plus the structure of How High We Go in the Dark. In summary, it was an excellent read. At some points, I had to just fully admit that I had no idea what was going on, but I enjoyed it from start to finish. I find myself thinking about my favorite section at least twice a day.
Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe - Yes, the marketing got me. But okay, I really enjoyed it! I thought Margo was relatably quirky and made great points about how society treats young women doing what they must to survive.
Icarus by K. Ancrum - I’ve had a weird relationship with YA lately, but Icarus has been such a lovely reminder of all the things I adore about it. I can’t get over how kind and caring the people around Icarus are—it’s such a wonderful read that points to the good in people. Ancrum’s writing is so gentle towards the characters. It’s just beautiful.
And finally, what I made this month: working on Nimble Needles socks and still making my way through a Step by Step sweater!
Right, that is all for this month! Hopefully, next month will be back on schedule, and I’ll see y’all in a few weeks.