HEY, Writers!

we're looking to create an AI policy, and when we were talking about this, my boss (older millennial) was genuinely shocked to hear that younger people do not (seem) to view AI positively (a la the recent commencement speakers being booed)

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Hit the “thumbs down.” It’s like, what’s wrong??? Was our summary wrong? Were there offensive words? Thank you for helping us improve our AI tools :)

I selected “other.”

Text box popped up. Please elaborate!

Wrote in “I can fucking read” submit comment

Then had to spend several minutes torching all my settings with a flamethrower. Let me be clear: I’m (a lawyer) notoriously picky with my words FOR GOOD REASON (lawyering) so I overwhelmingly reject Gmail’s “helpful” little assistance. My privacy settings were set to “full paranoia” a little less than a year ago when I saw the writing on the wall and knew public defenders could become a target in the future. Better to lock it all down now.

Gemini had crept in there and turned ALL that shit back on. And showed itself by saying “Jane Doe says she’s so sorry for your loss and offers to reschedule for Thursday at 3” over an email from Jane Doe saying “I’m so sorry for your loss. We could reschedule for Thursday at 3?”

Why would I possibly need this. In what universe would I need this. I have eyes and a brain and a reading speed that twenty years ago was measured at 1500 wpm with full comprehension on dense scientific text. Furthermore! If I read a summary, I’m not reading what they actually wrote. If I’m not reading what they actually wrote, I’m not using my own judgment on the words and phrases that they used.

I literally don’t understand why this is helpful at all. This is just avoidance. Using LLMs to write is specifically Not Writing. Using LLMs to summarize is Not Reading. Using them to make art is Avoiding Making Art. Just READ! Just WRITE! I was not put on this fucking planet to not read and not write and not make art! Avoidance is an anxiety symptom and indulging it gives it more power.

If I had an AI to do my most dreaded task, answer the phone for clients, I wouldn’t use it. Because an AI cannot help them. An AI cannot hear the facts of their case, make appropriate noises, be thoughtful and insightful, and then give them a realistic estimate of what could happen in court. I am unique. I cannot be replaced by machine learning. I have style. I have expertise. I don’t hallucinate unless I’m having a really great Friday night and I’m off the clock.

When I need to outsource tasks from my own brain, I give them to people I know can do them and that I trust to do them right.

This was a tough post to write. 

I saw a post about disability rep, and I kept thinking about it, and wanted to share my own takes on the topic. 

I thought about it for days, trying to figure out how to word it. Then after drafting it, I stuck it in a file for a couple of weeks, trying to decide if I could even post it. This is not a topic that can be boiled down to a simple yes/no kind of answer.

Let’s start with two examples.

1 - I have a short story I started writing (it wants to grow up to be longer, so it’s waiting for time) where my original concept was to write about an older woman who is short and has major chronic pain, and I wanted to dig into fantasy reasons why this pain exists, but at the same time, have her be able to kick ass despite being exhausted and dealing with excruciatingly painful issues.

2 - I once drafted a portal fantasy storyline wherein a young man was transported into a fantasy world, and when he was given a horse to ride, he approached it very warily. He was encouraged to mount, did so, and sat there and exclaimed in shock, “My brain isn’t exploding with snot!” because his allergies hadn’t come with him into the body he had in the fantasy world.

Both stories were designed to be fun, a bit light, maybe even cozy.

So.

In one case, the disabled character remains disabled and kicks ass anyway. And in the other case, the character is magically “healed” and no longer has debilitating allergies that had wrecked his way of life.

This is the difficult part to express: I think both storylines are valid.

Bear with me while I dig into this.

First and foremost: I completely agree that we need more representation in all forms of fiction, especially when it comes to disabled people being able to live their lives. Characters with missing limbs, or non-neurotypical brains, or anxiety & depression, or hearing issues, or sight problems, or chronic pain, or… or… you get the idea. We need all of it, and we need it to not need to be magically healed in order for a story to be considered happy and cozy. Disabled people can be happy, too.

I’m all in for this, and I wouldn’t write the stories I do if I weren’t.

However, there are also moments where I am so exhausted by my body and by everything I deal with inside of it where I do wish for that magical ability to forget that my pain exists. Or for the ability to actually process information in a straight line, or make decisions without writing a hundred lists and accomplishing nothing from them. Or to be able to lie down in a field of grass without regretting it for days while I drip snot and fight sinus-pain-induced migraines.

Sometimes I want to imagine that my life is different.

And that is one of the joys of writing. I can choose to write a story where people like me or the people I know are the heroes/heroines exactly as they are, different abilities and all. Or I can choose to write a story where the problems magically resolve.

Both can be cozy, sweet, and adorable. I can give the character with chronic pain the ability to kick ass, take names, and have a sweet reunion with her ex-girlfriend. I can show all the ways that my disabilities may define how I handle my life differently than someone else, but do not define what I can and cannot do.

But I can also daydream about a life where it’s different, the same way I can daydream about having wings, or being able to teleport. For me, imagining a day with no pain is the same as a day where I can walk through walls. It is absolutely a fantasy, and about as likely to happen.

Here’s the thing: It’s okay to be angry to see what looks like disability being erased. It’s okay to wonder why the author did that, why they magically healed someone instead of letting them be who they were. But at the same time, maybe ask why, and what point of view it’s coming from. Or look a little deeper into the story and how the resolution occurs, and the effect it does have on the character (I suspect that were I to suddenly have a day of no pain, I’d be intensely reckless, given what an idiot I am while IN pain, y’know? And WOW would I regret that later…).

And for authors, think about what you’re writing. WHY is this particular event (keeping disability, erasing it, whichever or both) happening, because the reader will take note of it. They may see things that weren’t intended, but are there as unintentional biases.

Make conscious decisions for why things happen.

I also write a lot of fantasy with the room there to wave away someone’s impairment or heal them for pretty cheap, if I so desired.

I could go on and on about a bunch of different disabilities and how you can rep them but I’ll keep this narrowed to physical injuries.

For me, my one rule in deciding whether or not to “cure” a character—I will give a character a mobility aid, but if they had this disability before the plot, they will have it their entire time in the story in some form. If they got it during the plot, they may get it healed.

Examples:

I have a character who’s a double amputee, war wound in his past in WIP 1. He has prosthetics so he can still walk, but heavy (nonromanticized) burn scarring all over his body. In that very same universe exists medicinal magic that can regrow entire limbs. This character will never get the chance to have his legs gifted back or his skin healed, as I think it would be disrespectful to real veterans to do so.

Also in WIP 1, I have another character who, at one point, was in the same combat situation as the above character, different unit, different role, who constantly got their body healed and thrown back out into war, and they happened to make it home in one piece (with some massive survivor guilt). Any damage that this character sustains is healed, but the memory and trauma remains.

In Eternal Night, I have a cast of vampires who regularly get shot, stabbed, and suffer broken bones, broken necks, etc. They, of course, heal perfectly. I also have some mortals who aren’t so lucky, even with a minor assistance from vampire healing powers. Thing is, though, that my vampires are frozen in the state the die, with very visible and distinct scars for how they died, forever on their bodies. If you die from an arrow through the eye, and you have vamp blood in your body when it happens, you’ll forever be missing that eye, for example. Turning only heals what kills you, it gives nothing back that you already lost. So I have a character who loses a couple fingers to frostbite and takes an arrow to the kidney. They manage to have the arrow wound healed, but those fingers are gone and lost forever.

I have yet to write a character born with a physical disability, but I do have plenty with neurodivergence and/or mental health.

—

For me, at least, I think there’s something to keep in mind when writing and magically removing disabilities (specifically for this post, physical impairments):

Loss of a part of yourself can be devastating, not just internally but in a society that isn’t built for people who aren’t able-bodied and that discriminates every chance it gets, even in unintentional or ignorant ways.

So if you’re going to “heal” somebody, they will still have the memory of that loss, and will probably have some difficultly adjusting to this new normal (perhaps even a little guilt that they got healed and someone else did not). I’m not against giving limbs back, but to erase the memory, too, kind of begs the question of “why did you make them disabled if it suddenly doesn’t matter at all to their character?”

For me, personally, I just don’t think I have the right to tell a story like that, as someone without that lived experience. I don’t think you should profit off of suffering you did not endure, if that suffering is the entire point of a character’s existence (which many stories unfortunately boil disabilities down to).

They do not offer paperbacks or hardbacks at this time.

But their digital market has the same e-book and audio market reach as D2D/Ingram and allows for library lending. So if you are an indie author who was mostly using D2D for that library access, and for whom the maintenance fees would be prohibitive against your earnings, you can use Kobo for free.

I haven't used it, because I'm not affected by the D2D fees and I didn't want to mess up my market listings by having duplicates, but when I heard about the D2D fees, I started researching so I could hopefully find a free alternative with comparable market reach. And good old Kobo was there.

It allows for the same subscription model as KU, but doesn't enforce an exclusivity clause, so you can still mass sell through the global market and also be hosted in libraries.

I know it seems risky when KU is so established, but Kobo+ subscriptions are increasing quite a bit as even the most stalwart of Kindle fans get sick of Amazon, and my Kobo+ numbers are starting to eclipse Kindle, which is delightful.

The more we as authors push readers to Kobo+, the more freedom we'll have, so I think it's a worthwhile endeavor, for us and them.

You see this?

That's not a river. That's the South Canal in Mesa, Arizona (Phoenix metro area).

This is a view of the East and South canals. At least half of all the Phoenix metro canals were originally built by the Hohokam (from roughly 200-1400 CE), and are still in use (restored) today.

Phoenix, Arizona actually has more miles (kilometers) of Canals total than both Venice and Amsterdam. No, really. Phoenix has about 180 miles of canals, many of which are built on ancient canal foundations.

below is an aerial view photo taken in the late 1930's of one branch of Phoenix's canal systems:

Also have the "Montezuma Castle," if you need a castle:

There are many tour guides on the internet that give you lists on what the best options for a trip through the desert are.

What to wear in a desert

long sleeves and long pant legs - even if it's hot, direct sunlight is never the best option, cover your shoulders and neck at all times

loose fitting clothes to allow air circulation

lightweight layers - it can get cold in the desert, so a lightweight jacket and more than one layer can come in handy

breathable fabrics - linen, cotton, merino wool

headpieces - sunstrokes are no joke, don't forget your neck

fabrics that shield you from UV light

light colours - easier with the sun, even though washing the sand out of it, is a bitch

sunglasses to shield your eyes

good walking shoes, like sneakers that are breathable, but protect your feet from the hot sand and rocks and keep you warm at night

actual hiking boots if you intend to walk around a lot

scarves to protect yourself from the sand

Other important items:

drinks

food

sunscreen

lip balms and cremes (dry desert air)

wet wipes, because everything is full of dust

(and things to save yourself of course)

And from experience, it really does get chilly as soon as the sun goes down. And the sand goes absolutely everywhere and it stains. I have a pair of shoes that is still tainted red from a trip to the desert from four years ago.