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It's rare that I read a short story and feel a deep need to study it intently. Ecdysis by Jess Koch is one of those stories. I love everything about this horror story. I love the pacing, the creeping dread, and the dawning realization that happens in this one. And the language, too. Delicious.
In case you're wondering where I lurk these days, it's mostly on BlueSky. A lot of authors hang out there, and I've discovered so many cool books and short stories through their posts.
However, it's not without its share of annoyances and things that make my Spidey senses tingle. The other day, I shared that I had finished a new short story called "Myrtle McKenzie's Angels." A few people congratulated me, which was lovely, but one person--someone I didn't know and had never posted anything on my account before--said they are available to beta read my story if I would love that.
Love that?
Spidey senses on high alert.
I'm not averse to beta readers. I have a strong collection of peers who exchange beta readings. But for this stranger, who appears to run some sort of book coaching business, to say they're available if I'd love it? Hmm. Makes me think they want my money. Or maybe they're a bot trying to scrape my story.
There's a lot of well-founded paranoia out there. Artists and writers routinely have their work stolen by LLMs and AI-trawlers. They're repackaging our plagiarized works and trying to sell it back to us with handy AI-powered tools that will write and rewrite stories for us, act as accountability buddies, etc. And because these bots are trained on our work, elements of our writing are now regarded as proof that our writing must have been generated by AI.
It's a vicious circle, especially when our work is being fed into AI-checkers by teachers and ill-informed editors. The AI-checkers then claim our work was probably AI-generated, whilst squirreling away that work into its library of stolen valour.
Thanks, tech bros. I hate it.
In other news, my story "Rich-People Houses" was just shortlisted for an award. I think I'll be finding out pretty soon if I've won or not.
In case you're wondering where I lurk these days, it's mostly on BlueSky. A lot of authors hang out there, and I've discovered so many cool books and short stories through their posts.
However, it's not without its share of annoyances and things that make my Spidey senses tingle. The other day, I shared that I had finished a new short story called "Myrtle McKenzie's Angels." A few people congratulated me, which was lovely, but one person--someone I didn't know and had never posted anything on my account before--said they are available to beta read my story if I would love that.
Love that?
Spidey senses on high alert.
I'm not averse to beta readers. I have a strong collection of peers who exchange beta readings. But for this stranger, who appears to run some sort of book coaching business, to say they're available if I'd love it? Hmm. Makes me think they want my money. Or maybe they're a bot trying to scrape my story.
There's a lot of well-founded paranoia out there. Artists and writers routinely have their work stolen by LLMs and AI-trawlers. They're repackaging our plagiarized works and trying to sell it back to us with handy AI-powered tools that will write and rewrite stories for us, act as accountability buddies, etc. And because these bots are trained on our work, elements of our writing are now regarded as proof that our writing must have been generated by AI.
It's a vicious circle, especially when our work is being fed into AI-checkers by teachers and ill-informed editors. The AI-checkers then claim our work was probably AI-generated, whilst squirreling away that work into its library of stolen valour.
Thanks, tech bros. I hate it.
In other news, my story "Rich-People Houses" was just shortlisted for an award. I think I'll be finding out pretty soon if I've won or not.
no subject
Date: 2026-04-29 06:04 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2026-04-30 11:59 am (UTC)From:Tech bros. Not even once.