Mar 04

Takeaways from this:

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Takeaways from this:

1. Turns out work that’s traditionally done by women – like caregiving and education – is a lot harder to automate than, say, being a lawyer or a doctor.

Implication I’m taking from that: the future of employment may include (unless we take steps to structure it otherwise) women being most of the workforce, and furthermore, being forced to work by economic pressure. 

2. Women very much need to be a part of designing AI, or we won’t get AI that works for everyone. (Which makes it even more notable that all of these experts, and most of the audience, are men.)

3. A lot of current AI research is focussed on improving life – finding ways to prevent accidents or make specialist medical care available to more people, for example. The “scary” part is further in the future. 

4. Intriguing idea: human working memory artificially enhanced so that we’re capable of working on more complex problems with our own intelligence. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKsXpLrJPoo&feature=share

Mar 03

Sam is a stand-up guy and does good work, and now he’s found love, after much too long.

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Sam is a stand-up guy and does good work, and now he’s found love, after much too long. Are you going to stand in the way of all that?

Plus, if you buy his books or his cover designs, you will get good books and/or cover designs, which is a thing in itself.

Originally shared by S. A. Hunt

Help me get back to my lady in Michigan! I just need a few hundred bucks for a plane ticket — please let anybody and everybody know about this badass Amazon Top 10 horror-fantasy epic Malus Domestica or my award-winning, Dark Tower-inspired gunslinger series The Outlaw King! Please spread word as far as you can get it!

And for you indie authors, I’m still doing custom book covers for $100! My portfolio is at the “Art” link in the address below.

http://www.sahuntbooks.com/malus-domestica.html

From the award-winning author of the Outlaw King series comes another harrowing adventure in the grand tradition of Stephen King, Clive Barker, and Charlaine Harris.

Robin Martine has come a long way.

She’s not your usual college-age girl. More often than not, Robin’s washing a load of gory clothes at the laundromat, or down at the lake throwing hatchets at pumpkins. She lives in an old van, collects swords, and dyes her mohawk blue.

Also, she kills witches for a living on YouTube.

You see, Robin’s life was turned upside down by those hideous banshees from Hell. She spent high-school in a psych ward, drugged out of her head for telling the cops her mother Annie was murdered with magic. Magic from a witch named Marilyn Cutty.

After a 3-year warpath across America, she’s come home to end Cutty for good.

But she’ll have to battle hog-monsters, a city full of raving maniacs, and a killer henchman called the “Serpent” if she wants to end the coven’s reign over the town of Blackfield once and for all.

Mar 03

A decent writing day.

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A decent writing day. Substantially rewrote the 6000-word fantasy story I wrote two weeks ago; it’s now darker and less predictable, and may be suitable for submission to the Were anthology that’s currently on open call. (They don’t want werewolves. This was a werewolf story, but now it’s just a woman-turns-into-a-monster story.)

That was this morning. This afternoon, I drafted an SF story that I had fairly well worked out already; 2300 words, based on an idea I got while listening to a lecture about future technology trends. It’s starting out fairly dark and (I think) not too predictable, or at least full of new ideas.

When I say “dark” I mean, of course, “dark for me”.

Mar 02

Refugees are a big concern right now, not least in Australia, where they’re being treated shockingly.

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Refugees are a big concern right now, not least in Australia, where they’re being treated shockingly. 

Here’s a charity anthology, which is also offering to pay writers generously. Looking for fiction about refugees (SFF and otherwise), up to 7500 words. 

http://ticonderogapublications.com/web/index.php/our-books/193-refugee-anthology/398-we-want-your-refugee-stories

Feb 28

Do eeeeeet.

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Do eeeeeet.

Originally shared by S. A. Hunt

If anybody needs–or you know anybody that needs–a book cover, I’m running a sale to muster funds for a trip back to Michigan to spend the summer with this beautiful woman, the light of my life. Yes, [gasp], I’m doing book covers for a little while. I have to go back. I must go back.

$100 for both Kindle cover and physical book jacket, free revisions up to 3.

Feb 28

“What attracted me to both projects was the agency of those characters.

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“What attracted me to both projects was the agency of those characters. At first glance, they look like victims. But the writing offers them complexity. They’re deep. They have likes, strong dislikes, needs, fears. And as an actor, I’m always looking for that. Those are the things I need to hook onto. Because sympathy is not nearly as interesting as empathy. There’s so much more to learn by stepping into someone’s shoes than by saying “poor you” from a safe distance.”

Originally shared by Fred Hicks

“TN: So I went to all the young comedians I knew — black, Hispanic, female, whatever — and I said, “Are you interested?” And they all said: “Are you crazy? Of course, I’m interested.” So I asked, “Why didn’t you audition?” And they said, “We didn’t know about it.” But they told me they’d sent it out to all the agents and managers. And they all went: “Oh, that’s where you made the mistake. We can’t get agents or managers.” We can say we want diversity, but there’s this little roadblock that no one tells you about.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/fashion/lupita-nyongo-and-trevor-noah-table-for-three.html
Feb 26

Do your rifles have a tendency to turn into shotguns?

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Do your rifles have a tendency to turn into shotguns?

Do minor characters change their names without warning?

Do they get into the same car twice in two different parts of the scene?

Does an object that was destroyed in Chapter 3 turn up in Chapter 10?

All of these (real) examples are reasons you might need a continuity editor.

Originally shared by Adriel Wiggins

Looking for a Continuity Editor/Proofreader?

For anyone that’s followed me for more than a week, you’ve probably figured out that I read. A lot. I have done quite a bit of editing through the years, and can give you references upon request. I work with independent authors and authors wanting to polish their book before sending it to an agent.

I don’t love story arch tinkering or grammar nit-picking. But I love continuity editing. What this means specifically is that by the tenth draft of your book, you can no longer remember the name of that minor character that died in chapter two or whether the antagonist’s tattoo is on his wrist or bicep. I will find all of those minute changes for you. I work especially well with series.

I love and am most familiar with mystery, and fantasy. I’ve also read quite a bit of romance/erotica, scifi/alternate universe/steampunk, thriller/suspense, and historical fiction. I’ll read just about anything, though. You probably don’t want me reading your very technical non-fiction, though because I likely won’t have done the research necessary to edit it properly.

I charge $8/1,000 words with a $100 minimum. This is not nearly as much as you will pay your final editor, but I will help you iron out a lot of the details before you pass it on to them. If you are interested, send me an email me at mrsawiggins05 at gmail or check out my blog at http://mrsawiggins05.wordpress.com.