Alright, so I am living in Arizona now and seasons are very different than they are in Minnesota. The only real signs that summer is winding down is the kids here are back in school. You can’t really count on the weather and leaves to tell you winter is inching closer. It’s still regularly in the 90s here and in the 100s down in the valley. But Halloween stuff is everywhere and I have even seen some Christmas merch up in the stores here. I can just tell that time is passing and in some ways I want it to slow down.
I haven’t achieved nearly as much as I wanted to this year. I think this will be another year I don’t finish either of the novels I have been working on for what feels like a very long time (and is in fact going on years for one of them).
Now before I let myself talk too much shit about myself, I will prop myself up and say, I have had my busiest year as an editor. Like it has been crazy, and I am so thankful for the trust you all have put in me. I have loved reading your work.
If you took my advice and read Naomi Klouda’s beautiful book The Octopus Murders, which I edited, maybe you became like me and are now seeing octopus content everywhere and can’t get enough. Well, Waxwing published a beautiful piece by Victoria Punch that is octopus themed that I recommend you read next.
Chuck Wendig recently went off on AI and the Horror Writer’s Association. My favorite quote from his post:
“It’s not allowing you to do the work. You’re allowing it to do the work. Which is to say, you’re the tool.”
Another note on Chuck Wendig, I don’t know how this guy writes so much for his newsletter and magazines and still manages to put out books regularly. I am jealous as hell.
Although I have had my best year as an editor, I recently wrote for the Private Drafts how the economics of freelancing has changed due to AI.
If you’re wondering how someone like Joanna Penn can tout that they are running a business completely by themselves, it’s because they invest $200 a month in the most advanced AI systems and are going very heavy on asking for AI assistance in all things marketing, planning their books, and designing their book launches, eliminating a job that used to be someone else’s.
You can read the rest of that piece by subscribing here:
I also recently wrote a fun piece about seeing the movie “Wuthering Heights” and how I didn’t think it was a bad movie, just badly marketed, and then had to connect it to publishing, obviously.
They used words like “fever dream” to describe it, and the actors went around acting like they were smitten with each other. I did not really buy it, and neither did the public, and the movie got ripped apart by a lot of people. Yet I was still curious, so the other day I watched it.
Lastly, I want to tell you that I achieved something on my bucket list—I finally saw Backstreet Boys in concert. This is like a 30-year dream come true. They have been playing at the Sphere in Vegas and I went and it was amazing. 10/10 no notes. I can’t figure out how to attach a video here that wasn’t uploaded to YouTube, so if you want to see some footage, you gotta message me back and I can email it to you. Here is a picture though of the Sphere. It’s impressive as hell.
The screen at the Sphere.
Enjoy the rest of this season. Here is to a hopefully productive last few months of the year.
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